Lesson 2.4: Changing the Background

Two Ways to Change

There are two ways you can change the background on your page. You can either change the color or put a picture in the background, which are analogous to painting the background of your webpage or wallpapering it.

First Open Up Page Properties

You should first open up Page Properties. To access the Page Properties dialog box, go to Modify > Page Properties.

The resulting dialog box is where you can change either the background color or the background image of your page.

Painting Your Background

To change the color of your background, simply click and hold on the little black arrow on the box labeled "Background" and then choose the color that you want for your background. Try to keep to light colors for dark fonts and dark colors for light fonts to maximize readability.

Here are some samples of pages with colored backgrounds:
Note: These sample pages will open up in a window.

• Example of a page with a dark and light font on a light background
• Example of a page with a light and dark font on a dark background
• Example of a bad page with horrible color choice and contrast
• Example of a page with colored tables

Wallpapering Your Background

To use an image as the background of your page, first make sure that the image is copied into your web folder. Then click on the "Browse" button by the text box labeled "Background Image" and find the image in your folder. Try to keep the image simple for easier readability contrast, or, if you really, really want to use a complicated image, use a white table on top of it.

Here are some examples of pages with backgrounds:

• Example of a page with a simple light background with dark text
• Example of a page with a textured dark backgrond with light text
• Example of a page with a complicated background (note how difficult it is to read the text!) and then with a white table on top to make it much clearer