Any image can function as the background to a Web page, as long as it is placed in the code correctly.

Dreamweaver makes this easy. By clicking on Modify-->Page properties, you get a dialog box that allows you to set the background image.

Here, we are going to make a simple background that is mostly white, but has a stripe of color going up the left side of the page.

In Fireworks,

• Click on (top) Toolbar File--> New

You will see the New Document Dialog box (Figure 3D-1).

• In Width, enter 1300 pixels
• in Height, enter 10 pixels
• in Canvas Color select White
• click OK

Your canvas will be a long horizontal white line, almost certainly wider than your computer's resolution, so it probably opened with a view of 75% or 50% (depending on your screen resolution).

Let's put it back to 100%, so it will be easier to edit.

To change View to 100%:

• click on (top) Toolbar View --> Magnification --> 100%

You will almost certainly get scroll bars. Scroll over to the far left.

To make a Color Stripe:

• click on (side) toolbar Color Well (Figure 3D-3 )
• select your color (here we chose dark red)
• click on (side) toolbar Rectangle tool (under Vector heading)
• draw a small rectangle at the far left of the line (Figure 3D-4)

The result is a 1300 pixel wide strip, most of which is white, with a small strip of red along the left.

When used as a Background, the image is tiled and repeated. The result looks like Figure 3D-5.