Create a splash screen for an iWeb site with Keynote

Don't be afraid to get flashy. For instance, I set my title text to appear with the Orbital effect and my picture to Drop into the slide. Click Play in the Toolbar to review your intro as you work. Click the More Options button, then select your builds and set them to start automatically so they play consecutively in your exported QuickTime movie. Note that you can rearrange when builds take effect by dragging and dropping them in the Build Order drawer.

7. Export your intro by selecting File -> Export, then click QuickTime in the resulting sheet. Set the Playback Uses pull-down menu to Manual Advance and the Formats menu to Full Quality, Large. Check Include Audio if you added music, and then export your movie.

8. Finish the job in iWeb. Drag the movie onto your blank page, resize it to fit your placeholder shape, then delete the placeholder. In the QuickTime inspector, check Autoplay so your intro begins when the page loads, and uncheck Show Movie Controller so it isn't cluttered by playback controls. To make your movie play continuously, click Loop.

9. To link to your main page from this intro, Select Insert -> Text Box, then drag the page you want to link to from iWeb's sidebar into the box. Select the text and rename it something appropriate like "Enter here." In the sidebar, drag the intro page to the top of your site so it will be the first page of your site to load.

[Adam Berenstain is a freelance writer in upstate New York.]