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MS Front PageLAST UPDATED: 08 November 2007 18:20:34 -0600 Translate this page
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HELPFUL DOWNLOADS OFFICE UPDATE TO THE RESCUE GET HELP ON THE NET FIND AN ISP FIND YOUR HOME UPGRADING TO FRONTPAGE 2000--PARTS 1 TO 5 MASTER OF YOUR DOMAIN TUNES YOU CAN USE GET UPDATED HELP FROM MICROSOFT GET COOKING FREE STUFF MORE FREE STUFF EVEN MORE FREE STUFF SON OF EVEN MORE FREE STUFF MUCH MORE FREE STUFF TAKE A SHORTCUT FINDING THEME DESIGNER AUDIO SAMPLES BUENO, EL SCRIPTO VERY COOL APP HTML CRASH COURSE DOWNLOAD DILEMMA SERVER EXTENSIONS ON YOUR HOST AOL DOESNT SUPPORT ALL OF FRONTPAGE TEAMWORK WARNING TAKE OFF THAT MASK JPEG RULES PHOTOSHOP IN A GIFFY TRANSPARENT GIFS TRANSPARENT ONE AT A TIME LINKS LAID AUTOMATICALLY WHAT GOES BMP IN THE NIGHT A SMALL ONE FITS MORE PEOPLE .IMAGE SAVINGS BANK COLOR MANAGE MY WORLD THEME DESIGNER STATIONARY LOOK IT OVER AND OVER THEME DESIGNER MOVED WORD TABLES TO HTML TABLES BROWSER BATTLE AVOID IMAGE COMPOSER FORMAT EXTRA LINE SPACE FILE FLEXIBLE FUN FRONTPAGE EXPRESS Emailing a Page FRONTPAGE FOR LINUX HAVE AN EFFECT SIZE THEM IN COMPOSER WEB PUBLISHING WIZARD QUICK LAUNCH
HELPFUL DOWNLOADSIf you're looking for a little extra something for FrontPage, you might turn to the maker--Microsoft, that is. Point your browser to the following address: http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/ Click the FrontPage link to find a few helpful freebees, like additional themes to jazz up your site.
OFFICE UPDATE TO THE RESCUENeed help finding assistance with FrontPage? http://officeupdate.microsoft.com >From there, click the FrontPage link and then the Assistance link. Here you can find a host of tutorials, Knowledge Base articles, and other links to services that answer frequently asked questions.
GET HELP ON THE NETWhen you run into a tough problem with FrontPage, one of the best places to find help is the recently updated Deja Web site (formerly DejaNews), at You don't need to configure a newsgroup reader to use the service. You just need an Internet connection and your browser. Browse the primary FrontPage newsgroup at news:microsoft.public.frontpage.client or type in a few keywords related to your problem in the Search Discussions text box. Then click Search
FIND AN ISPNeed help finding an ISP that supports the FrontPage Server Extensions? (Keep in mind that if your ISP doesn't support the extensions, you can't use components such as the search engine feature or the hit counter.) Just point your browser to http://microsoft.saltmine.com/frontpage/wpp/list There you find a link to ISPs that support the server extensions. Tomorrow, we discuss more ways to find a good provider.
FIND YOUR HOMEIs your ISP letting you down? If you're shopping for a new ISP that supports the FrontPage extensions, a great site to check out is budgetweb.com, at And another great site is The Ultimate Web Host List, at http://webhostlist.internetlist.com Both offer updated factoids on hosting, including prices and amount of disk space offered. Depending on your needs, you can find sites from $20 to $25 that offer features such as e-mail accounts, file backup, and 24-hour technical support.
UPGRADING TO FRONTPAGE 2000--PART 1 OF 5FrontPage 2000 offers plenty of reasons for the serious Web publisher to upgrade. Although casual users may not benefit from the newest version, those who manage intranets and large corporate and personal sites will enjoy the improved interface and publishing tools. If you're an old hand with FrontPage 98, you'll first notice that the interface has been simplified. You no longer need to run the FrontPage Explorer to manage pages and then open the Editor separately to change pages. The interface has been combined so that you can manage pages by clicking a Folders icon or edit pages by clicking the Page icon--a time-saving change indeed.
UPGRADING TO FRONTPAGE 2000--PART 2 OF 5This week, we're looking at reasons to upgrade to FrontPage 2000--and reasons to stick with your current version. Benefits to the new version include a streamlined interface and support for "absolute" positioning of page elements (requires a 4.0 or later browser). The program now supports cross-browser Dynamic HTML (DHTML). Previously, text and graphics that were animated with DHTML (to make a headline zoom across the page, for example) could only be viewed by users of Internet Explorer 4. Now, both Netscape and Microsoft browsers can display these animation effects--a solid reason for upgrading.
UPGRADING TO FRONTPAGE 2000--PART 3 OF 5Considering an upgrade to FrontPage 2000? Less reliance on the Personal Web Server (PWS) is one of the best reasons to move to the update. In previous versions, users were tied to the PWS and couldn't work on webs without launching the server. In FP 2000, you can edit both pages and webs without using the PWS, saving you time and frustration. Webs on your hard drive are as easy to edit as documents in any other folder.
UPGRADING TO FRONTPAGE 2000--PART 4 OF 5If you use FrontPage 98, you may be considering upgrading to FrontPage 2000. Microsoft has added a host of new features in the latest version, including the ability to customize Themes. In FrontPage 98, you have your choice of more than 50 Themes, which you can customize slightly by choosing whether to use a background image, active graphics, or vivid colors. FrontPage 2000, however, offers many more choices, including the capability to choose your Theme's fonts, colors, and graphics. One particularly handy feature is a new eyedropper, which lets you sample an image's color (like the colors from your company logo, for example) for use in your Theme.
UPGRADING TO FRONTPAGE 2000--PART 5 OF 5FrontPage 2000 offers a number of compelling reasons to upgrade from FrontPage 98. However, if you're getting along fine with your current version, you may want to stay put. Most of the changes in the latest version can save you time and headaches. For example, a streamlined interface combines the Editor and Explorer as "views" incorporated into the main interface. This means you no longer need to launch two separate programs to edit and manage pages. While this improvement saves time when managing large sites, if you use FP to run a small corporate site or personal page, you won't see much of a benefit
MASTER OF YOUR DOMAINOK, it's time to get serious about this Web stuff. To ensure easy access to your site, consider registering your own domain, as in funkyrobot.com (already registered, by the way). The process for registering is a little beyond the scope of this tip. However, you should be able to get your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to register your domain for you for a small fee. You then need to pay $70 for two years and $35 each year after that. To find out if a name is available: 1. Hustle on over to http://www.networksolutions.com 2. Type in the name you want to register. Happy hunting. NOTE: Prices have come down dramatically since this was written.
TUNES YOU CAN USEIn the last few days, we've discussed how to add sounds to Web pages. Whether you need just the right "boink" sound for a hover button or a playful MIDI for your home page, you can find a wealth of clips online. For example, head to http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Multimedia/Audio/ and you can browse through an abundance of sound libraries. Happy hunting.
GET UPDATEDWhere to turn when FrontPage has you flummoxed? When searching the help system fails you, try the Office Update site on the Web. Just point your browser to http://officeupdate.microsoft.com Then click the FrontPage link. Now that FrontPage 2000 is on store shelves, much of the assistance covers this latest version. But you can still find FrontPage 98 downloads, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and pointers to assistance on the Web. Tomorrow, more Web help . .
HELP FROM MICROSOFTWhen FrontPage starts acting up, get help on the Web. Yesterday, we recommended finding assistance on the Microsoft Office Update site at http://officeupdate.microsoft.com Just click the FrontPage link to find out the latest on FrontPage add-ons, as well as pointers to other Web sites that offer assistance. We mentioned that the site now heavily features FrontPage 2000, the most recent release of the software. For more help with FrontPage 98, try searching the Microsoft Support site, located at Click the Search button at the top of the page, choose the Search Support link on the search page that appears, and choose FrontPage 98 for Windows from the box marked "My Search Is About." Type your question and click Go. It's that simple.
FREE STUFFAh, so you like a freebie once in a while. Who doesn't? We often get requests for information on free Web hosting. There are a few free services around that support FrontPage, including the popular Tripod service at Another is HomePage.com at which offers an easy-to-remember name, in the form yoursite.homepage.com. Strangely, if someone has registered the name you want, you can bid on it. Internet auction fever continues .
MORE FREE STUFFYesterday, we mentioned two free services that support FrontPage: Tripod and HomePage.com. Another contender is Com-Prod.com at This service offers 10MB of free server space, although (like most services) it requires you to place its logo on your page.
EVEN MORE FREE STUFFIs your site running slowly? Do you suffer from broken links? Is the neighbor's HTML cleaner than yours? Find out at SiteInspector, at This free service from LinkExchange (also a very cool free service) checks your home page for problematic HTML, browser compatibility issues, spelling, and load time (among other useful checks).
SON OF EVEN MORE FREE STUFFLike the SiteInspector service we mentioned yesterday, Web Site Garage can check your home page for download speed, spelling, and HTML design. For about $10 a month, you can upgrade to a full version that scans your entire site (up to 50 pages). Visit Web Site Garage at http://websitegarage.netscape.com
MUCH MORE FREE STUFFYesterday, we mentioned a good place to find audio files for your Web site. Here's another helpful place to find royalty-free media of all kinds, including sounds, photos, and GIF animations. Just point your browser to the Microsoft Clip Gallery Live site, at http://cgl.microsoft.com/clipgallerylive/
TAKE A SHORTCUTDo you find yourself rummaging through the Start menu each time you want to open FrontPage? Why not create a desktop shortcut instead? If you use Windows 98: 1. Click the Start menu and choose Programs. If you use Windows 95: 1. Find the FrontPage application--called fpexplor.exe--on your
hard drive (usually located in C:\Program Files\Microsoft
FrontPage\bin\, where "C" is the drive on which you installed
FrontPage). Now you can open FrontPage by double-clicking its icon on the desktop.
FINDING THEME DESIGNERWant to know where you can find the Theme Designer for FrontPage 98. You use the Designer to create your own themes by modifying individual elements like graphics and fonts and then saving them. The installer for Theme Designer is located on your CD-ROM in the following folder: \SDK\Themes\Designer. Double-click Tdsetup.exe to install the program.
AUDIO SAMPLESYou may know that you can associate sounds with hover buttons so that when a visitor points to the button, a sound emits. Microsoft offers two short files suitable for hover buttons, which you can download from http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q175/1/75.asp
BUENO, EL SCRIPTODo you ever see cool JavaScripts on somebody else's site and wish
you could re-create them? Here's a utility that saves you the pain and
suffering known as JavaScript coding. El Scripto adds a handful of
scripts to the menu bar in FrontPage, allowing you to insert the
scripts almost as you would a component. El Scripto is useful for
creating pop-up windows, for example, or for creating menus that let
your visitors select an area of your site and jump right to the page.
You can download a free, limited version of the utility, called El http://www.elscripto.com/demo/index.htm The file size is just over 2MB. To purchase El Scripto, go to http://www.elscripto.com/purchase/index.htm
VERY COOL APPIf you surf much, you probably have seen an effect on images that looks like shimmering water. Want to see a demo? Check out this site: http://anfyteam.com/panjava.html The application used to create these effects is a shareware program called Anfy. The program is free to download and use. If you like it, buy it.
HTML CRASH COURSEIf you're new to FrontPage, you probably wonder what all the hubbub is about HTML, the document format for Web pages. HTML is made up of tags that tell a browser how your page should display. Learning the basics of HTML takes just a couple of hours. Spend an afternoon at the HTML Crash Course for Educators, at http://edweb.gsn.org/htmlintro.html and you'll quickly see what the HTML tab in FrontPage Editor is good for.
DOWNLOAD DILEMMA"I have some MS Word and .pdf documents that I would like to make available for download from my Web site. I have tried using hyperlinks, but when I publish my Web site and use IE 5 to view, clicking on my hyperlink actually opens Word or Acrobat Reader and then opens the document. What I would like it to do is to prompt the user to save the file to a particular location. Can you help me?" Depending on how your site's visitors have their browsers configured, when they click a link to a .pdf document, for example, they may be prompted to open your document or download it. Instead of simply adding the link to the page, include some text before your links that instructs visitors to download the documents instead of opening them. * Netscape users should right-click the link and choose Save Link
As. When the Save As dialog box appears, they should navigate to the
folder where the file should be stored and click the Save button. These instructions may vary slightly depending on the browser version, but they should get your visitors headed in the right direction.
SERVER EXTENSIONS ON YOUR HOSTRemember that to use components--those elements FrontPage can add to your web page for sophisticated interactivity--you must have a host with Server Extensions installed. These install automatically with Microsoft's Personal Web Server and the FrontPage Personal Web Server, but they must be installed manually with other Web servers. Ask your host about the Extensions before you add components to your pages.
AOL DOESN'T SUPPORT ALL OF FRONTPAGEAOL doesn't support FrontPage's most sophisticated Server Extensions. The result: You can use FrontPage to make Web pages that you can then publish to AOL, but don't include banners and other sophisticated effects on these pages. If your page must have those kinds of effects, you need to get a Web host other than AOL.
TEAMWORK WARNINGWhen you have several people working on the same thing, FrontPage can help protect you against the dangers of someone inadvertently saving over someone else's work. If anyone tries to save a page, and FrontPage detects that the copy already on disk has been changed, it displays a warning. Of course, it's your job to make sure everyone in your workgroup knows to pay attention to such warnings and to not obliterate any changes someone else may have made.
TAKE OFF THAT MASKNearly all Web servers can limit access to Web pages based on user names, passwords, and IP address masks. The "mask" option simply means checking where a request is coming from--identified by its numeric IP address, such as 123.456.78.12. (All "www.something.com" addresses actually depend on a numeric address that you probably never noticed.) For example, the mask might say that only requests from 123.456.**.** are allowed. (Any number can appear where the wildcard symbols (*) are.) With numerals and wildcards, the mask can fit either a wide range or a single IP address. Microsoft's servers--the Internet Information Server, Personal Web Server, and NT Workstation Peer Web Services--don't offer the IP address mask blocking because they depend on standard Windows NT security. You can ask your host whether this security is available for your site and, if so, how you can use it to improve your site's safety.
JPEG RULESJPEG may rule, but not in every case. JPEG is a great file format
for photos you use in pages. But you may not be squeezing out of it as
much as you can. Experiment with the JPEG compression levels. You can
probably compress your image a lot more now and still have fine image
quality. And remember: The more compression, the faster the image
PHOTOSHOP IN A GIFFYHere's one more way to squash images to the minimum possible size. When using Photoshop to save a GIF of fewer than 256 colors, use the Exact palette. With the Exact palette, you stick to precisely the number of colors in the image; therefore, you can produce a smaller image file.
TRANSPARENT GIFSAlthough JPEGs are better for photographs, GIF images are the best way to format most other illustrations. GIFs also offer a special flexibility that JPEGs don't--Transparency. With Transparency, you can make one color of the image transparent so that a background color comes through. Try this effect at least once, even if only on a practice page, because after you do it yourself, you'll notice Transparency at work in other pages. And you'll know how the page designer did that. To make an image transparent: 1. Click the image to select it. The background comes through all parts of the image that had previously been the color you clicked. If you don't have a background color, the plain white of the screen background comes through.
TRANSPARENT ONE AT A TIMEWith GIF images, you can have one color be transparent so that a background color or image shows through. If one color is already transparent, and you make another color transparent, the first color reverts to its original solid state. Only one color can be transparent at a time.
LINKS LAID AUTOMATICALLYWhenever you type "www.something" or "mailto:something" or just "this@that.there" in the FrontPage Editor, the program assumes you want a link to that address, using a standard protocol. You don't have to specify that the Web address should link to a Web page or that an "@" or "mailto:" means to send an e-mail to that such-and-such an address. FrontPage does that for you.
WHAT GOES BMP IN THE NIGHTNothing, as far as FrontPage 2000 is concerned. Although it can put GIF and JPEG graphic image files on Web pages, it doesn't know about PCX or BMP graphic image files, even though BMP is sort of a mascot of the Windows operating system. Want to use a BMP? You have to find some utility program that translates BMP into GIF or JPEG.
A SMALL ONE FITS MORE PEOPLENo matter how much fun you have creating graphics to attract
eyeballs to your web pages and web site, keep those graphics small.
Even if the final graphic is beautiful, it may never be "final" to a
frustrated visitor trying to download it with a 14.4Kbps modem. Even
the fastest dial-up modem--a 56Kbps model--needs lots of seconds and
even minutes to
IMAGE SAVINGS BANKWhen you tell FrontPage to save a web page that includes graphic images, FrontPage will ask you something back. Should it save those images to the current site? If you say yes, JPEGs will be saved as JPEG format, GIFs as GIF format, and all others as GIF format. You can dictate that others are saved as JPEG in the Image Properties dialog box. Generally you shouldn't bother, unless you have a specific reason to prefer JPEG in the case. (JPEG is often better for photographs; GIF is better for illustrations.)
COLOR MANAGE MY WORLDEvery digital image has a "number of colors" setting. This limits
how many different color choices there are for any single spot within
the image. A black-and-white image has only two possible colors--black
and white. Color images can have anywhere from 8 color possibilities
to millions of possibilities. The fewer colors possible, the smaller
the image file, and the better it will download for those with slow
modems. But if you cut the number of
THEME DESIGNER"If you don't have the FrontPage CD and you want the Theme Designer: 1. Go to www.officeupdates.microsoft.com. 2. Click on FrontPage, then downloads, and select FrontPage 97/98 selections. 3. Double-click on the link. This will take you to another page where you will see Download in the upper left side of the screen. 4. Double-click on Download and it will download the file to wherever you want it saved. You will get the SDK and FrontPage Theme Designer in one download. 5. Run the program and it will install the FrontPage Theme Designer. We love this kind of advice from the field.
STATIONARY"I was told that I could create stationary from FrontPage Express and place it in my stationary file for Outlook Express. I have done this several times, but when I add background music, I hear it on my PC, but my e-mail recipients 90% of the time do not hear the music. They do see my animated pictures though. How can I get them to be able to hear the music I add to my e-mail stationary that I make?" This is a hard nut to crack, mainly because it is a lot of different nuts. If you're hearing the music on your own PC, then you're doing everything right. In fact, if 10% of your recipients hear it, that's more proof you're doing it right. The others may have any of all sorts of problems: * No sound hardware. * Sound volume too low or even muted in control panel. * Browser that doesn't support sound. * Gateway that's clipping off the sound because of its size. Or there may be some trouble more subtle. Sorry we can't help more here, but this is one of those clear indications that multimedia--such as sound--aren't yet standardized enough on computers and the net.
LOOK IT OVER AND OVERPublishing a web page for your family and friends? Well, make it in FrontPage and then put it up for them to see. Publishing a web page for the entire or world to see, and possibly to do business with? Then check it over carefully before publishing. Here is a basic checklist: * Preview--look at it in both Internet Explorer and Netscape
Navigator I mess up and not do this all the time and should do it!
THEME DESIGNER MOVEDLast month I told you how to get the FrontPage 98 Theme Designer if you couldn't dig up the original FrontPage CD. Unfortunately, the web address for it has changed. It's not longer at the Microsoft Office Updates page mentioned before. Now you'll find it at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/officedev/fpage/fpsdkeula.htm Pages such as this often move around in big web sites. I was able to relocate this one using Microsoft's web site search program.
WORD TABLES TO HTML TABLESWhen you import a Word document that includes tables, FrontPage will automatically convert those tables into HTML tables. Then you can edit it in FrontPage.
BROWSER BATTLEThe market-share competition between Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator is nothing compared to the page-appearance battle. Too often a page you make will look right in one and not in the other. For example: "I am finding if I put a GIF image at the bottom of my web page in FrontPage 98 when I look at it in I.E. it is fine but in Netscape the GIF moves to the top of the page. I have tried putting it in a table, setting it to absolute bottom and it still insists that it goes at the top. Any ideas on what causes this and how to resolve it please." We can't find a solution to this puzzle, so this is one of those cases where we're turning to the collective wisdom of the community. Any ideas? One lesson to learn though: check any critical pages in both of the major browsers before publishing them. What ought to be right isn't necessarily so.
AVOID IMAGE COMPOSER FORMATImage Composer is a fine tool for editing graphic images. It is separate from FrontPage, but comes with the program. Image Composer graphic file format is not a good idea. It will work within a FrontPage web on a FrontPage server site. But images saved in this format aren't as universally supported as GIF and JPEG images. Even if you use Image Composer to work on graphics, save its results in GIF or JPEG.
EXTRA LINE SPACE"When using FrontPage Express, every time I hit the Return key to go to the next line, Front Page Express double spaces, leaving me with a line between the line I just typed. Can I turn this feature off?" Sorry to say, you can't. This is simply FrontPage Express doing its
job of starting a new paragraph in the Normal style. HTML
automatically makes some extra space between
FILE FLEXIBLE FUNFrontPage Explorer can open a variety of file types, so you can grab information from them to use in your web pages. These include: If you want more file flexibility, and have Microsoft Office, you're in luck. Make sure to install all the document converters that come with Microsoft Office. These automatically help FrontPage.
FRONTPAGE EXPRESSDid you know that you might have two FrontPages on your computer? There's the full-blooded FrontPage I assume you have because you're reading this topic. But you almost certainly have FrontPage Express too, if you've installed a recent version of Internet Explorer. This is a "lite" version of the program. It's tucked into your Internet Explorer menu. 1. Click on Start, Programs, Internet Explorer. Like FrontPage 98 this is an HTML editor for making web pages. And
it isn't really a "liteweight". It can add images to the page, add
special effects like marquees (scrolling text), and publish pages
directly to the web (or save them on disk, if that's what you need).
Emailing a Page"With our intranet, people only go to visit certain sites when they
need to are desperate for info. By the same token, they've asked us to
notify them when new info is put on. The majority of the company just
switched over to Outlook so we can now email the hyperlink and it
takes them right to the page, which is a big help. There are, however,
still some offices that are using Lotus cc:Mail so you can type in the
URL but they have to cut and paste it then. (And most are either too
busy/lazy or lack the talent to do something so challenging as leave
email, open browser and cut & paste.) Based on the tip, for those
FRONTPAGE FOR LINUXWell, sort of. ASP technology--Active Server Pages--is a technology
for creating web pages that customize to each particular visitor's
requests. FrontPage's ASP designs used Chili!Soft ASP now lets your FrontPage ASP work run on Linux, as
well as on other UNIX Internet servers.
HAVE AN EFFECTImage Composer, the graphics tool that comes with FrontPage, makes it easy to apply special effects to pictures. Just: 1. Open the picture in Image Composer. The Details tab on this same Effects palette gives you some flexibility in setting the intensity of the effect.
SIZE THEM IN COMPOSERFrontPage 98 lets you resize images, changing their displayed size on screen and on a web page. Don't do it! Well, do it sometimes, when you're in a big hurry maybe. Generally it's better to resize them in Image Composer or some other image editor. FrontPage resizing just changes the look, not the file size. Cropping and sizing in an image editor can actually change the file size, making for faster downloads. There's no reason to keep the excess in a file if it isn't going to show on the web page, is there?
WEB PUBLISHING WIZARDAnother tool you might not know you have is the Web Publishing
Wizard. It can help you get your web pages and images from the "hey, I
finished designing" stage to the "hey, it's actually on the Web" fact.
The Wizard installs with recent versions of Internet Explorer, and is
in that same menu.
QUICK LAUNCHIn some cases, you may want to edit a page quickly without launching the Personal Web Server. But if you try to launch FrontPage without first starting the PWS, you receive an error message. Here's a quick work-around: Launch just the Editor by finding its icon in the FrontPage program folder: 1. Launch Windows Explorer and navigate to Program
Files/FrontPage/FrontPage Editor. You should be able to open your file, edit it, and save it without hassling with the Personal Web Server.
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