In the next few days, we look at basic web management--the key to
FrontPage mastery. Today, we explain how to create a FrontPage web
from scratch:
1. Launch FrontPage.
2. In the Getting Started dialog box, choose Create a New FrontPage
Web and click OK. (If you want the web to open automatically, select
Always Open Last Web--a good idea if you plan to use one web often.)
3. In the New FrontPage Web dialog box, choose whether you want to
create a one-page web, import an existing web, or start with a wizard
or template (the default).
4. Under Section 2, enter a title for your web in the text box. Enter
whatever you want here; this title doesn't appear on your published
web. Choose something easy to remember, descriptive, and preferably
short.
5. If you want to change the location where the web is stored (webs
are usually stored in the My Webs folder, created automatically during
installation, on your root drive), click Change and enter the path
name and title of your web. For instance, if you wanted to store webs
in a folder called "yourweb" on your root drive, you would enter
c:\yourweb
where "c" is your root drive and "yourweb" is the name of your web.
Sometimes linked text just doesn't cut it. For more attractive and
stylized links, consider using small images that visitors can click to
open another page on your site or to go to another site. Here's how:
1. Click the Insert Image button on the Standard toolbar (the one
with a picture of a mountain and sun).
2. When the dialog box opens, select your image and click OK. The
image appears on your page.
3. Click the image to select it.
4. Press Ctrl + K to open the Create Hyperlink dialog box (or click
the Create Hyperlink button on the Standard toolbar).
5. In the URL box, enter the page name and address (or click Browse to
find a page on your system). If you type in the address, make sure it
has the form
http://www.yoursite.com/yourpage.htm
where "yoursite.com" is the domain you are linking to and
"yourpage.htm" is the name of the page you want to open when a user
clicks the image (FrontPage adds the "http://" for you).
6. Click OK to close the Create Hyperlink dialog box.
Yesterday, we explained how to grant permissions to individual
users, but giving these rights away in chunks is probably easier.
Fortunately, granting rights to groups is much like granting rights to
individual users:
1. In FrontPage Editor, choose Tools + Permissions. The Permissions
dialog box appears.
2. Click Use Unique Permissions for This Web and then click OK. The
dialog box disappears.
3. Choose Tools + Permissions again. This time, click the Groups tab
at the top of the dialog box. To add a new group, click the Add
button. You see a list of all the groups you created.
4. Select the groups you want to add. When you're done making your
selections, click the Add button.
5. Choose the level of access you want to allow these groups to have.
· Browse the Web
· Author and browse the Web (which means that they can make
changes)
· Administer, author, and browse the Web (which means that they can
oversee and administer the site as well)
6. When you're done, click OK twice to exit all the way out of the
Permissions dialog box.
Change happens. Yesterday, somebody worked at the office who had
the right to administer the Web site, but he walked off the job, and
now you don't want him to have access to the site at all anymore.
Editing levels of access and permission is easy:
1. Choose Tools + Permissions.
2. To edit the permissions of an individual, click the Users tab. To
edit the permissions of an entire group, click the Groups tab.
3. Highlight the name of the user or group you'd like to adjust and
click the Edit button.
4. Make the appropriate change in what the user or group can do at the
site and then click OK twice to exit out of the Permissions dialog
box.
Oftentimes, you'll work on a page for some time without setting a
title for it. If this is the case and you end up with several (or even
two) pages going at once, choose a unique name for each page. Doing so
simplifies browsing and searching your site. Here's how:
1. Right-click a blank area on your page. From the menu that
appears, choose File + Page Properties. The Page Properties dialog box
launches.
2. Type in a new name for your page in the Title box.
3. Click OK.
Importing existing documents into FrontPage is simple. You can
bring in word processing documents, text files, spreadsheets, and
other documents. You can even preserve the documents' formatting if
you like.
To import a document into FrontPage:
1. From the FrontPage Editor, choose Insert + File.
2. Navigate to the document you want to insert into a page and click
Open.
* If you insert a formatted file (such as an .rtf or .doc word
processing file), FrontPage retains the formatting of the original
document.
* If you insert a text file, the Convert Text dialog box launches. By
default, the page is converted as individual, formatted paragraphs,
but you can select any of the choices to fit your needs. Your other
choices are One Formatted Paragraph; Normal Paragraphs, which uses
FrontPage's default text style; or Normal Paragraphs with Line Breaks,
which preserves line endings by adding line breaks at the end of each
line.
After importing a file (such as a spreadsheet, word processing
document, or HTML file) into FrontPage, you may find that the
conversion added some funky formatting that doesn't fit your page.
First, a refresher for importing pages:
1. From the FrontPage Editor, choose Insert + File.
2. Navigate to the document you want to insert into a page and click
Open. If you're importing a formatted file (for example, one with an
.rtf or doc extension), you're finished. If you're importing a text
file, though, the Convert Text dialog box appears.
3. Choose one of the conversion options (if necessary) and click OK.
Now, to remove any formatting that doesn't suit you:
1. Highlight the area you want to change.
2. Choose Format + Remove Formatting.
When you use a page time and again, you may want to save it as a
template. This trick saves you time and trouble, especially when you
create boilerplate pages, such as calendars and lists, that use the
same formatting and structure again and again. To save a page as a
template:
1. With the page you want to save open, choose File + Save As.
2. From the Save As dialog box, click the As Template button.
3. Type a name for your template in the Title box.
4. Click OK.
You can access your template, along with the other FrontPage
templates, by choosing File + New.
When your hard drive crashes (and it will crash someday), how do
you plan to get up and running with your FrontPage web? No sweat. Even
if you haven't made a backup, here's a quick way to access your
web--as long as you've already published it to a Web site that's not
on your PC.
1. From the FrontPage Editor, choose File + Import. The Import to
FrontPage Web dialog box opens.
2. Click the From Web button. The Import Web Wizard launches.
3. Select From a World Wide Web Site.
4. Type in the address of your site in the Location box, like so:
http://www.yoursite.com
5. Click Next.
6. Set the number of levels you want to import by typing a number in
the Levels Below box.
7. Click Next.
8. Click Finish.
Your site flows onto your hard drive. Good as new. This is true as
long as your hosting company uses FrontPage Server Extensions.
If they do not, then you will have to redo your navigation structure.
Every now and again, you'll be editing like nobody's business when
something deeply strange happens. A word shows up on the wrong line,
or a heading that was double spaced is now single spaced. When you
have unusual spacing problems, the first line of defense is to click
the Show All button on the Standard toolbar (it looks like a paragraph
mark). This button lets you see all the paragraph marks and all other
formatting marks on the page. Very likely, you'll be able to find--and
fix--the problem.
Horizontal lines are a great way to separate elements on a page,
but they're a little, well, boring. Here's how to spice up your
horizontal lines:
1. Place your line on the page (choose Insert + Horizontal Line).
2. Double-click the line to open the Horizontal Line Properties dialog
box.
3. Select the width, height, and color of your line. (Tip-in-a-tip:
Most designers tend to use thin horizontal lines of no more than one
or two pixels. As far as color goes, go crazy.)
4. When you're happy with your line, click OK.
Keep in mind that if you use a theme on the page, you are only
offered alignment choices. You need to deselect the theme (not
recommended if you want to keep the page's formatting) or stick with
the horizontal line the theme offers. To deselect the theme:
1. Choose Format + Theme.
2. From the Choose Theme dialog box, select This Page Does Not Use
Themes.
3. Click OK to save the changes.
Hover buttons are cool little animated Java applets that change
when you place your mouse over them. You can set them to switch colors
or glow (among other effects) when a visitor "hovers" over them.
Here's how:
1. In FrontPage Editor, choose Insert + Active Elements + Hover
Button. The Hover Button dialog box appears.
2. Type the text for the button in the aptly named Button Text box.
3. If you like, create a hyperlink for the button by typing an address
into the Link To box.
4. Make your selections from the Button Color and Background Color
pop-up menus.
5. From the Effect menu, choose what visitors see when they hover over
the button. Bevel Out, for example, gives the button a
three-dimensional look when visitors hover over the button.
6. Enter a number in the Width and Height box (in pixels) if you're
not happy with the default setting.
7. Click OK.
8. Click the Preview tab and point at your button to see the effect in
action.
In our last tip, we explained how to create a hover button for your
page: In FrontPage Editor, choose Insert + Active Elements + Hover
Button; in the dialog box that appears, type the text for the button
(if you like, you can also create a hyperlink for the button by typing
an address into the Link To box); make your selections from the Button
Color and Background Color pop-up menus; choose an effect from the
Effect menu; enter a number in the Width and Height box (in pixels) if
you like; and click OK. Today, we add a sound to your hover button.
When visitors hover over the button with the mouse (or click the
button), the button displays an effect of your choosing and emits the
sound you've selected.
Now to add sound to your button:
1. Double-click the button you want to add sound to, and the Hover
Button dialog box appears.
2. Click Custom, and the Custom dialog box launches.
3. Next to the On Click box, choose Browse, navigate to the file you
want, select it, and click OK. If you want a file to play when the
visitor points to the button (without clicking), click the Browse
button next to the On Hover box instead of the On Click box and follow
the rest of the procedure.
4. Click OK twice to close the Custom and Hover Button dialog boxes.
5. Click the Preview tab and point at (or click) your button to hear
the effect in action.
Note: The sound file you select must be in the .au format to work.
Luckily, you can convert most sound files to this format. Tomorrow, we
explain where to find an audio editor that converts your files.
Yesterday, we explained how to add sounds to hover buttons:
Double-click the button you want to add sound to; in the Hover Button
dialog box that appears, click Custom; in the Custom dialog box,
choose the Browse button next to On Click (or On Hover); navigate to
the file you want, select it, and click OK; click OK twice to close
the Custom and Hover Button dialog boxes.
Here's the rub: Audio files used with hover buttons need to be
8-bit, 8000-herz, mono, u-law audio (.au) files. You can convert audio
files to this format, but you need an audio editor to do so. Check out
Sound Forge, an excellent tool for your audio needs at
Does your personal page need a little punch? Is your business site
short on atmosphere? Try adding a background sound that starts when
visitors hit your page. Used sparingly (and with a small--say, less
than 20K--file), background sounds can be quite effective. To add a
background sound to your page:
1. With the page you want to edit open, right-click a blank area
and choose Page Properties.
2. The Page Properties dialog box opens with the General tab selected.
3. Under Background Sound, click the Browse button and navigate to
your sound file.
4. Click OK to select the file.
5. If you want the sound file to play over and over indefinitely,
leave the Forever box selected. Or, if you want the file to play a set
number of times, deselect the Forever box and type a number in the
Loop box.
6. Click OK to close the Page Properties dialog box.
7. Click the Preview tab to hear the effect in action.
To show visitors that you update your site frequently, include a
timestamp, which displays the last time you edited your page. After
setting it up, the timestamp updates automatically. To add a
timestamp:
1. Click a blank area of your Web page where you want the timestamp
to appear.
2. Choose Insert + Timestamp.
3. Make a selection from the Date Format and Time Format drop-down
lists.
Each time you publish your edited pages, the timestamp shows the
current date.
To view invisible paragraph marks in FrontPage Editor, click the
Show/Hide button on the Standard toolbar (or select View + Format
Marks). You see marks including line breaks and paragraph marks.
When you need to open a file you used recently, try using the
Recently Used File list, where FrontPage keeps track of the four files
you last used. Select File and choose the page (below the Page
Properties selection).
A good way to avoid the heartbreak of data loss it to back up your
web. Here's how:
1.Open the web you want to back up (choose File + Open FrontPage
Web, select the web you want to open, and click OK).
2. From FrontPage Explorer, choose File + Publish FrontPage Web.
3. The Publish FrontPage Web dialog box appears. Select the web you
want to publish.
4. If this is the first time you're making a backup of your web,
deselect Publish Changed Pages Only. The next time you publish, you
can select this box to save time.
5. Type in the path where you want the web backup to be located and
then click OK. For example, if the backup should be located in a "Web
Backups" directory in the My Documents folder, you would enter the
following (where "X" is the drive you want the web to appear on):
X:\My Documents\Web Backups\copy_of_myweb
FrontPage publishes the web to the location you specified.
Tip-in-a-tip: It's a good idea to back up to a removable media
drive, such as Iomega's Zip, instead of simply copying the web to
another location on your hard drive.
The FrontPage Server Extensions are programs that let you work with
FrontPage components and forms and that make publishing easier. If
your Web server uses the Server Extensions, you can easily count page
visits by inserting a hit counter. With the page where you want to
insert the counter open, follow these steps:
1. Choose Insert + FrontPage Component to open the Insert FrontPage
Component dialog box.
2. Select Hit Counter and click OK.
3. When the Hit Counter Properties dialog box opens, choose the
counter style you want and click OK.
Placeholder text appears where your hit counter will appear. To see
the counter in action, you need to publish your site.
Nothing bores readers like old content. To show site visitors that
you update frequently, include a time and date stamp on your page:
1. Open the page where you want the time stamp to appear and choose
Insert + Timestamp.
2. The Timestamp Properties dialog box opens. If your page is not
updated automatically, leave the choice in the Display area as Date
This Page Was Last Edited.
3. From the Date Format pop-up list, choose a format and click OK.
4. From the Time Format pop-up list, make a selection and click OK.
To create a numbered list, just click the Numbered List button on
the Standard toolbar (it has the numbers "1, 2, 3" on it). Then type
your list, ending each line with a paragraph mark (press Enter) or
line break (press Shift + Enter).
But, sometimes, creating a numbered list on pages isn't as easy as
it appears. In some cases, especially when you start and stop a list,
the numbers may not appear as you would like. If you want to change
the number with which your list starts, try this:
1. Highlight your list.
2. Choose Format + Bullets and Numbering. The List Properties dialog
box appears.
3. Select the Numbers tab.
4. In the Start At list box, select a number and click OK.
Are your layouts too boxy? You can wrap text around your images to
create a more professional effect. Here's how to wrap your text around
an image:
1. Select your picture.
2. From the Formatting toolbar, click the Align Left or Align Right
button.
Note that you may need to reposition your image to get the effect
you want: Click the picture and place the insertion marker where you
want the image to appear; then release the mouse.
A table is a great way to place text and images precisely on your
pages. To create the table you need in just a few clicks, follow these
steps:
1. Choose the Insert Table button on the Standard toolbar (it looks
like an empty spreadsheet with a blue bar at the top).
2. Continue holding the button down and drag to the right and down
until the table displays the number of rows and columns you want.
3. Release the mouse.
The way FrontPage handles video is a bit wacky. To insert a video,
you choose Insert + Active Elements + Video, locate your file, and
double-click it to place it on the page. Sounds simple enough, but
here are a couple of catches:
* The file must be an .avi or a RealAudio file.
* This feature doesn't work in Netscape Navigator.
So if you want to add video to your page, instead of using
FrontPage's video feature, consider creating a hyperlink to a video
file on your site. Here's how:
1. Select the text or image you want to use for your link.
2. Press Ctrl + K to open the Create Hyperlink dialog box.
3. Locate and select the video file you want to use and click OK. The
hyperlink is created.
4. Click the Preview button to preview your page.
5. Select the link you created to launch your video.
Keep in mind that video files can be large, so be sure to warn
users about your file's size by adding a bit of text on your page.
Inserting a video onto a page lets the video begin playing when
your visitor opens the page. Neat, huh? Well, as mentioned in
yesterday's tip, there are some drawbacks: The video must be an .avi
or a RealAudio file, and the feature doesn't work in Netscape
Navigator.
If you cater primarily to an Internet Explorer-based audience, you
may decide to embed a video in this way:
1. Choose Insert + Active Elements + Video.
2. Browse to the file you want (make sure the file size is
reasonable).
3. Double-click the file to place it on the page.
You can resize videos in the same way that you change the
appearance of an image:
1. Right-click the image and select Image Properties.
2. From the Image Properties dialog box, select the Appearance tab.
3. Click the Specify Size check box and enter the Width and Height in
the corresponding boxes.
4. Click OK.
When you follow these steps, you resize the video's appearance, not
the size of the video file itself. For best results, resize the video
in the application in which it was created.
Tables help you space out your page elements evenly on a page. To
create a new table, follow these steps:
1. Press and hold down the Insert Table button on the Standard
toolbar.
2. On the grid that appears, move your mouse down and right until you
see the number of rows and columns you want your table to have. When
you release the mouse, the table appears on your page.
If you want to add new columns or rows:
1. Select an entire row or column.
2. Choose Table + Insert Rows or Columns.
3. From the dialog box that appears, make your selections and click
OK.
Tomorrow, we offer a faster way to manage your tables.
ADJUSTING TABLE CELLS
Yesterday, we checked out a handy way to create and expand a table.
Now we're going to tell you how you can quickly and easily manage your
table: Use the Table toolbar. To view the toolbar, choose View + Table
Toolbar.
The Table toolbar lets you draw and erase new tables and cells,
merge and split cells, align table elements vertically, and quickly
resize your rows and columns to match table elements.
One very cool way to set off an important part of your page is to
set a background color for a table cell. Setting off cells can also
make your tables easier to read--especially when you use a light color
to offset every other column or row. To color a cell in your table:
1. Open the Table toolbar (choose View + Table Toolbar).
2. Select the cell you want to apply a background color to.
3. Right-click and choose Cell Properties.
4. From the Cell Properties dialog box, select a color from the
Background Color pop-up menu.
5. Click OK twice to close the pop-up menu and the dialog box.
Using the Table toolbar to draw a new table couldn't be easier. It
gets our vote for the most intuitive tool in FrontPage. To draw a
table with the Table toolbar, follow these steps:
1. Open the Table toolbar (choose View + Table Toolbar).
2. Select the Draw Table button (the one with the pencil).
3. Click and drag your cursor on the page until the table border
appears to be the size you want.
4. To create a new row or column, just "draw" a line where you want it
to appear and release the mouse when your line meets the table border.
Repeat until you have the number of columns and rows you want.
5. If you make a mistake, click the Eraser button on the Table toolbar
and drag it over the line or lines you want to erase.
As your tables get more complicated, you may need to change the
number of rows and columns to match your content.
* To merge cells (that is, combine multiple cells into one cell),
select the cells you want to merge and select the Merge Cells button
on the Table toolbar.
* To split cells (or convert one cell into two), highlight the cells
you want to split and click the Split Cells button (to the right of
the Merge Cells button).
Over the past several tips, we've been talking about tables and the
many ways FrontPage lets you create and edit them. But, alas, all
tables are not to be. To take your table and convert it to text,
follow these steps:
1. Highlight the table you want to convert.
2. Select Table + Convert Table To Text.
Voila! Your table disappears. In some instances, your text may
appear a bit strange. To begin cleaning up your text, choose Format +
Remove Formatting. You start again with plain text.
Each time you launch FrontPage, by default the Getting Started
dialog box launches. To disable it:
1. In FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools + Options.
2. In the Options dialog box, click the General tab.
3. Deselect Show Getting Started Dialog and click OK.
Above shows you how to turn off the Getting Started dialog box,
which offers several options for creating new sites. Even though the
Getting Started dialog box no longer appears, you can still easily
create a new web. Just choose File + New + FrontPage Web.
Do not remove FrontPage webs from your hard drive by deleting the
web's folder in Windows Explorer. If you do so, you may have
difficulty getting rid of all the files. Instead, delete a web from
within FrontPage, as follows:
1. Open the web in FrontPage.
2. Choose File + Delete FrontPage Web.
3. The Confirm Delete dialog box opens, warning you that you can't
reverse the operation. Make certain you never want to see the web
again; then click Yes to finish.
You probably know that creating a hyperlink that sends e-mail is
simple. Did you know that a hyperlink can address e-mail to multiple
recipients? Take a look:
1. In FrontPage Editor, highlight some text or an image on your
page.
2. Choose Insert + Hyperlink (or press Ctrl + K).
3. In the Create Hyperlink dialog box, click the Mail icon (it looks
like an envelope).
4. In the Create E-mail Hyperlink dialog box, enter the first address,
type a comma, and type the second address. Like so (substituting, of
course, two addresses of your choosing):
info@yoursite.com, questions@yoursite.com
5. Click the Preview tab; then click the link to test it.
In some cases, you may want to remove a color from an image to
create a "transparent" image, which appears to float over the
background of your page. Here's how to create a transparent image:
1. Select your image. (The Image toolbar should automatically
appear at the bottom of the screen. If it doesn't, select View + Image
Toolbar.)
2. Click the Make Transparent button.
3. Click the color in the image that you want to make transparent.
4. If your image is not in GIF format, you may be asked whether you
want to convert the image to a GIF. Click OK if you see this message.
(Some image formats, such as the .wmf clip-art format and JPEGs, do
not support transparency.)
Short on images for your site? Thankfully, FrontPage ships with a
collection of clip art that you can include in your site.
1. From FrontPage Editor, choose Insert + Clipart to open the
Microsoft Clip Gallery application.
2. From the set of categories, click a category button to open it.
3. Select an image from the available categories and then click
Insert.
Browser checks are the key to creating error-free pages. The
internal browser in FrontPage 98 requires you to have Internet
Explorer 3.0 or later installed. To check your pages with a browser
other than Internet Explorer, try this:
1. Choose File + Preview in Browser.
2. If you see the browser you want to use for your check, select it
from the Browser list and click the Preview button. Your Browser
launches and displays your page.
If you don't see the browser you want, follow these steps:
1. Click the Add button.
2. Enter the name of the browser. (The name doesn't have to be the
actual program name; you can choose whatever name you like.)
3. Click the Browser button and locate the browser on your hard drive.
4. Click OK twice to close the Add Browser and Preview in Browser
dialog boxes.
5. To preview your page in your external browser, choose File +
Preview in Browser, select the browser from the Browser list, and
click Preview.
One of the neat things about FrontPage is its ability to run a
global spelling check. To scour every page in your site for
errors--before you upload your pages:
1. From FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools + Spelling (or press F7).
2. When the Spelling dialog box appears, select All Pages.
3. Click Start. The Spelling utility displays any of the page names
that contain potential misspellings.
4. Select the page name from the list and click Edit Page.
5. The page opens and the Spelling dialog box appears, displaying
potential misspellings. Choose Ignore, Change, or Add.
6. When the spelling check has completed, click OK.
Don't forget to click the Close button on the Spelling dialog box
in FrontPage Editor.
What's the easiest way to add 20 images to a Web page at once? The
Tom Sawyer method: make it look like so much fun adding the first one
that colleagues are clamoring to add the other 19 for you.
No, seriously, the best way is to open both the Windows Explorer
program and the FrontPage Editor program at the same time,
side-by-side on your computer screen. Then you can select all of the
images in their Explorer folder and drag them at once to the Editor.
The FrontPage Explorer keeps track of what programs are officially
assigned (or "associated") to work on which types of files. You can
change these assignments if you like:
1. In the FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools + Options.
2. In the Options dialog box, click the Configure Editors tab.
3. From the list of file types and Editor assignments, click the one
you want to change and then click Modify.
4. In the Modify Editor Association dialog box, type a new editor name
and a location for that editor program.
5. Click OK and then click OK again to back out of the two dialog
boxes.
Now when you double-click that type of file in the FrontPage
Explorer, the new editor program opens the file.
The Configure Editors tab (in FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools +
Options) is the place to make and change file type assignments. Want a
particular program to handle this or that Web file type--such as ASP
(Active Server Pages) or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)? Tell FrontPage
in the Configure Editors tab. But be careful: If you click the Remove
button here, that assignment is gone for good. You can only get it
back by clicking Add to create an entirely new entry.
A hit counter is a popular decoration for a Web page. It keeps
track of and displays how many browsers have visited that page.
FrontPage 2000 helps you put a quick counter onto any page design.
First make sure your Web server supports FrontPage Server Extensions
(talk to your Web system administrator) and then follow these steps:
1. Click the spot on the Web page where you want the hit counter to
be. (The best place for a counter, by the way, is generally on the
home page of your Web site.)
2. Choose Insert + Component + Hit Counter.
3. In the Hit Counter Properties dialog box, click any of the five
styles or, if you have another image you'd like to use for the counter
style, click Custom Picture, then use the on-screen commands.
4. Click OK.
You learn by trial and error. We all do. But that could very well
mean that you have a bunch of extra Web sites cluttering your hard
drive that you don't need any more. Time for spring cleaning.
1. In FrontPage Explorer, open the web that you want to delete
(choose File + Open FrontPage Web, select the web, and click OK).
2. Choose File + Delete FrontPage Web.
3. The Confirm Delete dialog box appears, offering you a chance to be
really sure you want to delete this web because once it's gone, it's
REALLY gone--no getting it back. If you're sure, click Yes.
Done. Now you'll have more hard drive space to play with.
Say that on one particular page of your Web site, you have five
different subsections, each with its own title. You can certainly make
things easier for your visitors by letting them pick and automatically
link to the article they want from a list instead of having to scroll
down your page to find what they're looking for. To do this, you have
to create a bookmark, which is essentially an internal link to your
page:
1. Highlight the text that you want to link to (in this case, it
would be the name of a subsection); then choose Edit + Bookmark.
2. In the Bookmark dialog box, give the bookmark a name and click OK.
(The text that you highlighted is automatically inserted. Feel free to
use that, if you wish.)
3. To create the link that jumps to your bookmark, highlight the text
that you want to use as the link. (In our example, this would probably
be the name of the subsection in a little table of contents at the top
of the page.)
4. Choose Insert + Hyperlink.
5. In the Create Hyperlink dialog box, click the Bookmark pull-down
menu to see the bookmark you just created. Select the bookmark and
click OK.
If you test your new link, you'll find that it jumps to the
bookmark that's further down your page.
Horizontal lines are a great way to separate text and graphic
elements. For even more control over the look of your page, try
customizing your horizontal lines. Here's how to create a line in the
color of your choice:
1. Place the cursor where you want the line to appear.
2. Choose Insert + Horizontal Line.
3. Right-click the line and choose Horizontal Line Properties (or
press Alt + Enter).
4. From the Horizontal Line Properties dialog box, choose the line's
height, width, and alignment.
5. Click the Color pop-up box to change the color from its default
gray and select Solid Line (No Shading) to create a clean and
attractive separator.
6. Click OK to close the Horizontal Line Properties dialog box.
Don't you dare publish a Web site without first checking spelling.
Well, unless it's a Web site devoted to bad execution, sloppy
publishing, and, you get the idea. To check spelling, click the Spell
Check button on the toolbar. The FrontPage spelling feature works the
same as other Microsoft Office spell checking, so you may be familiar
with it.
Who wants to type more information into yet another Web page text
box? Not us! We'd rather get other people typing information into our
Web pages. So here's how you can make just such a text box with
FrontPage:
1. In the FrontPage Editor, place the cursor where you want the
one-line text box on the Web page.
2. Choose View + Forms Toolbar.
3. In the Forms Toolbar dialog box, click the One-Line Text Box button
(it's a small square with the letters "ab" in the middle).
Your text box is now on the Web page. Right-click it to fiddle with
its style.
A one-line text box is a simple thing--and handy for catching short
responses from your Web page visitors. But when you need more elbow
room--or character room, in this case--you want a scrolling text box.
Here's how to make one:
1. In the FrontPage Editor, place the cursor where you want the
scrolling text box to appear on the Web page.
2. Choose View + Forms Toolbar.
3. In the Forms toolbar dialog box, click the Scrolling Text Box
button.
Your scrolling text box appears on the Web page. Right-click it to
fiddle with its style. (Yeah, right-clicking is generally a good way
to fiddle with anything on a FrontPage screen.)
You've probably checked lots of check boxes on lots of Web pages by
now. So why not join the parade and make a check box for your own Web
page?
1. In the FrontPage Editor, place the cursor where you want the
check box to appear on the Web page.
2. Choose View + Forms Toolbar.
3. In the Forms Toolbar, click on the Checkbox button.
Your check box is now on the Web page. Right-click it to fiddle
with its style.
You've probably clicked lots of radio buttons on lots of Web pages
that you've visited. So why not join the parade and put a radio button
on your own Web page?
1. In the FrontPage Editor, place the cursor where you want the
radio button to appear on the Web page.
2. Choose View + Forms Toolbar.
3. In the Forms Toolbar dialog box, click the Radio Button button
(it's a small square with a check mark in the middle).
A radio button appears on the Web page. Right-click it to set the
precise format.
When you want your visitors to know that they have multiple
possibilities, but you don't want to eat up too much page space with a
list, create a drop-down menu. With FrontPage, you can make one with a
single click:
1. In the FrontPage Editor, place the cursor where you want the
menu to appear on the Web page.
2. Choose View + Forms Toolbar.
3. In the Forms Toolbar dialog box, click on the Drop-Down Menu
button.
Right-click the menu to fiddle with its size and appearance.
What's a Web page without some little graphic button to click on?
Not much, we say. Totally noninteractive, we're sure. So add some
buttons to whatever you're designing:
1. In the FrontPage Editor, place the cursor where you want the
button to appear on the Web page.
2. Choose View + Forms Toolbar.
3. In the Forms Toolbar dialog box, click on the Push Button button.
And your button appears on the Web page--labeled Button in case you
might have missed it. To change that label or any other aspects of the
button, right-click it.
For those thoroughly cool--uh, we mean seriously professional and
businesslike--high-tech touches on a Web page (we're thinking ActiveX,
Java, JavaScript, and the like), you want the Advanced toolbar on
hand. This toolbar puts the highest tech within easy reach. You can
find it in the View menu (choose View + Toolbars + Advanced), and it
has buttons for the following:
- HTML
- ActiveX
- Java Applets
- Plug-ins
- Scripts
All the toolbars in FrontPage can be a great help, putting
important commands in reach of a single click. But they can also
clutter the display. Fortunately, you can control where the toolbars
are.
Just click an open area of any toolbar and drag it wherever you
want it as a floating toolbar. Or you can dock with the other toolbars
so that it remains at the top or bottom of the FrontPage window.
You can specify when a particular piece of content appears on a
page. That obviously makes sense for news stories and sales, but you
can also add interest to a page by having it change frequently without
the page poster having to handle the task manually. Here's how to
schedule content:
1. Open the page in the Editor.
2. Place the cursor where you want the scheduled content.
3. Choose Insert + FrontPage Component.
4. In the Insert FrontPage Component dialog box, select Scheduled
Include Page.
5. Click OK.
6. In the Scheduled Include Page Component Properties dialog box, type
the URL of the page you want to include.
7. Specify the starting and ending dates and times.
8. Optionally, choose another page to appear before and after the
special include. (You can leave this blank.)
9. Click OK.
To see this effect in action, set a time that's about to come
around and then open the page in your browser just before that time.
Hotspots are clickable areas of an image that are linked to other
information. If you have a large image with a lot of hotspots,
remembering just where they all are can be difficult. Fortunately, the
Image toolbar has a Highlight Hotspot button that solves this problem.
Click the Highlight Hotspot button, and your image disappears,
replaced by a white background that shows the borders of the hotspots.
Click any hotspot, and it fills with black to show its dimensions
more clearly. When you're done hotspot hunting, click the Highlight
Hotspot button again to retrieve the image and banish the spot map.
A proxy server helps protect a network from unauthorized outside
access. Often it has "firewall" software for security. If your local
network uses a proxy, you'll have to tell FrontPage about it.
1. Ask your network administrator for the name of your proxy server
and its port setting as well as the names of any servers inside the
firewall.
2. Open the FrontPage Explorer.
3. Open Tools + Options.
4. In the Options dialog box, click on the Proxies tab.
5. In the HTTP Proxy text box, type the name of your proxy server and
port.
6. List those inside-the-firewall servers.
7. Click on OK.
When you choose to use Shared Borders in the FrontPage Explorer,
every page in the site gets those borders. You can turn that sharing
off for individual pages by turning to the Explorer. Open the page for
editing and then choose Tools + Shared Borders.
In the Page Borders dialog box that appears, you'll see a button
that lets you use the web's default border, and another button that
lets you choose separate borders for this page.
If you've been adding that same company logo or web site title to
every web page for your site, stop stop stop. Instead use a Shared
Border page. You put your common elements on this page and then they
show up on all pages.
1. In the FrontPage Explorer, open Tools + Shared Borders.
2. In the Shared Borders dialog box, choose which edges-- top, bottom,
left, right--will display this shared border. Then click on OK.
3. Edit the border in any of the web pages. It will change all of the
borders for all pages.
A great reason to use the Publish FrontPage Web command in the
FrontPage Explorer (in the File menu, if you just gotta know), is, is,
well, I can't remember. Oh yeah, that's it, you don't have to
remember. That is, you don't have to remember which pages of your web
site
have been changed since you last uploaded. FrontPage does that for
you, keeping track of changed pages and only uploading those.
You can tell FrontPage 2000 which browser you want to use for page
previews. That's important because each browser interprets Web pages a
little (and sometimes a lot!) differently. You want to at least be
able to look at your pages in Internet Explorer and Netscape
Communicator.
1. Choose File + Preview in Browser.
2. In the Preview in Browser dialog box, click the browser you want to
use (this list shows all browsers currently on your computer).
3. Click Preview.
FrontPage cues your browser to run and display the page.
Do you ever leave sticky notes on the refrigerator at home for your
housemates to see? Do you ever leave sticky notes on your own computer
monitor or desk for you to see? These kinds of temporary reminders are
handy--even in cyberspace. FrontPage offers Comments. You can use
Comments to leave yourself notes on some aspect of page design or to
pass ideas along to others on a team who may follow your contributions
to the page. The Comments appear when a page is being edited but not
when it's being browsed. To include Comments:
1. Place your cursor on the position on the page where you want the
Comment.
2. Choose Insert + FrontPage Component.
3. In the Insert FrontPage Component dialog box, select Comment and
click OK.
4. Type your notes in the Comment dialog box that opens.
5. When you're done, click OK.
Your comment appears in colored text on the page, preceded by the
word "Comment." Remember: You can see Comments only in the Editor, not
in a browser.
When you put up a background image, try not to choose one that has
lots of detail. You want any text that happens to fall on top of it to
be readable. Remember that other people may not be using monitors as
large and clear as yours, so put yourself in your site visitors' shoes
(or eyeballs, if you will) before getting too fancy with your
background.
Background images are a fun option for adding some pizzazz to your
pages. But they can slowwww page loading. Don't let them spoil the
experience. Here are some rules:
* Keep the background image physically small to keep its file size
small.
* Make sure black-and-white images aren't saved in color format--that
wastes space.
* Use a background color instead of an image. A color loads much
faster.
With FrontPage, you can adjust the brightness and contrast of a
photo image on a Web page. Do the following:
In the Editor, click the image to select it. Handles appear at the
image's corners and at the midpoint of each side. Then, using the
Contrast and Brightness buttons on the toolbar, increase or decrease
the contrast and brightness to your heart's content:
* To increase contrast, click the Contrast button with the
upward-pointing arrow.
* To decrease contrast, click the Contrast button with the
downward-pointing arrow.
* To increase brightness, click the Brightness button with the
upward-pointing arrow.
* To decrease brightness, click the Brightness button with the
downward-pointing arrow.
Click repeatedly on any of these buttons to get the look you want.
Remember: The brightness and contrast depend on the actual monitor
type and settings, so the same settings won't be identical on every
screen.
The easiest way to move your precious creations from an Office
program such as Word into a FrontPage Web page isn't to save them as a
file and insert them or drag them to the Editor. The easiest way is
this:
1. Select your creation.
2. Use that program's Cut command.
3. Click the FrontPage Editor to switch to it.
4. Choose Edit + Paste in the Editor.
FrontPage translates the content into HTML and retains the links.
NOTE: This method will add lots of stuff to your page that can slow
down the loading of the page and may not behave well with browsers
other than MSIE. I have several pages on this site that were MS
Word, Excel and other Office Documents.
Web pages are made to be browsed on-screen. But plenty of people
still want printed copies of some of your pages. Prepare for this
printing possibility by test printing your own pages, just to see how
they come out and how you might polish them for paper presentation.
The standard display screen is wider than it is tall. The standard
printed page is taller than it is wide. Do you notice a conflict here?
If viewers try to print pages from your Web site, they're liable to
run into the problem of wider isn't better--with the page portions cut
off on the side. Printing in Landscape orientation (in the Page Setup
command of the File menu) can help, but redesigning your pages can
help too. If you think printing will be common, design pages that are
taller than they are wide.
A watermark image is a special kind of background image. Regular
background images scroll with the page. That is, they seem to move as
the viewer scrolls up or down, left or right. A watermark doesn't
scroll. It stays put while the rest of the page elements scroll across
it. To add a watermark image:
1. Choose File + Page Properties.
2. Click on the Background tab.
3. Select Background Image and Watermark.
4. Click on Browse and choose the image you want to use.
5. Click on OK.
Be careful: Watermarks don't behave well in all browsers. Test your
watermark before opening it to public use.
When you insert a horizontal line, it is formatted the same way as
the last inserted horizontal line. The line will also follow the page
formatting and margins of its position. And a line inside a table cell
will follow the dictates of the cell's format. You don't have to stick
with any of those formats, naturally. You can change them all.
You may drag an Office file from anywhere on the Windows desktop or
Windows Explorer display right into the FrontPage Editor. FrontPage
translates the file into HTML and makes sure all the links still
connect.
The non-FrontPage way to add a Search component to your site is to
create an HTML form to catch the search request, find and install a
text search engine on the Web server, and create or borrow a CGI
script that connects the form to the engine. FrontPage streamlines
search setup with its Search component. To use it:
1. Open the Editor.
2. Put the cursor on the page where you want the search word blank to
appear. (Your cursor marks the upper-left corner of the search form.)
3. Choose Insert + Active Elements.
4. Select Search Form.
5. In the Search Form Properties dialog box, type a Label name for
your search.
6. Set a width (in characters) for the search words box.
7. Give names to the Start Search and Clear buttons.
8. Click OK.
The search component appears on your page. When it's used, the
server searches its list of words on your page and returns a list of
pages that contain the searched words.
FrontPage has superscripts and subscripts. Not all browsers do. So
if you want to use these character styles, you can--but keep in mind
that they won't look the same to all viewers. To set superscript or
subscript:
1. Choose Format + Font.
2. In the Font dialog box, select the Special Styles tab.
3. From the Vertical Position drop-down list, choose Superscript or
Subscript.
4. Move the mouse cursor a bit to the right and choose an amount of
super-ing or sub-ing you want. A "1" level doesn't move the character
as much as a "2", and so on.
A horizontal line isn't a horizontal line isn't a horizontal line.
You can almost be an interior decorator just with lines. Here's how:
1. Place the cursor where you want the line.
2. Choose Insert + Horizontal Line. (No surprises so far.)
3. In Insert Line dialog box, choose a width (in pixels or percent of
the window holding the line).
4. Click on the line and press Alt+Enter.
5. Choose a height in pixels.
6. Choose the alignment--justified, left, center, or right.
7. Choose a color.
8. Check the Solid Line (No Shading) box if you don't want the shaded
default.
If variety in width, height, color, and shading aren't enough for
the artist in you, try using an image as a break between text blocks,
instead of a plain horizontal line.
1. Choose Insert + Select Image or Insert + Clipart, depending on
where and how your image is stored.
2. Browse through your drives to find the image you want.
3. Right-click the image.
4. In the Image Properties dialog box, fine-tune its look.
Horizontal lines can be the default color--black--or any of the
other available colors in your system. You can also decide whether a
line should be shaded or solid. The shade used is the same as the
page's background color. You choose the colors in the Horizontal Line
Properties dialog box. To access this dialog box, right-click the
line.
Before you publish your Web site, do yourself a favor by previewing
the site in your browser. FrontPage offers a handful of ways to
preview your site, but you can't beat a no-nonsense browser preview.
From the FrontPage Editor, click the Preview in Browser button. Make
sure each image appears and click links to make sure they're active.
Keep in mind that when you select a font for your text (highlight
the text and then make a selection from the Font menu on the Standard
toolbar), your visitors must also have this font on their systems.
Otherwise, they see the default browser font, usually Times.
Neighboring cells of a table can become one. The contents of each
are kept as separate paragraphs in the resulting cell. To merge cells:
1. Click and hold on the first cell of the group to merge.
2. Drag the mouse across the other cells to merge. (All of the cells
must be neighbors and must result in a rectangular area. In other
words, you can't merge an L-shape of cells.)
3. Choose Table + Merge Cells.
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