What templates does FrontPage provide?

There are six ways to use templates in FrontPage:

Ø      Themes  Themes are the easiest way to give your site a uniform look and revamp it in a jiffy.  Chapter 2 discusses Themes at length.

Ø      Shared borders  Shared borders give you a quick way to have navigational elements in the same places on every page.  Consistency is the hallmark of a good site; and shared borders give you consistency for very little overhead.

Ø      Include Page Component  The Include Page Component gives you an easy way to include a page within another page.  This is FrontPage's own version of server-side includes. 

Ø      Page templates  You can create your own page templates so that once you've developed a page you like, you can use it as the starting point for all subsequent pages.

Ø      Cascading style sheets (CSS)  Style sheets permit you to define rules, in a separate file, governing how elements will appear, with links to that file from every page so that styles are reflected on the pages.  Chapter 7 discusses CSS at length.

Ø      Applying the background and colours of one page to another  This little trick permits you to develop one beautiful page, then transfer the background and colours to other pages in a snap.

What are shared borders?

A shared border is a portion of a page that is common to one or more pages in a Web site.  A shared border may be a place at the  of the page (like a page header), at the bottom (like a page footer), at the left, or at the right.  Used shared borders to place the same content on multiple pages once, rather than editing each page.

Why use shared borders?

The advantage of using shared borders is that you only have to edit content in one place to update all your pages.  For example, to change the logo on a site of 40 pages, you  only need to change it on one page if the logo is contained inside a shared border.

What are some ways to use shared borders? 

Shared borders are a quick and easy way to give your pages a consistent look.  Here are some examples of ways to use shared borders:

•  Add a banner or logo to a shared  border to make sure each page has a title.

• Add a navigation bar containing main sections of your web on each page.

• Add copyright information in a shared bottom border.

• Add the date and time the web last updated.

• Add an e-mail address for comments from your visitors.

How do I apply shared borders to all the pages in my web?

1.      Select Format/Shared Borders.FrontPage displays the Shared Borders dialog box, shown here:

2.      Choose All Pages.

3.      Select the borders that you want to appear on every page in the current Web site.  If you select  or Left, you can also opt to include navigation bars.

4.      Dashed lines are displayed to show where the shared borders will appear.  If you included a navigation bar, it is displayed in the shared border.

What if I don't want content in shared borders to appear on every page?

You can set shared borders on individual pages.  For example, the default setting for a web might be to share  and bottom borders; each new page would then have these shared borders.  However, you can turn off a shared border on certain pages if you don't want it.  You can also set up a web that has no shared borders by default.  You could then set shared borders on specific pages as needed.

How can I add my own content to my shared borders?

After you set a shared border, you can add content to it.  At any point, you can change or delete what's in a shared border.  For example, you can add a company logo to a shared  border, change the navigation, or add or delete text.  Figure 13-1 shows an example of the Virginia Wine Company's Web site, which features a shared border at the  of the page.

To set up shared borders with your own content, follow these steps:

1. Open a page that uses the shared border you want to change.

2. In Page view, click inside the shared border region, which is outlined with a dashed line.  When you click the area, the outline changes to a solid line.

3. Make your changes to the content inside the shared border region.  For example, add text or include an image.

4. Click Save.  Your changes will appear on all pages that share the border. 

Why can't I see where the shared border pages are stored on my web?

Shared borders are HTML pages like the others on your web.  They live in a folder called_borders, which is hidden.  FrontPage hides these pages from you, but here's how you can see them:

1. Select Tools/Web Settings.

2. Choose the Advanced tab.

3. Choose the Show Documents In Hidden Directories box to show files in hidden folders.

Shared Borders have only four names: .htm, bottom.htm, left.htm and right.htm.

Tip:  Hidden folder names begin with an underscore character ( for example,_borders).

Can I create my own shared borders?  Like an invisible frame in the middle of every one of my pages?

No.  , bottom, left and right are your only options.  Frontpage doesn't give you the option of putting shared borders in the middle of pages.  If you want to put something in the middle a page, consider using the Include Page Component or server-side includes.

Can I used shared borders if the server I'm using doesn't support the Frontpage extentsions?

Yes, you can.  Shared borders are not dependent on the Frontpage extensions.  They take up a lot less room than themes, which is a great reason to use them!

What does the Include Page Component do?

You can display an HTML page on another page in the web, allowing you to maintain separate pages.  For example, to show a disclaimer on several pages in a web, make one page that contains disclaimer text and include that page on other pages in the web.  When you change the disclaimer, you change that one page - and all the other pages that include the disclaimer will be automatically changed.

How do I include a page on another page?

1. In Page view, put the cursor where you want to include a page.

2. Select Insert / Component / Include Page.Frontpage will display the Page to Include box.

3. In the Page to Include dialog box, type the filename of the page to include, or choose Browse to locate the file.  You must already have created the include page before you can use this function.

How does the Include Page Component differ from shared borders?

It differs in two ways.  First, the Include Page feature is a FrontPage Component, meaning that the FrontPage extensions must be installed on the Web server in order for this feature to work.  Secondly, shared borders contain content that resides only on the , bottom, left or right sides of your pages.  The Include Page Component can be placed anywhere on your page.

How can I include pages in other pages if my Web server doesn't use the Frontpage extensions?

You can use what's called a Server-Side Include.  A Server-Side includes (SSI) does what the Include Page Component does, but doesn't require the Frontpage extensions.  It does, however, require that the server be configured to handle includes.  Check with your Internet Service Provider or Web Presence Provider to find out more.

How do I insert a Server-Side Include in my pages?

First, you must put the content you want included into an include file.  Then, you'll use a special tag that automatically inserts whatever text is included in the Server-Side Include file into your page at run time and presents the finished document to your viewer.  In other words, when visitors view your source code, they don't see the include tag, they see the results.  Here's the format of the tag:

<!--#include virtual="somefile.htm">

Wherever this tag appears in your HTML document, the file you specify will be inserted. 

In this case, the SSI is inserting the navigation that runs across the . 

Do I have to format the document I want to include in a special way?  

Yes, Remember, the Server-Side Include inserts the entire file into your page.  If you are inserting content in the middle of a page, you will need to access the file you want to include in HTML view, and strip out all HEAD, HTML and BODY tags so they aren't inserted into your document twice.  

Why would I want to use the Include Page Component or Server-Side lncludes rather than shared borders? 

Shared border allow you to include content on only the , bottom, left or right sides of your pages.  If you want content to appear in other areas, like in the middle of a page, you'll need includes.  Think of includes as "boilerplate" text in word processing.  It's something that you might want to include on specific pages or all pages, such as a table or several paragraphs.  You can also use Server-Side Includes or the Include Page Component to handle your navigation if you don't want to use shared borders.  You can use Server-Side Includes or the Include Page Component to handle subnavigational elements as well.

What's a template?

A template is a page that contains formatting for page elements.  You can design your own page templates so that you can create pages for your web quickly and consistently.  Templates are very useful in a multiple-author environment because they help authors create pages in the same way.

For example, if all your pages always have a graphic and tagline at the  of the page, create a template with those elements.  Then, use your template when you want to create a new page, and the graphic and tagline will automatically be placed on the page.  Frontpage comes with lots of predesigned templates that cover most of the standard types of page layouts.  When you click on File/New, you'll see the list.  You can create templates that are global or specific to a particular web.

What's the difference between global and web-specific templates?

A global page template is available during all sessions of Frontpage.  It's like the Normal template in Word.  A web-specific template is available only in one web, and isn't available when you are working on a different web.  Web-specific templates are handy for keeping templates together within a particular web.  When you create a page template, you make a page with the settings you want, and then save the page as a template.  The template will show up with the other templates provided in Frontpage.  When you want to create a new page using your template, pick your template from the list.  If the template is web-specific, you will only see the template listed if that web is open.

How can I create a page template?

When you create a page template, you're basically just creating a page and saving it as a template file so that you can use it more easily the next time you create pages.

1. In Page view, make a page with the graphics, rules, and layout you want.  Don't include content - just the elements that make up the page.

2. Select File/Save As. Frontpage displays the Save As dialog box.

3. From the Save As dialog box, find the Save As Type box, and click the Frontpage Template (*.tem) option from the drop-down list.

4. Click Save.  FrontPage displays the Save As Template dialog box.

5. In the Title box type a title for the template, which will appear with the along with the other templates on the General tab in the New dialog box.

6. In the Name box give the new template a filename.  FrontPage will automatically add the correct extension.

7. In the Description area, enter a description of the template.  For example, type something like"Acme Web-Level 1 page."  When you create a new page, this description will appear in the New dialog box when you select the template.

8. If you want the template to be available only to this web, check the Save Template In Current Web check box.  If you want the template to be available during all sessions of FrontPage, clear the box.  Click OK.

Can I have more than one page template associated with my web?   

Yes, you can have as many as you want, and it's a good idea to create them.  One really handy way to think about layout is to think of your pages in levels.  You probably already have your web structured navigationally in levels - Parent level, Child level, and so on, and your page design should reflect that as well.  For example, the home page or "splash" page should have a certain look.  Your "level 1" pages, which the visitor comes to following the home page, should also have a unified look.  When a visitor drills down to the next level, he or she should also find a consistent look for "level 2" pages.  If you make templates for each level, your web will have certain consistency of form and style that your visitors will appreciate.   Figures 13-7, 13-8 and 13-9 show Home, Level 1 and Level 2 pages in the Virginia 2020 web.

The home page introduces the navigation, which runs down the left side of the page.  It contains the splashy graphic and gives the visitor the options of clicking on the four links that contain the main sections of the site.  The Level 1 page is what the visitor sees when he or she is on the first level of the navigation - anything off the main page.  The Level 2 page is designed to display text-rich documents, which contain the "meat" of the content.  The navigation is modified to flow across the , rather that down the left, leaving more room for the text.

How can I replace all occurrences of text in my web?

You can search for and replace text in one or more pages in the current web.  You can either search the entire web or select the pages you want.  Follow these steps:

1. Change to Folder view.

2. If you do not want to search each page in the web, specify the pages you want to search.  You can do this by clicking on each of the pages while holding down the CTRL key.

3. Select Edit/Replace. FrontPage displays the Replace dialog box.

4. In the Find What box enter the text you want to search for.

5. In the Replace With box enter the replacement text.

6. To find text in the HTML code, select the Find In HTML check box.  For example, you can search for text that is not visible or editable on the page, like an image.

7. Click Find In Web.  When FrontPage lists the pages on which the text was found, you have some additional choices:

• To add a task for a page, click the page in the list, and then choose Add Task.

• To open a page in Page view, double-click the page in the list.  The text that FrontPage found is highlighted.  Click Replace to replace this occurrence or click Find Next to find the next occurrence.  Choose Replace All to replace all occurrences on the current page. 

When you have been presented with all occurrences of the text on the page, you'll be prompted to save and close the page and go on to the next page where the text was found.

How do I replace items in my HTML code across my web? 

You can find or replace text in tags, attributes, values, comments and script in HTML.  Save any open pages first so the most current version of your page or web is checked.  If you want to find or replace text in HMTL only in selected pages in your web, switch to Folders view, and then select those pages in the file list before continuing.

1. On the Edit menu, choose either Find or Replace.

2. In the Find What box, type the text that you want to find or replace HTML. If you're replacing text, type the replacement text in the Replace With box.

3. Choose All Pages to find or replace the text on every page in your web.  Choose Selected Pages to find or replace the text on the pages you selected in Folders view.

4. Click Up or Down to tell FrontPage the direction to search.

5. If you wish, you can choose the Find Whole Word Only or Match Case check boxes to refine the search.

6. Select the Find In HMTL check box, and then click Find Next (for selected pages) or Find In Web (for an entire web) to find the first occurrence.

At the bottom of the dialog box, you'll see each page that contains the search text, including the number of times of the search text is located on each page.  To edit a page containing the search text, double-click that page in the list.  Click Find Next to skip this and find the next instance, Back to Web to cancel editing and restore the list of occurrences in the Find or Replace dialog box, Replace to replace this occurrence on the page and find the next, or Replace All to replace every occurrence in the web.

How do I know what to choose if I don't know HMTL?

HTML is the language of the web.  In Preview view, you see the results of the HTML that FrontPage is generating behind the scenes.  If a page doesn't look quite how you intend, or you make changes to your page and things look odd, you should take a look at the code.  Here's an example.  Your company replaces its old logo, shown in Figure 13-10, with a newly designed logo, and it's been used throughout your site.  You haven't used shared borders, so you can't replace it on just one page and have the change replicated throughout your site.  You can't find an image using the Find and Replace menu item for either a page or web, because your image isn't text.  You have to do it in the code.  Follow these steps to see how it's done.

1. Click on the image in Normal view, so that it's selected.  Figure 13-10 shows the logo we'd like to replace.

2. Go to HTML view by clicking on the HTML tab.  The code for the image you've selected will be highlighted.  Fix the highlighted area so that only the src attribute and value (the file name of the image) are highlighted, as in Figure 13-11.  Copy it onto you clipboard by clicking CTRL-C Edit/Copy.

3. Select Edit/Replace, or CTRL-H to bring up the Replace dialog box, as shown in Figure 13-12.  Paste the current src attribute and value into the Find What box by clicking CTRL-V or selecting Edit/Paste.  Type the new src attribute and value into the Replace With box.  Make sure the Find In HTML box is checked.  If you want to replace it across your web, make sure the All Pages radio button is checked.  Click Replace to execute.

I replaced my graphic in HTML code, but it's all stretched and weird looking.  Where did I go wrong?

If the old graphic and new graphic are different sizes, you have to replace the dimensions, too.    

1. Click on the image in Normal view, so that it's selected.  

2. Go into HTML view by clicking on the HTML tab.  The code for the image you've selected will be highlighted.  Fix the highlighted area so that only the src, height and width attributes and values (the file name and dimensions of the image) are highlighted.  Copy that onto your clipboard by clicking CTRL-C or Edit/Copy.

3. Select Edit/Replace, or CTRL-H to bring up the Replace dialog box. Paste the current src, height and width attributes and values into the Find What box by selecting Edit/Paste or CTRL-V.  Type the correct src, height and width attributes into the Replace With box.  Make sure the Find in HTML box is checked.  If you want to replace it across your web, make sure the All Pages radio button is also checked.  Click Replace to execute.    

Are there any other ways to change the look of all my pages at once?

Yes.  If you have set the background picture, background colour, hyperlink colours, and text colours for one page, you can apply these settings to another page in the current web.

Caution:  If the current page uses a theme, this feature is unavailable!

Follow these steps to assign a page's attributes to those of another page in the web:

1. In Page view, open the page to which you want to apply a background and colour.

2. Right-click the page, and then choose Page Properties from the menu.  The Page Properties dialog box will open, as shown in the following illustration.

3. Select the Background tab.

4. Click to select the Get Background Information From Another Page box.

5. Click Browse.

6. Select the page that contains the background and colours you want to use.  Click OK.

What are elements?

Every site is made up of items called elements that repeat from page to page.  Buttons, banners, bars and horizontal rules are all elements.  Additionally, text treatments such as headlines, subheads and body text from page to page are also defined as elements.  Further, think of the layout as an element as well.  The layout would include placement of the navigational elements, text and graphics.  The following illustration shows an example web with all the elements highlighted.

When choosing fonts, how do I know which fonts are safe to use?  

When you choose fonts, you see a list of all the fonts you have on your computer.  Keep in mind that in order for your visitors to see the fonts that you've chosen, they have to have the same fonts installed.  The following is a list of what are considered "safe fonts:"

Fonts Supplied with Apple Macintosh System 7

Chicago, Courier Regular, Geneva, Helvetica, Monaco Palatino, New York, Symbol,Times

Fonts Installed with Microsoft Internet Explorer       

Arial, Arial Bold, Arial Italic, Arial Bold Italic, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, Comic Sans MS Bold,  Courier New , Courier New Bold, Courier New Bold Italic, Courier New Italic, Georgia, Georgia Bold, Georgia Italic,Georgia Bold Italic, Impact, Times New Roman, Times New Roman Bold, Times New Roman Bold, Italic, Times New Roman Italic, Trebuchet MS,Trebuchet MS Bold,Trebuchet MS Bold Italic,Verdana,Verdana Bold,Verdana Italic,Verdana Bold Italic,Webdings

Source:  http://www.microsoft.com/typography/web/fonts/fonts03.htm

Which fonts should I use?

In general, fonts should be chosen for readability.  A good rule of thumb is to use to choose one font family for your body copy, and another font for your headlines and subheads.  You'll notice that most newspapers and magazines choose a serif font, like Times New Roman for the articles, and a sans-serif font like Ariel.  On the web that's true as well, although often it's reversed, because sans-serif fonts like Arial, Helvetica and Verdana tend to be very readable on the computer monitor.  Try not to use more than two font families.  It really helps things to stay consistent.

What if I really want to use specialty fonts, or fonts that I'm not sure most of my visitors will have? 

You can set your headlines, subheads, text on your buttons and so on, as graphic images, rather than text.  This technique ensures your visitors will see your fonts as you intend.  Avoid setting large blocks of body copy as images.  Those take too long to download to the browser.  Another alternative is to embed copies of the fonts you want to use within your web.  Internet Explorer 4.0 (and later versions) will use those embedded font copies to display your text.  Other browsers will simply ignore the embedded-font instructions and continue to use a default font.

How can I embed fonts of my pages? 

Microsoft's TrueType font embedding technology is based on Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).  In addition to requiring a CSS-complaint browser, the technology requires you to use fonts that have embedding permission encoded into them.  The core Windows fonts will work as will some newer fonts from other companies.  Finally, you'll need a copy of Microsoft WEFT, the Web Embedding Font Tool.  You can download this free utility from

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/Web/embedding/weft

WEFT analyses the fonts you've used in your site and then creates font objects.  A font object is a compressed file containing just the font characters you've used in your HMTL document.  WEFT also adds a CSS font definition to your Web pages to refer to the font object.  WEFT works in FrontPage and if you want to use it, there's a great step-by-step tutorial on Microsoft's Sitebuilder Network at hppt://www.Microsoft.com/workshop/languages/fp/design/mfp9935.asp.  Note, though, that this technique won't work in all browsers, so before you use it, know your audience.

Caution:  IE 5 is nearly fully CSS-compliant.  Netscape Navigator 4.5 is quite CSS-compliant, comparable to IE 4.  IE 4 is much more CSS-compliant than Navigator 4.  IE 3 is somewhat CSS-compliant, and Navigator 3 is not at all CSS-compliant.  However, don't assume your visitors have the latest browsers.  There are still a lot of version 3 browsers in use.

What's the best point size for body text on my site?

The best point size for body text on your site is no smaller than 10 points, and no larger than 12 points.  Anything smaller is going to be too hard to read, and anything larger is going to look like you are screaming at your visitor.

Can I use art provided in themes without applying an entire theme to my site?

Like the bullet in one theme and a horizontal rule in another?  There is a way to save specific graphics from themes to your current web, and it's a pretty good trick!  Here's how:

1. Open up a second window with FrontPage concurrently running by clicking the Windows Start button, and selecting the FrontPage icon.

2. Don't create a new web.  You'll be using a blank page.

3. Choose Format Theme.  FrontPage will display the Themes dialog box.

4. Choose the theme you want and click Apply.  Since you don't have a web open, the theme is applied to just that page.  Go ahead and insert the elements you'd like to use for the theme.

5. Click the Preview tab.

6. In Preview view, right-click on any element you want and choose Save As.

7. In the Location box, choose the Images folder from web where you're going to use the image.  Click OK.

Repeat this procedure by applying other themes to your blank page, and saving the graphics you want.  You can use the elements to create your own theme, or insert them whenever you want. 

I want to show a lot products on my page.  I have fairly large images, and would like to present a page of smaller images that viewers can click on to get the larger view.  How can I do that without creating two sets of each image myself?

You can use FrontPage to create a thumbnail, which is a small version of a picture that a visitor clicks in order to follow a hyperlink to the full-size picture.

A thumbnail is handy when you have a large picture that might take a long time to load.  Rather than forcing the visitor to wait around, you can provide a thumbnail, enabling the visitor to choose whether or not to view the bigger version.  To create a thumbnail, follow these steps:

1. In page view, click the pictures.

2. On the Pictures toolbar, click Auto Thumbnail.

3. FrontPage creates the thumbnail picture and a hyperlink to the original. 

Note:  Auto Thumbnail will not work if the picture you selected is smaller than a thumbnail, if the picture has a hyperlink or hotspots set for it, or if the picture is animated.

Tip:  Auto Thumbnail is a very quick way to create custom buttons for your site.

I created a thumbnail, but it's not the size I want.  How can I tell FrontPage to make it the size I specify?

You can set properties for the thumbnail size and borders.  Any changes you make to thumbnail properties do not affect thumbnails you have previously created, so keep this in mind before you start creating your thumbnails in the first place.

1. Select Tools/Page Options.  FrontPage will display the Page Options dialog box.  Click the Auto/Thumbnail tab.

2. In the Set box, click the option you want to use for specifying a size, then in the Pixels box, enter the value in pixels.

3. For example, if you want thumbnail pictures to be 32 pixels wide, click Width and then enter 32.  The height of the thumbnail will be sized to maintain the proportions of the original picture.  Or, if you select Shortest side and then enter 32, the shortest side of any thumbnail picture, will measure 32 pixels, whether it's the height or the width.

To specify a border, select Border Thickness, and then in the Pixels box, enter a number for the thickness of the border in pixels.

4. If you want the graphic to be bevelled, choose Beveled Edge.  Beveled edges give your thumbnail a more button-like look.  If you have also specified a border thickness, the thumbnail will have a bevelled edge inside of a border, which can sometimes look quite odd, so experiment with this.

5. Click OK.

Can I draw a shape, fill it with colour, and bevel the edge to create an instant button?

Unfortunately, no.  FrontPage doesn't support drawing features.  However, you can create the shape in Image Composer or another program and import it into your web for bevelling and other effects.  You can create an auto thumbnail out of an existing image, bevel it, and use that for your button.

I have an image I'd like to use for a background or button, but the text on  it is too hard to read.  How can I reduce the contrast so it makes a better background? 

You can reduce the contrast and increase the brightness of an image, which is useful for creating a watermark or background picture.

In Page view, click to select the image you want to change.  (If you want to wash out the background picture, you don't need to choose anything).

On the Pictures toolbar, which appears at the bottom of the FrontPage screen, click Wash Out. 

Where are some good places to get art and other stuff for my web?

There are innumberable clip art sites on the web, but highly recommended is Art Today at http://www.arttoday.com  There is a free section of 40,000 web images - icons, rules, buttons, animated gifs and more, and for about $30 per year, you get all 750,000 images, fonts and so on.  The searches are fast and the images are quite nice.

What's a layout?   

The positions of recurring elements on a page such as the navigation elements, images, text, and horizontal and vertical rules make up the layout of a page.  Changing the page position of elements without changing the existing content or images can make a noticeable difference.   

How can I maintain consistency in my layouts?

One way is to use the grid system, which has been in use forever in graphic design.  The grid system uses an underlying grid as the basis of your page.  Your grid might consist of 2, 3, 4, or even 6 columns that you use in combination to place your elements in a consistent way.  Look at newspapers and magazines and you'll start to see this technique used everywhere.  If you've done much desk publishing, you'll remember that most documents use a series of frames as underlying elements for placement of graphics and text.  You can do the same thing when you design web pages.

How can I ensure that all browsers and computers are going to see my pages the way I intend them to look?

That's the question that plagues all web designers.  Fonts look smaller on Macs than on the PC.  People view web pages at different screen resolutions.  What looks great on your 21-inch monitor at 1,024 x 768 resolution is going to look vastly different on a 13-inch monitor running at 640 x 480.  Systems that display only 256 colours are going to show pages that are designed with millions of colours.  However, if you stick with safe fonts, web-safe colours and tables set a fixed pixel widths, you can be fairly certain that your pages will look similar on different systems.  The best thing to do is test your pages on a variety of different computers and browser versions.

Common File Extensions 

Here is some preliminary information about the most commonly used file extensions:

Ø      Active Server Pages (.asp)   An Active Server Page (ASP) is a type of Web page generated via a script on the server in response to a user query.

Ø      Audio Files (.au, .wav, .aiff, .midi, .mp3)   You'll work work with these file extensions if you put sound on your pages; only .au files work if you want sound on a rollover.

Ø      Cascading Style Sheets (.css)  Style sheet documents contain formatting instructions for text and other page elements on a Web site.  These pages are never executed; they're just referenced by other pages.

Ø      Executable Files (.exe)   An executable file associated with programs and ActiveX controls.

Ø      Hypertext Markup Language (.htm or .hmtl)   The set of codes you see when you click on the HMTL tab; they are used to format your Web pages.

Ø      Image Files (.gif, .jpeg, .png)   The Web-friendly image formats that browsers can open.  FrontPage normally stores these formats in an Images folder in your web.

Ø      Java Applets (.class)   Small files that contain programming controls written in Java.

Ø      JavaScript Scripts (.js)   Scripts created automatically by FrontPage when you create animated special effects for your pages, such as hover buttons and other special components.

Ø      Microsoft Office Files (.doc, .xls, .ppt, .pub, and .mdb)   The file extensions for Word documents (.doc), Excel workbooks (.xls), PowerPoint presentations (.ppt),  Publisher publications (.pub), or Access databases (.mbd); FrontPage lets you import such documents into your Web page.

Ø      Server Scripts (.cgi and .pl)   Common Gateway Interface (.cgi) scripts that run on a server; Perl (.pl) is a popular language for writing CGI scripts.  If you have your own domain or if your Web site existed before you or your company installed FrontPage, you may find such scripts normally stored on the server in a folder called CGI_Bin or CGI_Win.

Ø      Text Files (.txt)   Information generated from response to a Web form can be saved to a plain text file which FrontPage usually stores in the _private folder.

Ø      Video Files (.avi, vfw, .mov, .mpeg)   You'll encounter these file extensions if you decide to put movies on your Web site.

Tip:  If you have more than one document open in FrontPage, you can switch between them by typing ALT-W to open the Window menu.  Then, type the number that corresponds with the page you want to view.   

How do I get my existing Web site into FrontPage?

You basically have two choices.  If your site does not have any server-side processing, then you can let FrontPage import the site directly from the Web.  If your site does have server-side processing, then you're better off moving your entire site into a folder on your hard-drive, then letting FrontPage convert the folder into a web.

Importing from the Web

To import from the Web, begin by creating an empty web in FrontPage:

1. Select File/Import/Empty Web.  This will give you an empty web with two empty folders:  -private and images.  Now, you're ready to import from the Web.

2. Select Import, which will open the Import dialog box.

3. Click From Web to begin the Import Web Wizard.

Tip:  If you don't have an accurate backup of your site, letting FrontPage import it from the Web is a great way to create one.

Caution:  Don't import from the Web a site that you don't own.  You can use the wizard to download pages from someone else's site, but if you do, it should be because you either want to study how the site is constructed or to read it while you're offline.  To use any of the code, text or images from the site without permission constitutes a copyright violation.

4. Check the appropriate radio button to indicate that you want to import files either from a source directory of files on a local computer or network, or from a World Wide Web site.

5. Fill in the Location information.  (For a WWW location you type in the URL).  Click Next.

Note:  If you only want to download a single file, such as a Web page, you'll need to type in the exact URL, such as http://www.overtheweb.com/index.html

6. If you want to limit the depth of a site that you import, check the first box, Limit To This Page Plus, and indicate the number of levels below the home page you want included.  If you want to limit the total amount of data you download by size, indicate the number of kilobytes (that's 1/1000 of a megabyte; 1,440KB fills up a floppy disk) you want to download.  If you're including images in the download, then you need to make sure you allow enough space because images will take up significantly more space than text files.  Finally, if you only want to download images and text, rather than other types of media files, check the appropriate box.  Click Next, then click Finish on the final screen.

Tip:  For those times when it isn't convenient to lift your fingers from the keys and grab your mouse to click on to a Normal, HTML, or Preview tab in FrontPage, you can cycle through them by pressing CTRL-UP ARROW (to go counterclockwise) or CTRL-DOWN ARROW (to go clockwise).

Automatically redirecting users to a New URL

If you Web site changes locations, your old URL may appear in the search engines and directories for quite a while (and within visitor's Favourites lists for even longer).  To prevent visitors from getting an error message that the page isn't found whenever they try to visit your old site, it's much wiser to set up an easy way to direct them from the old URL to the new one.  In FrontPage, open the file for your home page at the old URL, then click the HTML tab to switch to HTML view.  Just above the </HEAD>tag, add the following line:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content=*10;

url=http:/www.yuornewurl1.com*>

where ten is the number of seconds and http://www.yournewurl.com is the page to jump to (with , of course, your new, real address placed after www).

You can delete all remaining content on the page in Normal view if you wish, although it's a good idea to leave your logo or other identifying features and type in a message that tells the visitor what's about to occur, such as: "We've moved to www.thenewURL.com.  This page will automatically refresh to our new location in ten seconds."  It's a good idea to also include a regular hyperlink on the same page for those users who don't want to wait ten seconds.

Can I import from the Web if I have Active Server Pages or other server-side processing in my web?

No.  If you have any kind of server-side processing on your site, then you must copy the files to a folder and let FrontPage convert the folder into a Web, rather than let FrontPage import it from the Web.  You can still use the Import Web Wizard - just follow these steps:

1. Select File/ Import to open the New Web dialog box.  The Import Web Wizard icon is highlighted.  In the text entry field on the right side of the box, enter the exact filename, including the directory information for where you want FrontPage to put the web.  If you already have created the directory, you'll see a dialog box warning you that FrontPage needs to convert the folder into a web.  Don't use the same folder as the place that your current web site resides.  Click Yes.  All that this will do is add some extra folders to your folder.  It's a shortcoming of FrontPage that there's no Browse button; that would be a welcome enhancement.  Click OK to let FrontPage create a folder for your web.

2. The Import Web Wizard will begin.  Click on the From A Source Directory Of Files On A Local Computer Or Network radio button.  The Browse button will appear.  Click Browse to locate the folder that contains your Web site,  Click Next.

3. Indicate whether you want to limit the amount of data imported either by levels deep, by file size, or by limiting the import to text and images.  Click Next, then click Finish on the final screen.  

What tools does FrontPage provide to help me catch and fix errors?

Errors are inevitable, especially if you're the only one who edits your Web page work.  Try as you might, you're bound to overlook something.  FrontPage can check your spelling, search and replace text throughout your Web site, verify that all your links work, and, for those times you can't "do it now", help you create your own To Do List-style Task Report as a reminder of work you need to do later.

Why don’t the reports show all the files in my web?

FrontPage runs reports form temporary files.  If the temporary files are out of synch with the web, then the reports will be inaccurate.  These temporary files have information about the web files that let FrontPage open the files without returning to the server to download the additional information.  The intent is to keep things running as quickly as possible.  However, over time, this can result in temporary files that are not current with the web information stored on the server.  The most common indication that the temporary files are not current is that your reports don't show all the files in the web or you notice you have hyperlinks that won't work.  You can solve this situation and synchronize your local temporary files with the latest information from the server by following these steps:

1. Click Refresh

2. Select Tools/Recalculate Hyperlinks.  If you have a large Web site, especially one with a lot of hyperlinks, it can take awhile to perform this task.

3. Select Tools/Web Settings, and then select the Advanced tab.  Then click Delete Files. 

Caution:  Once you delete the temporary files for a large web, you'll find that it takes much longer to open it the next time because FrontPage must recopy some information from the server to update your local temporary files.