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FrontPage FAQs | |
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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.
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 top, 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:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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. |
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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:
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:
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.
To specify a border, select Border Thickness, and then in the Pixels box, enter a number for the thickness of the border in pixels.
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 top 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 desktop 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 ExtensionsHere 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:
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.
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
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 URLIf 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:
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:
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.
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