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| FrontPage's navigation bars frequently include a Back button, but you can create your own if you'd prefer. To do so in FrontPage 98, choose Insert | FrontPage Component in the Editor. A dialog box will appear listing the available FrontPage components; choose Insert HTML and click OK. In the next dialog box, type <form><input type="button" value="back" onclick="history.go(-1)"></form> (In FrontPage 2000, accessing the HTML dialog box is even easier. Just choose Insert | Advanced | HTML.) Now, close the dialog box and preview the page. You'll find a fully-functioning Back button on the page. | ||
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| What seems to be a simple process, creating a new page, can be quite complicated in FrontPage 2000. Creating a new page from Folders view bypasses the New dialog box. Fortunately, you can still access the dialog box. To do so, choose File | New | New Page while you're in Page view (or Reports, Navigation, or Tasks view). Clicking the New Page button on the toolbar won't bring up the dialog box, nor will choosing File | New | New Page while in Folders or Navigation view. | ||
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| Did you ever copy an image file to one of your Web directories on your hard disk and find that it is not there when you want to incorporate it into a page?To get FrontPage to recognize the file, switch to FrontPage Explorer (or Folders view in FrontPage 2000) and choose Refresh from the View menu. When you switch back to FrontPage Editor (Page view in FrontPage 2000), your file will now display when you ask for it.Submitted by: SueSmith@smith-lawfirm.com, www.smith-lawfirm.com | ||
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| FrontPage bases every HTML page you create on a template file. By modifying this template, you can control many of the default settings on your HTML documents, such as background colors and meta tags. In both FrontPage 98 and FrontPage 2000, the template file is called Normal.htm. FrontPage 98 stores the file in C:\Program Files\ Microsoft FrontPage\Pages\Normal.tem\. In FrontPage 2000, the file is saved in the directory \Templates\1033\Pages\normal.tem\ within your Office 2000 directory. To edit the template, you'll need to open it from within FrontPage. (Double-clicking on the file icon will simply open it in Internet Explorer.) Once you've made your changes to Normal.htm, choose Save from the File menu. You might expect FrontPage to save your changes automatically, but instead, it assumes that you're saving a new document based on normal.htm, not changing the template itself. In the Save As File dialog box, then, type Normal in the File Name text box. When you click Save, FrontPage will warn you that you're about to overwrite an existing file; click Yes. From now on, whenever you create a new document in FrontPage, it will reflect the formatting options you've saved in normal.htm. | ||
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| If you have a large Web site--or a small monitor--you've probably discovered that your Web's navigation tree (the graphical chart of your Web's structure) more than fills up the space available in Navigation view. Fortunately, there are a couple of easy ways you can make the tree fit. The easiest way is to right-click on an open area of the navigation pane and choose Size To Fit from the shortcut menu. (In FrontPage 2000, choose Zoom | Size To Fit from the shortcut menu. Note: FrontPage 2000 also lets you zoom to specified percentages, from 25 percent to 150 percent).Also on the shortcut menu is the Rotate command. Choosing this command will make your top-to-bottom navigation tree flow from left to right across the screen. Oftentimes, choosing this command will make the whole structure fit. | ||
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| Last week's tip described two ways to make your Web's navigation tree fit in the space available in FrontPage's Navigation view. If those techniques aren't enough, you have a third option: to only display part of the tree at one time. In Navigation view, each parent page's icon includes a small minus-sign button at the bottom. By clicking that button (which then turns into a plug sign), you can hide all the child pages beneath the page. Clicking the button again, as you might expect, makes the pages reappear. FrontPage 2000 adds one more option. If you right-click on a page and choose View Subtree Only from the shortcut menu, FrontPage will hide all the pages in the Web except the one you selected and its child pages. An up-arrow icon above the page lets you make the rest of the Web visible again. | ||
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| You've found a great JavaScript routine on the Web that you want to use in one of your sites. So, you select the code, copy it to the clipboard, and then paste it into FrontPage 2000's HTML view. When you do so, however, all sorts of odd formatting characters appear intermingled with the code--or FrontPage replaces certain characters with obscure HTML codes. The problem? FrontPage 2000 tries to preserve the formatting of text you paste into a page--and it doesn't matter whether you paste that text in Normal view or HTML view. While it's sometimes nice to preserve formatting in Normal view, it makes no sense to do so in HTML view. To get around the problem, launch Notepad (by choosing Start | Programs | Accessories | Notepad) and paste the text into that program first. Then, select and copy the text, return to FrontPage, and paste it in a second time. In Normal mode, the process is easier. After you've pasted in formatted text, simply choose Remove Formatting from the Format menu. | ||
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| The most common use of hyperlinks is to take the user to a related HTML page, either within the current site or somewhere else. But hyperlinks have many other uses. You can create links to images, for example, or create a hyperlink to start an email message. You can also easily create links that download files. To create a download link, first import the file that you want to link to. For best results, this file should be in a common format, such as an executable file (.exe) or a zip file (.zip). Now, open the page that will contain the link and click the Create Hyperlink button on the Standard toolbar. Select the file to be downloaded and click OK; then, publish your Web. (You may first want to change the link text, which, by default, will be the name of the file.)Whenever someone clicks the hyperlink, the browser will attempt to download the file. As long as the browser is set up to recognize the file type (which it should be for common formats), the file will be downloaded successfully. | ||
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| When you're changing an image (Right-click on the image and then choose Properties), you see the Keep Aspect Ratio option and may have wondered what it does. If you select this option, FrontPage makes sure that your picture keeps its basic shape proportional, no matter how you change the width or height. With this option selected, you won't squash or stretch an image while resizing it. You can find this option in the Appearance tab of the Image Properties window. | ||
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| You can manually test that links go where you
want without even leaving the Editor. Just hold the Ctrl key down and click the link. You
jump right to the linked--hopefully, the right linked--page. CUT-AND-PASTE WITHOUT NUT'N
WASTE 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. |
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| To remove a bookmark: 1. Choose Edit + Bookmark. 2. In the Edit Bookmark dialog box, click on the bookmark you want gone. 3. Click the Clear button. 4. Click OK. Or you can just right-click the bookmark and choose Bookmark Properties and then select Clear |
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| 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. | ||
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| The most common format mark on most pages is the Paragraph sign--sort of a backwards, uppercase P. You've probably seen these symbols before in word processors. If you don't see any Paragraph signs in FrontPage Editor and you want to, choose View + Format Marks. Now you see not only the Paragraph symbols but also other marks such as the small flag before a Comment. These symbols appear only in the Editor, not in a browser, and they can help you see exactly what's going on with your page formatting--and help you fix irritating, minor problems that had you baffled. | ||
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| The page title appears in the title bar of the
browser, and it ought to reflect what's in the page. To add or change a title, follow
these steps: 1. In the Editor, right-click anywhere on the page (you don't have to avoid images or tables or such). 2. Choose Page Properties from the pop-up menu. 3. Type a relevant title on the Title text box of the Page Properties dialog box. 4. Click OK. The title in the title bar changes to whatever you typed. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. | ||
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| JPEG may rule, but not in every case. JPEG is a great file format for photos you use in pages. But you may not be squeezing out of it as much as you can. Experiment with the JPEG compression levels. You can probably compress your image a lot more now and still have fine image quality. And remember: The more compression, the faster the image loads. | ||
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| Headings are Web text styles that can help break up and organize text. Use no headings, and your text can look complicated and hard to read. Visitors won't know what information is where. Use too many headings, and the page is hard to read because the text looks like all structure and no meat or matter. The "just right" application of headings depends on the circumstance. If you want people to read a story, fewer is better. If you want people to quickly find instructions or specification details, more is better. Finding the right balance is an art, aided by testing on peers and customers. | ||
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| 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 he middle). Your text box is now on the Web page. Right-click it to fiddle with its style. |
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| FrontPage lets you edit posted messages to
discussion groups on your Web site. Here's how: 1. Open the folder for that particular discussion. 2. Double-click the message you want to change. 3. Delete the objectionable text in the Editor. 4. Save the revised message. Now when users view that message, they see the version you edited. |
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| 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. | ||
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| Here's one more way to squash images to the minimum possible size. When using Photoshop to save a GIF of fewer than 256 colors, use the Exact palette. With the Exact palette, you stick to precisely the number of colors in the image; therefore, you can produce a smaller image file. | ||
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| Want to drive page visitors crazy? Er, make
that, want to set the proper mood for those browsing your page? Add a background sound. Here's how: 1. In the Editor, right-click anywhere on the page and choose Page Properties from the pop-up menu. 2. In the Page Properties dialog box, click the General tab. 3. Click the Browse button beside the Background Sound line. 4. Browse through your drives and folders to find the sound file you want; then select the file and click OK. (Remember that this file has to be available to the Web server later.) 5. In the Loop section, choose how many times you want the sound to play. If you want the sound to play endlessly, click Forever. 6. Click OK. Now try opening your page in a browser to see the effect. We weren't joking about driving people crazy. Background sounds deserve even more care and conservative application than background images. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. | ||
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| Nearly all Web servers can limit access to Web pages based on user names, passwords, and IP address masks. The "mask" option simply means checking where a request is coming from--identified by its numeric IP address, such as 123.456.78.12. (All "www.something.com" addresses actually depend on a numeric address that you probably never noticed.) For example, the mask might say that only requests from 123.456.**.** are allowed. (Any number can appear where the wildcard symbols (*) are.) With numerals and wildcards, the mask can fit either a wide range or a single IP address. Microsoft's servers--the Internet Information Server, Personal Web Server, and NT Workstation Peer Web Services--don't offer the IP address mask blocking because they depend on standard Windows NT security. You can ask your host whether this security is available for your site and, if so, how you can use it to improve your site's safety. | ||
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| When you have several people working on the same thing, FrontPage can help protect you against the dangers of someone inadvertently saving over someone else's work. If anyone tries to save a page, and FrontPage detects that the copy already on disk has been changed, it displays a warning. Of course, it's your job to make sure everyone in your workgroup knows to pay attention to such warnings and to not obliterate any changes someone else may have made. | ||
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| When you type text in a table cell, the cell automatically expands to hold whatever text you enter. Typically, doing so means that you're adding extra lines to the cell, expanding it and the entire table downward on the page. | ||
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| 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.) |
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| Although JPEGs are better for photographs, GIF
images are the best way to format most other illustrations. GIFs also offer a special
flexibility that JPEGs don't--Transparency. With Transparency, you can make one color of
the image transparent so that a background color comes through. Try this effect at least
once, even if only on a practice page, because after you do it yourself, you'll
notice Transparency at work in other pages. And you'll know how the page designer did
that. To make an image transparent: 1. Click the image to select it. 2. Click the Make Transparent button on the Image toolbar. 3. Back in the image, click the color you want to make transparent. (A small pointer comes out of the top of the cursor; use the tip of this for precise pointing.) The background comes through all parts of the image that had previously been the color you clicked. If you don't have a background color, the plain white of the screen background comes through. |
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| With GIF images, you can have one color be transparent so that a background color or image shows through. If one color is already transparent, and you make another color transparent, the first color reverts to its original solid state. Only one color can be transparent at a time. | ||
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| 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. |
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| 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. | ||
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| 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. | ||
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| 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. |
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| Tables are easy to make. They are also easy to
unmake or simplify. If you have a table with too many rows or columns, follow these steps: 1. Click the View menu and make sure the Table Toolbar is selected (a check mark appears beside it). 2. Click the Erase button on the Tables toolbar. 3. Point the Erase cursor just to one side of the border you want to erase. 4. Click and hold the mouse button and drag the Erase cursor across that doomed border. 5. Release the mouse button. The border disappears. |
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| This week we've been talking
about our favorite FrontPage shortcuts. Not just the undo (Ctrl + Z) and save (Ctrl + S)
commands that work with any old application, but specific FrontPage tips that make your
work go faster and easier. Now for our absolute, flat-out most favorite FrontPage shortcut
of all time. Drum roll please for hot tip Numero Uno, which lets you hyperlink on the fly:
1. Highlight the text or image you want to hyperlink. 2. Click Ctrl + K to create a hyperlink. 3. Type the Web address in the URL text box. 4. Click Close. Voila! A tip you'll use countless times while doing time with FrontPage. |
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| You're editing text when you
decide to add a little spice to your font face. Don't reach for the mouse to bring up the
Font menu (Format + Font). Here's hot tip Number 2, one of our favorite and most often
used shortcuts: 1. Highlight the text you want to change. 2. Right-click the text and then choose Font Properties. The Font dialog box opens. 3. Choose your selections from the Font, Font Style, and Size boxes. The sample pane shows you a preview of what your text will look like. 4. Click OK to make the changes. |
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| Like the baseball fan who knows
the Yankees won the '63 World Series, a real FrontPage user knows all the best shortcuts.
Today's shortcut actually requires a little work with the mouse, but it's still a
timesaver. How about a big Dummies Daily welcome for hot tip Number 3: In Preview mode, you can just click a link to follow it. But in Normal (or editing) mode, press Ctrl + click to follow a hyperlink. You there! Firing off an e-mail to tell us the Dodgers won the '63 Series? Don't hit Send. We were just making sure you were paying attention. |
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| Throughout this week, we show
you some of our favorite keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts are a cut above the ol' copy
(Ctrl + C) and paste (Ctrl + V) commands that work with just about any program. They're
specific to FrontPage, and they let you work more quickly and easily. Working on more than one page at a time? You can jump from page to page without moving your hands from the keyboard. Which brings us to hot tip Number 4: Press Ctrl + Tab to jump from page to page; press Ctrl + Shift + Tab to go back to the previous page. |
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| Keyboard shortcuts save time and
hair-pulling when you use the FrontPage Editor. Why root around in menus when you can work
more quickly from the keyboard? In the next five tips, we show you our five favorites.
Here's Number 5: To jump back and forth between the WYSIWYG, Normal, and HTML views, click Ctrl + PgUp. |
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| Have you longed to add a search
engine to your Web site? We've got you covered. FrontPage's search engine component is a
prewritten application that you can link to your site without doing any coding. Just make
sure your Web hosting service provides the FrontPage Server Extensions; otherwise, these
tips won't work. Tomorrow we talk about adding a search form to an existing page. But to get started, we show you how to add a brand-new search page to your web: 1. From the FrontPage Editor, choose File + New. 2. In the New dialog box, click Search Page. The Preview pane shows you what the page will look like. 3. Click OK. 4. The page displays a search form and some tips for visitors on how to use it. To save your page, press Ctrl + S. The Save As dialog box opens. 5. Type the name of the page in the URL text box. 6. Type the page title in the Title text box. 7. Click OK to close the Save As dialog box. You're ready to roll. |
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| Because you want your page to
look good to anyone who pays a call, take a look at your site with different browsers
before you make it public. 1. Choose File + Preview in Browser. 2. Click the Preview button. Obviously Navigator and IE are two musts, but you should also to try other browsers, like the Opera browser. |
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| Need to change the name of a
page in your web? If you're using the automatic navigation feature in FrontPage (which
smartly displays your page titles as banners on your pages), don't change the name in the
Explorer window. If you want your banners to reflect your name change, you need to make
the change from the Navigation view. Strange and frustrating, but true. 1. From Explorer, click the Navigation icon in the Views bar (which runs down the left side of the screen). In the Navigation view that opens, you see two frames--Contents and Navigation. 2. In the Navigation frame, click the page you want to rename, wait a second until you see the name highlighted, and then click again. (If you click twice too quickly, the page launches in the editor.) 3. Type in a new name. 4. Press Enter. All done. Keep this trick in mind for future name changes; it's one way to keep your site consistent. |
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| One of the simplest--and most
useful--components you can add to your Web site is a search form. Of course, you don't
have to stick with the default settings for a search form. Yesterday, we explained how you
can change the labels of the search form buttons. Today, we show you how to change the way
the results appear. 1. Place your mouse pointer over the search form. A little robot icon appears. 2. Right-click the form and choose FrontPage Component Properties from the menu. The Search Form Properties dialog box launches. 3. Click the Search Results tab. Under Search Results are three checkboxes: Score, File Date, and File Size. 4. Indicate what you want to appear in the search results: - Click the Score checkbox, to display a relevancy score (an estimation of how likely the hit returned is what you're looking for). - To display the date a found file was last modified, click File Date. - To show the size of found files, click File Size (in K bytes). 5. Click OK to close the Search Form Properties dialog box. 6. Save your page by pressing Ctrl + S. |
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| Because the Personal Web Server
needs to be running to work with a web in FrontPage, here's a quick trick to speed up the
process. 1. Choose Start + Settings + Control Panel; then double-click the Personal Web Server icon. A Server Properties box appears. 2. Choose the Startup tab and, under Options, choose Run the Web Server Automatically at Startup. 3. Click OK to close the Server Properties dialog box. Each time you restart your system, the PWS launches automatically. If you decide you don't want the server running each time you restart your PC, head back to the Control Panel and uncheck the box. |
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| When you start FrontPage, the
Personal Web Server needs to be running; otherwise, you get an error message. To speed
things up a bit, try creating a shortcut to the server on your desktop: 1. Choose Start + Settings + Control Panel; then right-click the Personal Web Server icon. 2. Drag the icon to your desktop and release the mouse button. 3. From the pop-up menu that appears, select Create Shortcut(s) Here. Now, before you start FrontPage, double-click the PWS icon you just created on your desktop to avoid unnecessary hang-ups. |
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| When you try to open a web from
within FrontPage (choose File + Open FrontPage Web, select a web, and click OK), you may
notice the program hangs and then gives the following error message: "There
is no server at port 80" "There is no server at port 80" What's up? In order for FrontPage do its thing, the Personal Web Server needs to be running: 1. Before starting FrontPage, click the Start menu and choose Settings + Control Panel. 2. Double-click the Personal Web Server icon. A dialog box with the server properties appears. 3. Click the Startup tab and, under Web Server State, click the Start button. 4. Click OK to close the dialog box and get to work. |
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| This week, we're looking at
search forms and how you can add them to your web. Here's how to insert a search form into
an existing page from your web: 1. In FrontPage Explorer, double-click the page you want to add the search box to. The page launches in the Editor. 2. Choose Insert + Active Elements + Search Form. The Search Form Properties dialog box appears. 3. Click OK. 4. Save your page (click Ctrl + S). All set. Your page now offers a text box where users can type keywords they're looking for. When they hit the Submit button, the results appear at the bottom of your page. |
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| One of the simplest--and most
useful--components you can add to your Web site is a search engine. Of course, you don't
have to stick with the default settings that appear. Over the next few days, we show you
how to customize your search engine. By default, the label "Search for:" appears before your text box. To change the label and spice it up a bit, follow these steps: 1. Place your mouse pointer over the search form. A little robot icon appears. 2. Right-click the form and choose FrontPage Component Properties from the menu. The Search Form Properties dialog box opens. 3. In the Label For Input text box, the current text is already highlighted. To replace the text with whatever you want (for example, "Search and Destroy"), just start typing. 4. Click OK to close the Search Form Properties dialog box. 5. Save your page by pressing Ctrl + S. Using this same procedure, you can change the labels of the Start Search button and the Reset button. These buttons are also found in the Search Form Properties dialog box. |
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| A little suggestion for adding animation to your page. If you add an animated object too far down the page, your visitors might miss it. Your animated image will load (and do its animation stuff) before anyone ever scrolls far enough down the screen to see it. Add animations at the top of the page instead so that everyone can appreciate them. | ||
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| Suppose that you just clicked
the Preview tab at the bottom of FrontPage Editor to check out your site. You're cruising
along--and suddenly you realize that you'd like to make a change on the last page you
visited. But because you're not in your browser, you don't have a Back button to click to
quickly retrace your steps. However, you do have a shortcut that can do the job: Right-click the page and choose Back from the pop-up menu. Similarly, if you want to advance a page, right-click and choose Forward. |
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| When you're building a Web page,
you may want to import an existing page from your hard drive into FrontPage Explorer.When
you do so, your file is copied to your Web server the next time you publish your site. 1. Choose File + Import and then click the Add File button. 2. Search through your hard drive until you find the file you want to add. 3. Click Open and then click OK. The file appears in the list of files in FrontPage Explorer. |
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| What's a non-breaking space?
It's a special symbol that your Web browser can see -- but one that people see as just a
blank space on your page. Why bother with that when you can just press the spacebar on
your keyboard? Let's say you want the words "Donald Duck" to always appear next
to each other on your page. But that's tough to control since everyone who visits your
page could be using different font sizes, screen sizes, and so on. So -- since you're
really a control freak -- you insert a non-breaking space between "Donald" and
"Duck" and the browser will never break them apart. To insert a non-breaking
space on your page: 1. Position your cursor where you want the symbol to appear on your page. 2. Choose Insert + Symbol. The first symbol in the upper-left corner of the Symbol dialog box is a blank space. 3. Click Insert to insert that "symbol" and you've just added a non-breaking space. 4. Click Close. |
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| Have you exhausted all the clip
art options that come with FrontPage? Well, check out Microsoft's Clip Art Gallery Live at
http://www.microsoft.com/clipgallerylive In addition to clip art, you can find royalty-free photos and sound clips that you can use on your page. Of course, you do have to agree to Microsoft's License before you can download anything from the page. |
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| Oops! One of our faithful readers, Allison Joe, caught us parceling out not-so-good advice. In our tip of November 25, 1998, we said that bolding or underlining text for effect was okay. Allison points out that underlining text is generally not such a good idea. Why? Because people confuse the underlined text with a hyperlink. Good point, Allison, and thanks for the catch. | ||
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| You may specify a font style on
your Web page, but if your visitors don't have that font loaded on their machines, they'll
simply see the default font style for their browser. You can, however, have a little more
control over what font your visitors see by choosing a back-up font. 1. In FrontPage Explorer, highlight the text you want to edit. 2. Right-click the highlighted text and choose Font Properties. 3. Click the Style button and then select the Font tag. 4. Under Primary Font, choose the font you want to use (unless it's already selected). Then choose a back-up type style under Secondary Font. We recommend that you choose a common back-up font (like Arial). 5. Click OK; then click OK again to close the Font Properties dialog box. |
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| Want to know everything there is
to know about fonts? Well, if you're willing to risk a high rating on the geek-meter,
check out this site: http://www.rz.go.dlr.de:8081/info/faqs/fonts/fonts-faq.1.html Here, you get basic info on fonts, along with facts about the different fonts on various operating systems. |
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| Several ways exist to change
font styles on your Web page: - Highlight the text and then go to the Font drop-down list in the toolbar to pick the font you want. - Highlight the text that you want to change, choose Format + Font, and then select the font from the dialog box thatappears. - Right-click the text that you want to change, choose Font Properties, and then select the font from the dialog box that appears. There's one big advantage to choosing the second or third option: You can see what the font looks like before you make the change. |
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| Want leaves to swirl across your
Web page or snowflakes to fall? No problem: All you have to do is animate your page, using
this easy three-step process: 1. From the FrontPage Editor, click the image or text you want to animate. 2. Choose Format + Animation and select an animation from the list of options. 3. Click FrontPage Editor's Preview tab to see your animation in motion. Keep in mind your visitors need Internet Explorer 4.0 (or higher) to view these animations, which use a Microsoft specific version of DHTML (Dynamic HTML). Users of other browsers will see a static image or text. |
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| Suppose that you've put a bunch
of images on your Web page and you notice that, when you preview the page and move your
cursor over each image, a label pops up. These labels show the name of the image and the
file size. The problem? The labels are BORING. To give your image a label with more
pizzazz, try this: 1. In FrontPage Explorer, right-click the image in question and choose Image Properties. The Image Properties dialog box appears, with the name and size of the image file appearing in the Text box (in the Alternative Representations section). 2. Highlight the text in the Text box and type in the label you want to appear when you move your cursor over the image. (Tip-in-a-tip: Keeping the image size is a good idea. Doing so lets people who browse with images off see what they're in for before downloading.) 3. Click OK. Before you preview this page in your browser, save it. Otherwise, you'll still see the original label. |
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| You go to resize a photo of your
mom and suddenly you've distorted her so badly that you think she might write you out of
her will. Don't panic. 1. First undo the damage by using the Ctrl + Z key combination. 2. Now that mom looks normal again, right click on her picture. Choose Image Properties from the pop-up menu thatappears. 3. In the Image Properties dialog box, go to the Appearance tab.You'll see a box called Keep Aspect Ratio. Put a check mark in that box so you can resize your image without distorting it. Click OK. |
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| Did you know that you can link
to a page that doesn't even exist yet? If you have plans to create a new page on your Web
site and you know that you want to link to it, here's a quick way to create the page and
the link at one time: 1. Highlight the text where you want the link to be (or select an image). Then choose Edit + Hyperlink. 2. In the Edit Hyperlink dialog box, hold your cursor over the icon that looks like a sheet of paper with one dog-eared corner. When you see the text "Create a Page and Link to the New Page," click that icon. 3. In the New Page dialog box, choose the kind of page you want and name it. Then click OK. Your new link connects up to your new page. |
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| Made a mistake? Happens to the best of us. If you decide that you no longer want a link that you created, here's the quick fix: Place your cursor somewhere on the text of the link and then choose Edit + Unlink. Voila! You've just undone the connection. | ||
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| The links you create on your
page are blue, but you don't have to stick with the default color: 1. Highlight the offending link; then right-click and choose Page Properties from the pop-up menu. 2. In the dialog box that appears, go to the Background tab, where you see three pull-down menu options: - Hyperlink: You know what a hyperlink is already--that's the link that you created on your page. - Visited Hyperlink: A visited hyperlink is the link once someone has clicked on it. That change of color basically lets your visitor know that he or she has been there, done that already. - Active Hyperlink: An active hyperlink is kind of silly: When you click the link and hold down your mouse button, the active hyperlink color takes over. Chances are good that no one is ever going to notice your active hyperlink color. 3. Change the colors until they look the way you want them to. 4. When you're satisfied, click OK. The color of the link on your page changes to the new color you specified. NOTE: If you want to change all the links on the page at the sametime, don't highlight a particular link. Just right-click the page itself, choose Page Properties, and proceed as indicated above. |
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| If you read yesterday's tip, you
probably really wanted to go ahead and change the color of your links. So you
right-clicked on your page and chose Page Properties--but there was no Background tab.
Hey! What's up with that? Well, hate to tell you, but if you're using a theme on your page, you can't change the color of your links. If you want to scrap the theme so that you have more control, you can easily enough: 1. Right-click anywhere on the page and choose Theme from the pop-up menu. 2. Select This Page Does Not Use Themes and click OK. Your theme vanishes and--when you go to the Page Properties dialog box--you see a Background tab. |
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| Say that you want a bulleted
list, but instead of using little round circles, you want to use images. You can, and
here's how: 1. Click where you want the list to begin. 2. Choose Insert + Image; then navigate to and double-click the image. (Tip-in-a-tip: Think small. Remember that people won't be able to see all the detail of a complex image that's been resized as a button.) 3. Click OK. The image appears on your page. 4. If the image is too large, click it once; then grab a corner handle to resize it. 5. When the image is the right size, click on either side of the image to insert your text. 6. Select the image and choose Ctrl + C (to copy it) and Ctrl + 5 (to paste it) as many times as you need. |
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| Don't like to type? Well, if you
have to add the same text over and over again to your page, you may want to avoid using
the keyboard. What? Type without a keyboard? Yep. Suppose that you want to add your current Web page address to the bottom of your pages. Follow these steps: 1. First position your cursor where you want the address to appear. 2. Choose Insert + FrontPage Component. 3. In the menu that appears, choose Substitution and click OK. 4. Click the arrow beside the Substitute With box and choose Page URL. Click OK. 5. Repeat these steps on each page where you'd like the address to appear. If you switch your Web address later, your pages are immediately updated. In our next tip, we show you how to add additional elements. |
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| If you read yesterday's tip, you
probably decided to save your fingers a little work, and so you went to use the
Substitution component in FrontPage Editor. The only problem was that you didn't have many
options when you clicked the pull-down arrow for the Substitute With box. To create a list
of options for yourself, follow these simple instructions: 1. In FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools + Web Settings and click the Parameters tab. 2. Click the Add button. 3. Fill in the rest of the information as necessary. For example, if you want to add an e-mail address, in the box that appears, type e-mail address in the Name text box. In the Value text box, type the actual address that you want to add to your page. 4. When you're done, click OK twice to exit the Web Settings dialog box. Now when you go to add a substitution, you see "e-mail address" in the pull-down list. When you click e-mail address, the actual address appears on your page. To save yourself time, use the steps above to add more names and variables (such as your snail mail address, project name, or vice president--if your office has a lot of turnover). |
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| The Substitution component that
we've been explaining for the last two days is particularly handy if you want to make
across-the-board changes to elements of your site (like the project's name, for instance).
Say that you inserted your e-mail address at the bottom of every page, but then the
address changed. Instead of going to each page and tediously making the change by hand,
use the Web Settings dialog box. Follow these steps: 1. In FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools + Web Settings and click the Parameters tab. 2. Select E-mail Address and then click the Modify button. 3. Leave the Name text box as it is. In the Value text box, type the new address that you want to replace on your pages. 4. When you're done, click OK twice to exit the Web Settings dialog box. Now, go back to your page and click the F5 key to Refresh the page. |
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| Want to link from one page of
your Web site to another? Suppose, for example, that you want to add to your Resume page a
link to your Interests page. Why bother with menus and buttons and all that stuff? Use the
drag and drop method: 1. Make sure both FrontPage Explorer and FrontPage Editor are open. 2. In FrontPage Explorer, double-click the file where you want to create the link. If you are following our example, you'd open the Resume page, which displays in the FrontPage Editor. 3. Go to FrontPage Explorer and click the page that you want to link to (the Interests page in our example). 4. Continuing to hold down your mouse button, drag the Interests page icon to the FrontPage Editor on your Windows taskbar (the bar at the bottom of the screen that shows which programs you have open); hold the mouse steady until you see the FrontPage Editor appear on-screen. 5. When FrontPage Editor pops up, position your mouse where you want the link to appear and then release the button. The link appears on-screen, displaying whatever the title of the page is (Interests, for example). |
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| Nope, we're not talking about
the table for the holiday buffet. We're talking about the latest table that you added to
your Web page. It looks good--that is, all the data is in place, and everything is
accurate. But it's missing something: namely, pizzazz. One way to add a little spice to
your tables is to give them some color: 1. To change the background color of all the cells of your table, select the table and then right-click it. 2. In the pop-up menu that appears, choose Table Properties. 3. In the Table Properties dialog box, click the Background Color pull-down arrow and choose the color you want for the background of your table. 4. Click OK. |
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| In our last tip, we explained
how to change the background color of your table, but what if you want a couple of cells
to stand out from the rest of the pack? You can change the color of specific cells, too.
Here's how: 1. Right-click the cell (or cells) you want to color differently, and in the pop-up menu, choose Cell Properties. 2. Click the Background Color arrow and choose the color you'd like for that particular cell. 3. Click OK. |
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| No doubt about it: People feel a
little more comfortable when a picture or paragraph has a label or title. The same goes
for tables: Your tables should have some sort of title. To make the title more eye
catching, you can always bold the text. But another trick that makes the title really
stand out is to have it span more than one cell of the table: 1. Select the cells that you want to merge together. (The cells may contain text--they don't have to be empty first. But you may have to clean up your formatting after merging.) 2. Right-click and select Merge Cells from the pop-up menu. Remember: You can merge cells across columns or across rows--or both at once. |
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| You love the look of those
indented paragraphs--you know, the ones that are inset a little from either side of the
margins of the page. But when you try to indent paragraphs yourself, by using the Tab key,
you just lose your patience. Here's a quick trick to get indented paragraphs: 1. Highlight the paragraph that you want to indent. 2. Click the Increase Indent button on the FrontPage Editor toolbar. (This button shows an arrow pointing to several lines on the right.) You can continue to indent that paragraph with each additional click of the Increase Indent button. So keep clicking until you're satisfied. |
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| Want to check out your links to
be sure they work? If you hold down the Ctrl key while you click on the link, it will jump
you to the linked location. Another way to do the same thing? - Right click on the link and choose Follow Hyperlink. |
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| Yesterday, we showed you how to
import a file into FrontPage Explorer. But why would you want to do that? You may have an
image or a sound file that you want to add to your Web site, or you may want to add a page
you've created previously in another program. Here's another time when you'd want to import a file: Suppose that you created a little shareware program that you plan to make available to the world via your Web site. If you import the file to FrontPage first and then create a link to the program, visitors can easily download the free software. |
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| As you move around the Web,
you'll find great sites that'll inspire you. And you may want to borrow ideas (and source
code). But keep in mind that the Web has its losers, too. What if you can't tell the
difference between jewels and junk? Point your browser to: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com where you can check out some of the things you shouldn't do on your own Web page. Here, you'll find all sorts of goodies, from the Daily Sucker to tips on how you can prevent your site from making the list. |
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| Unless you're building a personal Web site, you should always include contact information for your visitors. We're not talking about that mailto link either. Sure, it's good that people can e-mail you if they have questions, but sometimes people want to be in touch the old-fashioned way. Make sure you post your company phone number and address so they can call or write. Again, this is only relevant for a business site. If you're designing a personal site, you really shouldn't provide personal information about where you live or what your phone number is. | ||
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| You want to preview your Web page, and you've read all about that handy Preview tab at the bottom of the page. You know, this is the tab you can click to automatically display your page in the browser. But here's the catch: FrontPage gives you the Preview tab option only if you have Internet Explorer on your system; you don't get it if you use Netscape Navigator. If you don't have Explorer loaded on your system, you need to install it if you want to be able to use the Preview tab. | ||
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| In our last tip, we told you
that the Preview tab works only with Internet Explorer, not with Netscape Navigator. So
that tip didn't apply to you because you don't use Navigator, right? Wrong. Even if
Explorer is your favorite browser, you should still preview your work with Netscape
Navigator. After all, the browser wars aren't over yet. About half the people use IE, and
the other half use Navigator. To view your page in Navigator (or any browser other than IE, for that matter): 1. Choose File + Preview in Browser. 2. In the Preview in Browser dialog box, highlight Netscape Navigator from the list of browsers that are available on your computer. 3. If you want to get an idea of how your page will look to visitors who only have low-res monitors, choose the lowest resolution (that's 600 x 480) from the Window size list. Otherwise, just skip to Step 4. 4. Click Preview. |
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| More animation effects: Here's
how to add a cool movie-like transition (the page appears to dissolve in when loaded, for
example) from one page to another. 1. Choose the page where you want the transition; then choose Format + Page Transition. 2. In the Page Transitions dialog box, choose the timing of the event from the Event pop-up list: Page Enter, Page Exit, Site Enter, and Site Exit. 3. Under Transition effect, indicate what type of effect you want: Circle Out, Wipe Up, and so on. (You can always change the effect later if you don't like it.) 4. In the Duration (seconds) text box, indicate the number of seconds you want the transition to take and then click OK. 5. To see the effect, click the Preview tab in FrontPage Editor. Keep in mind that your visitors need Internet Explorer 4.0 (or higher) to view these animations, which use a Microsoft specific version of DHTML (Dynamic HTML). Visitors with other browsers will see all the page's elements, but without animation. |
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| Want to tweak an image that you have on your page? Instead of launching the Microsoft Image Composer, just double click on the image in question. That will launch Image Composer automatically. | ||
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| If you want something to really
stand out on a piece of paper, you grab a highlighter. Well, you can do the same thing on
your Web page--except that you have a lot more colors to choose from than the standard
yellow. 1. Select the text that you want to highlight; then right-click it and choose Font Properties from the menu that appears. 2. In the Font Properties dialog box, click the Style button. 3. Click the Colors tab. You can set the background color (the color surrounding the text) or the foreground color (the actual color of the text). 4. To highlight your text, you change the background color. Pick a color and keep clicking OK till all the dialog boxes have disappeared. (Of course, you can also change the foreground color, too, if you want.) |
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| Don't like the location of
something on your page? Want to move a picture to the right, for example, or push a table
up just a touch? To move something easily: 1. Select the object--table, image, clip art, and so on--that you want to move. 2. Holding down your cursor, point to where you want the object to go. 3. Release the mouse button to "drop" the object into place.. |
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| You've got plans to create a
list of items on your page and to make that list look really spiffy by preceding each item
with a graphic bullet. You found the bullet you want in the FrontPage Clip Art gallery,
but you're tired of importing it again and again. You can save yourself some time: 1. Import the image and then click it. 2. Copy the image (press Ctrl + C or choose Edit + Copy). 3. Position your cursor where you want the next bullet to appear. 4. Paste the image in (press Ctrl + V or choose Edit + Paste). |
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| Want to add a little flair to
the text on your pages? Designing images with Microsoft Image Composer lets you design
headers and logos with the fonts and colors you want. In this tip, we show you how to get
started by generating a shape. 1. Open Microsoft Image Composer (the image program bundled with FrontPage) by clicking the Start menu and choosing Programs + Microsoft Image Composer + Image Composer 1.5. 2. Click the Shapes button (the one with the circle, square, and polygon). 3. In the Shapes dialog box, click the shape--rectangle, oval, curve, or polygon--you want for your image. 4. Create the shape, as described in the following: - Oval or rectangle: Click once in white area of the main window; then hold the mouse button and drag your cursor until you have the shape and size you want. To get a perfect circle or square, hold down the Shift key as you drag. - Curve or polygon: Click a few times in your composition area to set the points of your shape. To remove a point, right-click the point and choose Delete (or Add or Move, depending on what you want to do). 5. When you're satisfied with the shape you want, decide how transparent you want it to be. Under Opacity for New Shape, move the slider to the left to make the shape more transparent; move it to the right to make the shape less transparent. 6. At the bottom of the Toolbar (to the left of the composition area) is the Color Swatch (an icon that has one block of color). Right click the color to see a palette. Choose the color for your shape. 7. Right-click your shape and choose Create. Tune in tomorrow to find out how to add text to your new shape. In the meantime, save your shape: Choose File + Save, type in a name for your image, and click Save. Make sure you put the image someplace easy to find. If you follow this series, you'll be able to use it tomorrow! |
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| Yesterday, we explained how to
create a new shape, using Microsoft's Image Composer. Today, we show you how to add text
to that shape to create a text image for your Web page. 1. Open the shape in Image Composer by choosing File + Open and double-click your file. (If you followed yesterday's tip, you can open the shape you created.) 2. Click the Text button on the left-hand side of the screen (it's the one with the "A" on it). 3. In the Text dialog box, select the font name, style, and size; choose a color from the color palette; and indicate how transparent you want the text. Also make sure that the Smoothing box is deselected to ensure that your text doesn't have jaggie edges. 4. Move the cursor over the white composition area of your screen (the cursor turns into a cross-hatch with an "A" next to it) and click to create a box; then type text in the box. 5. After you enter your text, click anywhere in the composition area outside the text box to close the Text dialog box. 6. Move your cursor over the text. When the cursor changes into a cross-hatch with an arrow facing in every direction, click and drag the text to where you want it to appear. Stay tuned for tomorrow when Jane says, "How do you resize this thing, anyway?" |
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| Over the last two days, we told
you how to create a text image, using Image Composer. But if you save that image in Image
Composer's default format, you get a file with the .mic extension, and you won't be able
to add your creation to your Web page. Your image files need to have a .gif or .jpg
extension in order to work on the Web. To save your creation so that you can use it on the
Web, follow these easy steps: 1. From Microsoft Image Composer, open the image file (choose File + Open). 2. Choose File + Save As. In the Save as Type drop-down list, select CompuServe GIF; then name the file and click Save. 3. A message appears saying this format flattens out the sprites in your composition. (In other words, the text and the shape are glued together permanently, and you won't be able to move or edit them separately.) If this is acceptable, click OK. If you think that you might want to do some tweaking in the future, click Cancel. Then choose File, Save and type a name for your file. Click Save and your image will be stored in the default file format, .mic. Now you can safely follow these steps to create a new GIF file. |
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| After you create a text image
and save it in the right format for the Web (as explained in the last couple of tips),
you're ready to insert the image on your page. Just jump over to FrontPage Editor, place
your cursor where you want the image to appear, and insert it (choose Insert + Image and
double-click the file). But your image appears HUGE on the page! Has all your work been
for naught? Nope. You just need to do a little more tweaking in Microsoft Image Composer. 1. Open Image Composer (click the Start menu and choose Programs + Microsoft Image Composer + Image Composer 1.5) and open the text image you created. 2. Click the image once. A box with handles appears around the image. 3. Using your mouse, click and grab a corner handle until the image is the size you want. 4. Your image might be the right size, but now you need to resize the white composition space to fit the size of the image. Drag your cursor over the dotted line around the composition area until the cursor changes to a line with an arrow at either end; then click and drag the surrounding lines until they fit your text image perfectly. 5. Resave your image (choose File + Save). 6. Jump back to FrontPage Editor and insert the image again. If it's still not the size you want, keep tweaking, resaving, and reinserting the image until you get it just right. |
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| Let's say that you use your Web
site to publish all of your poetry. And you know how poetry is -- those line breaks are
really important for the flow of the work. But here's the problem: Every time you hit the
Enter key to go to the next line, there's too much space between the new line and the old
one. Solution? Easy, use the line break function. 1. Position your cursor at the end of the line you just typed. 2. Choose Insert + Line Break. You'll see your cursor appear on the next line down -- without all that white space between lines. 3. For a keyboard shortcut, hold down the Shift key while pressing the Enter key. This will also create a line break. |
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| You need to use that copyright
symbol on your Web page. (You know, the C with a circle around it.) Or you've switched
into French and you need accent marks over your letters. If you copy these special symbols
from your word processor onto your Web page, they won't show up properly; it's like
throwing a left curve to your browser. Instead, use the symbols in FrontPage to do the
trick. 1. Position your cursor where you want the symbol to appear on your page. 2. Go to Insert + Symbol. Choose the symbol you'd like to add and click Insert. |
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| You like almost everything about
your theme--the color of the hyperlinks, the bullets, and so on--but you don't like the
background pattern. Instead of losing the whole theme, just get rid of the background.
Here's how: 1. Right-click anywhere on your page and choose Theme from the pop-up menu that appears. 2. In the Choose Theme dialog box, uncheck the Background Image box. You get a preview of what your page looks like without the background pattern. 3. If you like what you see, click OK. If you don't like what you see, you can always click the Background Image again (it works like a toggle). |
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| Want the current date to appear
automatically on your Web page? Follow these 3 simple steps: 1. Place the cursor where you want the date to appear. 2. Choose Insert + Advanced + Script. A Script box appear on-screen. (Don't get intimidated!) 3. Under language, make sure that VBScript is selected. Then click in the Script box and type the following: document.write date 4. Click OK. Don't see anything? First you have to save your page and then preview it in your browser. |
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| Want an easy way to view your Web page from your browser? First go to File + Preview In Browser. Once you're looking at your page in the browser, save it as a bookmark (in Netscape Navigator) or a favorite site (in Internet Explorer). Then, any time you're in your browser, you can automatically open your site or page just by linking from your bookmarks or favorites. This is especially helpful if a whole team of people is working on the site and you want to view the changes that other folks have made without fussing around on the server to find the files. | ||
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| Say you want to link to another
site from your web, but you don't want people to leave your site. Here's how to edit an existing link so that it automatically launches in a new window: 1. Highlight the text you want to link. 2. Press Ctrl + K to open the Edit Hyperlink dialog box. 3. Under the Target Frame section, click the Change Target Frame button (it looks like three dots and a pencil). 4. Under Common Targets, choose New Window. 5. Click OK. 6. Click OK again to close the Edit Hyperlink dialog box. Now when visitors click your link, a new window opens and displays the page you've linked to. |
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| We showed you how to edit an
existing link to launch a new window automatically. This hyperlink method lets your visitor check out another site without leaving yours. But what if you need to create an entirely new link? No problem: 1. Type the text you want to link. 2. Highlight the text. 3. Choose Ctrl + K. The Create Hyperlink dialog box opens. 4. In the URL text box, type the Web address you want to link to. 5. Under the Target Frame section, click the Change Target Frame button (it looks like three dots and a pencil). 6. Under Common Targets, choose New Window. 7. Click OK. 8. Click OK again to close the Create Hyperlink dialog box. |
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| You're the one who needs to do
everything just a touch differently, right? You put stamps on your envelopes upside down
and don't drink your first cup of coffee until after lunch. No? Okay, well even if you're
used to doing things just like everyone else, here's your chance to be a little different,
at least when you're using FrontPage: When you're looking at your files in that handy organizational chart in FrontPage Explorer's Navigation view, you can change the organizational direction using the rotate feature. Say the Home page is at the top of the organizational chart and all the other files are beneath it, but you'd rather see the Home page on the left and have all the other pages branching off to the right. Just select View + Rotate, and the whole scene will do the big one-two shift so you can read from left to right. Too much work for you? No problem. Look for the Rotate button on your toolbar (it looks like an arrow moving in the counterclockwise direction). Click that once, and your files will read from top to bottom again. |
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It's the black sheep of the
FrontPage Web site--a new page without links to connect it to any of the other pages. Take
pity on that poor, lonely page and add a navigation bar so it can link up to the rest of
the clan:
Why, a reunion like that almost puts a tear in your eye. |
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| According to Shakespeare, a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet. By now somebody's doubtless performed marketing
studies that disprove this axiom, but you're free to change the less-than-aromatic default
name "Root Web" to whatever you want: 1. In the Getting Started dialog box, select Root Web and click OK to open
it. |
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| If you're sick of the lame and
tame artwork in your Clip Gallery, make a quick dash to Microsoft's Clip Gallery Live! on
the Web and pick up some new additions. Live! has more than just clip art: Microsoft has
also put together sound files, animations, and photos for downloading. 1. In FrontPage Editor, choose Insert + Clipart. 2. In the Microsoft Clip Gallery dialog box, click the button on the lower right (the one with the globe and the magnifying glass) to connect to the Web for more clips. You'll find yourself at the Clip Gallery Live! Web site, where you can browse and preview to your heart's content. 3. Check off the images and sounds that you want. 4. When you're finished selecting, click the Selection Basket. 5. Follow the on-screen instructions to download your selections and have them automatically integrated into your Clip Gallery. |
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| Although FrontPage 98 lets you
attach any kind of sound file to a hover button, the button won't play the sound unless
the sound happens to be in .au format. Nary a peep will come from .wav, .mid, or .ra sound
files. (It has to do with how the hover buttons are made.) Unfortunately, this means that you have to convert your sound files to .au format if you want to use them with hover buttons (a procedure that may require the use of third-party conversion software). If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. |
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| The first time you insert a
graphic or sound into a Web page, you may be in for a surprise. When you save the page,
you get a dialog box asking whether you want to do any of the following to your inserted
item: save, embed, rename, overwrite--or some combination of these. If you're not sure which way to go, click the Set Action button and opt for Don't Save. Taking the Don't Save action leaves the image or sound or whatever you inserted untouched, but it automatically creates a hyperlink to that item. When anyone accesses that page, the image (or whatever) appears or functions as you expect. If you've cropped or altered your inserted item, you may want to choose Save, but if you do, use a new name to ensure that your original item is available intact, if needed. |
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| You say your ISP doesn't support
FrontPage extensions? All is not lost. While you're begging, you can still publish
FrontPage Web sites--yes, really! They just can't contain those wacky FrontPage
extensions, which means that you won't be able to take advantage of FrontPage features
like remote authoring, multiuser authoring, forms, discussion Webs, full-text searches, or
hit counters (one of which is probably the reason you bought the software in the first
place). Now is when you rebels in the crowd want to know, "What would happen if I tried to publish an extension-based FrontPage web to a server that did not support extensions?" HA! Ha Ha hee hee hoo hoo! Your Web site will resemble a car wreck as painted by Jackson Pollock. Blindfolded. Seriously, we tried it. Don't go there. |
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In a world where you can buy
beepers for your keys and where misplacing a whole car isn't unusual, finding a needle in
a cyberhaystack redefines frustration. One way to make your visitors' info-hunt rewarding
is to add search capabilities to your site. FrontPage's search form returns a list of
hyperlinks (at the bottom of a page) to pages containing the user's keyword. Want to know
how to add a search function to your FrontPage Web? Follow these instructions:
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Don't hold your breath for any
tasteless jokes about the Marquee de Sade, folks. We have our standards. A marquee is a
line of moving text that scrolls horizontally across the screen. A marquee is great
because, on an otherwise static page, something moving grabs the eye. That means you
should use the marquee for your most important, or most late-breaking, information. Here's
how to create a FrontPage 98 marquee:
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YOU may be cool, together, and
secure enough to require no external validation, but the rest of us desperately want to
know whether anybody is visiting our Web sites. There's one basic way to find out: Install
a hit counter. In Web parlance, one "hit" equals one access of a Web page. When
creating or editing a page, you can easily add a FrontPage counter at any time.
Afterward, the hit counter appears. You won't see the actual numbers until you publish your site and access it. |
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| When you create a Web site with FrontPage 98, it makes a folder, such as /myweb, to put the pages of your Web site in, an /images folder to keep your pictures in, and a /_private folder to keep your secrets in. Anything placed in the /_private folder cannot be accessed directly by a browser. So, this folder is a good temporary storage place for old graphics or pages, or even new stuff that's not quite ready for prime time. Also, any folder under /_private--such as /_private/images--is also hidden from prying Web browsers. | ||
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A by-product of browsing the
World Wide Web is an incoming stream of so-called temporary Internet files, which all end
up permanently residing on our hard drives. If left unchecked, the temps accumulate until
they've taken over all available space. Did you know that logging onto your Web site via
FrontPage 98 also causes an influx of temp files into FrontPage's temp folder?
Unfortunately, FrontPage doesn't have a nice delete-the-temps button as do Internet
Explorer and Netscape. You have to do away with these temporary files manually, as
follows:
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| Know whatever Microsoft knows as
soon as they know it with regular visits to the FrontPage Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/
One thing you ought to know immediately is that, as of June 4, unless you have FrontPage 98b, you don't have the current version. A small software patch found on the FrontPage site transforms your has-been FrontPage to the new version. Microsoft says not everyone need bother with the update. However, it takes far less time to download (less than two minutes even at 14.4 kbps) and install the fixer-upper than it does to decipher Microsoft's explanation of who does and who doesn't need it! |
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| Browse time is that moment when
a Web page is accessed from the Internet via a browser (like Internet Explorer, Opera, or
Netscape). Some FrontPage components (such as forms of any kind, for example) will not
operate until browse time because it's the interaction of the HTTP server (the Internet),
extensions, and browser that makes the component work. If you're working with components that don't seem to work in Preview, it's because they are browse-time components. How do you know the difference between a browse-time nonfunction and a normal nonfunction in Preview? Your first clue is that after clicking the Preview tab you see the message, "This page contains elements that may need to be saved or published to display properly." |
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If you suspect that some of your
Web site visitors may not have the capacity to view graphics and fancy animations, be sure
to provide for them whenever you insert a graphic or link. For example, you can associate
a line of explanatory text with an image so that people who can't view images will know
what's there. Microsoft calls these "Alternative Representations." We just think
it's the polite thing to do.
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| Like okra and broccoli, feedback
is something we're supposed to eat because it's good for us, not because we like it. After
all, if feedback is so terrific, then why is it the name we've given to that horrible
screeching sound generated by microphones and speakers? Hmm? On the other hand, if you don't provide your visitors with a mechanism for sending comments, you'll never receive all that glowing praise you can show to your boss. The simplest method for opening a hailing channel between you and your visitors is via a Mailto link. When users click the link, their e-mail software activates, and your address automatically appears in the To: slot. Here's how to make a link like that:
Now when your visitors click whatever you highlighted in Step 1, they're ready to send you feedback! |
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| Need to quickly cut and paste
text in FrontPage? After selecting the text, you could select Ctrl + X (to cut), move the cursor where you want the text to appear, and select Ctrl + V (to paste). But here's a faster way: 1. Select the text you want to cut and paste. 2. Click the selection and, continuing to hold the mouse, place the cursor where you want the text to appear. 3. Release the mouse button. Another alternative: Select the text, right-click, and choose Copy from the shortcut menu. Place the cursor where you want, right-click again, and choose Paste. |
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| Changing page titles with the right-mouse
button is as easy as 1-2-3: 1. With your page open in FrontPage Editor, right-click a blank area of the page and choose Page Properties. 2. Select the General tab in the dialog box that opens. 3. Type a new name in the Title text box and click OK. Your new page title appears. Note: You can also change a page title by right-clicking a page in Navigation view, selecting Rename from the menu that appears, typing in your new title, and pressing Enter. |
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| By default, Tasks view displays only the tasks you have not yet completed. To view a list of all tasks, just right-click a blank area of the view and choose Task History. Both future and past tasks appear. | ||
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| Creating FrontPage tasks helps keep your site
organized, especially if you're creating a site with coworkers. Associating a file with a
task lets you quickly see what needs to be done, allowing you to jump to the page to start
the task. Here's how to create a task: 1. Open your web and choose File + Open FrontPage Web. 2. Select your web from the Getting Started dialog box and click OK. 3. Click the All Files icon on the Views bar. 4. Right-click a file and choose Add Task. 5. In the New Task dialog box, enter the task name. 6. Type a person's name in the Assigned To box. 7. Select a priority (High, Medium, or Low). 8. Create a note in the Description text box (for example, "Update the logo" or "Fire the 'designer' who created this page"). 9. Click OK. |
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| A line break won't change formatting for lines of text. The next line of text after the line break has the same formatting as the line before the break. A paragraph break does change formatting. The line after a paragraph change can have a whole new formatting. | ||
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| You can perform all sorts of tasks quickly by
using the right-mouse button. From Navigation view, right-click anywhere in the page to
see alternate view options. From the pop-up menu that appears, you can do the following: 1.Choose Rotate to switch the view from horizontal to vertical. 2.Choose Size to Fit to make all the pages in your web zoom out so that you can see each page in the view without scrolling. |
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| You can quickly add a comment to a file by
using the right-mouse button, which is especially helpful when working with a group on a
web: 1. Change to Folders view (in FrontPage Explorer, click the Folders icon in the Views bar). 2. Right-click the file you want to attach a comment to. 3. Select Properties from the menu that appears. 4. Click the Summary tab. 5. Type a note in the Comments text box and click OK. |
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| AOL doesn't support FrontPage's most sophisticated Server Extensions. The result: You can use FrontPage to make Web pages that you can then publish to AOL, but don't include banners and other sophisticated effects on these pages. If your page must have those kinds of effects, you need to get a Web host other than AOL. | ||
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| You may know that you can associate sounds with hover buttons so that when a visitor points to the button, a sound emits. Microsoft offers two short files suitable for hover buttons, which you can download from. | ||
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| 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. |
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| A couple of tips ago, we explained how to
place an image on your Web page: In FrontPage Editor, select a blank area of your page;
click the Insert Image button from the Standard toolbar; navigate to the image file you want to import; and click OK. Today, we explain one of the ways you can enhance this image. You may often work with images that are underexposed (not enough light) or overexposed (too much light). You can affect the brightness of images without using an external image editor. The FrontPage Image toolbar handles these simple jobs quite nicely: 1. Select the image. 2. Choose the More Brightness or Less Brightness button on the Image toolbar. 3. Continue to click the buttons until the image appears as you want it. Tip-in-a-tip: To remove the effect, click Ctrl + Z. FrontPage supports multiple undo actions (the last 30 steps), so keep clicking until you're back to where you started. |
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| Do you ever see cool JavaScripts on somebody
else's site and wish you could re-create them? Here's a utility that saves you the pain
and suffering known as JavaScript coding. El Scripto adds a handful of scripts to the menu bar in FrontPage, allowing you to insert the scripts almost as you would a component. El Scripto is useful for creating pop-up windows, for example, or for creating menus that let your visitors select an area of your site and jump right to the page.You can download a free, limited version of the utility, called El Scripto Lite, at http://www.elscripto.com/demo/index.htm The file size is just over 2MB. To purchase El Scripto, go to http://www.elscripto.com/purchase/index.htm |
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| 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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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| You can right-click almost anywhere in
FrontPage to find a faster way to get your work done. Here's how to change text formatting
in the FrontPage Editor: 1. Select the text you want to change. 2. Right-click the text. 3. Choose Font Properties. 4. In the Font dialog box, make the appropriate changes, such as the font size, style, and color. 5. Click OK to accept your changes and close the Font dialog box. |
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| When you create a table, you can resize it by
specifying widths in the Table Properties box. Just select the table, right-click, and
choose Table Properties from the dialog box that appears. Enter a width and height in the
Minimum Size area and click OK. To resize a table more quickly, try this: 1. Hold the mouse pointer over a row or column border until the pointer turns into a two-sided arrow. 2. Click and drag until the table reaches the size you want. Tip-in-a-tip: If you click and drag but nothing happens, right-click and choose Table Properties. Deselect Specify Width and Specify Height. |
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| Time once again to applaud the right-mouse
button, a triumph in interface design. Here's how to quickly change your theme in
FrontPage Editor: 1. With your page open, right-click a blank area of the page. 2. Choose Theme from the pop-up menu that appears. 3. Select a new theme from the list and click OK. |
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| This week we salute the right-mouse button,
which can be an amazing help when building pages. In the next few days, we reveal some of
our favorite right-click tricks. Do you sometimes have trouble seeing all the icons in the Views bar (the pane running down the left-hand side of the window) in FrontPage Explorer? If so, right-click anywhere in the Views bar and choose Small Icons from the menu that appears. Ta-da! You can see all the icons now. |
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| Need to check your hyperlinks? One option is
to click the Preview tab in FrontPage Editor and click each link. An even better option is
to use the Verify Hyperlinks tool. From FrontPage Explorer, select Tools + Verify Hyperlinks. A list of your links and their condition appears in the Hyperlink Status view. (Remember: Connect to the Internet first if you have external links to other Web sites.) |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| A couple of tips ago, we explained how to
place an image on your Web page: In FrontPage Editor, select a blank area of your page;
click the Insert Image button from the Standard toolbar; navigate to the image file you
want to import; and click OK. Today, we explain one of the ways you can enhance this
image. Contrast highlights the difference between dark and light areas of your image. You can adjust the contrast of an image from within FrontPage: 1. Select the image. 2. Choose the More Contrast or Less Contrast button on the Image toolbar. 3. You can click the buttons multiple times to enhance the effect. Tip-in-a-tip: Select Ctrl + Z as many times as necessary to completely remove the effect. |
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| 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. |
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| One of the great things about tables is that
you can copy tables directly from another program. If you prefer to create tables in
Microsoft Word or Excel, for example, you can copy (press Ctrl + C) and paste (press Ctrl
+ V) a table or table cells into FrontPage. You should be able to retain most of the
formatting and color choices you made. |
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| 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. |
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| In the last few tips, we told you about the
right-click menus available in FrontPage. You can also save yourself time by
right-clicking certain FrontPage elements instead of rooting through menus to find a
command. Here's how to use the right-click menu to add a new page to your web in
Navigation view: 1. First open Navigation view (in FrontPage Explorer, select the Navigation icon in the Views bar). 2. Right-click anywhere in the Navigation pane and choose New Top Page. You can later associate the page by dragging it below or to the same level as other pages in the Navigation view (until you see a visible line connecting the pages). Doing so helps give your site structure and is necessary when creating a navigation bar on a page (choose Insert + Navigation Bar). |
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| Yesterday, we told 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. | ||
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| 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. |
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| 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.) The color you selected disappears from the image. |
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| It's back-to-basics week here at Dummies
Daily. 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. |
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| 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. |
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| When you need to cut text from one location
and paste it to another, you can highlight it and then select Ctrl + X (to cut) and Ctrl +
V (to paste). Or you can do this: 1. Highlight the text. 2. Click the highlighted text and drag it to its new location (the cursor turns to an insertion marker). 3. Move the insertion point where you want your text to appear and release the mouse. |
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| 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. |
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| A couple of tips ago, we mentioned that tables
are a great way to position text and images on a page. Here's how to insert text and
images in your table cells: * To insert text, simply click inside the cell and begin typing. To jump to the next cell, click Tab. * To insert an image: 1. Click inside the cell where you want the image to appear. 2. Click the Insert Image button (it has a picture of mountains and a sun on it) on the Standard toolbar. 3. In the Image dialog box that opens, browse to the image you want and select it. 4. Click OK. FrontPage inserts the image in the selected cell. |
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| 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. |
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| As you create pages, you may often jump between Normal and Preview mode. You can make the switch without picking up the mouse. To quickly preview your page, press Ctrl + Page Up. To jump back to editing mode, press Ctrl + Page Down. Press either combination more than once, and you toggle through the next mode, from Normal to HTML, for example. | ||
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| You use the Designer to create your own themes by modifying individual elements like graphics and fonts and then saving them. The installer for Theme Designer is located on your CD-ROM in the following folder:\SDK\Themes\Designer. Double-click Tdsetup.exe to install the program. | ||
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| Ah, so you like a freebie once in a while. Who
doesn't? We often get requests for information on free Web hosting. There are a few free
services around that support FrontPage, including the popular Tripod service at http://www.tripod.com Another is HomePage.com at http://www.homepage.com which offers an easy-to-remember name, in the form yoursite.homepage.com. Strangely, if someone has registered the name you want, you can bid on it. Internet auction fever continues . . . |
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