| ADDING A SEARCH COMPONENT TO YOUR SITE
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
LINE UP THAT STYLE
November 11th, 1999
A horizontal line isn't a horizontal line isn't a horizontal line. You
can almost be an interior decorator just with lines. Here's how:
1. Place the cursor where you want the line.
2. Choose Insert + Horizontal Line. (No surprises so far.)
3. In Insert Line dialog box, choose a width (in pixels or percent of
the window holding the line).
4. Click on the line and press Alt+Enter.
5. Choose a height in pixels.
6. Choose the alignment--justified, left, center, or right.
7. Choose a color.
8. Check the Solid Line (No Shading) box if you don't want the shaded
default.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
SCRIPTS SUPER AND SUB
November 10th, 1999
FrontPage has superscripts and subscripts. Not all browsers do. So if
you want to use these character styles, you can--but keep in mind that
they won't look the same to all viewers. To set superscript or
subscript:
1. Choose Format + Font.
2. In the Font dialog box, select the Special Styles tab.
3. From the Vertical Position drop-down list, choose Superscript or
Subscript.
4. Move the mouse cursor a bit to the right and choose an amount of
super-ing or sub-ing you want. A "1" level doesn't move the character
as much as a "2", and so on.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
CHANGING A LINE'S FORMAT
To quickly change the look of a horizontal line, right-click on it and select from the Properties dialog box. This also works with most elements on a FrontPage-generated web page, and many Windows documents of any kind.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
IMAGE-INE A LINE
November 15th, 1999
If variety in width, height, color, and shading aren't enough for the artist in you, try using an image as a break between text blocks, instead of a plain horizontal line.
1. Choose Insert + Select Image or Insert + Clipart, depending on where and how your image is stored.
2. Browse through your drives to find the image you want.
3. Right-click the image.
4. In the Image Properties dialog box, fine-tune its look.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
ONE STEP OVER THE SHADED LINE
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
PRINT IS POSSIBLE, PREPARE
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
A WATERMARK MAY NOT WASH WELL
November 29th, 1999
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
BRIGHTEN UP, CONTRAST DOWN
December 1st, 1999
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
LINES KNOW THEIR HISTORY AND PLACE
November 30th, 1999
When you insert a horizontal line, it is formatted the same way as the
last inserted horizontal line. The line will also follow the page
formatting and margins of its position. And a line inside a table cell
will follow the dictates of the cell's format. You don't have to stick
with any of those formats, naturally. You can change them all.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
TAKE OFF THAT MASK
December 2nd, 1999
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
WIDER ISN'T ALWAYS BETTER, NO MATTER WHAT TV SAYS
November 24th, 1999
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
WHAT'S THAT SAY? I CAN'T MAKE IT OUT
December 3rd, 1999
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
FALL UNDER THIS SPELL
Don't you dare publish a Web site without first checking spelling. Well, unless it's a Web site devoted to bad execution, sloppy publishing, and, you get the idea. To check spelling, click the Spell Check button on the toolbar. The FrontPage spelling feature works the same as other Microsoft Office spell checking, so you may be familiar with it.
FRONTPAGE LINKING
If you specify a background image in a page in FrontPage, and then save the file from FrontPage Editor to another web, the link to the background image will be translated into an absolute link (and probably broken in the process). The only way to maintain a
relative link is to either publish or import the file via FrontPage Explorer.
FRONTPAGE SCHEDULED INCLUDE FEATURE NOT AUTOMATIC
Microsoft acknowledges a bug in FrontPage 97 that essentially nullifies the program's scheduled include feature, which is supposed to automatically update the contents of Web pages at dates and times specified by the Webmaster. Well, the feature works, sort of--the only problem is that it isn't actually automatic. If you want your FrontPage web to actually display the new content with FrontPage's Scheduled Include Bot, you have to manually refresh the web.
YANK MY SQUARE
When working in the Microsoft Image Composer, one way to size or rotate one sprite at a time is to select it and pull on its bounding box. At the four corners and four sides of the box, small handles appear. Seven of these handles are indicated with + marks; you use these handles to size the sprite. The eighth handle, in the upper right corner, is indicated with a curved arrow. You use this handle to rotate the sprite. Just click the handle and drag the image right or left to rotate.
THE WISE WIZARD
We chatted before about the FrontPage Wizards--those handy Q & A templates that automatically design a Web page for you by incorporating the information you provide. As previously recommended, to build a web from the Wizard, choose File + New in FrontPage Editor. But the fun doesn't end there. After you completed the prompts, you can customize the page with your own graphics, change headings, and delete information. So creating a web with a Wizard isn't nearly as cookie cutter as you may think. Even if your purpose seems highly specialized, create your masterpiece from a Wizard may be easier than to start from scratch.
BREAK IT DOWN
FrontPage functions much the same as any word processor or text editor in that, to create a new paragraph, you need only to hit the Enter key and there you are. But sometimes you don't need a full carriage return at the end of a line, and that's where Line Breaks come in. A line break puts less space between lines than a paragraph break does. To create a line break (the HTML tag is BR), do the following: 1. Choose Insert + Break. 2. In the Break Properties dialog box, select Normal Break. 3. Click OK. You can also perform the same maneuver without all the fanfare (and hassle) of dialog boxes and menu commands. Just press Shift + Enter at the end of a line of text.
MAKE IT GO AWAY
So you've been at it for weeks, and you positively HATE the site you created on your Microsoft Personal Web Server with FrontPage. You want to scrap this site and start anew. You can make it all disappear in a couple keystrokes. In the Explorer: 1. Open your web. 2. Choose File + Delete FrontPage Web. 3. Confirm your decision. Poof--it's gone forever and ever.
YOU'RE FRAMED
Perhaps one of the most difficult tasks of HTML authoring is creating Frames (or Frame Sets, as they are more technically known). Don't get a headache over frames. Let the FrontPage Wizard frame you up: 1. Choose File + New. 2. In the New dialog box, choose Frames Wizard. 3. In the next dialog box, select Pick a Template. 4. For a simple Frame Set, choose the Simple Table of Contents Set, which is the most functional and widely used. 5. If you want, specify an alternative page with a URL (doing so specifies an alternative page in case those viewing your page cannot see frames--very old browsers don't have the capability to display
frames properly). Then click Next. FrontPage asks you to save it as one page (even though there are actually TWO pages in the work, hence the name "set"), with a title and a URL. To do so, follow these last steps: 6. In the Save dialog box's Title field, name the page.
7. In the URL field, give the page a location, such as toc.htm. 8. Click Finish. How easy was that?
HTML MANIPULATING
If you want to extend the capacity of the HTML you are creating in FrontPage to include new HTML Tags not included in FrontPage's lexicon (the world of HTML development moves fast), you can insert the tags manually. Follow these steps: 1. Place the cursor at the spot where you want to include the manual HTML code. 2. Choose Insert + HTML Markup. 3. Enter the code you want included in the Edit Field. 4. Click OK.
NO LOOK PAGES
To get a consistent look and feel on all your pages, use the page templates offered in the New Page dialog Box, which appears when you begin a new document in FrontPage. You can choose from a multitude of predesigned layouts, including a template for Table of Contents, Meeting Agendas, and Employee directories. When you first open these templates, it looks as though all the information has been filled in, but in fact the text that appears is just dummy (no relation) copy. Just overwrite the dummy copy with your personal information and you're good to go.
Tip: When you use the templates for a new page, be sure to read the comments for using it--and don't forget to delete any portions of the page you don't use.
OPEN SESAME
Thought you could only open regular HTML files in the FrontPage Editor? Think again. The Editor can open RTF (Rich Text Format), TXT, (plain text) Word, Excel, and WordPerfect documents. It also converts these documents to HTML for viewing in the Editor. Sometimes, opening other documents in the FrontPage Editor can be the easiest way to create Web pages from existing content.
BURIED TREASURE ON THE FRONTPAGE 98 CD-ROM
A CD-ROM program disc contains numerous nooks and copious crannies that programmers use to bury software treasure not installed during normal setup. So after you install FrontPage 98, don't be too quick to put away that program disc. (If you've already put it away, that's okay--just retrieve it and put it in the CD-ROM drive. If the Install screen automatically appears, click Exit.) One way to Browse the contents of the CD-ROM (and find the buried treasure) is to do the following: 1. Launch Windows Explorer. 2. Scroll the Folders (left) pane until you spot the "FrontPg" CD-ROM icon. 3. Click the plus sign to the left of the CD-ROM icon to reveal the disk's folders. 4. The first folder is the 60 Minute Intranet Kit. 5. Click once on that folder to reveal the readme.txt file in the Content (right) pane. 6. Double-click the readme.txt file to discover what the 60 Minute Intranet Kit is and how to use it.
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?
Artists rely on muses; Webmasters (that's you!) depend on FrontPage 98's site Wizards. When starting a new Web site (or adding to an existing one), you can choose from a One Page Web, Import an Existing Web, or a Wizard or Template. In FrontPage Explorer, do the following: 1. Choose File + New +FrontPage Web. 2. When the New FrontPage Web dialog box appears, choose your poison from the From Wizard or Template box. Select the Corporate Presence Wizard to set up pages for a mission statement, products or services (you specify how many), feedback forms, news, and so forth. Then, faster than you can say "Bippity-Boppity-Boo," FrontPage 98 creates the pages (ready for you to do your magic) with appropriate links, navigation bars, and suggested text. You'll find Wizards to be far more reliable than Euterpe or Terpsichore.
GAINING A NEW PERSPECTIVE--PART 1 OF 2
Sometimes looking at a situation with new eyes is helpful. The Navigation View in FrontPage Explorer gives you a fresh approach to your site. Select View + Navigation (or click the Navigation view icon in the Views bar on the left), and FrontPage creates an organizational-type chart based on your Web pages. The Home Page branches off to child pages and so on. If you really want to hammer home that view, print it and hang it up on your wall: 1. Choose File + Print Navigation View. 2. In the Print dialog box, click OK.
GAINING A NEW PERSPECTIVE--PART 2 OF 2
The Navigation View (View + Navigation from FrontPage Explorer) is more than a pretty organizational chart of your Web site. It's also a site management tool. In Navigation View, you can do the following: - Double-click on a page to open it for editing - Right-click on a page to add, delete, rename, and so forth - Spot orphans (pages not linked to anything) - And the coolest thing of all--just drag and drop pages to reorganize your site, with links updated automatically.
GETTING ALONG WITH YOUR NEIGHBORS
Worldwide peace would be a snap if everyone could share borders as easily as you can in FrontPage 98. Sharing borders means defining a set of margins (actually they're horizontal and vertical headers and footers) to be used on every page of the Web site. It's a great way to keep the design consistent from page to page. Check it out in the FrontPage Explorer under Tools + Shared Borders.
HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU, KID
Every now and then you need to leave the FrontPage Editor to see how your Web page looks and works in the real world--with a browser. FrontPage 98 offers three ways to do this, including one new one.
The traditional approaches are to use either the File + Preview in Browser command or click the Browser button in the Standard Toolbar while in the FrontPage Editor. Both launch a browser of choice and load the current Web page into it--a process that can take more than a few seconds, depending on your system. The new option allows you to click a Preview tab at the bottom of the FrontPage Editor to unveil an Internet Explorer view (if it's installed ... and it comes on the installation disk, by the way) without actually having to wait for Internet Explorer to load!
I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
Because large graphics really slow things down on the Net, you need to do anything possible to make your graphics smaller. One way is to take away their background color, or, in Webspeak, to make the image transparent. To accomplish this nifty trick, do the following: 1. In the Editor, select the image. 2. Click the Make Transparent Button on the format bar (it's a picture of a pencil pointed at a corner).
3. Click on the background color to remove it. 4. Choose File + Save, and in the Save dialog box, save the new image in the .GIF format.
NAME THAT THEME!
Themes, new in FrontPage 98, don't have anything to do with movie soundtracks or even what an author's underlying message might be. A FrontPage theme (more than 50 are available and you can make your own) is a collection of "design elements" such as background graphics, bullets, navigational bars, banners, horizontal lines, and so forth that complement each other. A Theme gives a Web page or site a uniform look or style. You can apply a theme at any time from the FrontPage Editor with Format + Theme. Or use a shortcut by right-clicking on a page and selecting Theme from the pop-up menu.
POST ITS, SHMOST ITS
Suppose you're designing a Web site for your company. Your boss has her own copy of Microsoft FrontPage and wants to review and critique the work you've done before the site gets posted. Did you know she can post her comments directly into each page of your web by using the Comment command? She can--and so can you. Just do the following: 1. Open a page in the Editor. 2. Choose Insert + Comment. 3. In the Comment dialog box, type the comment and click OK. The text appears in purple and isn't visible to browsers or in HTML code; it's like a magic Post-it note seen behind the scenes in the FrontPage Editor.
SPELLBOUND
It's difficult to make a good impression with a spelling-challenged Web site. Besides, who wants to receive gigabytes of e-mail pointing out that "i" goes before "e," and all that? Good news: FrontPage 98
now uses the Microsoft Office Dictionary and Thesaurus if you've got them installed. - To review a single page, fire up FrontPage's spelling checker in FrontPage Editor by choosing Tools + Spelling (or the Microsoft Word keyboard shortcut, F7). - To check all pages at once from the FrontPage Explorer, you use the same command (F7 or choose Tools + Spelling). A dialog box appears, asking whether you want to process all pages or just the ones you've selected (if any are highlighted). Choose All or Selected, click Start, and away you go! - To conjure up the thesaurus, highlight a word and then press Shift + F7 (or choose Tools + Thesaurus).
TABLE-MAKING BECOMES A DRAWN-OUT AFFAIR
Tables are invaluable for placing text and graphics on a Web page. Unfortunately, thinking about X rows by Y columns is too much like geometry and enough to frighten anyone away. FrontPage 98 says forget the math--just draw the table with your cursor using either of these approaches to get started: - In the FrontPage Editor, select Table + Draw Table. - In the FrontPage Editor, select View + Table Toolbar.
Now, click the Pencil (far left) in the Table Toolbar and draw a table. Start with the basic rectangle and then add vertical lines wherever you want. Make a boo-boo or want to merge some cells? Click the Eraser (next to the pencil) and clean up.
THE BIRDS AND THE BEES ... AND THE CURSOR
What do the birds and the bees have in common with your cursor? We're talking about "hovering," something birds and bees (and cursors) do quite well. Maybe you've noticed that in many Windows 95 programs when the cursor rests on (or hovers over) a button or an option, something happens;
maybe a tool tip appears, maybe the button changes color. It's a way of letting you know what's going on.
FrontPage 98 has a hover option that lets you add the same effect to your Web page buttons. Here's how it works: 1. Highlight a button in a Web page using FrontPage Editor. 2. Choose Insert + Active Elements + Hover Button. You have all sorts of effect choices--from Glow to Bevel In--as well as color and sound options. 3. Type your text in the Button Text box and click OK. Pretty soon the birds and the bees will want to be hovering over Web pages, too.
THE TABLE OF CONTENTS TRICK
If you have a very long page with many different topics, each with their own headings, you may want to consider building a hyperlinked table of contents at the top of the page. Here's how: 1. Right-click and drag the first topic heading to the top of the page. 2. Release the mouse button. 3. A menu appears.
4. Select Link Here. The Editor creates a new link to the place on the page where that heading was when you dragged it up. Follow these steps for all the other topics on the page. Using this method, you can very quickly create a table of contents.
WHEN TO UNDERLINE
When you're playing with fonts and the effects that can be attributed to them in the FrontPage Editor, give serious thought to the design process. While it might be a good idea in the real world to underline words for emphasis and titles of books and movies for clarity, you may want to consider using all caps, italics, or bold when creating Web pages. That's because on the Web, underlining almost always indicates a LINK (and they don't take American Express). No, just kidding. Really, they do.
WHO PUT THE 'UP' IN UPGRADE?
If you want to see your local computer guru fleeing from you in terror, simply utter the word "upgrade." Your guru has seen enough upgrades to know that some upgrades contain very little "up." Not so FrontPage 98, released in December 1997 (after being in beta since August). FrontPage's many new features include the following, and lots more: - Browser preview from within FrontPage 98 - Themes
- The ability to view and print a map of your site and automatically send form results to an e-mail address
- Table drawing tools - Channel Wizard - Cascading style sheets
And, though they say appearance isn't everything, FrontPage98's interface now looks and functions more like a Microsoft Office product--with which it is now integrated (supporting drag and drop,
Word97 keyboard shortcuts, and so on). Decide for yourself if an upgrade is in your future by checking out FrontPage's home page: http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/ Once there, you can link to Product Info for all the grisly details or (at the bottom of the home page) click Online Multimedia Demo of FrontPage 98 to see the new program in action.
ALL YOU, ALL THE TIME
First there was the Weather Channel, the Sports Channel, and the Shopping Channel. And now. . . (drum roll, please) the [Your Name] Channel! FrontPage 98's new Channel Definition Format Wizard turns
your Web site into a channel that others can subscribe to. A channel is a great way to notify subscribers that your pages have been updated.All you need to do is select Tools + Define Channel from FrontPage Explorer and follow the wizard's instructions.
BELLY UP TO THE NAVIGATION BAR
Navigation bars are (usually) graphic elements on Web pages that contain words like Home, Company Info, Products, Feedback, and stuff like that. The user chooses the options from the navigation bar to get around, or navigate, a Web site.
Making a navigation bar is (usually) a pain because each page requires a slightly different set of hyperlinks, and if you restructure the site, you need to update all the links. Blech.
FrontPage 98 does its best to create and automatically update the links in a navigation bar. You just have to ask: 1. In FrontPage Editor, go to the spot where you want to place the navigation bar. 2. Choose Insert + Navigation Bar. 3. In the Navigation Bar Properties dialog box, select the links you
want to include by clicking on the various options. 4. Click OK and--presto!--the appropriate "bar" appears.
HARD CORE HTML EDITING COMES OUT OF THE BOX
The whole point of using FrontPage 98 is to produce a really cool Web site without having to know any programming. Still, there are some people who insist on doing things the hard way.
These hands-on types will be glad to know that they are no longer stuck in a dialog box whenever they want to tweak the underlying HTML code. Now, when you're in FrontPage Editor, you can click the HTML tab at the bottom of the screen. Doing so puts you and your precious code into an editable HTML view. Knock yourself out!
IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?
It's an age-old question: "If a bear claps in the woods, does a log fall on him?" Well, it goes something like that, but the point we're trying to make is this: Is anybody actually visiting your Web site?
How can you tell?
One way to tell whether people have stopped by your site is to put a hit counter on your home page. A hit counter displays a number reflecting each time that someone arrives at your site. This counter
doesn't tell you how long your visitor stayed or what they did, but it does tell you that someone did enter the URL for the bear in the woods. To add a counter in FrontPage 98, select a nice empty spot on your
page and do the following: 1. Choose Insert + Active Elements + Hit Counter. 2. Choose from the five counter style choices FrontPage offers by clicking its radio button. (If you prefer, you can create a custom
counter, but that goes beyond the design scope of this tip.) 3. Click OK.
When you choose a counter, be sure to preview it in an actual browser; that way, you can know exactly what you're getting.
IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE...
No, not even Superman would know how to get words and letters to flutter about on a Web page. Fortunately, FrontPage 98 makes it possible with a little Animation: 1. Type a word or words to animate (in FrontPage Editor, of course). 2. Highlight the words you just typed. 3. Choose Format + Animation to reveal a pop-up menu with different types of effects--Drop in, Spiral, and a dozen more. 4. Select your preferred effect from the pop-up menu. When you preview the page in your browser, the words fly as ordered. Just be careful none of them hit that guy in a cape.
HOW THE @#**!! IS ANYONE SUPPOSED TO READ THIS?
Okay, so you've spent hours typing what just might be the most significant document of the century. Now all you have to do is send it around the office for others to read (and, no doubt, become richer for the experience). But wait a minute: Suddenly you remember that not everyone in your office uses Word 97. In fact, hardly ANYONE uses it. The truth is, owing to your coworkers' personal preferences--or
your technical staff's outright sluggishness--your coworkers could be using anything from previous versions of Word to outdated Windows word processors that haven't been seen or heard of in nearly a
decade.
How can you transform your masterpiece into something all of your coworkers can read--without reducing it to an unformatted text file? Well, most earlier versions of Windows word processors can read Rich Text files--files that incorporate most, if not all, of the formatting in your original Word 97 document. To save a Word 97 document in Rich Text Format: 1. With the document in question (your masterpiece) open, choose File + Save As. 2. In the Save as Type drop-down box, select Rich Text Format. 3. Click OK. All that's left is to tell the people who are receiving the file that it's in Rich Text Format, so they'll know how to open it.
AS GRAPHIC AS YOU WANT TO BE
Ever try one of those art-school qualifying tests on a matchbook cover or in a magazine? Draw this chipmunk in two easy steps? You know. Step one: Draw a circle. Step two: Draw the rest of the chipmunk. You don't have to go to art school to stick graphics into your Web page. FrontPage 98 ships with lots of cool clip art. The news is that FrontPage 98's Clip Gallery works exactly like the Clip Gallery in Microsoft Office and Microsoft Publisher: 1. Choose Insert + Clipart. 2. In the Clip Callery dialog box, choose the category you want to browse. 3. Choose the clip art you want to use. 4. Click Insert.
FINE PRINT'S NOT SO FINE
After arriving home with a new toy or product, don't you hate that dream-shattering moment when you face its glitch, hitch, or gotcha--"your results may vary," "past performance no guarantee of future earnings," "12 kits needed to assemble scene pictured on box."
FrontPage 98's fine print--some might say invisible ink--is that not every Web presence provider supports FrontPage Server Extensions. Without the server extensions, a number of FrontPage elements won't work. No server extensions means no components, active elements, or interactive forms. If you want to see what's affected, pull down the Insert menu. All of the items on the submenus beginning with Active
Elements are affected.
Microsoft offers a list of hundreds of FrontPage-ready providers eager to host your site (for a fee, of course). Access the complete, and growing, list (and more about FrontPage Server Extensions) from the FrontPage 98 Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/
FOLLOW THE HYPERLINK ROAD
Moving from one page in a FrontPage Web site to another is simple when you use the FrontPage Explorer's Navigation View (just double-click the page you want to visit).
However, if you're in the Editor and already working on a page, you can bypass the Navigation View and follow the hyperlink road to another page simply by pressing Ctrl and clicking the page's hyperlink. (Double-clicking a hyperlink while in the Editor puts you in a mode to edit the hyperlink text.)
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Do you have a spot on your Web page that isn't quite right and that you've decided to edit in HTML? We know that switching to the HTML view is as simple as clicking the HTML tab at the bottom of the page. However, if you want to edit a specific item, highlight (or select) that item before you click the HTML tab. The reason? Whatever's highlighted in the Editor is also highlighted in HTML, letting you
easily spot the area you want to edit.
LAZY PERSON'S HYPERLINKING
Okay, maybe lazy isn't a morally inspiring term. So how about calling this tip the efficient way to create a hyperlink? Nothing wrong with efficiency, right? To quickly--and efficiently--insert a hyperlink to another site on the Web, follow these steps: 1. Position the insertion point where the link is to appear. 2. Choose Insert + Hyperlink (or use the shortcut Ctrl + K). 3. When the Create Hyperlink dialog box appears, click the World Wide Web icon, which launches your browser. 4. Navigate your way to the site that you want to be linked to. 5. Come back to the Create Hyperlink box and click OK. You may want to get offline if you're finished; otherwise, just go back to FrontPage, using the Windows taskbar.
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM, PART I
Nobody is insinuating that your life is dull and routine, but the reality is that today you'll be working on the same Web site or pages you were working on yesterday. And you'll be back at them again
tomorrow and the day after. After all, who's ever heard of a "finished Web site"? Isn't that an oxymoron?
When you launch FrontPage 98, the program offers a list of existing Web sites. To play yesterday's site again, you can double-click on one of the Web sites listed under Open an Existing FrontPage Web, or you can just admit to yourself a particular site is your life's work and check the box Always open last Web. Of course you can also opt to start a new site, but who'd want to break with tradition?
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM, PART II
The topic: Getting back to a Web page or site you were working on before being rudely interrupted by the end of the workday (or falling asleep at your desk again). FrontPage 98 has added a traditional Most Recently Used list to the File menu in both FrontPage Explorer and FrontPage Editor. The list shows the most recently used Web sites (in Explorer) or Web pages (in Editor). Just click File and then choose from the numbered list at the bottom of the File menu.
THE TEAM THEME
Who wouldn't want more FrontPage 98 Themes and Web Templates from the fun-loving gang at Microsoft--especially for free? If you're creating an intranet site, you'll be particularly interested in the Group Web and Team Web templates. Point your URL to http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/resources/ttpack.htm The estimated download time for the package is less than four minutes, using a 28.8-kbps modem. After the package is installed, choose View + Themes to review your new professionally designed pages (my favorite is "Canvas").
WASHING OUT THE GRAPHICS
Sometimes graphic images are, well, too graphic. The image may be perfect, but the effect is no good if its colors dominate a page or it obscures overlying text. The solution? Use the Washout command,
which lightens up the image. Follow these steps: 1. Select the image in the FrontPage Editor. 2. Click the Washout button on the Image toolbar. (It's the mountain that looks, you guessed it, washed out.)
WHAT'S NEW?
You're curious. Who wouldn't be? The first question anyone has after acquiring an upgrade is, "What the heck did I just pay for?" And, naturally, the manual doesn't offer a succinct list of the new features. So now what? Become Columbus and start exploring the New World? No. Just go into FrontPage and do the following: 1. Press the F1 key (or select Help + Microsoft FrontPage Help). The FrontPage Help screen appears. 2. Double-click What's New (the first thing listed under the Contents tab). 3. Double-click What's New in this Release, which appears under the "What's New" icon. Bingo! You've got the whole list.
ENOUGH SHARING ALREADY
Too much of anything is, well, too much. One wonderful FrontPage 98 feature is "shared borders," which give each page in your Web site a similar and familiar layout. However, occasionally, you may have one page that needs to march to the beat of a different drummer. So how do you turn off the borders for one page? By doing the following: 1. Right-click anyplace on the page that needs to stop sharing. 2. Select Shared Borders from the pop-up menu. 3. In the resulting Page Borders dialog box, you can specify whether to remove, for this page, the top, bottom, left or right borders. Click any of these options to remove its check mark, indicating that the border is off. 4. Click OK to finish.
If you don't like the changes, you can always go back and amend your selections by following these steps again.
GETTING TEXTY WITH YOUR IMAGES
A picture of a breathtaking sunset may be worth a thousand words. But by adding just a brief description (like, "view from my vacation villa") on top of an image can make it worth, well, a thousand and five words. Adding text atop a graphic on FrontPage 98 is easy. 1. In FrontPage Editor, click once on a graphic image. (The graphic tools appear at the bottom of the window.) 2. Click the "A" (text) button; a box with a blinking cursor appears in the image. 3. Type your message. 4. When you're finished, click outside the text box.
THE CASE OF THE MISSING TABS
It's a case mysterious enough for Sherlock Holmes. At the bottom of the FrontPage Editor, you should see a set of three tabs: Normal, HTML, and Preview. Sometimes, however, you may find that only the Normal tab is visible. The horizontal scrollbar blocks the others. Should you assume that arch-nemesis Moriarity is in town? Not really. You needn't summon The Yard to restore the missing tabs; just do the
following: 1. Put your mouse cursor at the left edge of the horizontal scrollbar. The mouse arrow changes to a double-headed arrow (meaning that the scrollbar can be sized like a column.) 2. Drag the scrollbar to the right, restoring the tabs to their previous glory.
THE COMPOSER MAKES A COMMAND PERFORMANCE
FrontPage 98 comes with Microsoft's Image Composer, which lets you do some heavy-duty editing and adjusting of your images. (The Graphics Bar is small and simple, but the Image Composer is large and powerful.) Here are a couple of ways you can command the Image Composer to appear: - Choose Tools + Show Image Editor. - Double-click an image. Image Composer appears with the image you clicked, loaded and ready to play.
THE MISSING LINK!
Testing every single link on your Web site is the very definition of grunge work. FrontPage98 helps maintain your connections two ways. First, FrontPage automatically connects all site pages on its own, no matter how many times you shuffle the deck.
Second, in the FrontPage Explorer, you can use Tools + Verify Hyperlinks to check out all your links (especially those to other LANs or the Internet). The Verify Hyperlinks command gives you the
option of trying all links or just the ones you have selected. (Remember, Ctrl + Click lets you select noncontiguous items.)
Before verifying hyperlinks, save and close all your Web pages. Depending on your setup, you may also have to first rouse your Internet connection. Once the verification process starts, you flip into the Hyperlink Status view, and the status indicator for each link goes from yellow (unknown) to green (OK) or red (missing link!).
HEY! WHO'S SERVING WHOM?
Yesterday we discussed having the Personal Web Server software up and running before starting FrontPage 98 so that you don't end up with a nasty message when you try to connect to a Web site. If you're frequently trotting to the Control Panel to turn on the Web server, save yourself some clicks by creating a conveniently located Web server shortcut. To make the shortcut: 1. Choose Start + Settings + Control Panel. 2. Find the Personal Web Server icon. 3. Click and drag the icon to your desktop. 4. Windows cluck-clucks about not being able to copy or move this item and asks if you want a shortcut instead. Because you do want a shortcut, click Yes.
Your shortcut puts the server at your beck and call. Double-click it anytime you need to fiddle with the Web server settings.
LOOK BUT DON'T TOUCH
You've probably seen the workshop sign gag--you know, the one with the list of prices: "Repairs, $10 an hour. $15 if you watch. $20 if you help."
To eliminate gratuitous Web page, uh, improvements, from your colleagues, you may want to use Permissions to specify who has what kind of rights to your Web site. FrontPage allows you to determine who can create and edit pages on your Web site, as well as also who can determine who can create and edit pages. To look at FrontPage98 Permissions: 1. Go to the FrontPage Explorer. 2. Choose Tools + Permissions. The Permissions dialog box lets you set User and Group permissions.
MULTIPLE FILES, MULTIPLE TIPS
Okay, you've got several pages open in FrontPage Editor. Two pages, three, more. You're an animal, and there's no holding you back! Here are two tips to aid working with multiple files. - Moving from open file to open file is simple with the Go To the Next Window keyboard command (Ctrl + F6). Or you may prefer Alt + W, which opens the Window menu so you can see and designate a destination window, usually by typing a 1, 2, 3, and so on--depending on how many files are loaded. So to speak. - The second multiple files tip is to use the File + Save All command to save all your open FrontPage files, no matter which one is on top.
NO SERVER AT THE INN
Have you ever started FrontPage98, selected a Web site to open, and then were told, "There is no server on port 80 . . ."? Server? Port 80?! Ugh!
Here's what you need to know. Before getting into FrontPage, the Personal Web Server software must be running. Because you elected (even if you don't remember making this choice, you did) not to start
the server every time you launch Windows, you have to manually crank up the ol' Web server yourself. To do so, follow these steps: 1. Go to Start + Settings + Control Panel. 2. Find the icon for Personal Web Server and double-click it. 3. Click the Startup tab. 4. In the Web Server State section, you're told that the Web server is currently stopped. To make it go, click Start. 5. Under Options are check boxes that let you run the Web server automatically at startup and show (or not) the Web server icon on the taskbar. If you have an opinion about these things, now's the time to mark your ballot. 6. Click OK to commit to your choices.
WELL-MANICURED PICTURES
Want to put a thumbnail on a Web page? (A thumbnail is like one of those wallet-size photos you send to the relatives after you've ordered the 24 x 36 family portrait.)
Because a huge portrait, or graphic, takes time to download, many people put a thumbnail (wallet-size version) on their Web page instead. Then, if someone really wants to see the big version, they can request it by clicking the thumbnail image.
After you insert the big graphic onto a Web page, you can tell FrontPage98 to automatically make a thumbnail for you and create a link to the larger-size graphic. 1. Click once on the large graphic to select it. 2. Select Tools + AutoThumbnail.
A TISKET A TASKET, IT'S TIME TO ADD A TASK LIST . .
Whether you use it to replace that string around your finger or improve Web team communications, the Add a Task feature is one of FrontPage98's how-did-we-ever-live-without-it features.
You, or anyone working on the page, can add, assign, and track tasks. - To see the list of Tasks in FrontPage Explorer, select View + Tasks. - Right-click a task item for a pop-up menu that lets you Edit, Do, Mark Complete, or Delete a task. - The quickest way to make a linked Task is to right-click the name
of the item (from a FrontPage Explorer view) and select Add Task from the context menu. Or from FrontPage Editor, start by selecting Choose Edit + Add Task. The New Task dialog box appears, allowing you to describe and assign the task. - By creating a Task from a specific object, FrontPage98 creates a
link inside the task that sends the assignee to the correct page when he or she opts to Do the Task.
CROP CIRCLES AND CROP IMAGES
If making crop circles is E.T.'s idea of a good time, outer space must be profoundly dull. It's hard to imagine advanced extraterrestrials building a spaceship, bending space and time, and flying innumerable light years all for the chance to do an intergalactic yard-job in some farmer's wheat field.
More fun is cropping a graphic image--where you get rid of everything in the image except the part you want. 1. In FrontPage Editor, click a graphic. The Image toolbar appears. 2. Click the Crop button, which looks like a bunch of diagonal Xs. 3. Move the rectangle until it surrounds only the part of the picture you want. 4. Press Enter.
HONEY, I SHRUNK THE VIEWS ICONS
The FrontPage Explorer navigation bar (the vertical column on the left with all the icons in it) is a convenient way to flip through the many Views in FrontPage98.
Unfortunately, sometimes you must scroll up or down to access the various view icons. Fortunately, you don't have to put up with that nonsense. 1. Right-click any place on the navigation bar.
2. From the context menu, select Small Icons.
The icons shrink and fit on one screen. If you want to go back to the large icons, repeat the process, except choose Large Icons in Step 2.
UH, WHERE WAS I? PART 1 OF 2
The topic is Bookmarks. If you use Netscape, you're thinking about a saved collection of Internet destinations--what Internet Explorer types call Favorites.
In FrontPage98, however, Bookmarks is a place within a Web page that can be used as a link destination. Once you create an invisible-to-the-naked-eye bookmark on a Web page, you can link to that bookmark from the same or another page. To make a Bookmark: 1. Go to where you want to place the bookmark. 2. Choose Edit + Bookmark. 3. In the Bookmark dialog box, type a name for your bookmark. 4. Click OK.
UH, WHERE WAS I? PART 2 OF 2
Bookmarks. It seems like only yesterday that we were creating one in the middle of a Web page so we could link to it. Now, the other half of the equation. To create a hyperlink to a bookmark on the same page, do the following: 1. Highlight text or graphics or something your visitors can click on. 2. Choose Insert + Hyperlink. 3. In the Optional area, click the Bookmarks drop-down list and select the name of the Bookmark you want to link to. 4. Click OK.
IS YOUR HOME MT. EVEREST?
Sticking with standard navigational vocabulary like "Home," "Forward," and "Back," makes it easier for visitors to find their way through your Web site. But if you're anti-tradition and want to name your home page "MT. EVEREST" and use "Uphill" and "Downhill" for "Forward" and "Back," respectively, that's your right.
Following is a quick way to change the text on generic navigation bar buttons throughout your site: 1. In FrontPage Explorer, click the Navigation View icon. 2. Select Tools + Web Settings. (Or right-click the blue line connecting the page in the Navigation view and choose Web Settings from the pop-up menu.) 3. In the resulting FrontPage Web Settings dialog box, click the Navigation tab. 4. Replace the current text (that is, Home) with your own (for example, Mt. Everest) and click OK.
If you want, you can undo your creativity and restore the original navigation text by following the same procedure and clicking the Default button in Step 4.
SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND AND REPLACE
What a nightmare! Your company name has changed! Does that mean you have to go to every single page, search for the company name, change the company name, and so on? No, no, no. 1. From FrontPage Explorer--any view is fine--choose Tools + Replace. 2. In the resulting Replace in FrontPage Web dialog box, you see typical Find What and Replace With text boxes. Set your specs and click OK. 3. Another dialog box shows up listing the occurrences of the word you're looking for. At this juncture, you can Add Task to turn the list into a task to be completed later, or you can go ahead and select Edit Page to begin the march through your Web site.
PEEK-A-BOO, I CAN SEE THROUGH YOU!
A transparent graphical image is like Casper the Friendly Ghost--you can see through it (or him) but he's definitely still there. To make a graphic image transparent: 1. From FrontPage Editor, click on the soon-to-be-transformed graphic. The Image toolbar pops up immediately. 2. Click the Make Transparent button (it looks like a pencil). 3. Click your pencil-shaped cursor where you want the transparency to take effect and--boo!--it's done. By the way, you can Edit + Undo if you don't like the effect.
THE SHIFTY-EYED ENTER
Did you know that a new line and a new paragraph are not the same? Pressing Enter starts a new line and a new paragraph (or style). Holding down Shift while pressing Enter starts a new line, but not a
new paragraph (or style).
It's a weird concept, and the idea is best illustrated when creating a bulleted list. To see what we mean, try the following exercise: 1. Go into a FrontPage Editor page, type Dogs and press Enter. 2. Underneath Dogs, type Cats and press Enter. 3. Highlight Dogs and Cats and select Format + Bullets and Numbering. 4. Click OK to dismiss the box, and you see bullets appear to the left of Dogs and Cats. You've got a bulleted list. 5. Place your cursor to the right of the word "Dogs" and press Enter. A new paragraph! A new bullet! You're ready to type another bulleted item, say, "Rabbits." 6. After typing Rabbits hold down Shift and press Enter. Now you get something different: a new line, indented under the bullet!
TWINKLE, TWINKLE, LITTLE ICON
The Personal Web Server, as we've mentioned before, must be running before FrontPage 98 will agree to open your Web site (you can find the Personal Web Server in the Control Panel, in case you forgot). Once the server is running, you see its icon in the taskbar next to the time. When you're ready to turn off the server, you can double-click the icon, choose the Startup tab, and click the Stop button. By the way, the icon doesn't really twinkle.
DANGER, WILL ROBINSON ... ALL SYSTEMS GONE!
Has this scenario ever happened to you? You want to edit a Web page when FrontPage 98 suddenly seems dead--the toolbars and menus are almost all grayed out. What's going on! Call 911! Call tech support! Oops. You forgot you're in Preview mode. Click the Normal tab to continue editing, arranging, and figuring out how to get back to Earth.
GETTING HORIZONTAL
Can't draw a straight line? Then how about inserting one instead? 1. In the FrontPage Editor, position your cursor where you want a horizontal line to appear. 2. Choose Insert + Horizontal Line, and you get what you wished for: a plain, but very straight, horizontal line.
You can double-click on the line itself and have a field day with the resulting Line Properties dialog box, where you can make the line wider, taller, and a different color, among other things.
If you double-click on the horizontal line and find you can't change anything, that's because you've applied a theme (one of FrontPage's many design templates) to the page, and you can't override it.
JUST TRYING TO BLEND IN
Slide shows, old-time serial movies, and the Indiana Jones films use blends, fades, and wipes to segue from one scene to the next. FrontPage98 lets you use some of these fun techniques to go from one Web page to another.
Try a transition special effect, if for no other reason than to amuse yourself: 1. Go to a Web page that will receive the special treatment. 2. Choose Format + Page Transition. In the resulting dialog box, you've have more than two dozen special effects to choose from for four different events. For example, you can choose a wipe left effect for the visitor entering the page (assuming they have the right browser, of course). 3. Click OK.
To test your effect, save your pages and click the Preview tab or launch your browser. You won't win a golden statue for special effects, but it's fun.
MOBILE HOTSPOTS
Doubtless Alabama has many fine restaurants and nightclubs to sample, but we're talking about Web hotspots, not southern nightlife. A hotspot is a portion of an image that is a live Web link. Once you've created a hotspot on a graphic, you can move and resize it just like any other graphic image: 1. Click the graphic image, and the hotspots reveal themselves. 2. Resize and or drag the hotspot to taste. 3. Click outside the image.
WHERE'S WALDO'S COPYRIGHT SYMBOL?
You'll find Waldo in a picture much faster than you'll find a trademark or copyright symbol key on your keyboard. As you might have noticed, no keyboard has either.
But you can still include a copyright symbol (as well as a whole bunch of others) on your Web pages. Here's how: 1. In the FrontPage Editor, position your cursor on the page where you want the symbol to appear. 2. Select Insert + Symbol, and you're offered a box full of symbols. 3. Click once on the desired symbol or character to get a better look at it. Double-click to insert it into your Web page. 4. Click Close when you're finished.
BEAM ME DOWN SCOTTY--BEFORE I FALL ASLEEP
Even if Star Trek's transporter took ten minutes to beam Kirk or Picard to a planet, you'd probably be willing to wait for them to finish downloading. On the Net, however, it's best not to torture people with a long delay when the pot at the end of the download is the meow of Mittens the cat. Wise (and courteous) site planning
includes minimizing your audience's wait time.
When you Insert a graphic, take a look at the number in the bottom-right corner. It's a close approximation of the time the graphic will take to download at 28.8 kbps.
BEWITCHED, BOTHERED, AND BEVELED
The dictionary says a bevel is a slope, an incline. For our purposes, it's a shadow--a way of adding the illusion of depth to a graphic object. You might add a bevel to clickable buttons, for example. Or you could use a bevel to draw attention to something very important. Check it out: 1. Click the graphic to be beveled (from FrontPage Editor), and the Image toolbar pops up. 2. Click the Bevel button (in the lower-right area). How easy was that?
FRESH EXTENSIONS ARE SERVED
An optimist says that every piece of software is a work in progress. A pessimist says that every piece of software is buggy. And they're both right. FrontPage98 has had its share of problems with Discussion Webs, security, and so forth, and Microsoft's Update for Windows-based Web Servers addresses these issues. You can find
updated server extensions at http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/wpp/
Note that updating your computer doesn't affect your host computer (the server your provider uses). Check to see that your Web presence provider is using the most up-to-date server extensions with these steps: 1. Go online and open your FrontPage Web site. 2. While in FrontPage Explorer, go to Tools + Web Settings. 3. In the Web Settings dialog box, click the Configuration tab. 4. Take a look at the FrontPage Server Extensions Version. The current version is 3.0.2.1330.
If you're using an older version, you can snag the latest version at the site mentioned above.
INVESTIGATING YOUR BACKGROUND
The underlying Web page color is called the background color. You can make your pages, links, used links, and so on almost any color you want--assuming you haven't applied a theme, in which case your background choice has been made for you. Here's how to color your world: 1. Right-click the Web page (assuming you're in FrontPage Editor looking at an open Web page). The Page Properties dialog box appears. 2. Select Page Properties. 3. Click the Background tab. 4. Using the drop-down lists, modify the background color, the text color, and the hyperlink colors that indicate which links have been visited already and which ones have not. Click OK to lock in your
selections and return to the FrontPage Editor.
After you choreograph the most delicate, imaginative color scheme ever dreamed, be aware that no one may ever see it. Browsers can be set to ignore your color scheme. What's worse, computers, platforms, browsers, and video cards all interpret your color commands differently. Do some serious previewing before unleashing your
"Shades of Snow" Web site onto the world.
LIST MAKER'S REGRET
Do you frequently wish you'd ordered what the guy at the other table is having? Do you go back and forth between decisions? FrontPage 98 can't make you more decisive, but it does let you more easily waver through all the options without wasting a lot of time.
For example, you can change a bulleted list--a Web-page classic--in a few simple steps: 1. Highlight the list (or a portion of the list you want to change). 2. Right-click the highlight. 3. Select List Properties. 4. You're now in option paradise. The Numbers tab lets you select from among different number styles. The Image tab presents you with bullet images matching the current theme or lets you make up your own bullets. Just select the option you want and click OK. Now the other guy will want what you've got.
36 MINUTES, 34 SLIDES
What lasts 36 minutes and contains 34 slides? An old history film strip? Well, maybe. But we're talking about a technical seminar for Web presence providers and anyone else who wants to learn about administrating a Web site with FrontPage98. You can access the talk, given by Jonathan Katzman, lead program manager for FrontPage98, at http://www.microsoft.com/seminar/98/Fp98Author/portal.htm Note: You need Microsoft's Internet Explorer 3.02 or 4.0 and the Netshow 2.0 player (which you can also download from the Seminar page).
CONTROL SPACE AND SAVE TIME
Did you format some text with a weird font, a bizarre color--or did you just plain make a boo-boo and it's too late for a simple Edit + Undo?
You can put your text back to the default format by highlighting the text to be fixed, then holding down the Ctrl key while you press once on the spacebar. Voila! The text is as it should be--no tedious
manual formatting required. Note: If you don't hold down the Ctrl key when pressing the spacebar, you will delete the highlighted text. Yikes! Calmly proceed to Edit + Undo, and the text will be restored.
HYPERLINKS MAP, STAGE RIGHT
FrontPage Explorer proudly displays a graphic map of your Web site's links if you invoke the View + Hyperlinks command. Sometimes, however, the map is bigger than the screen, or FrontPage Explorer just plain misses by putting the center of the map someplace to the right of your monitor's edge--leaving most of your map in the wings. Adding to this is the fact that a horizontal scrollbar doesn't always appear as needed. Isn't that special?
If this happens to you, don't bring the house down. Just click anddrag the map to center stage. Another way to re-center the map is via F5, or View + Refresh.
NETSCAPE COMMUNICATOR 4.x NOW YANKS FRONTPAGE 98'S CHAIN
FrontPage 98 fans who also use Internet Explorer 4.0 have the ability to use the Edit + Page command from within Internet Explorer to activate FrontPage 98. Now the Netscape Communicator congregation can have the same convenience. Check out the FrontPage 98 Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/ and click "Download the Free FrontPage Integration Tool for Netscape Communicator 4.0."
PICTURE THIS--NOT!
Do you see a "broken link" icon instead of the photo you linked to? This means the graphic isn't where it's supposed to be. Try these steps to bridge the gap: 1. Jump into FrontPage Editor, right-click on the place where the graphic should be, and select Image Properties. 2. In the Image Properties dialog box, click Browse. 3. In the Edit Hyperlink dialog box, click the graphic file and click OK to re-sync the link.
If that doesn't fix the problem, you'll have to do some legwork to determine if the file was deleted, renamed, or corrupted.
ANY WEB OF YOURS IS A WEB OF MINE
Just because you created a Web site or home page using the other guy's software, that doesn't mean you can't use FrontPage 98 to edit and publish your site. You can easily import an existing Web site, as
follows: 1. Start from FrontPage 98's Explorer and select File + Import (or File + New + FrontPage Web).
2. In the resulting dialog box, click the Import an Existing Web option and type a name for your site in the text field (replacing the phrase "My New Web"). 3. Underneath the box in which you typed your new Web site's name, you can see where FrontPage 98 plans to store it. If you don't like this destination, click the Change button to bring up the Change Location dialog box. Specify where your Web site should live and
click OK. 4. Click OK. 5. The Import Web Wizard comes to life to walk you through the next steps of locating and then automatically importing the files you select.
DOTS MY BOOKMARK!
In the past, we've talked about editing a Web page so that a hyperlink delivers you to not only a page but also a specific spot (where a Bookmark is) on a page.
Did you know that as you work in FrontPage 98 Editor all the Bookmarked text on your pages are underlined with dots? Yup, that's what that means. However, if you Bookmarked space instead of text, you'll see a flag icon to indicate the presence of a Bookmark. (When you go into Preview mode, these indicators disappear.)
So why is this a good thing? Because a visual reminder that "Here there be Bookmarks" may keep you from accidentally moving or deleting a Bookmark when you move or delete text that is Bookmarked.
MALIGNED IMAGES
Placing a graphic or photo or whatever artwork you're using into a Web page is as simple as Insert + Image or Insert + ClipArt (for starters).
However, getting the image in the right place in relationship to text is sometimes a fight. It's good to know that in your corner are more than the traditional toolbar options of aligning a graphic left, center, or right. 1. Right-click your graphic and select Image Properties. 2. Click the Appearance tab. 3. Click the down arrow on the Layout Alignment selection to reveal ten options (varying from Texttop to Absmiddle) plus default.
These Alignment options describe your graphic's relationship with the line of text that it's closest to. Texttop lines up the top of your graphic with the top of the nearby line of text. If it's not obvious from the name what an alignm
YOU ARE THERE NOW
It's like knowing you're staring right at a thing, but you just don't see it. This can be the case when you're looking at a file name in the Navigation View list of FrontPage Explorer, but can't figure out where that page is in your Web site. After all, the file name isn't necessarily the page name and, if you've got tens or hundreds of pages, it's easy to get lost.
To find a file's place on the Navigation Map, use this cute trick: 1. Right-click the file name. 2. Select Find in Navigation. And, ta-da! The page is highlighted on the map!
YOU'VE BEEN FRAMED!
You've seen frames on the Internet, even if you didn't know that's what they're called. Basically, you're looking at frames when one Web page has two (or more) windows working.
Half of the screen, for example, contains a hyperlinked Table of Contents to the site. When you click an entry, the Table of Contents half of the screen doesn't disappear--it's the other half of the screen that jumps to the new location.
The FrontPage98 Editor makes creating frames easy: 1. In the Editor go to File + New. (You can't use FrontPage Explorer's File + New command for this.) 2. Click the Frames tab. 3. Select the type of frame you want (you'll see a preview on the right). For example, selecting the Contents template will create a Table of Contents Frame page as described above. 4. Click OK.
SCAN BY YOUR MAN
FrontPage 98 can acquire an image from a digital camera, scanner, or any other TWAIN-compatible gadget you have plugged into your computer. (By the way, TWAIN is an interface standard for scanners and digital cameras.) Here's what you do: 1. Choose Insert + Image in the FrontPage Editor. 2. In the Image dialog box, click the Scan button. 3. In the Camera/Scanner dialog box, click Source to select the device
you want to use, OR click Acquire to select the image you want to use. Either way, in the resulting dialog box, make your selection and click OK.
TIP: PROTECTION AGAINST UNREASONABLE SEARCH
November 5th, 1999
The default FrontPage search shows a list of all pages on your site
that contain the searched-for word. You may not want this. You may
have some pages you want kept away from search. One
way to limit a search is to use the Search Results properties dialog
box to specify which folders to search. That sets inclusion
boundaries. The other way to limit is to depend on FrontPage's
natural exclusion: it doesn't search inside any folder with a name
that starts with an underscore, _. Create one or more folders with
underscore names and put your private pages inside them.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
CTRL THAT URGE TO TEST LINKS
November 17th, 1999
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
DROP THAT OFFICE FILE
November 19th, 1999
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
TEAMWORK WARNING
November 18th, 1999
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.
--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
BACKGROUND CHECK
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.
JPEG RULES
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.
PHOTOSHOP IN A GIFFY
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.
A WORLD WITH NO BORDERS, OR AT LEAST NOT THIS ONE
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.
EVERY COMPONENT CAN BE REHABILITATED
Don't give up on a component that doesn't work or act right. Just right-click the component and then choose Properties. In the Properties dialog box, you can find most of the details of the component's appearance and behavior. Did we say "find"? Nay, you can change, dictate, and otherwise boss the component around. You can re-engineer the component in the Properties dialog box and then re-birth a newer, better component with an OK click.
DON'T NEED THAT BOOKMARK ANYMORE
To remove a bookmark:
- Choose Edit + Bookmark.
- In the Edit Bookmark dialog box, click on the bookmark you want gone.
- Click the Clear button.
- Click OK.
Or you can just right-click the bookmark and choose Bookmark Properties and then select Clear.
HIDDEN HTML NOTES
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:
Place your cursor on the position on the page where you want the Comment.
Choose Insert + FrontPage Component.
In the Insert FrontPage Component dialog box, select Comment and click OK.
Type your notes in the Comment dialog box that opens.
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.
FORMAT MARKS SHOW WHAT'S HAPPENING
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.
GIVING YOUR PAGE THE TITLE IT DESERVES
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:
- In the Editor, right-click anywhere on the page (you don't have to avoid images or tables or such).
- Choose Page Properties from the pop-up menu.
- Type a relevant title on the Title text box of the Page Properties dialog box.
- Click OK.
The title in the title bar changes to whatever you typed.
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM, AND AGAIN
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:
In the Editor, right-click anywhere on the page and choose Page Properties from the pop-up menu.
In the Page Properties dialog box, click the General tab.
Click the Browse button beside the Background Sound line.
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.)
In the Loop section, choose how many times you want the sound to play. If you want the sound to play endlessly, click Forever.
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.
TRANSPARENT ONE AT A TIME
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.
HIGHLIGHT HOTSPOTS
December 31st, 1999
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.
IMAGES IN TABLES
December 22nd, 1999
You can put an image in a table cell in any of the following ways:
* Place your cursor in the cell, choose Insert + Image, and then
specify which image you want to insert.
* Drag an image from the FrontPage Explorer.
* Drag an image from the Windows Explorer.
LINKS LAID AUTOMATICALLY
December 27th, 1999
Whenever you type "www.something" or "mailto:something" or just
"this@that.there" in the FrontPage Editor, the program assumes you
want a link to that address, using a standard protocol. You don't have
to specify that the Web address should link to a Web page or that an
"@" or "mailto:" means to send an e-mail to that such-and-such an
address. FrontPage does that for you.
OBJECTING TO OBJECTIONABLE LANGUAGE
December 23rd, 1999
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.
SCHEDULED CONTENT
December 30th, 1999
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.
TRANSPARENT GIFS
December 20th, 1999
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.
LINE UP A BOX
Who wants to type more information into yet another Web page text box? Not us! We'd rather get other people typing information into our Web pages. So here's how you can make just such a text box with FrontPage:
- 1. In the FrontPage Editor, place the cursor where you want the one-line text box on the Web page.
- 2. Choose View + Forms Toolbar.
- 3. In the Forms Toolbar dialog box, click the One-Line Text Box button (it's a small square with the letters "ab" in the middle).
Your text box is now on the Web page. Right-click it to fiddle with its style.
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