Microsoft Front Page

Here are the notes I've found useful in working with Microsoft Front Page. Please let us know what you found helpful and what's missing.

Topics: Product History Toolbar  Getting Around Inside FP  Cut & Past Hazards  Formatting Basics  Shared Borders  Navigation Bars  Templates  Themes  Interactivity  Printing  Publishing  Party 

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Product History

Product Name	Version	Key Features
Front Page 1.0	1.0
Front Page 97	2.0
Front Page 98	3.0	Mangles compatible ASP code.
Front Page 2000	4.0	Server Extensions Service Release 1.1 and 1.2 (4.0.2.4324)
Front Page 2002 (XP)	5.0	.
Microsoft Expression Web Designer	?	.

What's a View?

This screen is from the Microsoft FP2000 HTML Tutorial Download it!

Take the Brainbench certification test on Front Page 2000.

The Toolbar Is Your Friend ...

• I like a full-page view, so to rid of default icons on the left:
  Click View -> View bars
  Click View -> Folder lists

• In the Folder List, I want to see what's in the _hidden folders:
  Click Tools -> Web Settings
  Click the Advanced tab of the FrontPage Web Settings dialog box
  Check "Show documents in Hidden directories"

  Redecorating the Toolbar

  The close button should have been on the toolbar as default. So View Toolbars Customize and drag the Close button to the toolbar.  Scroll down and get the Exit button as well.

  I also get rid of the cut and paste buttons by dragging them to the document area. This action makes room for more icons to click instead of looking through menus.

  I use the File, New button with the ellipsis instead of the default.

  If you set your screen resolution finer, there's room for more buttons on the toolbars. But why drag a mouse when you can right click?

Preparation Guide for MCP Exam 70-055: Designing and Implementing Web Sites using Microsoft® FrontPage® 98

Getting Around Inside Front Page

Grayed Out Menu Options

Some menu items are available only in a specific page view. They get “greyed out” when you are not in a view which can accommodate them.

This is because Microsoft is “object oriented” -- where you select an object to apply actions. So if you get the urge to format something, first switch to Normal view.

To switch to Normal, HTML, or Preview Page View

There are several options:
1. Press Ctrl+PgUp/PgDn.
2. Click the tab at the bottom of the page.
3. Press Alt+Tab to an internet browser and reload by pressing
   • Ctrl+X for Netscape
   • F5 for IE
   This has the added advantage of immediately seeing the effect of code changes on various browsers.

Cursor is repositioned

In HTML page view, after you save a file, expect to have your cursor to jump to the top of the page. Front Page scrolls your text up so that the line where the cursor was placed is moved up to the top of the page.

Jump to the Bottom with Ctrl+Left click

When in Normal view, you can hold down the Ctrl key and left click to follow a link.  But make it a habit to press the Page Down key after you do this.  If that link is on the same page, be aware that you cursor is at the bottom of the screen.  

Alt+Left/Right Doesn't Work

Front Page recognizes most standard Windows/Office keys, except:
• Shift+Alt+left/right arrow used in MS Word to promote and demote outline levels does not work in FP.
• The Alt+left arrow/right arrow doesn't work. Are there Back / Forward buttons on a toolbar? So I click HTML and Preview again.

To Change Menu Items

Read “Adding and Managing Menu Bars and Menu Items” in FP Visual Basic help.

Microsoft Seminars on Front Page: FP2000: How to Work with Navigation Bars

Creating Web Sites with Microsoft FrontPage 2000

Cut And Paste Hazards

In Normal view, position your cursor at the left edge of a sentence. Highlight some text by holding down the Shift key and cursor to the right or left-click to the right.

Now switch to HTML view.

Notice that FrontPage positions your cursor after formatting codes such as <H3>

So make it a habit to go into HTML view before cutting stuff.

Browser Compatibility

In Tools, Page Options, Compatibility tab, set Browser Compatibility to “Both Internet Explorer and Navigator”.

Don't select “Set default” because it will add <BASE target=“_blank”> above </HEADER> and links to the same page will open in another window.

Shared Borders

FrontPage automatically uses the default page margins, which are 16 pixels on the left and right.  To set them to zero, go to the Page Properties dialog from File, Properties, Margins tab and unselect “Specify top margin” and “Specify left margin”.
This meta tags is placed above the </HEAD> if top and bottom borders were selected:

<meta name=“Microsoft Border” content=“tb”>

HTML code for cannot be seen from the HTML view. They are stored in files Top.htm, Bottom.htm, Left,htm, and Right.htm within the _borders folder of the current web.

FP2000: What Are Shared Borders and How to Turn Them On and Off

Navigation Bars

Buttons or links on the Navigation bar created by Front Page are created from the Navigation view by webots which take the place of CGI/Perl scripts on UNIX web servers.

To influence that webot, right-click on the Navigation bar and select “FrontPage Component Properties”.

Formatting Tricks

Don't drag a table border to expand or contract it.

Front Page automatically inserts WIDTH and HEIGHT tags in pixels. This means that your table would remain the same size and no longer automatically fill the width of the page.

Bookmarks vs. Favorites

In Netscape browsers, a bookmark is the same as Microsoft's favorites -- URL strings which point to destinations on the web. However, in the Microsoft Office world, a bookmark marks the target when you follow a hyperlink.

Reformatting of HTML source to speed download time (no spaces, tabs, etc.) or for developer viewing.


Themes vs. Styles vs. Templates vs. Wizards

A theme is a collection of (hopefully cohesive) graphic elements that you apply to pages to give them their "look and feel". GUI elements include the colors and shapes of the page background, ruler, and button graphics as well as font text styles.

A style specifies the font size, color, underlining, and other aspects of appearance.

A style sheet is where style specification commands are stored.

A template provides a sample file as a starting point.  In FP98, templates were created using the Developer's Kit. This feature is integrated within FP2000.

A wizard prompts for information needed to dynamically create a template.

Keyboard Shortcuts:

Copy Format = Ctrl+Shift+C
Paste Format =  Ctrl+Shift+V
Tags = Crtl+Shift+Space

J-Bots offers applets to preload images, edit data in forms, and manage cookies

Each theme consists of a .inf Setup Information file and a __.elm theme element file.

Templates

Templates provide a starting point for creating new files. That's why they are obtained by clicking File New.

Template files have a suffix of .tem.

If you save another file with the same name as a default template, you'll have to reinstall Front Page to get the default version back.

Templates may have a graphical theme.

The sample program “fproot” from the FPDevkit demonstrates how you can determine where custom templates of a given type should be installed for any version of FrontPage.

Accessing the Internet Explorer Object Model

Themes

Installation Paths Differ by Product Version

Themes are installed into different folders (assuming C: is the default drive):

• Front Page 98:

  C:\Program Files\Microsoft FrontPage\themes\
  

• Front Page on Windows NT and 2000:

  C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Themes\
  

Mouseover Effects

In this Auscomp entertainment “horror” theme (free with registration), the skull is painted when your mouse hovers over the image. Once activated, the skull stays red.






The San Francisco Food Bank website uses these graphics, but didn't make them mouseovers:

At Oscar de Larenta's Flash site, initially only half a woman's face is shown, but on mouse over appears in full view. This technique works well for any symmetrical item. Also, upon mouse over the “women” heading appears in a smaller font -- appropriate because upon mouseover words are no longer beacons. The words also move closer to the eyes to draw the view in.

Similarly, an icon using a bird could show wings flapping in response to mouse movements on and off the icon (normal, hover, and pushed).

Theme Pak's $7 Outer Space theme shows movement in comet tails and space shuttle exhaust. Planet buttons tilt when selected.



Alysta's $8  Black Sand and Blue Sand themes have pleasant backgrounds, but you'll have to whiten the header text yourself. Their light pastel purple Hearts2  theme looks classier (less shocking pink) than most others from the Valentine's Day genre:

Background Images and Colors

The background image/color, hyperlink color, etc. established by a theme can be overridden [Q173421].

In fact, plan on modifying themes from Web Spice and other theme vendors.

	Can you easily read the "Button" text here? If you MUST have a messy background, turn them into watermarks so readers don't confuse them with text. Or, make text in buttons easy to read by .formatting them large and bold.
	Can you read the “H” in "Heading 1"? No! So lighten text on a dark background. Or re-position text on a light background.

Theme merchants:

• Theme Mart has a large, well-organized collection.

• EB Themeshop offers pricing from a single theme to an unlimited lifetime membership.

• ThemeSets.Net

• First Look

  The separate FrontPage 98 Theme Designer to create themes has been redesigned and integrated into FrontPage 2000.

• Firework & Dreamweaver Templates by Keli

Adding Interactivity

Sending Mail

After sending mail, FP2000 by default goes to _vti_bin/shtml.dll/x.htm, where x.htm is the page which sent the mail.

Remember that when referring to images and files in the shared borders directory (such as the .cfm file needed to send mail), _borders is the root directory. So, you need to add a command to look up the folder tree. Otherwise, you my receive a "404 File Not Found" error.

Features That Require the FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions

How to Install FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions for Internet Information Server

Resource Kit

MSDN: FrontPage Server Extensions 2002 for Windows

FrontPage 98 (version 3) Server Extensions Technical Overview for ISP's
(36 minutes)

Printing

• FP98 has no menu option to print the To Do List. So open and print the _x_todo.htm file in the _vti_pvt folder.

Publishing

One of the major benefits of Front Page and Net Objects Fusion is the automatic page element management.  When you rename a file, Front Page automatically scans all HTML in the current web and changes the name for you. When you change a file, Front Page automatically puts it on the web for you.

But one limitation is that you'll have to do this work only in FP.

FTP No More

If your Web/Internet Presence Provider (IPP) has FP Extensions installed:

• Use File Publish.
• WS_FTP may corrupt files if it is used to send files.

If your Web/Internet Presence Provider (IPP) (such as Earthlink) doesn't have FP Extensions installed on your server:

• Search your site for “webbot” and remove them because they need Front Page server extensions.

Copy and Paste files within the Folder List

You will not see pasted files If use Windows Explorer.  Using Front Page to paste files updates _vti folders Front Page uses uses to track files.

Repository

If you have Microsoft Visual SourceSafe installed, Front Page will automatically check files in/out a repository.  This will track each incremental change -- allowing you to return to previous versions.

Microsoft's List of Add-ons

J-Bots offers applets to preload images, edit data in forms, and manage cookies

Free download: Personal Web Server from Microsoft!

Microsoft's list of Web Presence Providers

Half Price Hosting, an Internet Presence Provider, provides a Control Panel and chat support.

Access Control

Frontpage 2000 uses port 8128 for authentication, so filtering on that controls IIRC access.

I'm not sure if you can do it and serve content on port 80 but you should be able to do it by creating a second web site running on a different port but serving up the same web root. Set the FrontPage extensions up on that site but not on the site running on port 80. Then using either IP filtering, IPSec filters or firewall/router filters restrict access to the instance running FrontPage.

I have set up the two web sites serving the same content on different ports with one site not using FrontPage extensions and one using them. IIRC, the site without the extensions was still able to use the server side FrontPage elements like the guest book features but not allowing authoring but I'm not sure since the whole system has long since been rebuilt and used for other purposes.

Party: User Forums

• Microsoft's FrontPage Newsgroup -- opens in your News reader (such as Outlook)
• Front Page World's Forum on Delphi
• Tek-tips Forum

• Newsgroup postings for "Front Page" on Cnet/Help.com
• Tips and Tricks from web.ce.utk.edu/frontpage

• Rich's list of Front Page Links

Why Developers Can Love Front Page 2000

Videos on Front Page