FrontPage 2002 Tips

Discussion Group - New messages go to message 1

This error is caused by using upper case characters for the name of the folder (the default name of this folder when first using the Discussion Wizard is "_disc1") in which the articles are stored.

Make sure your discussion web folders are all lower case.

Butt what a table

When you have two tables butted together vertically, it can be hard to insert a line between them. To do so, place the cursor after the content of the top table's last cell and press [Ctrl][Enter].
NOTE: The cursor MUST be in the last cell and MUST be at the end of all content.

Similarly, to put the insertion point before a table at the top of your document, place the cursor before the content of the first cell and press [Ctrl][Enter].

In FrontPage 97, if this cell is empty, you'll have to type
a character in it before hitting [Ctrl][Enter].

Pointing to the graphics application

If your default image editor is Image Composer, but you want to use another application, you need to reconfigure the settings and point to the one you want.
1. In FrontPage, select Tools + Options.
2. In the Options dialog box, click the Configure Editors tab.
A list of different file types and the editor--or program--that FrontPage uses to work with that type of file appears. Because you're working with image files, the most important types of files are GIF and JPEG.
3. Highlight the GIF file type and click Modify; then browse to find the photoediting program's executable file, select it, and click OK.
4. Highlight the JPEG file type and click Modify; then browse to find the photoediting program's executable file, select it, and click OK.
5. When finished, click OK to exit the Options dialog box.
TIP 39: Which is which
If you're a little confused as to which file is which. The best way to find out which is a executable file is:
1. Selecting the file you think is the correct one, right-click the filename and choose Properties.
2. In the next dialog box, you see a listing with the DOS name of the program. If the name has the .EXE file extension, it's an executable file. The dialog box also mentions that the file is an application.
3. Click Cancel to exit this dialog box and then select the application to be your default photoeditor.

To Create a Verified Hyperlink

Creating a verified hyperlink is the most accurate way of doing so because you actually visit the page the hyperlink will point to.
1 Type AnyFrontPage and then press ENTER.
2 Holding down the left mouse button, drag the mouse over the words you just typed to select them.
3 On the Insert menu, choose Hyperlink.
The Create Hyperlink dialog box is displayed.
4 In the Create Hyperlink dialog box, click the World Wide Web button.
5 FrontPage launches your Web browser.
When you visit the page that the hyperlink should point to and then switch back to FrontPage, the URL field will contain the address of the target page.
6 In your Web browser's Address (or Location) field, type http://anyfrontpage.com for example and then press ENTER.
The Web browser displays the AnyFrontPage.com home page, where you can learn more about FrontPage via a the FrontPage Ezine, and find solutions to common questions at the forums.
7 On your keyboard, press ALT+TAB (or click the FrontPage icon in the Windows task bar) to switch back to the FrontPage 'Create Hyperlink' dialog box.
The URL of the Microsoft FrontPage home page is now entered into the URL field in the Create Hyperlink dialog box.
Click OK.
On your keyboard, press the DOWN ARROW key to deselect the text.
The words "AnyFrontPage" are now underlined to indicate the hyperlink.

The high life!

Place the cursor to the left of the first letter, hold down the shift key and then place the cursor at the end of the text you want to change and the whole text area will be highlighted.

Flowing Text

If you want text to flow around your image. The trick is to change the image's properties so that the text runs to the left or right of your image:

1. Right-click the image.
2. Choose Image Properties from the menu that appears.
3. Click the Appearance tab in the Image Properties dialog box.
4. Under Alignment, choose Left or Right.
5. Click OK to close the Image Properties dialog box.

Now your text flows around your image instead of sitting above or below it. If you don't already have text on the page, you can begin typing now, and your text flows automatically.

Design Tip

To stop other webmasters framing your site just insert the following piece of JavaScript code between the <head> </head> tags on your homepage:

<script language="JavaScript">

</script>

Just change YOURURL to the full URL of the page you don't want frames on. For example if I put that code on:
http://www.accessfp.net/index.html
I would also use the same URL in the URL field in the JavaScript.

Hidden away

To help you organise your hidden pages, you can also create folders within the /_private folder, such as /_private/myfolder. Folders and files within the /_private folder are inaccessible by a Web browser unless you have the web server ID and Password.

Never mind the quality feel the compression

FrontPage is set up by default to further compress inserted images by as much as 75 per cent, and this will degrade the quality of the image once the page is saved. To prevent this you can right-click on the image you just inserted into FrontPage (prior to saving the page) and select Image Properties from the pop up menu. Change the JPEG compression setting to 100 per cent, which will prevent FrontPage from compressing the image further. This will of course increase the file size.

Move that Image

If you start off making your website and like me in the beginning did not know to put all images in the images folder. You can move them now to the images folder.
Go to Folders View and in the Folders List click the images folder. Then in the right hand pane click on 'Type' to line up all the Image files.
Click on the first Image file to select it, Press 'Shift' and hold down, scroll down to the last Image file and select it. Let go of 'shift'
Right click within the highlighted files keep holding down the button drag all the files over to the LEFT hand pane and position over the 'Image' folder let go and click 'Move here' when the dialog box pops up. When you do this all the images will be moved over and a dialog box will pop up asking if you want to retain the links say yes. Don't forget to recalculate your links before uploading your website.

Set properties on the HTML tab in Page view

When you're editing a page on the HTML tab in Page view, you can use Microsoft FrontPage to help you set the properties of an HTML tag, instead of memorising the valid attributes and values and typing them yourself.
For example, if you want to add a border to an image, you can type border="1" in the <img> tag - but that assumes you know the valid attributes and values for image tags. Instead, you can use the Picture Properties dialog box to set the border, and FrontPage automatically writes the border settings, in the proper syntax and using valid values, back into the <img> tag. Unlike previous versions of FrontPage, you don't need to exit the HTML tab to use dialog boxes to set properties for a tag.

1. On the HTML tab in Page view, position the insertion point inside the tag name (not inside an attribute or a value) of the tag you want to set properties for, right-click to display the shortcut menu, and then click Tag Properties.
FrontPage displays the appropriate properties dialog box for that HTML tag. For example, if you click in a form field check box tag, FrontPage displays the Check Box Properties dialog box.

2. Set the properties you want. The dialog box lets you choose from among the valid attributes and values for that tag.
When you click OK to close the properties dialog box, FrontPage immediately rewrites the HTML for that tag.

To copy or paste?

To Copy formatting from selected characters or a paragraph and apply it to the text you select.
1 Select the formatting you want to copy
2 Click the 'Format painter' icon
The cursor turns into a paintbrush.
3 Brush it across the text you wish to change.
NOTE: To copy the selected formatting to several locations, double-click Format Painter. Click the button again when you're finished.
or
You can use the 'Copy' and 'Paste' Keyboard shortcuts:
1 select the text you want to copy.
2 Press Ctrl + Shift + C
3 Select the text you want to change
4 Press Ctrl + Shift + V

What's on the menu?

Press Tools | Customize
Look in the left hand pane under categories for the menu listing you want.
Click on it
In the right hand pane under Commands are the icons that can either go on the tool bar or in the menu bar.
If you want a description of one just click on it and press description down below.
To add a Command to the Toolbar or menu bar just left click and drag the command with the Toolbar you can just drop it into place.
With the menu bar you can hover over a menu heading, and the menu drops down, position the command where you want it on the menu list a black line appears and you drop the command.
Now you can find all the commands you have been looking for.

Float it!

On some of the menu items, e.g. Component and Form, there is a grey shaded area in the drop-down menu. You can click and drag this to make a floating toolbar.

Reveal it!

When you work on your page your creating HTML tags, FrontPage is designed so that you don't see them in normal view. However if you want to see what tags are being created in Normal View do the following.

View | Reveal Tags
They will appear in yellow

To hide them View | click reveal tags again.

or if you prefer the keyboard Ctrl + /

x is NOT the button

Shutting down FrontPage by clicking on the X button in the top right hand corner of FP can cause your extensions to become corrupt if you have just published. So always shut down FrontPage in the prescribed manner, namely.

Click the Done button after publishing.
Click File | Close web
Click exit

Better safe than sorry.

Watermark it.

To Watermark your page do the following:

Right click on the background of your page
Click 'Page Properties' | Background tab
Tick the box marked 'Background Picture'
Click Browse to find a background
Tick the box marked ' Watermark'
Click Ok.

Note: Watermarked backgrounds are not supported in all browsers. Watermarks won't work with pages that have a theme applied.

Follow that Hyperlink

You can 'Follow a hyperlink'

When your editing a page you can follow a hyperlink which will open up the destination page or file. So when you have created a hyperlink you can test it straight away.

Though FrontPage follows the hyperlink differently, depending on the destination:

If the destination is a page, FrontPage opens the page for editing in Page view.
If the destination is a bookmark, FrontPage opens the page and scrolls down to the bookmark.
If the destination is a file, FrontPage opens the file in its associated editor. For example, FrontPage opens a text file in Notepad.
If the destination is not in the current web, FrontPage opens a copy of the destination page or file.

In Page view, Select and then right-click the hyperlink, and then click 'Follow Hyperlink' on the pop up box.

NOTE: You can also press and hold CTRL, and then click the hyperlink to follow it.
If you followed a hyperlink to another page, click Back to return to the original page.

Open in a new window

I want all my links on one page to open up in a new window and on another page I only want one of them to do this, how can I make this happen?

A) For one link to be open in new window:
Select the link you want to open in a new window.
Click the hyperlink icon. Or press Control + K and the Create Hyperlink box will come up. Click the 'Change Target Frame' icon (like a pencil) next to where it says 'Target Frame'. (For FrontPage 2002 - click the Target Button on the right-hand side)
Another box will pop up and you should select new window and press ok and save the page.

B) To select the whole page:
After selecting new window tick the box at the bottom where it says 'set as page default' press ok and save the page.
The code that FrontPage inserts is:
<base target="_blank">
Which goes between your head tags.

NOTE: It is not a good idea to use this on pages with internal links. Open in a new window is normally kept for External links.