FrontPage 98 Tips - 1
Tip: 1 Thumbnail button
My thumbnail button was greyed out and I could not get it to work. All I had to do was have a LARGE graphic selected, then the thumbnail button (under tools) becomes active, if your graphic has already been reduced it remains greyed out.
This a 'how to' but it is related to the tip above:
1 In the FrontPage Editor, select the image.
2 On the Tools menu, choose Auto Thumbnail.
FrontPage creates the thumbnail image, inserts it in place of the larger image, and creates a hyperlink to the full-sized image from the thumbnail image.
However if you wish to add text with the graphic you must do this:
1 Select the thumbnail you wish to link to (or text) On the Edit menu, choose hyperlink, or click the hyperlink Icon.
2 Click on "Create a page and link to the new page", (which is the white page icon on the far right of the Create hyperlink box)
3 A dialog box comes up "New", with Normal page as the default, normally you would use this, so click ok.
4 Another dialog box comes up and you name the file what you wish e.g. "My photo". Click Ok. The file is then saved to your hard drive and you return to the page with graphic you selected, still highlighted. Again, on the Edit menu, choose hyperlink, or click the hyperlink Icon. Scroll down the list of files till you come to the one you just made i.e. "My Photo" select it then press ok.
5 Go to Explorer and folders view. Look for the file you just saved and double click or right click and press open. This then brings the file up.
6 The file (if your using shared borders, this type of file will not display what you have in your normal files (i.e. web pages) and will just show the generic defaults. It is best to delete the shared borders for this page only and then insert your large graphic complete with text. Save the page, and when you have published the page you should be able to click on the thumbnail and it will take you to this file.
Tip: 2: Resample button
If you cannot find your resample button move the tool bars around it might simply be hidden (mine was). Note: When you resample remember to save the graphic under a different name, or when you save the page your large version will be reduced as well, they have to be saved under different names.
Tip: 3: Getting rid of a background in Themes
If you dislike the background in the theme of your choice you don't have to lose the whole theme, just get rid of the background instead.
1. Right-click anywhere on your page and choose Theme from the pop-up menu that appears.
2. In the Choose Theme dialog box, uncheck the Background Image box. You get a preview of what your page looks like without the background pattern.
3. If you like what you see, click OK. If you don't like what you see, you can always click the Background Image again.
When move your cursor over an image a label appears. The label shows the name of the image and the file size. If you wish to change the name (leave the image size in, as this lets people who have their images turned off or who are blind and use readers 'see' exactly how big the image is) Follow the instructions below:
Tip: 4: Changing the label name:
1. In FrontPage Explorer, right-click the image in question and choose Image Properties. The Image Properties dialog box appears, with the name and size of the image file appearing in the Text box (in the Alternative Representations section).
2. Highlight the text in the Text box and type in the label you want to appear when you move your cursor over the image.
3. Click OK.
Before you preview this page in your browser, save it. Otherwise, you'll still see the original label.
Tip: 5: Working with two webs at the same time.
Do you want to work on a web in FrontPage? Okay, but there is information in another web, dash it you will have to close everything down to go copy and paste it! Not now, Just bring up your browser (it works with IE4 not sure about any others) Go to File and Open, on the down arrow select C: drive, then select your folder for FrontPage webs. I have to go in a couple of folders through content then to the folder of the web I want, click on this, press open, then ok. The web page will come up in Explorer. You can follow the internal links in the web too, though 'Home' brings up the full list of files.
Tip: 6: Saving the graphics and the text together from the web.
Ha this tip is nothing to do with FrontPage but I am writing it down here as I forgot it, after not using it for so long when my printer broke down for months. Instead of doing File Save As when you want to save a page from the web, which of course does not save the graphics which you have to save separately. Highlight the page and copy and paste into a document, then save the graphics as normal i.e. right click, save picture, then you save the document. You will find all the graphics and text in place exactly as on the web. Everyone probably knows this I just could not remember how to do it. Well that will save me some time from now on:) NOTE: Apparently IE5 addresses this point and has a nifty button to save everything. Yes it does! Its called File | Save As saves everything on the page Brill:)
Tip: 7: Free Stuff!
Make sure you get free stuff from Microsoft. You can go to for cool freebies, such as templates and extra themes to bolt-on to the package.
Tip: 8: Simply the way
There is a simple way to create bookmarks and named anchors - simply select the text you wish to transform into a bookmark, then holding down the RIGHT mouse button, drag it to wherever you want the link generated. Then, when released, select 'Link Here' from the pop-up menu. Other choices on the menu are 'move here' 'copy here' and cancel.
Tip: 9: Close to Word
If you working closely with Microsoft Word, don't simply drag the text into FrontPage 98 - it carries over the formatting, which is a pain to get rid of. To tidy it up, press Ctrl-space or Ctrl-Shift-Z, which removes all previous formatting.
Tip: 10: Marking the location of scripts
After inserting VBScript or JavaScript into a Web page, FrontPage then does not automatically show where the script is in Normal mode. So it is easy to delete by mistake.
Select Format Marks from the View menu. Then click the show/hide button on the toolbar (shaped like backwards P) When you do, the location of your scripts will then be marked with a little flag. JavaScript flags have a "J" on them, while VBScript flags show a miniature version of the Visual Basic logo.
Tip: 11: Easier tables
If you need to display data on a web page, but don't want the hassle of manually typing it into tables, there is an easier way. Simply paste the data (from a spreadsheet, say) into the page select it, then select "Table" then "convert text to table", you can do this in reverse as well. "Table" "convert table to text". In the dialog box that appears, specify what delimiting character was used to separate the data (probably a comma, tab, or paragraph mark) and click OK. FrontPage will format the data as an HTML table.
FrontPage "remembers" where the tabs appeared in tab-delimited data-even though HTML doesn't recognize tabs. However, you should convert your text immediately. If you close and reopen the document, FrontPage will "forget" where the tabs were and consider them spaces instead.
Tip: 12: Altering the image sizes
If you simply resize images, FrontPage does not alter the file size. To make the file smaller too, you should select the Resample button in the Image toolbar after you have resized it.
Tip: 13: Specify fonts
To specify ideal viewing fonts, view the page in HTML. Select the text you want to view and choose the font (such as Arial) then position the cursor to the right of the font name that has just appeared. You add extra fonts simply by typing them in, separated by a comma.
Tip: 14: Coding in the borders
You can edit code in the shared borders. Go to FrontPage Explorer and select Tools, Web Settings. Hit the Advanced tab, then Show Documents In Hidden Directories. Hit OK, and you will see a new directory called "borders" that contains all the html files you need.
Tip: 15: Finding the folder
In FrontPage Explorer Navigation View lower contents frame, when you click on a file or folder (not an image file) left click to select and then right click and click on 'Find in Navigation' to go straight to your folder in the navigation view.
Tip: 16: How to unlink
Select the link.
Go to Edit
Click on Unlink
Tip: 17: Insert html
This nifty tool can save you hours. This lets you embed specific bits of HTML code into your page. To use the Insert HTML component, choose Insert HTML from the Insert FrontPage Component dialog box. FrontPage brings up the HTML Markup dialog box in which you can type your HTML directly. When finished click OK, and the snippet is inserted into the current page where you placed the cursor. Or you can click on View select Advanced Toolbar and click the Insert HTML icon and the dialog box pops up.
