Microsoft FrontPage Tips

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Downloading FrontPage Tutorials

Did you know that Microsoft has provided you with tutorials about using FrontPage? Head over to the following pages to get your FrontPage tutorial fix:
Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Tutorial
Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Tutorial
Training presentation: FrontPage 2003—Create a Web site with FrontPage
Training presentation: FrontPage 2003—Effortless ways to work with code
Training presentation: FrontPage 2003—Hyperlink basics
Training presentation: FrontPage 2003—Liven up Web pages with interactive buttons

Using Web Components

Web Components are special objects that perform certain functions and come with your FrontPage. Instead of having to look for other websites that provide such services for free or for a fee, it is much easier and more convenient to click on Insert in the Main Menu, then select Web Component... Web Components let you create any of the following widgets and more:

Dynamic Effects
Lets you create hover or mouseover buttons, scrolling text, and banner ads

Web Search
Lets you insert a search form

Spreadsheets and Charts
Lets you display office spreadsheets, charts or pivot tables

Hit Counter
Lets you insert a graphical counter that displays the number of times your site has been visited

Photo Gallery
Lets you add functionality for displaying a group of photos; depending on your preferences, you can choose how these photos can be displayed on a page

Included Content
Lets you insert special information (Substitution) or pages (Page, Page Based on Schedule) or pictures (Picture Based on Schedule, Page Banner) into the webpage you're working on; the use of an included page is especially helpful when you put them on multiple pages — you only have to update that page once and all your other pages display the updated content

Advanced Controls
Lets you add a Java Applet, ActiveX Control, or any other plug-in

Using Shortcut Keys

Since FrontPage is part of the Microsoft Office suite, most shortcut keys you are familiar with in programs like Microsoft Word are available there, too (like Ctrl+S for Save or F7 for Spellchecker). Here are some useful shortcut keys in FrontPage:

New hyperlink: Ctrl+K
Show HTML tags: Ctrl+/
Preview webpage in browser: Ctrl+Shift+B
Create new AutoThumbnail of picture selected: Ctrl+T
Show Microsoft Script Editor: Shift+Alt+F11

For more shortcut keys, you can download Microsoft's list of Office shortcut keys.

Using Themes/Templates

To define your site's Theme, select Theme... from the Format menu to choose from a number of designs that set the look-and-feel of your website. You can tweak the selected theme to your liking by modifying heading styles, bullet styles, horizontal rule styles, text styles, buttons, menus, background images, and more.

Templates, on the other hand, are used to specify the actual layout of your website. They usually come in several pages, since each template sets the stage for your whole website in terms of navigation and content placement. (Of course, you don't need to use all of the pages given by the template you have chosen; they're there as guides when you're just starting out to build your own website.) Templates are chosen at the very beginning, when you start creating a new file.

In Microsoft FrontPage 2003, a new feature called Dynamic Web Templates (DWT) allows portions in your web pages to be editable or non-editable. Like the concept of Included Pages (see Using Web Components), all pages using that DWT will be affected by the changes in the DWT itself.

Using FrontPage Extensions

Microsoft FrontPage Extensions are made up of code, particularly CGI, and implement much of the features you will be putting into your FrontPage-made website. They run in the background, on the server where you'll be hosting your site.

This implies that when you use FrontPage, your webhost must provide support for sites made in FrontPage, i.e., support for FrontPage extensions. However, not all webhosts provide support for FrontPage extensions by default, so better check if your host or webspace provider does.

Are FrontPage extensions a requirement? It depends on what your site will be doing. If your site is static and does no form processing, chances are you can easily do away with FrontPage extensions. If you are designing websites with dynamic features, though, such as bulletin boards, search forms, counters, blogs, and the like, you can choose to look for FrontPage-compatible web hosts or look for alternative scripts or services that can make up for the lack of FrontPage extensions.

Uploading your website built in FrontPage also require extensions — an alternative for this is using an FTP client. While Microsoft reportedly advises against resorting to FTP as it may result in corruption of files, most people do not encounter this problem. Proceed, then, with caution on this issue.

The following examples are features that require FrontPage extensions:

Forms
Discussion Forms
Themes
Web Permissions
Hit Counters
Search Forms
File Uploads
Custom Link Bars
Usage Analysis Reports
Database Components

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