Useful Tips and Tricks for FrontPage

1)  Customizing Themes in FrontPage 2002
2)  Using Inline Frames in FrontPage 2002
3)  FrontPage 2002: Making HTML Pages XML-Compatible
4)  How do I use FTP to publish our web site?
5)  Configure your PWS (personal web server) to handle email transport in FrontPage 2k

1)  Customizing Themes in FrontPage 2002

You can change the look quickly and easily on all pages in your Web site or just one page in your site using themes in Microsoft FrontPage® 2002. Themes apply consistent fonts and other formatting across a single page or all pages in your site. There are many new themes and the rest have been updated. Each has its own look and feel, including coordinated bullets, buttons, background, page banner, horizontal line, and font styles.

In addition, you can apply a virtually limitless variety of formatting options to these 67 themes because they are all customizable.

To customize a Theme, open a new or existing web in FrontPage 2002, and do the following:

1. On the Format menu, select Themes.
2. In the list box on the left, select a Theme and a preview of it will appear in the Sample of Theme: window.
3. To customize your theme, select the Modify button.
4. Under What would you like to modify?, select:
   the Colors button to change the color scheme of a theme
   the Graphics button to change the graphics used in a theme
   the Text button to change the text styles used in a theme
5. Click OK to return to the Themes dialog box.
6. Under Apply Theme to: choose whether to apply the changes to All pages in your web or only Selected page(s).
7. Click Save As, enter a name for your modified Theme and click OK.
8. Now, click OK to apply the theme.

Tip   When you modify a preset theme, you must save your changes to a new theme; you cannot overwrite a preset theme.

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2)  Using Inline Frames in FrontPage 2002

Microsoft FrontPage® 2002 offers support for Inline Frames and other features enabled by advanced technology like HTML 4. Inline frames allow you to embed another Web page and its contents in an existing page. One advantage of inline frames is you can have embedded content without having to create separate frames pages. Inline frames provide an easy way to help you make a more dynamic and professional Web site.

To embed another Web page and its contents in an existing page using inline frames, open a page in FrontPage 2002 and do the following:

1. In Page view, click in the Web page where you want to insert the inline frame.
2. From the Insert menu, select Inline Frame.
3. To embed an existing page, click the Set Initial Page… button, browse in the Insert Hyperlink dialog to a web page on your site or on the Internet and click OK.
4. To embed a new page, click the New Page… button.
5. Save the page. If you choose to embed a new page, the Save As dialog will prompt you to name the new file.

Tip You can change the inline frame's properties after you have created it. First, select the inline frame by moving your cursor over the outside edge on the border of the inline frame until it changes to a left-pointing arrow, and then right-click. In the shortcut menu, select Inline Frame Properties… and set one or more of the following properties:

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3)  FrontPage 2002: Making HTML Pages XML-Compatible

Use the "Apply XML Formatting Rules" to automatically take an HTML page and reformat its HTML tags to make them XML-compliant. This is especially useful when you need your pages to interact with an XML-based publishing system because the rules governing the syntax of XML tags are stricter than those for HTML. A missing tag or incorrectly formatted attribute in an XML document renders the file useless.
When you select the Apply XML formatting rules option, Microsoft FrontPage® version 2002 searches the XML code for missing or incomplete tags and applies the correct tags.

To apply XML Formatting Rules to a Web page, open it in FrontPage 2002 and do the following:

1. In Page view, click the HTML button
2. In the HTML pane, right-click anywhere on the page.
3. Select Apply XML formatting rules.

Tip: If you apply XML formatting to a document formatted to exclude selected ending tags (for example, the </P> tag), those tags will likely be applied by this feature.

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4)  How do I use FTP to publish our web site?

The process by which files are transferred to the web server is called "FTP" (File Transport Protocol).

Internet providers such as AOL, CompuServe, and Prodigy may have a built-in FTP interface. If you have a PPP internet account and need an FTP program. We suggest that you contact your local internet provider to inquire about compatibility.

*** Microsoft FrontPage users whom have had extensions installed within their web site should use FrontPage to transfer files only!

Configuring Your FTP Software

Each time you run WS_FTP the Session Profile window will be displayed. A profile contains the information needed to connect to your web site. Creating a profile now will eliminate the need for you to configure the software each time you wish to connect to the web server via FTP. To create a new profile, click the "New" button and enter a generic profile name at the top of the Session Profile window. Next, enter the userid, password and hostname for your web site.

Be sure to select "Auto detect" for the Host Type. It is best to select "Save Password" and "Auto Save Config" to maintain these settings for future use. All other fields can be left blank. You are now ready to connect to the web server. Click "Ok" to continue.

What files do I need to transfer?

All of the .htm, .html, and multimedia files from your content directory.

If you are not sure what local (your computer system) directory your web files are located in, then do the following:

1. Start Windows Explorer
2. Switch to the folder, \Program Files\Microsoft FrontPage
3. Double Click on the FrontPage Server Administrator icon
4. Note the content directory among the configuration information given in the upper right hand corner. Please note that this is where your <root> web is located on your hard drive; subwebs will have the web name you gave them, and be located underneath the <root> web.

When you connect to the web server, you will connect directly to the root ("home") directory of your account. WS_FTP will display a split screen where files on the left-hand side are within your own computer. You may see several folders on the right-hand side such as cgi-bin and directories your ISP or you created.

You can transfer files directly to the root level and/or create subdirectories. The only system directory that you may need to use is cgi-bin; this directory is reserved for custom scripts.

To upload a file or files, simply highlight the file(s) on the left and click the right-arrow button ("-->") in the center of the screen.

Be sure to upload HTML documents and scripts in ASCII mode and images in BINARY mode. To transfer a file to a subdirectory, double-click the appropriate subdirectory to open it before transferring the desired file(s).

As soon as a file is uploaded to the web server, it is available for all to see. If, after uploading a file, you are still unable to see the updated file via your browser, you need to clear both disk and browser cache. Remember that you must first be connected to the internet through your local internet service provider in order to connect to the web server.

What modes do I use for various file types?

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5)  Configure your PWS (personal web server) to handle email transport in FrontPage 2k

The server extensions for FrontPage® 2000 are a little different in how you set the mail handler to test your forms locally that are configured to send results by email. 

To set your mail handle, SMTP and PWS to handle email transport on your local webs :

You need to specify the Web server's mail address, a contact address, an SMTP host, a mail-encoding scheme, and a mail character set.

1. Open your server extension administration console from the START > Program Files > Microsoft Office > Server Administration menu
2. In the console tree, right-click the root web for which you want to set e-mail options.
   
   
   
   
3. Click Properties on the shortcut menu, and then click the Server Extensions tab.
   
   
   
   
4. In the Options box, click Settings.
   
   
   
   
5. Enter the settings you want.

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