Microsoft FrontPage #7



*1.   NAVIGATING THE (EQUIVALENT OF THE) SEVEN SEAS

April 12th, 1999

Before you go through the trouble of creating a link to each 
page on your site--a tedious task--use this FrontPage shortcut 
to create a Navigation Bar. Doing so create a series of 
buttons that lets visitors jump easily from one page to another:

- 1. Open your home page in FrontPage Editor. 
- 2. Choose File + Open; then navigate to your home page and
     double-click it. 
- 3. Click where you want the Navigation Bar to appear on
     the page. 
- 4. Choose Insert + Navigation Bar. 
- 5. The Navigation Bar Properties dialog box appears, which
     shows a flow-chart style representing your Web site.
     Because you're on your home page, you probably want to
     link to all the pages beneath the home page (called child
     pages). Select the Child level radio button. 
- 6. In the Orientation and Appearance section of the dialog
     box, choose whether you want your Navigation Bar to appear
     vertically or horizontally on the page and whether you'd
     like buttons (images) or text navigation. 
- 7. Click OK when you're done. 

A Navigation Bar appears on-screen, 
with all the links already in place.


*2.   THE TASKMASTER--PART 1 OF 5

April 13th, 1999

Instead of racking your brain to remember itty-bitty details 
about your Web page, add the task to the aptly named Task List 
in FrontPage Explorer. That way, you can go back and check off 
the items on the list as you complete them. Here's how to add
a task: 

- 1. In FrontPage Editor, choose Edit + Add Task. 
- 2. In the New Task dialog box, enter relevant info into the
     Task Name and Description text boxes. You can indicate how
     important the task is by selecting one of the Priority
     options: High, Medium, or Low. 
- 3. Click OK. 

The task is added to your virtual to-do list.


*3.   THE TASKMASTER--PART 2 OF 5

April 14th, 1999

Say you're cruising around on your Web site and you see a 
mistake on the page that's called Favorites. You don't have 
time to fix the problem right now, so you want to add a task to 
the Task List as a reminder for later. The only thing is, you'd 
like to link the task to the problem page. Doing so creates a 
"linked task," and following is one way to get the job done: 

- 1. In FrontPage Explorer, click the All Files icon in the
     View pane; then highlight the page that you'd like to link
     your task to (in our example, the one called Favorites). 
- 2. Choose File + New + Task. 
- 3. In the New Task dialog box, enter relevant info into the
     Task Name and Description text boxes. You can also
     indicate how important the task is by selecting one of the
     Priority options: High, Medium, or Low. 
- 4. When you're done, click OK. 
- 5. To see your new task, click the Tasks icon in Explorer's
     View pane.

--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb


*4. THE TASKMASTER--PART 3 OF 5

April 15th, 1999

Yesterday, we explained how to add a linked task to your Task 
List--that is, a task that is linked to a particular page on 
your Web site. But when you find something that needs fixing on 
a given Web page, instead of jumping into Explorer to add a 
task, you can add it right from the FrontPage Editor: 

- 1. Choose Edit + Add Task. 
- 2. In the New Task dialog box, fill out the Task Name and
     Description text boxes and click OK. 

To see the linked task added to your to-do list, jump over to 
the Tasks view in FrontPage Explorer.

--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb

5. THE TASKMASTER--PART 4 OF 5

April 16th, 1999

A linked task is basically a job that has to be done on a 
particular page of your Web site. But after you created the 
linked tasks, what's the best way to use them? 

- 1. Click the Tasks icon in the View pane in FrontPage
     Explorer and highlight the task that you want to work on.
- 2. Right-click the task and, from the menu that appears,
     select Do Task. The page automatically loads in
     FrontPage Editor. 
- 3. Fix the problem; when you're done, choose File + Save to
     save the change. 
- 4. A dialog box appears, asking whether you'd like to mark
     the task as completed. If you're finished with the job,
     click Yes; otherwise, click No. (Note: If you select No,
     "In Progress" marks the task in the Task List.)

--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb


*6. THE TASKMASTER--PART 5 OF 5

April 19th, 1999

One final thing you should know about the tasks on the Task 
List in FrontPage Explorer: After you mark something complete 
(by selecting and right-clicking the task and then choosing 
Mark Complete), there's no turning back. You have to create a 
new task to keep the job on your list. Our advice? Be sure that 
the job's really done before you cross it off your list.

--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb


*7. JUST THE RIGHT SIZE

April 20th, 1999

You see it in books all the time--usually on the first letter 
of the first word in a chapter: a giant letter that dwarfs 
everything else, even the other capital letters. This effect is 
easy enough to replicate on your Web page. Just highlight the 
letter that you want to make larger and then click the Increase 
Text Size button, the button with a capital A and an arrow that 
points upward. To decrease your text size, use the Decrease 
Text size button, the one with a capital A and an arrow 
pointing downward.

--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb


*8. A LITTLE BIT SHORT ON THE ELBOW ROOM

April 21st, 1999

Say that you're looking through your files in the All Files 
view of FrontPage Explorer (click the All Files icon in the 
View pane), but you can't read the filenames because the Title 
column is so narrow. Here's how to get all the facts. 

- 1. Drag your cursor up to the vertical bar to the right of
     the word "Title" in the column head. The arrow turns into
     a plus sign with arrows pointing to the left and to
     the right. 
- 2. Click and drag the vertical bar further to the right to
     make more room for the Title column.   

--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb


*9. TEACHER SAYS. . .

April 22nd, 1999

You've heard it before. Always check your spelling before 
making your site available for public consumption. FrontPage 
automates the process and takes some of the pain out of the 
task. In fact, instead of tediously spell checking each 
individual page, you can check the whole site in one fell swoop:

- 1. Close all pages you have open in the FrontPage Editor. 
- 2. In FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools + Spelling. 
- 3. In the Spelling dialog box, select All Pages. 
- 4. Click Start to being the spell check. When the spell check
     is finished, the Spelling dialog box opens, listing the
     pages that have spelling errors and the number of errors
     on each page. 
- 5. To make the corrections, highlight the first page in the
     list and click Edit Page. FrontPage automatically opens
     that page and moves you through the spelling errors so
     that you can correct them. Correct the errors as necessary.
- 6. When you're finished correcting spelling errors,
     click Close.

--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb


*10. WHY DO NOW WHAT YOU CAN PUT OFF UNTIL LATER?

April 23rd, 1999

Yesterday, we explained how to spell check your entire Web site 
with a few clicks. But say that you discover that your site has 
dozens of errors, and you only have a few minutes left in your 
day--certainly not enough time to fix all the mistakes. You 
decide to correct the misspellings tomorrow, but you don't want 
to waste time by running the spell check all over again. So 
what do you do? Bite the bullet, stay late, and make the 
corrections now? Or resign yourself to redoing EVERYTHING 
tomorrow? Neither. Instead, create a task for the misspellings 
on each page and then go back and make your changes when you 
can. Here's how: 

- 1. Close all pages you have open in the FrontPage Editor. 
- 2. In FrontPage Explorer, choose Tools + Spelling. 
- 3. In the Spelling dialog box, select All Pages. 
- 4. Click Start to begin the spell check. When it's finished,
     the Spelling dialog box opens, listing the pages that have
     spelling errors and the number of errors per page. 
- 5. When you get the spell check report, highlight the first
     page on the list and click Add Task to add this page as a
     task on your Task List. 
- 6. Repeat Step 5 for every page on the list. 

When you're done, you can jump to FrontPage Explorer and click 
the Tasks icon in the View pane to see the Task List. 

Tip-in-a-tip: If you know (or suspect) that your page is 
riddled with errors and you won't want to fix them right away, 
select Add a Task for Each Page with Misspellings in the 
Spelling dialog box BEFORE you even start the spell check. By 
doing so, you can avoid having to add each task individually 
to the Task List.

--This tip contributed by JoAnne Robb
