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Foraying into FrontPage 2000

Read this before you begin Web designing

Can I change the text and link colours without using FrontPage themes?

Yes, you can. With your Web page open in the editor, choose File, Properties, or right-click anywhere inside the page editor screen and choose file properties from the pop-up menu. The Page Properties dialog box appears. The commands to change the backgr ound colour and the text and link colours appear within the Background tab. This is discussed further on **Day 9,

``Changing the Appearance of Your Pages.''

Can I change the default size of the font in the Frontpage Editor?

Although you can change the default fonts you use, you cannot set the default font size. You must set the font size or use the Increase Font Size or Decrease Font Size buttons on the toolbar to change the size of your text.

I created a formatted paragraph while designing my page, but some people say that they cannot see it all in their browser. They say they have to scroll toward the right to see some of the content. Did I do something wrong?

I suspect that you created your Web pages while working in a higher resolution (perhaps 800x600 or 1024x768), and that the people viewing your pages are viewing them at a lower resolution (such as 640x480). Formatted paragraphs display exactly the way yo u create them and do not wrap around like normal paragraphs do. You will want to keep in mind as you design your pages that some people navigate the Web at lower resolutions. Besides previewing your pages in different browsers, it is a good idea to previ ew your pages at different resolutions, too.

I created a Web page that shows my old company name on it several times. I have recently changed it -- is there an easy way to make all changes at once?

There sure is. You can use the Find and Replace features of Frontpage. Choose Edit, Replace or press Ctrl+H. The Replace dialog box appears. Enter the `old' company name in the Find What field, and the `new' company name in the Replace With field. To mak e the changes in your current page, choose the Current page radio button in the lower-left corner of the dialog box. To apply the changes in all pages in your Web, choose the All pages radio button.

Is there a standard for style sheets, or some kind of reference I can use for programming my own style sheets? Of course there is, and it is a great one too. The World Wide Web Consortium (also known as the W3C, the organisation that sets standards for t he Web) created an excellent reference for style sheets and how to use them in your Web pages. This reference is sure to tell you everything you need to know about style sheets. You can find the official reference on the Web at http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-C SS2/.

What browsers are style sheets compatible with? Currently, the second revision of the style sheets standard, or CSS2, is supported only by Internet Explorer 4 and higher (Netscape Navigator 4.5 partly supports CSS2; however, it is far from being implemen ted fully or properly). CSS1 is supported by Internet Explorer 3 and higher, and in part by Netscape 4. Microsoft Frontpage uses CSS2.

What are the major differences between CSS1 and CSS2?

CSS1, or the first standard proposed by the W3C for style sheets, comprises of only minimal formatting options that were, for the most part, already available with standard HTML. CSS2, however, contains a lot more formatting options, many of which are no t supported with regular HTML. CSS2 also introduces standards for the visually-impaired, which enables you to specify how content on your page is read to the user. Unfortunately, this portion of CSS is still widely unused.

Why can't I just add an applet to my page?

Applets all come with their own instructions; you must read these carefully and make sure that you upload the class files to the correct directory.

I have submitted my site to a search engine but it does not show up. Why not?

Search engines receive tens of thousands of request every day to add or update sites. Often, your site will get added to a queue (first come, first serve). Some search engines will only spider sites on certain days of the week or month. Even if your site is spidered immediately, it might not be added to the database for a few days. You might even have to wait several days or even weeks before your site shows up in the search engines.

I have lost the local copy of my Web site after I published it. What can I do?

If the server on which you published your Web has the Frontpage server extensions, then this is easy. Most Frontpage users think of publishing in only one direction, from your computer to a server. What most users do not realise is that you can go the ot her way, too. Frontpage does not care; it just needs two Web servers to work with. You can publish your Web site back to your computer by opening the Web you published to the server just as you would when you open your local Web. It is best to use the ex act same URL to open your Web that you used to publish it such as

http://www.mysite.com/myWeb/.

Once you open the Web, you can publish it back to your local computer by using your local computer's name.

Quiz

1. Which two Web templates are good to use when your Web site will contain all original content?

2. Which page template is most often used when designing pages in Frontpage?

3. What are the three types of paragraph styles, and for what are they used?

4. True or false: There are different character styles that you can use that will display pretty much the same in old and new browsers.

5. In what cases do you want to add a Date and Time component that updates itself automatically?

6. How do you give instructions to an applet?

7. Of the three advanced features that can be inserted into a Web page (ActiveX, Java, or plug-in), which one works in all browsers?

8. Where were Design Time Controls first introduced?

9. Will JavaScript be supported in all browsers?

10. How do you make an ActiveX control you downloaded visible in the Actr-eX control list?

11. Explain the difference between a hyperlink and a bookmark.

12. What types of hyperlinks can you create in Frontpage?

13. True or false: Absolute URLs are portable.

14. True or false: Bookmark names can contain spaces.

15. What else is important to include on your page when you use images as hyperlinks?

16. What are the basic elements that make up a table?

17. When is it good to use a borderless table?

18. What is the difference between cell padding and cell spacing?

19. When specifying the width of a table, which is most commonly used: Percentage widths or pixel widths? Why?

20. What are nested tables, and what are they used for?

Answers to Quiz

1. The Empty Web template and the One Page Web template are good to start with when your entire Web will be original.

2. The Normal page template, which creates a blank Web page, is the most commonly used page template.

3. Normal paragraphs are the most commonly used paragraph type and are used for the majority of your page content. Formatted paragraphs are used to display information in a fixed width font and allow for multiple spaces so that you can align content in a tabular form. Address paragraphs are typically used to display copyright and authorship information at the foot of a Web page.

4. True. All but five of the character styles that you find in the Effects section in the Font tab of the Font dialog box will display fairly consistently in older and newer browsers.

5. Date and Time components should be updated automatically when they are placed on a page that accepts input from a site visitor, or on pages that Frontpage automatically updates for you. Examples of these pages are guest books, table of contents pages, and pages that display other results from survey forms or questionnaires that receive input from your visitors.

6. Applets receive instructions through parameters consisting of a name, such as colour, and a value, such as blue.

7. Java is the best feature to use because it is supported in all but the oldest versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

8. Design Time Controls were first introduced in Visual Interdev 1.0, and are brand new to Frontpage 2000.

9. Almost. Nearly every browser offers support for JavaScript (but not Web TV, currently).

10. To see a newly-downloaded ActiveX control, use the Customize button to add it to the selectable list.

11. A hyperlink takes readers to a different page or file on an Internet, intranet, or personal Web server. A bookmark marks a specific location on a Web page, and is an extension of a hyperlink.

12. You can create hyperlinks to pages on the World Wide Web, to pages on a local or network drive, to pages in your current Web, and to email addresses.

13. False. Absolute URLs display a complete path (Web protocol, server, directory, and filename). Relative URLs are portable because they display partial paths.

14. False. Though Frontpage allows you to create bookmark names that contain spaces, they might not work in all browsers. If your bookmarks do not seem to be working correctly in some browsers, double-check your bookmark names for spaces. Better yet, do not use spaces when you assign names to bookmarks.

15. You should include a text equivalent in case some visitors come to your site and cannot or choose not to view images on your pages. By using alternative text representations or adding text hyperlinks on your page, you avoid email saying that people c annot navigate through your site.

16. The basic parts of a table are border, caption, cells, rows, and columns.

17. Borderless tables are good to use when you want to lay out several graphics side by side and give the illusion that they are one complete graphic.

18. Cell padding defines the amount of space between the cell border and the contents of the cell. Cell spacing defines the amount of space in between the cells.

19. Percentage widths are most commonly used because people browse the Internet at different resolutions. Percentage-width tables resize themselves to accommodate the varying resolutions.

20. Nested tables are tables inserted within tables. They are typically used for advanced page layouts, in situations where splitting and merging cells will not result in the desired outcome.

Sams Teach yourself Microsoft FrontPage 2000 in 21 days Denise Tyler (Book courtesy: Word Power)