FrontPage 2003 tips
 

 Last updated 2004/03/20

This page captures ideas as they come up and for the most part, remains an unedited record, rather than an erstwhile effort at communicating reference information.

  • The Absolute Beginner's Guide to FrontPage 2003 book is a good start.
    For advanced FrontPage users, I recommend Microsoft FrontPage 2003 Savvy.
     

  • settings:

    • Tools/Page options/Authoring/Schema set to IE/Netscape 4.0

    • File/Preview/edit browser list to set up multiple browsers

    • View/quick tag editor on

    • turn on Tools/Page options/Intellisense options on

    • turn on Tools/Page options/General/Code view options on
       

  • essential tasks

    • if you use FrontPage as an FTP client, always do file (add/del/chg/rename/upload/download) activities inside FP2003.

    • use tools/Browser compatibility

    • use tools/Recalculate hyperlinks, to clean up site & reset site map

    • enter a meaningful text title for each page

    • all pages inside a table 760 pixels wide

    • use various hyperlink reports to keep them all valid

    • slow pages report (set for 56kps)

    • use Tools/Optimize html to only remove unused content, VML and word content.
       

  • Importing barebones text from a rich text application (Word/WordPerfect/etc)

    • From any application/document put the desired text onto the clipboard.

    • In FP2003, simply use Edit/Paste special/Normal paragraphs to get uncontaminated text.
      (The Edit/Paste special/Formatted paragraphs option, looks tempting, but the
      end user's browser may render the page somewhat unpredictably.)
       

  • Any page using the WellnessHouse header automatically inherits the whitesmoke background colour. If the header isn't part of the page, use Format/Background to set the page background colour, using any colour. Then go into the code view and change the <body> tag to use bgcolor="whitesmoke". It's among the two hundred or so web safe colours.
     

  • In FrontPage the typical cut, copy, and paste operations may not be done as your are used to. As in nearly any Windows application, one can employ the following control key plus a letter combinations:  cut: control+x,   copy: control+c   paste: control+v. Often its easier to use these when you can't readily find another way.
     

  • useful functions

    • use Insert/Web component/Table of contents to create & maintain website map

    • photo gallery template
       

  • useless functions:

    • If your remote site doesn't have FrontPage extensions enabled, many of FP2003 features are not useable. For example, FP2003 is absolutely misleading about managing the upload and download tasks. Keep your wits about what you want to upload or download and do so manually. Without the FrontPage extensions, you must not act on what FP2003 indicates in the remote site view.

    • Navigation anything and related sitemaps

    • link bars (do them yourself or if really dynamic buy AllWebMenus)

    • user registration

    • MS supplied themes

    • word art is cheesy at best
       

  • Dynamic Web Template (.dwt) AllWebMenu considerations

    • any page with using a dynamic web template header with an AllWebMenu must all be placed in the same directory. A page located elsewhere will display fine, but menu's use of relative references will result in broken links to other pages from the menu.

Contact Gord for further information or help. 820-5585 or .