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Tip: Make Folders view more useful (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

FrontPage's Folders view includes a lot of information -- maybe even too much. A few simple techniques can make working with all that information easier.

You can sort Folders view by any column by clicking on that column's header. Click again to reverse the sort order -- Z to A instead of A to Z, for example.

You can also resize the columns in Folders view. Doing so lets you squeeze more information into the same amount of space. To do so, drag the right edge of a column's header to the left. (Drag to the right if you want to expand the column.)

Finally, in FrontPage 2002 and 2003, you can rearrange the columns. To do so, drag a column's header to its new position and release the mouse button.

Tip: Adding a navigation bar to the bottom shared border (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

When you apply shared borders (Format | Shared Borders) to all the pages in your site, you also have the option of including navigation buttons automatically. Specifically, FrontPage lets you add navigation buttons to the top, left, and right shared borders (but just the top and left borders in FrontPage 2000).

Many web designers like to also include navigation buttons, often text-based, at the bottom of their pages. While you can't do that automatically in FrontPage, you can do so manually. Enable the bottom border in the Shared Borders dialog box and click OK. Delete the Comment component that appears in the bottom border and insert a navigation bar by choosing Navigation (Navigation Bar in FrontPage 2000) from the Insert menu.

Tip: Quickly preview your site at various browser sizes (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

The best way to judge your site’s appearance is to preview it in a web browser at various sizes. To quickly resize a browser window, enter javascript:resizeTo(800,600);moveTo(0,0) and press [Enter]. You can change the values in the first set of parentheses to test your site at other sizes.

Tip: An important consideration with validating numbers (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

FrontPage makes it easy to validate data that users enter in form fields. In the Text Box Properties dialog box, click Validate to access the Text Box Validation dialog box. This dialog box is fairly self-explanatory. However, you can get into trouble if you set a range of acceptable values in the Data Range section of the dialog box without specifying that the data must be numeric. The first thing you should do when validating numbers is to choose Number or Integer from the Data Type dropdown menu.

Tip: Using multiple favicons on a single website (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

Last week’s tip discussed favicons, those icons that appear in most browsers’ Address text boxes and favorites lists. Although using a favicon is as easy as importing it into your site’s root directory, you can actually do more with favicons if you’d like.

First, you can specify a different filename and/or location by adding the following tag to each page’s <head> section:

<link rel="shortcut icon"

href="http://www.myURL.com/images/newfavicon.ico">

Be sure to change the URL shown here to match the URL of your favicon.

Second, you can use different favicons on different pages. Just add variants of the <link> tag to each page in your site, specifying the favicon that corresponds with that page.

Tip: Adding favicons to your website (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

One mark of a professional site is that it includes a favicon—a 16 x 16 icon that appears next to the site’s URL in most browsers’ Address text boxes and favorites lists. You can create such an icon in a variety of image editors; Photoshop plug-ins to do the job are also available.

Once you’ve created a favicon, save it as favicon.ico and import it into your site’s root directory to use it. You don’t have to change any program settings or write any code.

Tip: Web-package feature requires SharePoint Team Services (FrontPage 2003)

A web package is a single file created in FrontPage 2003 that can contain web pages, template files, web components, themes, graphics, style sheets, and other documents. To create and import web packages, choose Packages from the Tools menu. You can create web packages from any FrontPage website, including those on your hard drive or on servers that support the FrontPage extensions. However, you can only import web packages into sites on servers running SharePoint Team Services (a superset of the server extensions).

Tip: Adding frequently accessed folders to the My Places bar (FrontPage 2002/2003)

If you frequently access a folder on your hard drive (such as a website folder in your My Webs or My Web Sites folder), you can add it to the My Places bar in FrontPage dialog boxes like Open Web.

To do so, choose Open Web from the File menu and then navigate to the target folder’s parent folder--My Webs in our example. Select the target folder and click Tools near the top of the dialog box. From the dropdown menu that appears, choose Add To “My Places.”

Tip: Adding frequently accessed folders to the My Places bar (FrontPage 2002/2003)

If you frequently access a folder on your hard drive (such as a website folder in your My Webs or My Web Sites folder), you can add it to the My Places bar in FrontPage dialog boxes like Open Web.

To do so, choose Open Web from the File menu and then navigate to the target folder’s parent folder--My Webs in our example. Select the target folder and click Tools near the top of the dialog box. From the dropdown menu that appears, choose Add To “My Places.”

Tip: Create picture thumbnails in a single step (FrontPage 2002/2003)

Here’s a quick way to create thumbnails of pictures in FrontPage. If you’re running FrontPage 2002, open the page that should contain the thumbnail in Page mode. Next, switch to Folders view and open the folder that contains the original image. Right-click on the image and drag it over the Page button on the Views bar. When you do, FrontPage switches to Page view. While still holding down the mouse button, move to the location on your page where the thumbnail should appear, and then release the mouse button. Choose Auto Thumbnail from the shortcut menu that appears.

In FrontPage 2003 the process is a little easier. Open your page for editing in Design or Split mode. Then, click the Web Site tab and switch to Folders view. Right-click on your image and drag it up to the tab representing your page at the top of the window. FrontPage switches to Design or Split mode (whichever one you were in before). Move to the location where the thumbnail should appear. When you release the mouse button, a shortcut menu appears. Choose Auto Thumbnail.

Tip: Wrap text around a picture (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

In FrontPage, it's easy to wrap text around a picture, although the procedure is a little counterintuitive. First, drag the picture and drop it just before the first word in the target paragraph. Then, right-click on the picture and choose Picture Properties from the shortcut menu.

In the Picture Properties dialog box, switch to the Appearance tab and click the Left or Right button (the name designates the side of the paragraph on which the picture should be aligned). FrontPage 2000 doesn’t include Left and Right buttons, so choose Left or Right from the Alignment dropdown menu.

If you’re using FrontPage 2000, you’ll also want to enter a value (in pixels) in the Horizontal Spacing spinner control to create a little space between the text and the picture. FrontPage 2002 and 2003 automatically enter a value of 3 pixels, although you can change this value.

Tip: Saving documents directly to your Web site (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

You (or your coworkers) can save Microsoft Office documents directly to your Web site by creating a network place of Web folder. in Windows 2000 and XP, a network place is simply a shortcut to a location on a network or the internet; Windows 98 uses the term Web folder instead.

Tip: Configure FrontPage to always show full menus (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

FrontPage’s personalized-menus feature, which is enabled by default, hides many uncommon commands on each of the program’s menus. To see (and select) any of those commands, you must click on the expansion bar at the bottom of a menu.

If you don’t like taking that extra step, you can configure the program to always show full menus. To do so, choose Customize from the Tools menu to access the Customize dialog box. Then, switch to the Options tab. Select the Always Show Full Menus check box and click Close. (In FrontPage 2000, deselect the Menus Show Recently Used Commands First check box.)

Tip: Place graphic elements on a drawing canvas (FrontPage 2002/2003)

Before you draw elaborate pictures with the tools on FrontPage's Drawing toolbar, you should first create a drawing canvas. This is a defined region in which you can place several AutoShapes, WordArt pictures, and other graphics. Doing so keeps al your graphic elements together and lets you easily position them on the page.

To add a drawing canvas, choose Insert |Picture | New Drawing. Initially, your drawing canvas measures 480 x 288 pixels, but you can resize it by dragging on a corner or edge. After you've created the drawing canvas, you can draw AutoShapes and other graphic elements within its boundaries.

Tip: Drawing cross-browser pictures (FrontPage 2002/2003)

FrontPage's Drawing toolbar lets you add AutoShapes, WordArt, and other graphic elements to your pages. These pictures aren't in GIF or JPEG format, however; they're rendered on the fly using VML (Vector Markup Language).

Not all browsers support VML, so FrontPage includes a feature that automatically creates alternate images in GIF format. To enable this feature, choose Page Options from the Tools menu, switch to the Compatibility tab (Authoring in FrontPage 2003), select the Downlevel Image File check box, and click OK.

Tip: Properly configure your uploads folder (FrontPage 2002/2003)

With FrontPage's File Upload component you can allow site visitors to upload files to a directory within your site. In order for the component to work properly, however, you'll probably need to change the upload directory's properties.

First, create a folder within your site's root directory named uploads. Select this folder and choose Properties from the File menu to access the Properties dialog box. Near the center of this dialog box, you'll find a single check box labeled Allow Scripts Or Programs To Be Run or two check boxes labeled Allow Programs To Be Run and Allow Scripts To Be Run, depending on your server version. Deselect the check box(es) you see.

Next, select the Allow Anonymous Upload To This Directory check box. This setting allows anyone to use the upload form. You can also select the Allow Uploaded Files To Overwrite Existing Filenames check box if you wish. If this option is left deselected, a user will see an error message if he tries to upload a file with the same name as an existing file.

Tip: Understanding the 304 server response code (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

If you review your site's server logs or online statistics, you may be surprised to discover multiple occurrences of the 304 (not modified) error. Don't be alarmed, however. This really isn't an error at all. It simply means that the requested page hasn't been updated and that the Web browser should display a cached version of the page instead.

When a browser request a page, the request may be conditional, asking for the page to be sent only if it's been modified since a given date. The server responds by sending the page if it's been modified or the 304 response code if it hasn't. Either way, the site visitor will see the page he requested, not an error message.

Tip: Understanding the difference between subwebs, subsites, and folders (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

When you create a website in FrontPage, you can stick all your HTML files, picture files, and other content in a single directory. Or you can create folders to organize your content. Or you can create subwebs (called subsites in FrontPage 2003).

So what's the difference between a folder and a subweb or subsite? Just like in Windows, a folder is simply a device for organizing content. The standard images folder FrontPage creates is a good example. You might also create a folder to hold downloadable files or back issues of your company's newsletter, for instance.

A subweb/subsite, on the other hand, is actually a complete separate site that's nested within your root web. Each subweb/subsite can have its own theme, its own navigation structure, and its own passwords. If you want to create a special, password-protected section of your company's Web site that your sales force can access, a subweb/subsite is the way to go. The easiest way to create one is to convert an existing folder. Just right-click on the folder in Folders view and choose Convert To Web from the shortcut menu.

Tip: Finding free add-ins (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

As add-ins (third-party enhancements to FrontPage) became increasingly popular a couple of years ago, Microsoft created the FrontPage Add-in Center to help users find, rate, and download them. At http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/downloads/=addin, you can find dozens of add-ins, as well as FrontPage themes and site templates. In each case, you'll see which versions an add-in works with, a contact email address, and a rating provided by other users.

Tip: Saving Office documents directly to a FrontPage site (2000/2002/2003)

If coworkers provide Word or Excel documents for your Web site, you can let them save those documents directly to the site. Here are the steps they need to follow:

Choose Save As Web Page from Word or Excel's File menu to access the familiar Save As dialog box. Choose My Network Places or Web Folders in the My Places bar; then, click the Create new Folder button.

At this point in Windows XP, the Add Network Place Wizard appears. Click Next. Type the Web site's URL in the Location text box and a descriptive name in the Shortcut Name text box. Click Finish. You'll be prompted for your username and password. After you supply those, you'll be able to save your document.

In Windows 98, the process is a little different. After you click the Create New Folder button, the Add Web Folder dialog box appears. In the single text box, type the site's URL; then, click Next. You'll be prompted for your username and password. Then, on the next screen, type a shortcut name and click Finish. At this point, you can save the document.

Tip: Be sure to name your form fields before adding validation (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

When you enable validation on a form field, it's important that you give the field a descriptive name in the Display Name field of whichever validation dialog box you're using. (If you're validating a textbox field, for example, the dialog box is called Text Box Validation.)

FrontPage uses the display name in the message box that appears when a field doesn't contain valid data. If you don't specify a display name, the message box instead refers to the field's internal name, yielding a cryptic message like this: "Please enter a value for the 'T1' field."

Tip: Tweaking image map hotspots (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

FrontPage lets you create three kinds of hotspots on image maps: rectangular, circular, and polygonal. In each case, you can tweak the hotspot after drawing it. Once you've drawn a hotspot, you can move it by dragging it. You can also modify its shape by dragging on one of its corner handles. (These handles appear only on the currently selected hotspot.) To delete a hotspot, simply select it and press the [Delete] key. Be sure a hotspot is selected; otherwise, you'll delete the image.

Tip: Preparing for upcoming changes in Internet Explorer (FrontPage 98/2000/2002/2003)

As a result of a patent dispute with a company called Eolas Technologies, Microsoft is changing the way Internet Explorer handles ActiveX controls, Marcomedia Flash movies, or other active content. Beginning with the next version of IE, due out in early 2004, users will have to explicitly allow each control to load. If you use splash pages, Flash animations, and other active content, you may need to change the way your sites are designed to minimize user inconvenience.

Microsoft has released a special pre-release version of the new IE for testing. You can install this version without impacting your existing copy if IE, allowing you to test pages side by side. For more information, visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate. On that page, you can also find workaround strategies and links to pages on the Macromedia, Apple, and RealNetworks sites that discuss the changes to IE and how you can work around them.

Tip: Keeping up with updates (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

If you use FrontPage 2000 or later, you can keep your installation updated with a quick visit to the Microsoft Web site. Just point your browser to http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate and click on the Check For Updates hyperlink. (In FrontPage 2003, you can also choose Check For Updates from the Help menu.)

When you do, an ActiveX control called the Office Update Installation Engine scans your computer--without transmitting any user-identifiable information to Microsoft--and alerts you about any updates that are available.

Tip: Using Web-smart colors (FrontPage 98/2000/2002/2003)

For years, Web design gurus have preached about the Web-safe color palette, a palette of just 216 colors that render correctly on 256-color monitors on either Windows or Mac Systems. Since the Web-safe palette first appeared, however, most users (some 95 percent) have upgraded to or bought monitors capable of displaying thousands or millions of colors, making the Web-safe palette all but irrelevant. But that's not to say that there's no need for a similar, but larger, palette. In fact, Kirk Franklin has crated just such a palette--the Web-smart palette. It includes 4.096 colors that render well on 16 bit and higher monitors. Franklin's Web site, www.morecrayons.com, lets you interact with his palette in a number of ways. For example, you can zoom in on any slice of the cube shown in the figure to get hexadecimal and RGB values for each of the 256 colors in that slice. By picking colors from this palette when you're specifying custom colors in FrontPage, you'll ensure that your site visitors see your pages as you intended them to.

Tip: A quick way to remove formatting from pasted text (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

When you paste text into FrontPage from a program like Microsoft Word, you can end up with a lot of unwanted formatting codes. While FrontPage offers a Paste Special command, its usefulness is limited.

A good alternative is to use your email program. Paste the formatted text into a blank email message, save the message as a draft in plain text, and then open it and copy the now unformatted text. If your email program is set to create plain-text messages by default, you won't even have to save the message first.

Tip: Saving your settings before migrating to a new PC (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

If you're changing PCs, you can save your FrontPage settings (including customized menus, preferred file locations, and custom-dictionary entries) by using the Save My Settings Wizard, also known as the Office Profile Wizard.

In most cases, the wizard is installed when you install FrontPage or another Office application. To launch the wizard in Office XP (FrontPage 2002), click on the Start menu and choose All Programs | Microsoft Office Tools | Save My Settings Wizard. In Office 2003, the command is All Programs | Microsoft Office Tools | Microsoft Office 2003 Save My Settings Wizard. In FrontPage 2000, use All Programs | Microsoft Office Tools | Microsoft Office 2000 Resource Kit Tools | Profile Wizard.

If you don't find the wizard and you're running Office XP or 2003, use the Add/Remove Programs control panel device to install it. You'll need to have your Office or FrontPage CD handy. If you're running Office 2000, you can download the wizard, as part of the Office 2000 Resource Kit, from http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;816003.

Tip: Specifying your own hit counter image (FrontPage 98/2000/2002/2003)

If you don't like the five counter styles available in the Hit Counter Properties dialog box, you can specify your own by selecting the Custom Picture radio button. The trick lies in how you create that image. It mus be a single GIF file, and it must contain the digits 0 through 9, in that order. Finally, the digits must be evenly spaced. Why all the restrictions? When FrontPage generates a hit counter, it simply takes the counter image and divides it into 10 equal slices. It uses the first slice for 0, the second for 1, etc. If the digits are out of order or aren't the same width, you'll get unexpected results.

Tip: Deleting Web folders that you no longer need (FrontPage 2000/2002)

FrontPage 2000 and 2002 prevent you from deleting Web folders in the Open Web dialog box, even though the shortcut menu that appears when you right-click on a folder includes the Delete command. Fortunately, the solution is easy. Go up one level to the My Webs folder and click Open. This opens the default site in your My Webs folder (a site you may not have realized even existed). Switch to Folders view, select the Web folder you want to delete, and press the [Delete] key. The Confirm Delete message box appears, asking you to confirm that you really want to delete the folder. You can't undo this operation, so be careful!

Tip: Simulating a slow connection speed to test page-load times (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

While FrontPage's Estimated Time To Download indicator does a decent job of calculating page-load times, it only presents a number. Pages still load just as fast when you preview them over a high-speed connection, so it's can be hard to relate what you see in FrontPage's Preview mode or your browser to what the indicator says. If you really want to see a site as other people see it, you need a way to temporarily slow down your Internet connection. A great tool for doing that is the Sloppy utility from www.dallaway.com/sloppy. You enter your site's URL and a desired connection speed in Sloppy, and the program launches your browser and loads the requested site at the specified speed. As long as you follow relative hyperlinks within the site, Sloppy continues to slow down your Internet connection. Follow an absolute URL or enter a new URL, and your normal speed resumes.

Tip: Finding FrontPage's help files online (2000/2002/2003)

If your installation of FrontPage doesn't include help files (perhaps because your company didn't and won't install them), you can find the files on the Web. Microsoft makes its help files available in a couple of places, each of which is a good alternative to the PC-based help files. (In fact, some people find Web-based help easier to use, since accessing it doesn't resize the FrontPage window.) For FrontPage 2003, visit http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/default.aspx and click on the FrontPage 2003 link. Once there, you can also find help files for FrontPage 2000 and 2002 by clicking on their links under the Other Versions of FrontPage section on the right side of the page.

Tip: Checking a page's download time at different speeds (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

In the lower-right corner of the FrontPage window you'll find the Estimated Time To Download indicator, which estimates how long the current page will take to download at a given Internet connection speed: "5 Seconds Over 56.6," for example.

To assume a different connection speed, click on the indicator. Depending on your version of FrontPage, a menu appears letting you choose a speed ranging from an archaic 14.4 Kbps to a blazingly fast 45 Mbps (45,000 Kbps, commonly called T3).

Tip: Monitoring guest book entries by email (FrontPage 98/2000/2002/2003)

People with too much time on their hands seem to enjoy posting objectionable comments in online guest books. To monitor postings, you can configure your guest book so you receive them by email on submission. Open the guest book page for editing and right-click anywhere on the form (the section of the page surrounded by a dotted-line border). Choose Form Properties from the shortcut menu to open the Form Properties dialog box. enter your email address in the E-mail Address text box and click OK. Publish the page to the server. From now on, whenever someone posts an entry, it will appear on the page and in your inbox simultaneously. If an objectionable entry appears, you can simply remove it from guestlog.htm, the file that contains all your guest book entries.

Tip: Quickly preview your pages at various resolutions (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

FrontPage 2003 has improved the process of previewing your pages at different resolutions, but there's still a quicker way if you use Internet Explorer.

In IE's Address text box, type javascript:resizeTo(800,600);moveTo(0,0); and click OK. This resizes the browser window to 800x600 and positions it in the upper-left corner of the screen. You can do the same thing with 640x480, 1024x768, etc., by just entering different values.

Best of all, you can also add these commands to IE's Links bar for easy access in the future. To do so, drag the page icon from the Address box to the Links bar. Click Yes in the Security Alert message box that appears.

Tip: Prevent users from accessing certain folders (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

If you have folders on your site that users should be able to access, you can change a setting to prevent anonymous access. Depending on your server configuration, changing the access setting can be easy or difficult. If you host your site on a Windows server, you should be able to change the setting in FrontPage. Open the live version of the site, right-click on the folder in Folders view, and choose Properties. In the Properties dialog box, deselect the Allow Files To Be Browsed check box, and click OK.

Other server configurations don't let you disable file access in FrontPage itself. Instead, you have to use an FTP program like WS_FTP or CuteFTP to change the folder's access permissions to 700, which means only the folder's owner can access the file. See your software documentation for details; the command you need is often called CHMOD (for "change mode").

Tip: Identifying redirect pages (FrontPage 98/2000/2002/2003)

In FrontPage's Folders view, it's all but impossible to tell which pages are "real" and which ones are simple redirects. And you can't just stuff all the redirect pages in a separate folder; they must remain in their original location in order for visitors to find them. The best solution we've found is to indicate in your page titles which pages are redirects. In Folders view, you can click twice on a page's title (as opposed to double-clicking) to edit the title. In Page view, right-click on the title and choose Page Properties from the shortcut menu. enter a new title fro the page in the Title text box, and click OK. If you give all your redirect pages the same title, you can quickly identify them in Folders view. In fact, you can click on the Title column's header to sort by that column and see all your redirect pages listed together.

Tip: Making hyperlinks work again in Preview mode (FrontPage 2002)

Upgrading Internet Explorer can cause certain internal hyperlinks not to work in FrontPage's Preview mode. Fortunately, the fix is pretty easy, although it does require you to use the Windows Registry Editor. Click the Windows Start button, choose Run from the Start menu, type regedit in the Open text box, and then Click OK.

When the Registry Editor window opens, locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Application Compatibility. Next, right-click on Application Compatibility and choose New | DWORD Value. A new entry appears in the right pane; rename it Frontpg.exe and press [Enter]. Double-click on this entry to access the Edit DWORD Value dialog box. Type 1 in the Value Data text box and click OK. Close the Registry Editor. (Your change is saved automatically.) The next time you launch FrontPage, your hyperlinks will work as expected.

Tip: Diagnosing an error with the File Upload component (FrontPage 2002/2003)

FrontPage's File Upload component lets you create a simple form site that visitors can use to upload files to your site. Occasionally, however, you'll get the following error message when you test the form: "Form Validation Error: Please correct the information you provided by following these steps, then submit the information again: Cannot open file "file name" for writing."

Despite the wording of this message, the problem relates to the setting that allows files to be uploaded to the target folder. To fix the problem, go to Folders view in FrontPage. Right-click on the upload folder and choose Properties. Deselect the Allow Anonymous Upload To This Directory check box, click Apply, select the Allow Anonymous Upload To This Directory check box again, and click OK.

Tip: Resizing FrontPage images doesn't reduce their file size (98/2000/2002/2003)

Many novice FrontPage users assume that resizing an image (by dragging one of its size handles) reduces the image's file size--which determines how quickly the image will load in the browser. In reality, though, resizing has no effect on its file size.

Once you've resized an image by dragging one of its size handles, you must then resample it by clicking the Resample button on the Pictures toolbar. Doing so not only reduces the file size but generally improves the image's appearance significantly.

Tip: Modify link bar labels to accommodate underlying graphics (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

Many of FrontPage's themes include navigation buttons with borders or decorative elements along their left edges. If you modify a theme to left-justify your button labels, those labels can end up being obscured by the underlying graphic.

To fix this problem, all you have to do is add a few spaces to the beginning of each label in Navigation view. However, you can't just press the [Spacebar] because FrontPage discards ordinary spaces. Instead, add non-breaking spaces by holding down the [Alt] key and typing 0160 on the numeric keypad. Repeat as needed.

Tip: Identifying bloated images in FrontPage (98/2000/2002/2003)

The best way to spot images that are slowing down your pages is to use the All Files report or All Files view. In FrontPage 2002/2003, choose View | Reports | Files | All Files. In 2000, choose View | Reports | All Files. In FrontPage 98 Explorer, click All Files on the Views bar. Next, click on the Size column's header to sort the list; you'll quickly see which images are the largest.

Once you've identified a group of bloated images, use the image-compression feature in FrontPage, Adobe Photoshop, or another program to cut them down to size.

Tip: Solving FrontPage crashes when placing TIFF images (2002)

If you place a TIFF image in a FrontPage document, the program may crash. To solve this problem, Microsoft has created a hot fix, a program patch developed to address a specific problem. (These patches are typically only available through Microsoft Product Support Services, not through the Microsoft Web site.)

You must be running Office XP Service Pack 2 to use the patch, and you may need Windows Installer 2.0 For more information on the patch and how to request it, see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;818636.

Tip: Adding a subject to your mailto links (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

When you create an email link, visitors can easily send you an email message from your Web page. To make the process even easier, you can predetermine the message's subject field. In FrontPage 2002 and 2003, the Insert Hyperlink dialog box includes a Subject text box, where you can enter a subject line. Simply choose Insert > Hyperlink and click Email Address to bring up the Subject text box.

FrontPage 2000's Create E-mail Hyperlink dialog box doesn't offer this capability directly. In that version, choose Insert > Hyperlink and click the Make A Hyperlink That Sends E-Mail button to open the Create E-Mail Hyperlink dialog box. Then, type your email address as you ordinarily would, but add the following text to the end of the address: ?Subject=Web Site Feedback (substituting your desired subject text after the equal sign). Now, when a user clicks your mailto link, the resulting email will include your predetermined subject.

Tip: Track your progress as you complete FrontPage tasks (2000/2002/2003)

The FrontPage task list is a view that lists various jobs to be completed on a Web site. As you work on your tasks, you can then mark them as in progress or completed.

If a task is associated with a specific page, you can right-click on it in Tasks view and choose Start Task to open the associated page and begin work. When you save the page, a message box appears, asking you whether you've completed the task. If you click yes, FrontPage marks the task Completed; otherwise, it marks the task in Progress.

Tip: Associating FrontPage tasks with specific documents (2000/2002/2003)

FrontPage's task-list feature offers you an electronic to-do list integrated into your Web site. Associating a task with a specific page makes it easier to start that task and track your progress. to do so, open the page for editing or select it in Folders view. then, choose Edit | Task | Add Task. The New task dialog box appears, indicating the current file's name, which appears next to Associated With. You can then enter the other information--task name, description, and priority level--and click OK. From now on, your task will appear alongside other tasks in Tasks view. To begin work on it, right-click and choose Start Task from the shortcut menu.

Tip: The Folders view in FrontPage 2000 and 2002 includes a pane called the Folder List, which shows all of your Web's files and folders in a directory-tree format. It's a handy tool for navigating through the files in your Web and quickly opening documents for editing.

But, did you know the Folder List is also available in other views, specifically in the Page, Hyperlink and Navigation views, in FrontPage 2000, 2002, and 2003? To turn the Folder List on, simply click the Folder List button (Toggle Pane button in FrontPage 2003) on the Standard toolbar; it's right between the Publish Web and Print buttons. You can also choose Folder List from the View menu.

The Folder List can take up valuable screen space, but you can resize it by dragging on its right border. You can also get rid of it by clicking the Folder List button again.

Tip: Defining custom colors in FrontPage (2000/2002/2003)

If you have a color that you want to use consistently through a site, you can add it to the program's Color menu. First, access the More Colors dialog box by clicking on the small down arrow next to the Font Color button on the Formatting toolbar and choosing More Colors. Click the Custom button to access the Color dialog box.

As you'll see, FrontPage allows you to specify up to 16 custom colors, which you can easily access anytime you apply a color to a page element. Select the first (or the first blank) custom color swatch on the left, enter your first color's RGB values in the text boxes at the right, and click the Add To Custom Colors button. Click OK twice to close the open dialog boxes. At this point, your custom color is ready to use. When you click again on the down arrow next to the Font Color button, you'll see that the Color menu now includes the color you just created. It also appears on the Color menu that appears elsewhere in FrontPage.

Tip: Drag and drop content into FrontPage (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

You know that you can drag and drop page elements anywhere in FrontPage's Page view. But did you know that you can drag content from other open applications? For example, if you drag a group of cells from Excel, FrontPage formats them as a table. Furthermore, the other application doesn't even have to be open. If you drag an Excel document's icon from the desktop into FrontPage, the program extracts the content and formats it as HTML.

The first time you try this, FrontPage may need to install a converter. Be sure to have your original FrontPage CD-ROM handy.

Tip: Be careful when naming form results files in FrontPage (98/2000/2002/2003)

When you create a form in FrontPage, by default the program saves the form results in a file called something like formrslt.txt and saves it in the site's _private folder. You can, and probably should, change the file's name and location in the Saving Results (or Options For Saving Results Of Form) dialog box, which you can access by clicking the Options button in the Form Properties dialog box. If two pages on the same site both include forms, those forms will, by default, write data to the same file. While that might occasionally be appropriate, more often than not it will lead to unusable data.

Tip: Tracking down missing images (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

Does a specific image on your pages seem to disappear when you publish your site? Try these steps:

* Make sure the file's on the server. For example, if your domain name is www.myURL.com and the image, banner.gif, is in the images folder, type http://www.myURL.com/images/banner.gif in your browser's Address text box to make sure the image has been uploaded.

* Check for case inconsistencies. Some servers (notably UNIX) are case sensitive; make sure you've capitalized the image's filename the same way you refer to it in image tags.

* Look for local file references. If you transferred your files via FTP, your pages may still refer to the copy of the image on your hard drive. View the page's source in the browser and look for references that begin with file://.

* Turn off ad-blocking software. These programs can sometimes block legitimate images.

Tip: Fixing an image-swap bug (FrontPage 2002)

If you use the image-swap DHTML effect on FrontPage 2002's DHTML Effects toolbar, Netscape Navigator 7 users can have trouble viewing your pages. To prevent any problems, you should install the Office XP Service Pack 3. For more information, see http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];329679. (Despite the naming confusion, FrontPage 2002 is part of the Office XP suite.)

Tip: Defining cross-browser margins in FrontPage (98/2000/2002/2003)

In FrontPage's Page Properties dialog box, you can specify the width (in pixels) of each page's margins. On the dialog box's Margins tab, select the Specify Top Margin and Specify Left margin check boxes, then enter the values you desire. However, Netscape navigator ignores the margin settings FrontPage creates. to make your margin settings work in both major browsers, switch to HTML mode (Code mode in FrontPage 2003) and find the tag.

Tip: Marking the location of scripts in FrontPage (98/2000/2002/2003)

You've probably noticed that when you insert JavaScript or VBScript into a Web page, FrontPage ignores your script in Normal mode. Since the script is invisible, it's easy to accidentally delete it.

To prevent this problem, click the Show All button on the Standard toolbar (it's icon is a paragraph mark, similar to a backward "p"). In FrontPage 98, choose Format Marks from the View Menu.

When you do, the location of your scripts will then be marked with a little flag. JavaScript flags have a "j" on them, while VBScript flags show a miniature version of the Visual Basic logo. You can quickly access the code in HTML mode (Code mode in FrontPage 2003) by selecting the flag and then clicking on the HTML or Code tab.

Code that you've added to the page's <head> section won't be indicated by a flag. However, there's no chance that you'll accidentally delete this code.

Tip: Move toolbars and make menus float (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

FrontPage, like other Microsoft Office programs, features a highly configurable user interface. Although the menu bar and toolbars seem fixed in their locations, you can actually move them all over the screen. At the left edge of the menu bar and each toolbar is a vertical handle. By dragging on this handle, you can position the menu bar or toolbar along any edge of the FrontPage window. Or drag it toward the middle of the window to turn it into a floating palette. The mouse pointer turns into a four-headed arrow when you hover over the handle and drag. In addition, several of FrontPage's menus and toolbars feature tear-off palettes. For example, if you click on the right side of the Font Color button on the Formatting toolbar, a detachable dropdown menu appears. To detach this menu and make it float, simply drag the top bar.

Tip: Removing "Don't Publish" files from a FrontPage Web (2000/2002/2003)

Recent versions of FrontPage let you prevent a page from being published by right-clicking on it in Folders view and choosing Don't Publish from the shortcut menu. This option works well provided you haven't already published the site. If you have, FrontPage won't remove the file the next time you publish the site, nor will it update the file on the server.

Therefore, if you decide a file you've already published shouldn't be on the server, you'll need to open the live version of your site and delete the file.

Tip: Opening your last FrontPage Web automatically (98/2000/2002/2003)

If you always, or almost always, work with the same Web in FrontPage, you can save yourself a little time by having the Web open automatically when FrontPage launches. To do so in FrontPage 2000, 2002, or 2003, choose Options from the Tools menu and select the Open Last Web Automatically When FrontPage Starts check box. In FrontPage 98, select the Always Open Last Web check box in the Explorer's Getting Started dialog box. Conversely, if you often work with different Webs, you should deselect this check box.

Tip: Specifying automatic parameters with FrontPage's Substitution component (98/2000/2002)

When you access the Substitution Properties dialog box in FrontPage, four special parameters (variables) appear alongside any parameters that you've created. These special parameters let you add information about the creation of the current page.

The parameters are Author, Modified By, Description, and Page URL. The first two contain the names of the authors who created or last edited the current page. Description corresponds to the Comments column in Folders view. Page URL is the current page's location in the site.

Tip: FrontPage's Substitution component simplifies updates of common text (98/2000/2002)

If you frequently find yourself typing common text, such as a copyright statement, you might want to use FrontPage's Substitution component instead. This component displays the contents of parameters (the FrontPage equivalent of variables) on Web pages.

To create a component, open your Web and choose Web Settings from the Tools menu to access the Web Settings dialog box. Then, switch to the parameters tab. Click Add to access the Add name And Value dialog box. Type your parameter name (e.g., "copyright") in the Name text box and its value (e.g., "Copyright 2003 by Business Website Links") in the Value text box. Then, click OK. Back in the Web Settings dialog box, click OK again.

Now, create a new page and add a Substitution component to it. To do so in FrontPage 2002, choose Insert | Web Component. When the Insert Web Component dialog box appears, choose Included Content from the Component Type list box and Substitution from the Choose A Type Of Content list. In FrontPage 2000, choose Insert | Component | Substitution. In FrontPage 98, choose Insert | FrontPage Component; then, double-click on Substitution.

At this point, the Substitution Properties dialog box appears. Choose your parameter name from the dropdown list and click OK. The parameter's value appears on the page. You can't edit the text, but you can format it like any other text. By default, it inherits the formatting of the text surrounding it.

Tip: Quickly publish changed pages in FrontPage 2002

If you need to make a quick change to your Web, you can bypass FrontPage's Publish Web command. To do so, save the document you've edited; then right-click on its name in FrontPage's Folders view, the Folder List, or a report that lists your files, such as All Files or Slow Files. When you choose the command, the Publish Destination dialog box opens. Assuming you've published the Web before, the correct destination URL appears in the dialog box's sole text box.

Click OK, and the Enter network Password dialog box appears, prompting you for your username and password. When you click OK in that dialog box, FrontPage quickly publishes the page or pages you had selected just before choosing the Publish Selected Files command.

Then next time you invoke the command in the same editing session, FrontPage won't prompt you for your username and password. All you'll have to do si respond to the Publish Destination dialog box. (Unfortunately, there's no way to avoid that step.)

Tip: Sharing FrontPage templates to improve consistency (2000/2002)

If multiple authors work on your site, you can improve the consistency of the pages they create by adding shared templates to the site. To begin, open the live version of your Web for editing. Set up your template page as you would any other page. Then, choose Save As from the File menu to access the standard Save As dialog box. In the File Name text box, give your template a descriptive name. From the Save As Type dropdown menu, choose FrontPage Template. Then, click Save.

You'll next see the Save As Template dialog box. Here you can give the template a title and description, which will appear in the Page Templates dialog box. After doing that, select the Save Template In Current Web check box and click OK.

When any author opens the Web from now on, your template will be available in the Page Templates dialog box. In fact, it will be copied to his hard drive automatically so he'll be able to use it whether the Web is open or not.

Tip: Creating a page in your site structure in Navigation view (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

While most users build their site structures in Navigation view from existing pages, you can actually create new pages in Navigation view as well--and then edit them to add content. To do so, right-click on the page that should be the new page's parent page and choose New | Page or New Page (depending on your version of FrontPage). FrontPage 2003 also includes a New Page button on the Navigation toolbar that accomplishes the same thing.

Tip: Adding a page to your site structure in Navigation view (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

FrontPage gives you two ways to add a page to the site structure in Navigation view. The first is to drag the page over from the Folder List. (If you don't see this list, choose Folder List from the View menu.) When you do so, the program maps the page's tentative location in the navigation structure with a gray line. release the mouse button when the page is in the right spot. The other option is to right-click on the page in the navigation structure that should become the parent page. then, choose Add Existing Page from the shortcut menu.

Tip: Maintaining master copies of Web Images (FrontPage 2000/2002/203)

If you use a program like Adobe Photoshop to create page banners, navigation buttons, and other page elements for your sites, be sure to save copies of those images in the graphics program's native format instead of just saving them in GIF or JPEG format. By doing so, you can easily return later to create new images that match the old ones. Otherwise, you may not remember which fonts, font sizes, and colors you used.

While you're at it, it's also helpful to keep paper records of such information. A little note-takeing now can save a lot of hair-pulling later.

Tip: Accessing an expanded palette of colors (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

When you begin to assign a color to a page element in FrontPage (text, horizontal line, background, etc.), the program displays a dropdown menu that includes 16 Standard colors. These colors don't allow for much creativity, however, especially if you want to avoid neon green and sky blue. To access other colors, choose More Colors from the dropdown menu. Doing so brings up the More Colors dialog box, which displays 127 Web-safe colors, plus black, white, and six shades of gray.

For even more choices, click the Custom button. In the Color dialog box that appears, you can mix your own colors or enter a color's HSL (hue-saturation-luminosity) or RGB (red-green-blue) values if you know them.

Tip: Automatically open the last site you edited (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

If you usually work with a single Web site, you can configure FrontPage to open that site automatically each time you launch the program. To do so, choose Options from the Tools menu to access the Options dialog box. Here, you'll find a check box labeled either Open Last Web Automatically When FrontPage Starts or Open Last Web Site Automatically When FrontPage Starts. Select this check box if you want to re-open the last site each time.

Tip: Controlling the appearance of the task pane on startup (FrontPage 2002/2003)

In FrontPage 2002, Microsoft introduced the concept of a task pane, a window within the FrontPage window that provides easy access to commonly used commands. By default, the New Page Or Web task pane appears each time you launch FrontPage 2002, while the Getting Started task pane appears in FrontPage 2003. both versions allow you to suppress the task pane on startup, however. To do so, choose Options from the Tools menu to access the Options dialog box. Then deselect the Startup Task Pane check box and click OK.

In FrontPage 2002, you can also deselect the Show At Startup check box at the bottom of the task pane when it's visible. This has the same effect as changing the dialog box setting.

Tip: Solving a common FrontPage publishing problem (98/2000/2002)

When you publish in FrontPage, the program locks your site so other users can't publish at the same time. If your connection to the server gets broken or FrontPage crashes, the program can fail to unlock the site again--meaning that you can't publish either. The files that determine whether the site is locked are called service.lck and frontpg.lck and are located in the _vti_pvt directory (one of many directories FrontPage creates on the server).

Fortunately, the solution to the problem is simple. Log into the site using your FTP program (e.g., WS_FTP, CuteFTP) and delete the files in question. If that doesn't work, as your Web presence provider to reboot the server.

Tip: Give your FrontPage Web a quick checkup (98/2000/2002)

The Recalculate hyperlinks command is perhaps the most misnamed command in all of FrontPage. While it does recalculate your internal hyperlinks, it also does much more.

When you choose Recalculate hyperlinks from the Tools menu, the command repairs your internal hyperlinks, updates component information (e.g., making sure the right content appears in shared borders and include pages), and synchronizes such data as category assignments. The command also rebuilds the text index used by FrontPage's Search Form component.

One thing the command doesn't do is check external hyperlinks. To fix those, you'll need to refer to the Broken hyperlinks report in FrontPage 2000 or 2002 or the Hyperlinks Status view in FrontPage 98. There you can verify and/or repair each external link.

Tip: Changing your FrontPage password on UNIX (FrontPage 2000/2002/2003)

If your site is hosted on a non-Microsoft server, you can easily change the password you use to access your site. To do so, open the live version of the site and then choose Tools special configuration page. Enter your username and old and new passwords (the latter twice) and click Change to confirm your new password. Choosing the Change Password command in FrontPage 2000 brings up the Change Password dialog box. Enter your old and new passwords (again, the latter twice) and click OK. If you host your site on a Windows server, you'll have to check with your hosting company for more information. Many hosts provide an online control panel where you can change your password.

Tip: Opening Excel HTML documents in FrontPage instead (2000/2002)

When you save a document in HTML format from Microsoft Excel, FrontPage 2000 and 2002 recognize Excel as its source and launch that program when you try to edit the document. The same holds true for Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint documents--and for FrontPage reports that you save.

You can control whether FrontPage launches the creator application in the Options dialog box. Choose Options from the Tools menu and click on the Configure Editors tab. Near the bottom, you'll find the Open Web Pages In The Office Application That Created Them check box. Deselect this check box if you want to edit HTML documents exclusively in FrontPage.

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