FP98 vs. FP2K | Files and webs | Opening a web | Adding content
Understanding links |
Adding a graphic | Aligning a graphic
Adding a table | Publishing | Sample | Tutorials | Templates
You can edit a web page (HTML file) in FrontPage 2000 without creating a web in which to store it. You can save an HTML file anywhere on your hard drive. However, it may keep you more organized to put all your web pages in one place and to partially mirror the structure of the library web, where it will eventually be publicly accessible. "Partially mirror" means: "Create a new web named library, in My Webs, and create new folders in it that relate to your web page. The Ramsey Library web looks like this:
![[diagram of ramsey web site]](rlweb.gif)
The Ramsey Library web structure is simple and mirrors our navigation
scheme. Folder and filenames are lowercase and one word, which may include an
underscore character. In case you are wondering, "eres" is Electronic
Resources, "lr" is Library Research, and "rr" is Ramsey
Research Guides. The "collections" folder contains the CTL and Video
databases. The _private directory contains files that are not retrieved in a
site search nor appear in the site index.
Some folders have a sub-folder for images. The main images folder contains graphics used on the home page or throughout the web. The exhibits and rr folders have sub-folders for images that are used only for the exhibits pages or research guides.
You can do anything with your disk-based webs except run features that
require a server to process or display properly. Such features include Active
Server Pages, CGI scripts, search forms, hit counters, discussions, and other
forms processing. You might be able to add a form to your web page, but to do
anything with the information the form collects, it has to be on the server,
which has "form handlers." This will not affect most of you. Most
pages use standard HTML features and do not require any special processing.
Client-side scripting is not affected. That is, if you were to embed JavaScript
in your HTML page, it would work, since it depends on your browser for required
processing, not the Web server.
When FP was installed, it created a directory for your disk-based webs in
C:\winnt\profiles\yourname\personal\my webs
The folder "My Webs" is roughly equivalent to the root web on a server. You can create web pages in this directory or make "sub-webs." (By the way, sub-webs can have folders, but only the root web can have sub-webs. This should be of no concern to you, but that's the way it is.)
Let's open a web:
 |
If FP didn't find your My Webs folder, click this button: |  |
You should see a window like this:
When you open the folder My Webs, FrontPage also opens a new, seemingly blank web page for you, in Normal view. To see the approximately 14 lines of essential code that's already in there, click the HTML tab at the bottom of the screen. You can edit on this screen if you are a masochist, are writing a script, or both.
Click the Normal tab to go back to the WYSIWYG view. There is currently nothing to look at on the Preview view. After your Web page has some content, you can click the Preview tab to see what it may look like in Internet Explorer. To see what your page REALLY looks like, you can open the File menu and click Preview in Browser.
The page editing screen is cramped. Let's get rid of the Web folder view:
Click the Folder List icon: Voila, the editing window is full-screen!
Now all you have to do is add some content. Editing in Normal view is much
like using a word processor.
Type a title for your page, such as: My First Web Page
Leave the cursor in the paragraph and format it as a Heading 1 (really big type):
Leave the cursor in the paragraph and format it as Heading 2 or Heading 3. Nifty, huh?
Create a paragraph break by pressing ENTER and type some text in a paragraph.
Create another paragraph. Leave the sitting cursor somewhere inside this second paragraph and click the indent button to create a BLOCKQUOTE, or indented paragraph. HTML has no TABS, so get used to working around this limitation:
Click the Paragraph symbol icon ( ¶ ) at the top of the screen to see "invisible" codes for spaces and line breaks. If you have followed instructions so far, your first web page will look something like this:
A web page without links can be very boring. Let's add a link to The Bear Den: Quotable Quotes, a page on another web server:
First, type: The Bear Den: Quotable Quotes.
Highlight what you just typed with the mouse.
Click the Link button
FP supplies the http:// (protocol part). Type the rest of the link: www.nature-net.com/bears/quotes.html
Then press enter to admire your link.
Preview your page and click the link you just made.
You just created an absolute URL. It contains the complete path to a file and refers to a specific server. If a web is moved to a new server, the links don't work. This is also an absolute URL:
http://bullpup.lib.unca.edu/library/rr/childlit.html
The content of a relative URL depends on where the linked page resides
relative to the referring page.
If the linked page is in the SAME directory, only the filename is needed: "childlit.html"
If the linked page is one directory UP, the link will look like this: "../childlit.html"
If the linked file is one directory DOWN, the link might look like this:
"images/mypic.gif"
The Ramsey Library web uses "relative links" not absolute links,
except in special circumstances.
For more detail on creating links, see http://bullpup.lib.unca.edu/library/policy/webauthors.html
When you author pages, make sure your links do not refer to files on your hard drive! They'll never work when transferred to the server because the files won’t be there, and even if they were, the Web visitor would have no permission to see them. If you have a link that reads file:///C:/filename.htm it needs fixing.
First, if you plan to link to other pages in the library web (not pages on
another server) duplicate the directory structure of the library web, at least
the parts that affect your page. Then your internal links will always work.
(Don't worry, the Webbedperson will check your links when your page is added to
the library web, but it's less work to make them right the first time.)
FrontPage comes with numerous clip art files that you can use to practice
adding images to your web page. First, put your cursor where you want the image.
Then click the image icon (a square with tiny mountains on it, just left of the
link icon).
Click the clip art button (Or, if you have an image file you want to use, click
the file folder icon).
Search the images file.
If you don't find an image you like, you can click Clips Online to search the Microsoft Web site for clip art.
Click the image you want to use, then click the Insert Clip icon (the first
one) to paste the image
Resize the image, if necessary, by dragging the "handles."
Then click the Resample button to actually resize the image and smooth it out.
Right click the graphic and select Picture Properties. On this menu you can choose to align the graphic to the left or right of a block of text, in the middle of one line of text, or at the top or bottom of one line of text. The default alignment is to position the graphic "inline" with other elements and to allow one line of text at the bottom of the graphic. Other choices on this menu allow you to specify horizontal or vertical space around the graphic, to write "Alt" text for people who are not using graphical browsers, or to specify a URL to go to if the graphic is clicked.
If you have followed directions so far, your web page will look like something like the example on the next page. We’ve aligned pictures on the left and the right, and added a header with some text and a horizontal line. Note that the background of the page is white. While this may be your default color, the viewer may have a default color of grey or some other equally unattractive hue. To make sure that the background remains the color you intend, let’s edit the Page Properties.
To check or edit the Page Properties, right click anywhere in a blank area on
the page. Select Page Properties. Click the background tab and select white from
the palette. One very nice feature of FP 2000 is that the default palette from
which you choose colors is a "Web-safe Palette," 216 colors that look
the same on all platforms. On the page properties menu, you can adjust font and
link colors, edit the page title and do some pretty arcane stuff.
To line up data or to force alignment of graphics and text in a certain way, create a table. Style sheets make it possible to align blocks of text or graphics, but browsers are not consistent in rendering them yet, so it’s acceptable to use a table when necessary. Eventually, it will be frowned upon to use tables for anything but presenting data, but right now, you can still feel free to use them to bludgeon your layout into submission.
To create a table, click the icon that looks like a wee checkered tablecloth
and drag the mouse across as many cells as you want in your table. FP writes all
the code for you. To move from cell to cell press TAB. To create a new row, just
press TAB when you are in the last table cell.
Copy your page in the Bullpup/Common directory and notify the WebbedPerson
that it’s ready. Your page will be imported into the library web. It will
probably be linked to the standard style sheet, if one continues to be used, so
that fonts and headings will match what’s already there. A header and footer
will be added to aid navigation, and one or more links will be made so that
users can find your page.
Using FrontPage 2000. http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/using.htm
Microsoft offers how-to articles, tips and tricks pages, and other
information about using FrontPage.
In and Out of the Classroom with FrontPage 2000. www.microsoft.com/education/tutorial/classroom/fp2k/default.asp
Microsoft's tutorial for educators.
FrontPage 2000 in the Classroom. http://ww.actden.com/fp2000/begin/
Visual guide to FP's basic features.
Learning FrontPage 2000. http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0-10089-100-1498035.htm
Download a training manual for FP2000. Freeware.
FrontPage 2000 Tips and Help. http://www.venusdesigns.net/frontpage/fp2k.htm
A good page with some advanced help.
FrontPage 2000 Magic (CNET) http://www.builder.com/Authoring/FrontPage2000/ss01.html
The sample is just a graphic, but you can see the actual
page and view the source code.
You can use any Ramsey Library web page as a template. Just import the page to your My Webs (or appropriate) folder, or save it to your hard drive somewhere, and replace the parts you want to use with your own text and delete everything else. You could, of course, import the library web or just the library/rr folder to your My Webs folder, but it'll take up a lot of space.
To start a new page with a simple template, import http://bullpup.lib.unca.edu/library/_private/template.html. If you want to do a bibliography, import http://bullpup.lib.unca.edu/library/_private/bibtemplate.html. If you want to approximate working on bullpup, look at the HTML code and also import the style sheet(s) into your _private directory, and navigation images into your images directory. When you import files, FP sometimes adds "../../" to your URLs, when it should have used "../" but you can fix that by browsing to the proper file or by editing the HTML manually.
To see a page with frames, visit the Electronic
Resources By Title page.
To see a page with an "included page," visit the Humanities
subject page.