WebJunction

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FrontPage Tools to Manage Web Sites

Importing Files to Create a New Web

The Import Web Wizard imports files into FrontPage and adds necessary FrontPage files and folders, like _private and the hidden _vti folders. This tool is useful if a library is going to take the development of the Web site into the library, rather than having someone outside the library maintain it.

Creating a New Web

1. Open FrontPage.

Hint: To avoid confusion later, close the new blank page that opens when you start FrontPage.

2. Click File, point to New, and then select Web.

3. Select Import Web Wizard from the list of available Web Sites.

4. Type a name and location for the where you want the Web to be created in the Specify the location of the new Web text box and click OK. After a few moments, the Import Web Wizard opens.

5. You have two options:

• If you are importing the files from a Web site, type the Web address in the Location text box.

• If you are importing them from a floppy disk or from the hard drive, select From a source directory of files on a local computer or network. Browse to the folder location of the files. Select the Include Subfolders checkbox.

6. Click the Include Subfolders check box to import files in subfolders.

7. Click the Next button until you get to the last screen of the Wizard, then click Finish. You do not need to make any other changes during the import process.

Using the Navigation View

The Navigation View is useful if you want to take advantage of the automation tools in FrontPage. When you have a navigation structure set up, you can add Navigation bars that include hyperlinks to commonly accessed pages. Creating a navigation structure is a drag-and-drop process. You can also use the Navigation view to rename page titles.

Even if you have not created a navigation structure, the Navigation view opens with the home page already placed in the navigation structure. The page title appears in the navigation view rather than the filename and the home page has a house icon on the navigation structure.

Hint: Any file named Index.htm, Index.html, Default.htm, or Default.html will be assumed to be the home page. The priority of files selected as the home page is the same as is written above. (For instance, index.htm has priority over default.htm.)

Creating a Navigation Structure

1. Click the Navigation button on the Views bar.

2. Drag a file from the Folder list to the Navigation Pane to add it to the navigation structure. You can add it as a child page, or another page at the same level as the home page.

3. Continue adding all of the pages to the Navigation view, placing them using the following structure.

Hint: When you view a navigation structure, you see the page titles, not the page file names. Career_center.htm and about_us.htm both have an incorrect page title of Materials.

Your navigation structure should look similar to the following screenshot.

Changing Web Page Titles

You can use the Navigation view to rename page titles so they more accurately reflect what the page contents are. In the previous example, there are two pages that display Materials as the page title, but the contents of the pages have nothing to do with Materials. Something like this can easily happen when you are creating a new Web page based on an existing page. Luckily, it is also easy to fix.

1. Select one of the Materials icons below the Contact Our… icon in the Navigation view. Look in the lower-left corner of the FrontPage window where the filename appears to view the Web page file name.

2. Right-click the Web page icon and select Rename.

3. Type a new title for the Web page based on the file name and then press Enter. The Web page title is changed.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 for any other pages that need to be renamed.

Inserting Navigation Bars

Once you have a navigation structure set up, you can add Navigation Bars. Navigation Bars contain links to common pages such as the Home Page and all child pages under the Home page. Child pages are the pages directly linked to the page above, which is also called a parent page.

1. Double-click the home page in the Navigation view to open it in Page view. For this exercise, the home page is titled Pumpkin County Library.

2. Press Ctrl + End to move the insertion point to the end of the page. Press Enter to create a new line.

3. Click Insert and select Navigation Bar. Select Child level in the Hyperlinks to add to page section. Verify Horizontal and Buttons are selected in the Orientation and appearance section. Click OK.

Hint: If you select buttons for the appearance, they will appear as text until you apply a Theme to your Web.

Applying a Consistent Look To Multiple Pages

If you use styles when designing your Web pages, you can simplify formatting when you want to apply the same format to multiple pages. You have two options when formatting multiple pages with the same look: FrontPage Themes or cascading style sheets. Which you choose will depend on your expertise with creating Web pages and working with HTML documents. Themes are simpler, but can be limiting in what you can do with the elements; cascading style sheets, or style sheets, are more complex. For either option, you need to use styles in your design to have them work effectively.

Styles

A style is a set of formatting that controls how something appears on a page. Styles are generally applied to text. Web browsers will display styled text with default formatting unless you specify otherwise. For instance, if you use the heading styles 1 and 4, your text will look similar to the following example:

For complex documents, you can create your own styles. Some styles, like headings and bullets, will apply to an entire paragraph, while other styles, like hyperlinks, only apply to text characters.

Applying Heading Styles

1. Click anywhere in a paragraph that you want to be formatted with a heading style, for instance, in the heading text at the top of a page.

2. Click the downward-pointing arrow next to the style box and select a heading style.

Applying a Theme

Themes can be used to quickly apply formatting to all pages in a Web site. You can modify themes to fit your needs.

1. Click Format and select Theme.

2. Select a Theme from the available list of Themes on the left side of the dialog box.

3. Select the options you want for your theme, such as whether you want a background picture and if you want the theme to apply to all pages in the Web, or just to selected pages.

4. Click OK.

5. Click Yes to the alert message. After a few moments, the page changes to display the selected theme.

Removing Themes

If you do not want to use a theme for your pages, but have applied a theme already, you can remove it. You will also need to remove a theme if you decide to use a style sheet instead because the many of the theme formatting components will conflict with the style sheet formatting and the style sheet formatting components will not be visible.

1. Click Format and select Theme.

2. Select (No Theme) from the list of available themes.

3. Select All pages if you want to remove the Theme from the entire Web, or Selected page(s) if you only want to remove it from the current, or selected, page(s).

4. Click OK.

5. Click Yes to the alert message. After a few moments, the theme is removed.

Using Style Sheets

A Style Sheet is similar to a theme in that it defines how elements on a Web page look, but a Style Sheet is not FrontPage specific like a theme is. You can create your own style sheet and then link it to pages in your Web. FrontPage has a few style sheet templates that you can use to get started.

1. Click File, point to New, and then select Page.

2. Click the Style Sheets tab.

3. Select Expedition and then click OK. A style sheet opens that contains predefined styles.

4. Save the style sheet in the _private folder as style.css.

5. Double-click Index.htm in the folder list.

Hint: If you have a theme applied, you will need to remove it if you want to use a style sheet. Click Format and select Theme. Select No Theme from the list of available themes to remove a theme.

6. Click Format and select Style Sheet Links. The Link Style Sheet dialog box opens.

7. Click Add.

8. Select style.css in the list of available files and click OK.

9. Click OK again. The Link Style Sheet dialog box closes and the style is applied.

Scheduling When to Display Information

You can schedule when and where to include text and pictures so that you don't need to remember to update certain information because it will be updated automatically.

You can schedule text to appear on a page for a specified amount of time. For instance, a library might want to highlight a specific genre of books each month or a company might want to advertise a new product each week.

Each scheduled include is a separate HTML file, so if you want to have new text included each week for a month, you would create four different pages. All of the pages containing the information can be created at the same time, but you can then specify when to display each page.

Scheduling When to Display Text

In this activity, you will create two pages, one for the current month and one for the next month. Then you will schedule the information to be displayed during the appropriate month.

Hint: Leave FrontPage open when you work in Encarta Encyclopedia.

1. Open Encarta Encyclopedia and type the current month in the search box and display the article.

2. Click Options and select Copy.

3. Verify that Whole Article Text is selected and click Copy.

4. Click the FrontPage icon on the Taskbar to switch back to FrontPage.

5. Click the New Page button. A new blank page appears.

6. Click the Paste button. The article text from Encarta Encyclopedia appears on the page.

7. Save the page with the month as the filename.

8. Repeat steps 1-7 for the upcoming month.

9. In FrontPage, double-click the community.htm file in the Folder list.

10. Select the text beginning Information you may want to include and ending with (i.e., links to real estate agencies, relocation services, school information). Press the Delete key to remove the text.

11. Click Insert, point to Component, and then select Scheduled Include Page.

12. Click the Browse button to the right of the During the scheduled time text box and select the page you created for the current month. Click OK.

13. Set the date and time you want the text to appear. You can either start at the beginning of the month or start at the current date and time and then end on the last day of the month at 11:59 PM.

14. Click OK.

15. Press the End key on the keyboard. The insertion point moves after the scheduled text.

16. Repeat steps 11-14, but change the filename to the next month's page and specify next month for the information to be displayed.

Hint: If the current time is either before or after the specified time frame, the text [Expired Scheduled Include Page] appears. If the current time falls within the time frame, the page appears.

Using Reports View

Reports view includes tools to help you manage files on your Web site. You can use reports view to locate files that have no hyperlinks to them, locate broken hyperlinks, and locate files that might load slowly.

Using Site Summary View

When you initially open Reports view, the Site Summary appears. This view gives you a quick overview of the files in your Web site. Double-click any line in the summary to view the details. Click the downward-pointing arrow on the first button on the Reporting toolbar and select Site Summary to return to Site Summary view.

Validating Hyperlinks

If you have multiple links to Web sites that you don't control, you might want to validate the links occasionally using the validation tool. Validating links this way will give you an idea if a link no longer works, but remember, it is not foolproof. For instance, a link might appear as no longer functioning when it really is, or a link might link to a page with the same name as the one you linked to, but it might have different content. You should occasionally check links by hand.

1. Click the Reports button on the Views bar.

2. Click the Verify Hyperlinks button on the Reports toolbar.

3. Click Start.

4. Depending on the number of hyperlinks in the Web site, this process might take some time. When all hyperlinks are checked, a list of broken hyperlinks appears. Double-click any item in the list to change the hyperlink information.

5. Change the hyperlink that points to http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/doc/flintstones/main.html to http://www.cartoonnetwork.com. Click Replace.

Searching For and Replacing Text

You can search for and replace text on just one page or the entire Web site. For instance, if a library or contact name that appears on multiple pages changes, you can change the text using search and replace.

Search For and Replace Text in a Web

1. Click Edit and select Replace. You can use this tool in any view.

2. Type Pumpkin County in the Find what box.

3. Type the word(s) you want to replace it with in the Replace with box. For example, you could use your county or city name.

4. In the search options section, select All pages.

5. Click the Find in Web button. A list appears detailing which pages the text you were looking for appears in.

6. Double-click an item in the list to begin replacing text. Click Replace to replace words one at a time, click Replace All to replace all of the instances on a page.

7. Click Next Document to move to the next document that the text appears. When all instances have been changed, the status column displays a yellow circle next to the word Edited in the Replace box.

8. Click Cancel to close the Replace box.

Adjusting Browser Compatibility Settings

When designing a Web page, you must decide whether it is worth it to use elements in your pages that a portion of your audience will not be able to view or use. You can disable features that are normally available by changing the settings for compatibility on the Page Options dialog box. The following table describes the compatibility options you can modify.

Setting Compatibility Options

1. Select Tools and click Page Options. The Page Options dialog box opens.

2. Click the Compatibility tab.

3. Click the downward-pointing arrow next to the Browsers drop-down list and select Netscape Navigator only.

4. Click the downward-pointing arrow next to the Browser Versions drop-down list and select 3.0 Browsers and later.

4. Click OK.

5. Click the Format menu to view the options that are now disabled (grayed