+FrontPage Tips and Secrets

FrontPage Tip #1
Can't get things to line up? Use tables. You can center tables on your page, and you can align cells however you wish within tables.

FrontPage Tip #2
Oh, no! You have an image in a table's cell and want to add text. But you have to remove the image to do so--or do you? Simply hold down the CTRL key and hit the ENTER key. This will give you an extra line for text.

FrontPage Tip #3
We all hate the idiotic way FrontPage (usually called FrontPain after this operation) does importing. All of its filekeeping abilities are horrendous, but this is the worst. Here's how to reduce some of the pain.

Front Page automatically changes the filenames of your default pages, which really causes confusion. To prevent this assault on your filing system, use Windows Explorer. Go to the folder named FrontPage Webs/Server/Conf. Open srm.cnf with notepad or some other text editor. Move your cursor down to the text that looks like this:

# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# aliases may be used to point to other locations.
#

DocumentRoot c:/frontpage\ webs/content
# DirectoryIndex: Name of the file to use as a pre-written HTML
# directory index. This document, if present, will be opened when the
# server receives a request containing a URL for the directory, instead
# of generating a directory index.
#
# DirectoryIndex index.htm

Change that last line to read "DirectoryIndex default.htm" if your default page is default.htm. Use whatever name you need. Notice, also, we had to delete the # and the space that followed it. Thus, the new file looks like this:

FrontPage Tip #4
Here's more on the moronic Import function. If you practice good filekeeping practices, you keep your programs on one drive (logical or physical) and your data on another. FrontPage wants you to keep both in the same place. You don't have to. What you need to do when you use the Import Wizard (which just wants to whiz on you, rather than help) is specify a drive letter when it asks you for the location. So, you might type in e:\.

Then, for name, type in something like, "Webpersonal," or "Webacmewidget." This will allow you to put the website where you want it. And you'll have all the FrontPage extensions where they need to be, also.

Microsoft aimed this program's feature and pricing level directly at the "small" webmasters (many sole proprietors), and then neglected to consider that many of them would manage a business site, personal site, and a small site for a client or two--all on the same computer. Microsoft's bizarre filing conventions in FrontPage are a nightmare for such a person. To get around that, do NOT have a common websites folder. Doing so puts all the FrontPage extensions for all of them in one place, and you'll have a booger of a time FTPing your site and having it work when you are finished!

A good file structure may look like the table below. Notice the 8+3 naming convention--longer filenames take longer to execute, and FrontPage is already a slo-o-o-o-o-o-w program and resource hog.

Pathname		Description

e:\ e:\webacme e:\webpers e:\webxyzco		Root directory Website of ACME corporation Your personal website Website of XYZ corporation

FrontPage Tip #5
You ask people to send you a Word file, so you can just drop it into FrontPage and be done with it. Instead of just typing the text, they go ballistic with formatting commands. You want to scream. What do you do? The easiest thing to do is this. Highlight the imported text. Then, hit hold down CTRL and hit the spacebar. If your text disappears, then you just replaced it with a space. Click on the undo arrow and try again--this time, hold that CTRL key down until you are done with the space bar. This will remove Word's formatting.

FrontPage Tip #6
Importing data from a spreadsheet or database? How about a tab-delimited text file? Hmm. Such a chore to line it all up--o is it? All you have to do is import the text, and then use the Table dropdown menu to select "Convert Text to Table." It's that easy!

FrontPage Tip #7
You really hate making bookmarks and then a hyperlink so you can create quick links across the top of a page, don't you? Here's a timesaving method:

Highlight the text you want to make into a bookmark.
Right click on that text.
Drag the text (a copy of it, actually) to the spot where you want the link.
When you release the mouse button, select "Link Here."

FrontPage Tip #8
To create a quick link to an external page:

In Internet Explorer, you'll have to drag the small icon in address box.
In Netscape, you'll have to drag the small icon just to the left of the address box.
Drag the address icon into the FrontPage editor.
FrontPage creates a link wherever you drop the icon.
That link will appear as the title of the page, with the URL underlying it.
If you change the link's text at this point, the URL will remain the same.

FrontPage Tip #9
To add custom colors to tables, right mouse click on a table. Click on Table Properties, then Background Color. The Custom selection will be at the bottom of the list. Using other custom colors by changing the numbers in HTML will create some interesting effects, but will also produce colors that are not "browser-friendly."

FrontPage Tip #10
Another poor filekeeping problem with FrontPage rears its ugly head when you import a graphic. You may have found that when you paste a graphic into Image Composer and then save it into a FrontPage folder, you can't find it in FrontPage Explorer. One way to fix that is to recalculate hyperlinks. But if you have several hundred pages (as does Mindconnection), this means waiting a while. A quicker way is to drag the file from Windows Explorer into FrontPage Explorer. When FrontPage asks if you want to replace the existing file, click on "Yes."

My best FrontPage TIP:

Buy a book on FrontPage or Microsoft Office. You can find books and tapes by clicking on the software link at the top of this page. This tip is not a cheap sales trick. The reason I suggest you buy a book is I could list at least 1500 FrontPage tips and the Internet is just is not the format for that. The capabilities of this program go far beyond what those unfamiliar with it could dream of. It is truly a masterpiece of a program.