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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:

# 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 default.htm

 

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:

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

 

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

 

  1. In Internet Explorer, you'll have to drag the small icon in address box.
  2. In Netscape, you'll have to drag the small icon just to the left of the address box.
  3. Drag the address icon into the FrontPage editor.
  4. FrontPage creates a link wherever you drop the icon.
  5. That link will appear as the title of the page, with the URL underlying it.
  6. 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.

 

Computer Resource Quicklinks

Working the Windows Desktop

The whole desktop approach ignores the fact that a computer's hard drive(s) are the electronic version of a paper filing cabinet. It also ignores the fact that people store a huge amount of files in that system. And it ignores a few dozen other facts relevant to using a computer. It's just a bad approach.

The desktop assumes you don't care what files you actually work on. It opens apps, not files, and this is the pathway to problems. You can inadvertently be revising the wrong thing, if you can even find it in the first place.

What you should do instead is use Windows Explorer. Microsoft tends to hide this, but it should be your standard interface with your computer, unless you don't mind working blind.

You can always right mouse click the Start button to invoke it, but you should add Windows Explorer to your Quick Launch bar and several other menus in Windows.

The default settings for Windows Explorer defy logic. Change these so you can actually see what files you are looking at. Enable it to show you the file extensions (unclick the insane "Hide extensions" box that is, stupidly enough, checked by default though actually there is never any reason to ever check this box). Select the option to show details. Now, you will be able to see your file size, file date, and other useful information. If you right click around a bit, you can find quite a bit of functionality in Windows Explorer.

If you haven't been using this interface previously, make a point of using it now. If you always open files from within Windows Explorer, you will always be able to see all available files and select the right one.

Use Windows Explorer to set up your filing system as if it's a paper filing cabinet. Save all files either on the data drive (dual hard drive machine) or in a folder on a single hard drive machine. Do NOT save files to the default locations. These never make any sense. They are typically within your applications, which is a dumb place to save them. That's how you end up with corrupted data files and it also makes file backups difficult.

For single-drive users, an easy solution is to create a folder called 0files as your top-level data folder. The zero means it will show up at the top of your file list, making things easy for you. Below this folder, create you filing structure. Never store anything at the root of this folder. Think of it as the shell of a five-drawer filing cabinet and don't toss stuff in the bottom. Always put files in folders that are in drawers.

With a good filing structure in place, you will always be able to find your files by simply clicking right to them. So think this out as you go and follow a good taxonomy. It's a much more effective way to work than how the zombies at Microsoft envision people working.

 

Recovering hard drive space

Even with today's huge drives, people sometimes run out of hard drive space. The steps below can recover wasted space.

  • Do a search for *.tmp files. Delete all of them. Then defrag your drive.
  • Do a search for *.bak files. Delete all of them. Then defrag your drive.
    •
  • If you have any *.bmp files, change the format to *.jpg. This will result in radically smaller files. You need an image tool for this; if you don't have one installed already, then skip this step.
  • Set the Properties for the drive to compress files. In Windows Explorer, right mouse click the drive name. Then select Properties. Then select Compress to Save Drive Space. This could take a while, so unless you want your machine tied up for a few hours do this process one folder at a time and then do it for the whole drive.
  • If this issue is for your programs drive, then remove any programs you aren't using. Go to Control Panel | Remove Programs.
  • On your data drive, zip files you aren't using.

There are other steps you can take, but if, at this point, you are still low on disk space you really need to add another hard drive or upgrade one that's in your system. Or, another very cool option, is to add a My Ditto system. See our Review of the Dane my Ditto network server.

   

 

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