Learning Resources
Lesson
This part of the project addresses the following
- FrontPage as a content creation tool, or editor
- FrontPage as a web site management tool
- Pre-configured options in FrontPage that need to be changed
Content Creation
You could do all of the work to create complex web pages and web sites by learning all the codes and typing in the content and codes with a simple editor like Notepad. Or, you could do it with a more sophisticated program that works like a word processor, spell checks on the fly, makes all the html code for you, and lets you include text, images, photos, graphics, animations, and video in your content - all without knowing too much about how the coding works.
There are a number of programs available to let you create web content in a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) format. FrontPage is particularly easy to use, once you understand how it is organized. It is a part of the Microsoft Office suite of tools on your computer and it looks and acts like Word for many things. It saves files in html format only. This course is an example of a major project that was written in FrontPage.
As a content creation tool, FrontPage provides a number of features for creating and importing text, images, audio, video, animations and any of the sorts of content you see on the Web. You can manually format text or use automated formatting with themes and style sheets. You can create hyperlinks to other places in the page, to other pages in the project, or to other websites. You can use images as hyperlinks to other images. The only real limit is imagination and your technical knowledge.
Web Site Management
FrontPage works with projects called webs. Each project is the collection of all the folders and files related to that project. A web lives in one folder, which can contain subfolders, web pages, images, and so on. The web can be a folder on your hard drive, on your desktop, or in a web server (which can be on your computer). This unit in your course lives in a web called unit01. The structure is shown below. This page is 3-Part-c.htm in part1 of project, which is a subfolder in the web http://red/ct-2002rearranged/unit01 (the server this page is being edited on). Can you find it?
Figure Typical Web Folder and File Structure
All of the folders and files in unit01 (there are several hundred) are part of this project. One of the unique and very powerful features of FrontPage is web folder management.
Pre-configured options
FrontPage webs and web pages have hyperlinks that allow you to jump from one location to another in a web browser. If you rename web folders or files, or move them around, in Windows Explorer, these links will be broken and will not work in a web browser. It is important to put webs in a location that you are not likely to accidentally modify. It is a common practice to create a folder called My Webs (or MyWebs) and place all FrontPage webs in it.
By default, when you start FrontPage, it starts with the last web you worked on opened. This is fine if you only ever work on one project. If you have several webs, it would be nice to be able to select the one you want and have it opened.
FrontPage also opens a pane on the right side of the program giving you a number of options for starting new pages or webs. Since you only use these features occasionally, and they take up a lot of room onscreen, they also need to be turned off.
Activity
You will do the following activities
- Step 1. Start FrontPage
- Step 2. Configure FrontPage so that the New Page or Web pane does not open every time you start FrontPage
- Step 3. Configure FrontPage so it does not automatically open in the last web
- Step 4. Create a My Webs web as the folder to contain all your webs
Step 1. Set FrontPage start up defaults
Start FrontPage
- There are two ways
- Click Start / Programs / Microsoft FrontPage on the menu
- or, Doubleclick on the program icon on screen
- You should get the following screen
Figure FrontPage Opening Screen
You are now ready to move to the next step.
Step 2. Modify FrontPage's Start-up so that the New Page or Web pane does not automatically open
Although it may be convenient to have the New Page or Web pane open sometimes, most of the time it is in the way. Follow these instructions to close it so that it stays closed until you need it.
- With FrontPage still open, uncheck the checkmark on Show at startup.
Figure Show at startup checked
Figure Show at startup unchecked
- The New Page or Web pane will not open when you start windows again. To close it now, click on the X at the top right of the pane.
Figure Close New Page or Web pane
You are now ready to move to the next step.
Step 3. Modify FrontPage's Start-up so that the last web edited does not automatically open
By default, FrontPage automatically opens the last web you edited. this is Ok if you only work on one project, but you will be using 2 projects. If you did not already modify the start up, you will need to do it now.
- Click on Tools / Options
Figure Select Tools / Options
- The Options window will open. Uncheck Open last Web automatically when FrontPage starts
Figure Options with Open last Web checked
- It should now look like the figure below. Click OK
Figure Options with Open last Web unchecked
That's it. FrontPage will not start up in the last web you worked on.
Step 4. Create a My Webs Web
While you can put FrontPage webs in any directory, it is best to put them in a location where you will not accidentally modify them with Windows Explorer. If you do that, you will break the hyperlinks, and they will not work. Follow these instructions to make a folder called My Webs, and turn it into a FrontPage web. You will then make any new webs inside the My Webs web. The folder name will be a reminder to you to only open it with FrontPage.
- With FrontPage open, click on File/ New / Page or Web
Figure Make New Page or Web
- The New Page or Web pane opens in FrontPage
Figure New Page or Web Pane
- Click on Empty Web. FrontPage opens the Web Site Template window.
Figure Web Site Template Window
- First you will need to edit the text in the Options section to have the following wording. Change the word studentid to your user name on the computer.
c:\Documents and Settings\studentid\My Documents\My Webs\
Figure Edit Location of web
- When you are done click on Ok
Figure OK button
- FrontPage will make a web called My Webs and will open it.
Figure My Webs web
Congratulations! You have made a My Webs web. Any additional webs you make will be stored inside My Webs.