Introduction

This handout is designed to give a basic understanding of Microsoft^® FrontPage^®.  Some of the terminology used by FrontPage can be confusing.  FrontPage uses the term Web to refer to a collection of pages and folders, which makes up your Web site. To use an analogy from architecture, your job is to design both a building (your site) and the individual rooms or offices (your pages).

To open FrontPage, go to Start > Programs > Applications > Web Editing > Microsoft FrontPage.

Creating a New Web Site

To start a new Web, click File > New > Web. A dialog box similar to Figure 1 opens. Specify a location where you want to save your information. Suggested locations would be your home drive (H:) or a Zip disk if you require more space.

Figure 1. Creating a new Web site

Adding New Pages in a Web

Once you have created your Web, you are ready to begin editing your pages. FrontPage automatically creates a page called index.html. This is the default main page for your Web. It is the first page people see when they browse to your site. 

1. Managing your Web is a little easier if you turn on the View Folders option, which allows you to see all of the files and folders that are currently part of your Web. Turn on this option by clicking View > Folder List. 
2. To add new pages in your Web, click the Create New Document icon on the toolbar at the top of the screen.

Changing a Page Title

1. To change the title of a page, right-click anywhere on the page. A pull-down menu appears. 
2. Click Page Properties.  A dialog box appears.  Type the title of your Web page in the Title field.

Saving Your Files

When saving your work, be sure to name your files without spaces in them, since our Web server does not allow spaces in the filename.  Also, be sure not to save any files outside your ‘Web’ folder.

When saving a page that contains pictures, you have the option to save the images into the Web. By having FrontPage save every picture you use into the Images folder, you can avoid redundancy later if you use the same image multiple times. Also, if they are arranged into different folders, finding files becomes easier. 

To save into the Images folder, select the images to save (by default they should all be highlighted) and click Change Folder. After choosing an appropriate folder, click OK.

From now on whenever you need to reference a file already used in your Web, it should:

• Appear in the Folder List window, and
• Whenever you Insert a picture or reference another file in your Web, it appears in the first dialog box. 

Note: Remember to save your work whenever you make a change.

Figure 2. Saving images to the Image folder

Inserting Pictures into a Page

To place an image into a page, place the cursor where you want the image to appear, then click Insert Picture from File.

Resizing your Image

After placing your image, you may want to resize it. When you select the image, notice small black squares at each corner and at the center points along the edges. These are the resize tools. Clicking and dragging one of the squares resizes the image from that perspective. Grabbing one of the corners maintains the aspect ratio, i.e., the image does not become distorted, and the height and width change at the same rate. Grabbing one of the squares along the edges allows distortion. 

If you know the specific size you wish your image to be, e.g., you have several thumbnails and you want them all the same height, do the following:

1. Right-click the image, then click Picture Properties. A dialog box appears.
2. Click the Appearance tab. Your screen should resemble Figure 3. 
3. Make sure to select the Specify size box, then change the height or width as desired.
4. If the Keep aspect ratio box is checked, whenever you make a change to either the Height or Width field, the other field automatically changes to keep the same ratio as before.

Figure 3. Picture Properties dialog box

Creating a Thumbnail Gallery

The first step in creating a thumbnail gallery is to insert and resize all the images you want to use in your gallery, then save your work. Once your images are in place, you are ready to place the hyperlinks. Follow the instructions below to create hyperlinks with a few additions. When creating a gallery, it is common practice to have the links open a new window to view the image.  At the hyperlink dialog box, click Target frame, select New Window, then click OK. 

Hyperlinks

1. To create a hyperlink, select the text or image you wish to be the link, then click Hyperlink. A dialog box similar to Figure 4 opens. 
2. To link to a new page, click the New Page icon. A new edit window opens, where you can edit the new page. Once you save the new page to a file name, the reference automatically updates in the referencing document when you save it.
3. To create a link to an email address, click the Email Address icon, and type the email address in the dialog box that opens.

Note: Before you link to a file that is stored locally (on the hard drive or a disk), make sure you copy and paste that file into your Web. Otherwise, when a user who is not at that computer or does not have that disk tries to follow the link, they will get an error. Placing the file in your Web fixes this problem because the file uploads with the rest of your files. 

4. To link to a file that is already in your Web, select its name and click OK. 
5. To link to someone else’s Web page, type in their URL (Web address) in the Address field at the bottom of the dialog box shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Insert Hyperlink dialog box

Tables

Tables are one of the most useful tools when editing a Web page. They help organize information into specified areas.

Inserting Tables

To place a table, click Insert Table. A pull-down list appears to select the size you want your table to be. Unless you know the exact size of your table, create a table having only one cell. You can always add more cells later.

Managing Cells

To add new cells to a pre-existing table, right-click the table and click either Insert Row or Insert Column. Adding a row adds an exact copy of the cells above it into the table at the point where you clicked the mouse. Inserting a column adds one more cell to each row. It also automatically resizes the other cells to accommodate the new cell.

Splitting cells gives more direct control over the table itself. Whereas adding a column adds a cell to each row, splitting a cell vertically only affects that cell. 

1. To split a cell, right-click the cell you wish to edit, then select Split Cell. 
2. A window appears asking if you want to split the cell vertically or horizontally and how many divisions to make. The cell becomes divided into equal sized portions. For example, if you split a cell into columns with three divisions, each cell becomes one-third the size of the original cell. 
3. If you make a mistake splitting cells, select the range of cells in error, right-click, then select Merge Cells. This converts all selected cells into one cell.

To delete cells, select the cells you wish to delete, right-click, then select Delete Cells.

You can resize individual cells by clicking their borders and dragging them to the desired size.

The Table Properties dialog box contains additional options. If you right-click the table and select Table Properties, several table options can be changed including the cell border width. If you change the cell border size to "0", then the table boundaries are not visible when viewed in a browser (the cells show up as dotted lines when editing in FrontPage).

Publishing Your Web in the people.tamu.edu server

Establishing the .public_html directory

1. Log in to http:\\oalinfo.tamu.edu\
2. Click on Account Services and log in with your NetID and password.
3. After logging in, choose the Setup My Web Page link.
4. Press the Enable button and wait for the page to display 'Success.'
5. Log out of the OALInfo page.
   

Moving your Web to the .public_html directory

1. Open My Computer and change directories to where your Web is stored.
2. Select all files and folders that are a part of your Web. To select multiple icons, either click and drag a box around the icons you want, or hold CTRL and left-click each icon you wish to add.
3. After selecting your files, right-click one of the files and select Copy from the pull-down menu.
4. Change directories to the U: drive. You should see the .public_html directory on this drive. Change to the .public_html directory. Click Paste to move your files into this folder.

Your Web is now on the Unix server and is ready for viewing.

Note: If you are not working in a CIS OAL, use an FTP program to transfer your files to the Unix server. Handouts on this procedure are available in any of the labs.

Viewing your Web Page

1. Open your preferred Web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer or Netscape Communicator).
2. Your Web page URL is http://people.tamu.edu/~NetID.

Note: Your Net ID is your universal username for most CIS OAL systems. This is the ID you use to log in to Neo, the computers in the OALs, and your OAL account. 

Frequently Asked Questions

When attempting to view my page in a browser, I get a Forbidden error. What do I do?
This means that Unix has not reset the permissions on your .public_html folder. Log in to Unix using a telnet application. At the command prompt, type web-setup. This resets the permissions for the folder and all of its files, allowing  them to be viewed on the Web.

I tried that, and it’s still not working?  Make sure all of your documents are in the .public_html folder on your U: drive. If they are, you also need to make sure none of your file names have spaces. If you change a file name, you also need to go back and change each page that references that file to accommodate the change.

How do I change my page once I’ve uploaded it?  Once you’ve uploaded your Web, open the files to be edited from the U: drive. They can be edited and saved from there, so you do not need to re-upload the new version.

For More Help

If you need more assistance, please feel free to ask the CIS Support Staff in any Open Access Lab, or call Help Desk Central at (979) 845-8300.