The navigation of a FrontPage site is very important, without it, the visitor will not find their way around and will end up leaving. Remembering to add a webpage to the navigational structure of your site is imperative, without it you have what’s called an orphaned page.
So , you have just completed a page on your new site, and we need to add it to the rest of the site.
To add a page to the navigational structure in FrontPage:
- in the views pane, click navigation
- in the folders list select the page you wish to add. (if the folder list doesn’t appear click the folder icon in the taskbar)
- now, drag and drop the selected page to the navigation screen. Repeat as necessary for each page you wish to add
To delete a webpage from the navigation structure , simply select it and click delete. Deleting from the navigational structure does not delete it from the rest of your site.
Changing the appearance of your site doesn’t have to be a painstaking process. Fortunately, FrontPage has made this process simple with the collection of themes it has, if those don’t satisfy you, you can always download some from the internet.
To apply a theme in FrontPage:
- in the menu go to Format>Themes
- in the theme dialog box, choose all pages and select the theme of your choice
- a dialog box appears stating that (applying a theme will change the appearance) click yes.
To remove a theme, complete the first two steps above but choose No theme in the theme selection box.
To change the appearance of a theme you already have installed on your website, in the themes dialog box, you can choose background picture, vivid colors, (which frankly I can’t tell the difference), and active graphics for animated buttons and such.
Most people searching the web are here looking for information, such as tutorials. If you are lucky enough they will stumble upon your site, and if the info they are looking for is there, you may have a recurring visitor in the future. Now, the way we present this information to the user is vitally important, many people don’t sit and read word for word on the internet, they they gloss over every web page until they see something vaguely familiar to what they are looking for. This is exactly why bullet points and numbered lists are so important.
If on your website you have a ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ section, for example. But all you have done is put the questions and answers on different lines, maybe we should change this to a bullet points list.
To create bullet points list in FrontPage:
first we select the text we want to bullet point
- in the menu bar click format>bullets and numbering
- in the dialog box pick plain bullets select the one you like and click OK.
To create Numbered lists in Frontpage
Repeat the steps above except choose numbers in the dialog box.
Another way of doing this is to select the text you want to format and click the add numbers or add bullets icon in your taskbar.
A well formatted website consists of easy to read webpages, which consist of paragraphs, headlines, lists, and so forth. Many people like to use all sorts of fonts on a website, but this confuses the reader. The best practices for font usage is to have no more than 3 different fonts in your entire website.
So, let’s say have a heading in which a font such as ‘Impact’ will work best, but currently we’re using the standard Times Roman. Let’s go ahead and change that.
To change the font in FrontPage:
- First select the text you want to change
- Next click the drop down arrow in your font menu
- choose the new font, and you’re done
Some of my favorite fonts include: Verdana, Garamond, and Impact (for headings)
Changing the Size of Text in FrontPage
So now that we have the font we want, we may need to change the size of the text. Different fonts have different sizes.
To change the size of text in FrontPage:
- Select the text you want to change
- Go to the font size menu, select the size
To change the size of the text you can also use the size text buttons on the taskbar, one has a big A, the other has a small A, and that will increase or decrease the size of your text accordingly.
Changing the color of the text on your FrontPage website is as easy as finding and replacing words ,sometimes necessary for a number of reasons. Usually those reasons have to do with usability and effect.
Suppose we have a headline that we want to jump out and grab our visitor’s attention. Let’s go ahead and change that from Black to Red.
- First you select the text you want changed
- Next click the color picker drop down arrow from the letter coloring icon on your taskbar, (the one with a giant A on it)
Highlighting text is also just as easy
Go through the same steps as above, the only difference is instead of selecting the text color picker , choose the icon that shows a pen, that is the one used for highlighting.
Again, if you don’t see none of these icons on your taskbar, you need to either turn on the taskbar by going to view>taskbar and picking the correct one, or by going to the far right on the taskbar and clicking the small drop down arrow for more options.
Sometimes, you may need to update a certain word throughout your text. Rather than going one by one, we can change them all at once and save ourselves lots of time.
Select anywhere in the page. In the menu go to edit>replace>
The dialog box should appear:
- In the ‘Find What’ text box put whatever it is that you want to find
- In the ‘Replace with’ text box put the new word you want to replace it with.
Notice in the selections towards the bottom of the page that there are various options.
Find where:
- All pages (meaning entire website)
- Selected Pages (only those selected in the Folder Browser window)
- Current Page (the page that is open)
Some of the other options match case (if selected will take upper and lower case into consideration)
Whole words only (will find only whole words that maybe part of an acronym you may be looking for)
Find and replace can be used for so many things other than just replacing words. It can replace links, javascript, and other snippets. Basically anything that can be copied and pasted can be found and replaced.
You wouldn’t want to turn in a report or essay for school without spell checking it would you? How about sending a job application via a form without spell checking?. In Frontpage:
- click anywhere on the page you want to spell check
- In top menu bar look for the spelling icon, usually its a small box with a check mark and the letters ‘abc’ on it.
*if you don’t see this box then you may need to show it, by either going to view>show default toolbar. Or if your toolbar is active, by going to the show more arrows on the far right and activating it.
Once you have the spell check icon showing, click on it. If any word is misspelled , the dialig box will appear and prompt you to change it. Sometimes , you may need to add a word to Frontpage’s dictionary, this often happens with newer slang terms and acronyms that popup everyday in the online world.
Frontpage, also gives you the option of correcting a single word, the word in question usually appears with the red underscore, in this case right click over the word and select the most appropriate suggestions.
So, now that your form is up with a drop down menu and a text box to input, you want to have the user click ‘Submit’ and you want to receive the results of his/her input emailed to you?
Very simple, click anywhere in the form area, usually it is outlined with dotted lines.
In the menu go to Insert>Form>Form Properties
The form properties box should appear click the where it says “Send to” and in the text where it says ‘email address:’ input the email address and click OK.
That’s it, pretty simple stuff for getting the form data sent right to your inbox.
Having a drop down menu in your forms is a very convenient way of organizing a big list of options. The steps are easy. First make sure that your already have a form.
1. Click the area in the form where you want to add a drop box.
2. Type some descriptive text next to where you want the drop down menu to appear.
3. in the menu bar click insert>form>drop-down box.
4. You should now have the drop down box where you want, double click the drop down box in your form and you should get a popup.
5. Give your drop down box a name in the name area.
6. Next click add ,a popup should appear this is where you are going to add choices for the drop down.
7. If you want the value to be different , select ’specify value’
8. Initial state, choose whether you want to have it automatically selected or not.
9. Repeat the previous steps and add as many choices as needed.
10. When your done, you can specify the height, which determines the amount of options the visitor will see without hitting the drop down button.
11. Click yes or no to allow your visitor to select more than one item from the menu.
12. Click ok to confirm all your settings and preview to make sure your happy with your drop down.
Forms are one of the most important parts of your website. It bridges your visitor and you, there are many options for forms in frontpage, so we’ll start with the basics.
- Click the location where you want the form to appear.
- In the menu bar click insert>form>form
The form will appear with the default reset and submit button. To increase the size of the form, put your mouse anywhere inside the form and click “enter” until you get it to the size you want.
To change the text on the submit or reset button double click it, a box should pop up. Where it says value/label enter what you want to name it there and click ok.
Now, adding a text box to your form:
The text box is the centerpiece of any form, to add one click any where in the form where you want to add one. In the toolbar go to insert>form>textbox
Just as you did changing the name of the submit and reset buttons, you can double click the textbox to change its properties. Let’s do that now,
When the popup box appears, lets give it a name, initial value is optional, whatever you input there will appear automatically when the page loads.
Repeat these steps for as many text boxes as you need. Now once that is done, we can format the submit button.
