Chapters at a Glance

Introduction xvii

Part I

Web Publishing with FrontPage 98 1

Chapter 1

The FrontPage Approach to Web Authoring 3

Part II

Plumbing, Art, and Media—A Web Primer 45

Chapter 2

Planning and Organizing a FrontPage Web 47

Chapter 3

Looking at the Web—Inside Out 57

Chapter 4

Achieving Visual Impact—Graphic Communication 85

Part III

Building Your Site 141

Chapter 5

Structuring Your Web 143

Chapter 6

Getting Started with Web Pages 211

Chapter 7

Adding and Formatting Text 251

Chapter 8

Incorporating Graphics 277

Chapter 9

Hyperlinks and Page Layout 307

Chapter 10

Using FrontPage Components 357

 

Part IV

Activating Your Site 397

Chapter 11

Using HTML Forms and FrontPage Form Handlers 399

Chapter 12

Accessing Databases with FrontPage 463

Chapter 13

More Ways to Activate Your Site 495

Part V

Maintenance and Utility Functions 547

Chapter 14

Keeping Your Site Up-to-Date 549

Chapter 15

The FrontPage Security Model 565

Part VI

Integrating FrontPage and Your Web Server 581

Chapter 16

Choosing and Configuring Your Web Server 583

Afterword 639
Index 641

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xvi

Introduction xvii

Objectives of This Book xviii

How This Book Is Organized xix

What's New in FrontPage 98 xxi

Creating and Opening Webs xxi

FrontPage Explorer xxi

FrontPage Editor xxiii

Integration with Other Programs xxvii

Other Enhancements xxvii

Using the Companion CD xxviii

Contacting the Author xxx

Setting the Stage xxxi

Part I

Web Publishing with FrontPage 98 1

Chapter 1

The FrontPage Approach to Web Authoring 3

Why FrontPage Was Created 4

FrontPage Webs 5

Graphical Site Organizer 7

Folders View 8

All Files View 10

Navigation View 11

Hyperlinks View 13

Hyperlink Status View 14

Themes View 16

Tasks View 17

HTML Editors and WYSIWYG 18

Style Tools 22

Themes 22

Color Masters 22

Shared Borders 23

Templates 25

Framesets 27

Standard Active Components 28

FrontPage Components 31

FrontPage Server Extensions 35

Wizards 36

Global Site Parameters 37

Built-In Upload/Download 38

Image Editing 38

Image Editing in FrontPage Editor 39

Microsoft Image Composer 41

Microsoft GIF Animator 42

Clip Art 42

Advanced User Interface 43

Part II

Plumbing, Art, and Media—A Web Primer 45

Chapter 2

Planning and Organizing a FrontPage Web 47

Identifying Your Message 48

Understanding the Audience 48

Addressing the Politics of Organizations 49

Identifying Content Categories 51

Choosing a Visual Concept 52

Planning Your Pages 53

Achieving Effective Page Layout 55

Chapter 3

Looking at the Web—Inside Out 57

Relationships Between Browsers and Servers 58

Internet Computer Names 60

Hypertext Transfer Protocol 61

Web Site Folders and Files 64

Uniform Resource Locators 65

Hypertext Links 67

MIME Types and Other Curiosities 69

Hypertext Markup Language 71

HTML Forms 74

What "Activating the Internet" Is All About 75

Script Languages 76

Programmed Components 78

Chapter 4

Achieving Visual Impact—Graphic Communication 85

Elements of Design 86

Contrast Versus Clash 86

Symmetry Versus Monotony 88

Color 89

Technical Models of Color 90

Artistic Color Models 96

Transparency and Alpha Channels 116

Gamma Correction 120

Graphic File Formats 122

Achieving Accurate Rendition—Safe Colors 124

Typography 127

Layout and Design 136

Part III

Building Your Site 141

Chapter 5

Structuring Your Web 143

Organizing Your Web Server Environment 145

Initializing a FrontPage Web 147

Importing an Existing Web 155

Initializing a New Web from a File System Folder 155

Initializing a New Web from Another Web Server 158

Initializing a New Web from a Folder in the Root Web 160

Deleting a FrontPage Web 163

Configuring Your FrontPage Web 163

Reviewing FrontPage Settings 163

Reviewing Web Settings 166

Planning and Managing Folders 171

Viewing and Organizing a FrontPage Web 173

Working with Folders View 175

Working with All Files View 179

Working with Navigation View 180

Working with Hyperlinks View 185

Working with Hyperlink Status View 187

Working with Themes 189

Using the Task List 191

Planning and Managing Reusable Components 195

Templates 196

Themes 197

Color Masters 198

Shared Borders 200

Navigation Bars 202

Site Parameters 205

Include Page Components 208

Chapter 6

Getting Started with Web Pages 211

Creating a New Web Page 212

Importing Web Pages 214

Opening a Web Page for Editing 217

Using the FrontPage Editor Standard Toolbar 218

Saving Pages 220

Deleting an Existing Web Page 221

Specifying Page-Level Attributes 222

General Page Properties 222

Background Page Properties 224

Margin Page Properties 228

Custom Page Properties 229

Language Page Properties 231

Managing Page-Level Cascading Style Sheets 232

Managing CSS Selectors and Page Defaults 234

Creating and Modifying CSS Styles 236

Assigning CSS Properties 239

Shared Cascading Style Sheets 249

Additional CSS Advice 249

Chapter 7

Adding and Formatting Text 251

Word Processing Conventions Used by FrontPage 252

Importing Text 254

Text Conventions Unique to HTML 256

Inserting Special Text Elements 257

Inserting a Line Break 257

Inserting Horizontal Lines 259

Inserting Symbols 260

Inserting Comments 261

Formatting Paragraphs 261

Formatting Lists 265

Other List Types 270

Formatting Text Fonts 271

Aligning Text 275

Chapter 8

Incorporating Graphics 277

Adding Images to a Page 278

Adding Multimedia Formats 284

Modifying Image Properties 285

General Image Properties 285

Video Properties 287

Size and Placement Properties 289

Establishing Hotspots 292

Adding Text to Images 295

Setting Transparency 297

Cropping and Resizing Images 300

Applying Washouts and Monochrome 301

Rotating and Flipping Images 302

Controlling Brightness and Contrast 302

Beveling Edges 303

Restoring Images 303

Managing Image Download Time 303

Chapter 9

Hyperlinks and Page Layout 307

Creating and Managing Hypertext Links 308

Setting and Using Bookmarks 310

Creating and Editing Tables 313

Creating a New Table 314

Modifying an Existing Table 320

Using Tables for Page Layout 333

Creating and Editing Frames 338

Understanding Frame Fundamentals 339

Creating and Modifying Framesets with FrontPage 342

Incorporating Additional HTML Tags 351

The Insert HTML Component 352

Viewing HTML 354

Chapter 10

Using FrontPage Components 357

Banner Ad Manager 359

Comment 364

Confirmation Field 364

Hit Counter 365

Hover Button 368

Include Page 372

Insert HTML 376

Marquee 379

Navigation Bar 382

Page Banner 382

Scheduled Include Page 384

Scheduled Image 387

Search Form 388

Substitution 393

Table of Contents 393

Timestamp 396

Part IV

Activating Your Site 397

Chapter 11

Using HTML Forms and FrontPage Form Handlers 399

HTML Forms 400

Drawing Forms in FrontPage Editor 402

Setting HTML Form Properties 405

Setting Form Element Properties 409

Validating Form Input 409

One-Line Text Box Properties 411

Scrolling Text Box Properties 414

Check Box Properties 415

Radio Button Properties 416

Drop-Down Menu Properties 418

Push Button Properties 420

Image Form Field Properties 421

Designating Form Element Labels 422

Using the Form Page Wizard 423

Saving Form Results for Later Use 429

Enabling User Self-Registration 437

Creating and Managing Discussion Sites 442

Managing Confirmation Pages 458

Enabling Custom Confirmation Pages 458

Using the Confirmation Field Component 459

Chapter 12

Accessing Databases with FrontPage 463

Databases on the Web—An Overview 465

The FrontPage Database Environment 465

Whatever Happened to Internet Database Connectors? 469

Designing Active Pages in a Static Environment 470

Locating a Web Database Facility 470

Configuring a Web Database Environment 471

Choosing a Web Database Development Environment 472

SQL 473

Building Database Pages with FrontPage 475

Configuring ODBC Data Sources 475

Adding a Database Region 481

Modifying a Database Region 486

Using Form Data to Control Results 488

Assessing Database Regions 492

Chapter 13

More Ways to Activate Your Site 495

Defining Web Channels 496

Presenting Video 507

Animating Page Content 507

Animating Page Transitions 508

Animating Page Objects 509

Incorporating Custom Script Code 510

Generating Browser Scripts 514

Incorporating Browser Scripts 524

Incorporating Server-Side Scripts 527

Incorporating ActiveX Controls 532

ActiveX—A Brief Introduction 532

Inserting ActiveX Controls 534

Using Local Property Editing 539

Using the Object Parameters Dialog Box 540

Incorporating Java Applets 542

 

Part V

Maintenance and Utility Functions 547

Chapter 14

Keeping Your Site Up-to-Date 549

Moving, Renaming, and Reorganizing Pages 550

Finding and Replacing Text 551

Spell Checking 557

Link Checking 559

Reindexing Your Site 560

Invoking Other Editors from FrontPage 560

Testing Your Web 563

Chapter 15

The FrontPage Security Model 565

Initializing FrontPage Security 566

Administering Security for an Existing FrontPage Web 571

Administering Web-Level Security 571

Administering Folder-Level Security 578

PART VI

Integrating FrontPage and Your Web Server 581

Chapter 16

Choosing and Configuring Your Web Server 583

Understanding Web Servers 584

HyperText Transfer Protocol—A Simple Concept 584

Server Connectivity and TCP/IP 585

Server Names and the Domain Name System 588

Server Home Folders 590

Virtual Folders 590

Virtual Servers 591

Server-Side Programming 592Understanding the FrontPage Server Extensions 593

Server Extension Functions 593

Software Platforms and Availability 595

Obtaining FrontPage Server Extensions 597

Installing the FrontPage Server Extensions Under Windows 597

Installing the FrontPage Server Extensions from the Command Line 599

Choosing a Microsoft Web Server 602

Internet Information Server for Windows NT Server 602

Microsoft Peer Web Server for Windows NT Workstation 613

Microsoft Personal Web Server 615

FrontPage Personal Web Server 629

Creating Disk-Based Webs 633

Using a Non-Microsoft Web Server 636

Other Windows Web Servers 637

Web Servers on Non-Microsoft Operating Systems 638

Afterword 639

Index 641

Acknowledgments

Highest thanks go to my wife, Connie, and my children, Lorrill, Justin, and Lynessa, who provided me the time and understanding to write this book. To my parents, Harold and Marcella, go many thanks as well, not only for having me but for putting up with me all those years. To my new mother, Ruth, thanks immensely for your continued support and for putting up with my dad.

My brothers, Dave and Rick, put up with me almost as long as my parents, and perhaps even more so now when I get talking. Thanks, guys, and pass that along to Connie, Jenny, Michael, Steven, Matt, and Claire.

At Microsoft, thanks to Kim Fryer, who contracted me, to Lucinda Rowley, who managed the project, and to Saul Candib, the project editor.

Thanks to the people at Labrecque Publishing who repeatedly saved me from myself—at least that's what they tell me. Special thanks go to Lisa Labrecque, Curtis Philips, Mark Woodworth, Lisa Bravo, Erin Milnes, and Katherine Stimson.

Most of all, thanks to you, the readers, who make an effort such as this both possible and worthwhile. I hope we meet again.

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