Expression® Web Design

Problems with FrontPage Forms

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Users will encounter problems with a FrontPage form they want to be processed by FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE) if they FTP it to the server.  FrontPage forms need to be published to http://www.example.com (of course changing this to your domain name). 

Some users will tell you to publish to http://example.com (notice there is no www).  This might work on a number of servers and hosting companies but it seems GoDaddy does require the www in the publishing.

FrontPage forms require special handling.  If you FTP your FrontPage form, there will be numerous problems.  Check out FrontPage Form Errors for some more specific information.  And don't forget the FrontPage Section!

Embed Flash with FrontPage

Thursday, January 17, 2008

If you do not wish to use HTML code when embedding Flash, FrontPage will help you some. 

Go to Insert - Web Components.  In the dialog box that comes up, scroll down on the left to Advanced Components.  Now in the right window, you should see Movie in Flash Format.  Choose this and then hit Finish.  Now locate the SWF file in your FrontPage website to embed the Flash.

If you have questions, you can also watch the video tutorial on Embedding Flash with Frontpage.

Also keep in mind that if you are on a *NIX server, file names are case sensitive - meaning filename.SWF is not the same as filename.swf. On a Windows server, it does not matter.

Frontpage Form Errors

Thursday, October 11, 2007

A lot of times, you might see this message when you are working with Frontpage Forms.  Chances are, you did not publish the site using http - you use FTP.

Frontpage Forms

When working with Frontpage Forms, you need to publish to http://www.example.com (replacing with example.com with your domain name).  Don't use FTP.  If you FTP your site, especially a Frontpage form, chances are very good that the form will not work.

Frontpage Form Errors

There are different errors when using Frontpage forms.  Sometimes, this will help you to determine what you need to do to get your Frontpage form working properly.

_derived/nortbots.htm and --WEBBOT-SELF--

If you hit Submit on your Frontpage form, and you see _derived/nortbots.htm in the URL or --WEBBOT-SELF--, chances are Frontpage Server Extensions are not even installed on your domain.  You will need to check with your hosting provider for more information.  Chances are also pretty good that you used FTP as well.

Would you like to remove the e-mail recipient?

When working with a Frontpage form, you might want to enter and email address.  However, you might get a message:

This form cannot be configured to send results via e-mail. The Web site maybe be located at a disk-based location, or on a server that has not been configured to send email. Contact your system administrator or Internet Service provider for more information.

Would you like to remove the e-mail recipient?

The answer to this question is no. If you choose Yes, it will remove the email address that you just entered.  Choose no and publish your Frontpage website.

Frontpage Server Extensions (FPSE)

A good way to check to see if FPSEs are installed is to go to your domain name and the file _vti_inf.html.  So if your domain name is www.example.com, you would go to www.example.com/_vti_inf.html.  You should get this message:

FrontPage Configuration Information

In the HTML comments, this page contains configuration information that the FrontPage Explorer and FrontPage Editor need to communicate with the FrontPage server extensions installed on this web server. Do not delete this page.

If you get Page not Found or a 404 Error, Frontpage Server Extensions are not installed or possibly damaged.  You need to contact your hosting company and ask them to repair the FPSEs.

Frontpage is Running Slow

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

A lot of times you will see that Frontpage is sluggish, running pretty slow.  There are a few things that you can do.  One of them is to go to Tools - Site Settings. In the Advanced Tab, you will see a button under Temporary Files that says Delete Files. Click on this button and then hit OK. You can also see a video tutorial.

Now, shut down Frontpage.  And then you can also delete the temporary Internet cache from Microsoft Internet Explorer.  Now, do a search for files with the web extension:  go to the My Computer icon on your computer and hit F3 (to search).  Type in *.web to search for the files.  Delete any files with this extension.

There is also a program called Frontpage Cleaner.  This program will do some of the above mentioned ideas as well as a few others. 

Frontpage Includes

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Frontpage Includes is one of the few Frontpage web components that do not require Frontpage Server Extensions to work.  You can make changes to the included page and not even have to publish the page to work.  You have to publish all the other pages though to see the changes.

To Include a Page using Frontpage

On the page you wish to see the include, go to Insert - Web Component.  In the new dialog box that opens, choose Included Content on the right and now choose Page on the left.  Hit the Finish button and another dialog box will open.  Locate the page you wish to include and hit OK. 

Once saved, you only need to publish the pages that you have changed.  Usually though, this is time consuming which is why I recommend server side includes.  You only need to publish one page and the content is parsed on the server before the browser renders the page.

Frontpage Web Components

A schedule include is a web component that requires Frontpage Server Extensions.  A regular page include only requires Frontpage.  It will insert some code into the pages that looks something like this:

<!--webbot bot="Include" U-Include="included_page.html" TAG="BODY" -->

I know I just wrote about this the other day: Working with Frontpage Includes, but I don't remember writing it (as some of you might remember my memory issues).  I listened to the recording and it seemed to echo so hopefully this recording is a bit better.

Working with Frontpage Includes

Monday, October 08, 2007

Frontpage Includes are one of the very few features in Frontpage in which Frontpage handles by itself - without the need for Frontpage Server Extensions (FPSE).  As you can seen from the screen captures, even any changes made by the Include file are automatically updated locally.  It seems that you do not need to re-save the files, but you will need to re-publish all the files since the files have been changed locally.

To add a page in Frontpage, go to Tools - Web Component.  Now choose Page and hit Next.  Hit the browse button and locate the page you would like to include.  Unlike using server side includes, a Frontpage Included file must be a complete page (having a html, head, and body elements).  Frontpage will handle the includes code as necessary.

The biggest difference with using Frontpage Includes and Server Side Includes, you will nee to publish all pages that have the included content.  With a Server Side Include, you only need to publish one page.

Creating a Hotspot in Frontpage

Saturday, October 06, 2007

To create a hotspot with Frontpage, the easiest way is to use the Picture toolbar.  This will help you create the source code you need if you have one image but need to direct users to different pages when they hover over a particular place on the image.

Once you have the image in your web page, right click near the tool bars to bring up the dropdown and choose the Pictures toolbar.  Now if you highlight your image you will see that you are able to choose the Rectangular Hotspot.  Go to your image, draw a rectangle over the image you wish to direct users to.  When you lift up on the left mouse cursor, a hyperlink dialog box will appear.  Locate the page that you wish to associate with that hotspot.  And then repeat as necessary.

You can also see it in action to make sure you know where everything is.

How to Link to a PDF File in Frontpage

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Linking to a PDF in Frontpage is just like linking to an HTML file.  I would insert the PDF file into your Frontpage website first. 

Now highlight the word(s) you wish the user to click on to download the PDF file.  Now in Frontpage, you can go to Insert - Hyperlink and the Hyperlink Dialogue box will appear.  (You can also press CNTL-K to insert a Hyperlink.)  Now since you have the PDF already in your Frontpage website, locate the PDF and click on the PDF to get that file in the Address bar and hit OK.

When all is said an done, your code should look like:

<a href="pdf/Document1.pdf">Click here</a>

You can also catch a video cast of how to link to a PDF file in Frontpage.  There is also the instructions on how to link to a PDF file in Expression Web.

Creating an Anchor or Bookmark

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Frontpage and Expression Web will allow you to easily create destinations in a web page. These are called anchors.

To create an anchor / bookmark in Frontpage, locate the area that you which to direct users to and press CNTL-G (or Insert - Bookmark).  A dialog box will come up and you will enter a name.  For example, if you are on a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) page and one of the FAQs is Why Us?, you might name the anchor why.

In the source code, you will see:

<a name="why"></a>

Now to create a link to this bookmark / anchor, highlight the word(s) you wish, and press CNTL-K (or Insert - Hyperlink).  In the dialog box that opens, you will see a few choices on the left side: Existing File or Web Page, Place in this Document, Create a New Document, or E-mail Address.  Choose Place in this Document and you should see the bookmark(s) / anchor(s) that you have created.  Choose why and hit the OK button.  In the source code, you should see something like

<a href="#why">Why Us</a>

You can also link directly to an anchor from another page.  For example, let's say that the FAQ page is called about.html.  And you want to have a hyperlink that goes right to the why section on the FAQ.  The source code would look something like

<a href="about.html#why">Why Us</a>

For more information, please see syntax of anchor names. You can also see an on-screen demonstration of how to create an anchor or bookmark in Frontpage.

Naming Your Web Pages

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Usually when you start out, you need to have a "home" page.  This page is usually something like

• index.htm
• index.html
• index.shtm
• index.shtml
• index.phtm
• index.phtml
• index.asp
• index.aspx
• index.cfm
• index.php
• default.htm
• default.html
• default.shtm
• default.shtml
• default.phtm
• default.phtml
• default.asp
• default.aspx
• default.cfm
• default.php

Most servers will be set up to show one of these pages when you enter your domain name.  If not, contact your hosting provider for more information or check their support / knowledge base.

More Web Page Naming Conventions

When working in Frontpage, it is very easy to use a space in the name of the web page.  Don't do it though.  Don't use a space in the file name.  This will be translated to something else in the URL and might cause more problems.  Consider using a underscore (_) or dash (-).

Also, I would keep the file names lowercase.  On *NIX servers, they are case sensitive - meaning that image.JPG is not the same as image.jpg.  This sometimes will cause some problems if you link to aboutus.html but you named your web page AboutUs.html.  On Windows servers, it is not case sensitive, which is one less thing to worry about.

Center a Website in FrontPage

Monday, September 10, 2007

To center a website in FrontPage (assuming you are using tables), right click in the main table and choose table properties.  In the layout section choose Center in the selection.  This should add

<div align="center">

above the beginning main table and

</div>

at the end of the closing table element.

A Much Better Way to Center a Website

A much better way to center a website would be Centering in Firefox and Centering (One more time) using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

Publishing Option is Grayed Out

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Chances are when you cannot publish, you are not working in a Frontpage website (or Expression Website).  You can easily check to see if you have converted this folder to a Frontpage (or Expression) website by going to the location on your computer and drilling down to where the website is.  Usually in Windows XP, it is something like C:\Documents and Settings\-USER-\My Documents\My Web Sites.  (In Vista, it might C:\Users\-USER-\Documents\My Web Sites).  My Web Sites might even have a globe on it .  This is ok.  To one extent, this basically means that all the Frontpage (or Expression) Websites that are under this is a sub-web (or sub-site).  It really does not matter since chances are you are going to be publishing it to a specific website on the Internet.

If you open the My Web Sites with the Frontpage - Open Website tool and see that the folder you are working in does not have a globe on it, you can right click on the folder, choose Convert to Web. This will then allow you to open the Website via Frontpage - Open Site.  You can also double click on this Frontpage Website and a new Frontpage Window will open as well. 

You can also see an online tutorial as well on how to convert a folder to a web.

Microsoft Frontpage MVP

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

I was nominated this year for the Microsoft Frontpage Most Valuable Professional and accepted for this award.

I know that a lot of people do not care for Microsoft® but I have always enjoyed their products and have used a version of Frontpage since the Frontpage Express days.