Have you ever tried to create a link from one FrontPage document to a bookmarked spot on another page? Doing so is easy--in the Bookmark text box in the Create Hyperlink dialog box, just type
the bookmark's name.

To improve on the technique, leave the linked page open in
FrontPage Editor. When you do so and then select that page in the
Create Hyperlink dialog box, any bookmarks on the linked page will
show up on the Bookmark dropdown menu. No more having to re-open
a page to find out exactly how to spell the bookmark.

Submitted by: Jesse P. Luna [jluna@compdist.com]

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Have you ever run out of hard disk space and wondered what else you
can delete off your hard drive? Or perhaps you just want your system
to work as efficiently as possible.

Unlike most other Windows programs, FrontPage 98 stores its temporary
files (cache) in its own "temp" subdirectory, typically located at
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft FrontPage\temp." Unfortunately, there's
no provision in FrontPage 98 for cleaning this temporary directory
out, so it just continues to build up. If you've been working with
FrontPage for a while, this directory could be relatively large!

To clean out this temp subdirectory, simply use Windows Explorer to
locate the FrontPage temp subdirectory; then select and delete all
its contents (don't delete the temp subdirectory itself).

And, in case you're wondering, Microsoft corrected this problem in
FrontPage 2000, which has a built-in provision for deleting the
contents of this temp subdirectory cache.

Submitted by: Chris Whitehead
[whitehead_christopher@colstate.edu]

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If you have a fast Internet connection, you may be accustomed to
editing your Webs live on the fly. Doing so gives you immediate
gratification -- your changes appear on the Internet as soon as
you hit the Save button.

But so will your mistakes. That's why FrontPage's publish feature
may be the better way to go. With that feature, you create your
Web locally and then click Publish to upload it to the Internet --
as long as your Web server has the FrontPage server extensions
installed.

If you want to create a local version of a live Web, open the live
version and use the publish command to "publish" the Web to your
local hard drive.

Submitted by: Rob Hutchinson, MCSE
[website@home.com]

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The Scheduled Image component in FrontPage (called Scheduled Picture
in FrontPage 2000) lets you add an image to a page--but only have
it appear during a specified period of time. For example, by using
the component to add a "new" image next to new items on your links
page, you don't have to remember to go back and remove that image
after a couple of months.

Many FrontPage users have avoided the Scheduled Image component,
however, because it doesn't seem to work. Even after an image's
expiration date has passed, the image continues to appear on the page.
<P>
The reason for this apparent bug is that FrontPage only updates your
scheduled images when you republish your Web--it happens during the
"Processing Web Updates" phase of the publishing process. If you plan
to use the Scheduled Image component, then, you should make it a habit
to hit the Publish button on a regular basis.
<P>
(Note: The same thing applies to the Scheduled Include Page component.)

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Once you create a hover button, you can associate a sound effect
with it that will play whenever a visitor points to or clicks on
the button. To do so, right-click on the hover button and select
Hover Button Properties. In the Hover Button Properties dialog box,
click Custom. Then, in the Play Sound panel, place your insertion
point in the appropriate text box, either On Click or On Hover. Use
the Browse button to locate the sound file. Then, click OK twice.

Keep in mind that the sound file must be an AU file--you can't
use MID or WAV files--and it must be saved in 8-bit, 8000 Hz, mono,
u-law format. The reason for these restrictions is that hover
buttons are actually Java applets. The following Microsoft Knowledge
Base article offers more information on using sound files with
hover buttons:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q175/1/75.asp

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Are you looking for a basic introduction to FrontPage concepts
but don't want to spend a lot of money? Then, surf on over to
Microsoft's K-12 Education Web site at

http://www.microsoft.com/education/k12/classroom/tutorial.htm

There, you'll find some excellent--and free--FrontPage 98 and
FrontPage 2000 tutorials. Although they're geared toward K-12
classes, they're useful to the rest of us as well.

Submitted by: Kevin J. Judge [cst1kjj@njcmail.ups.com]

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The Include Page component in FrontPage lets you set up commonly
used content (e.g., a footer or a sidebar) just once and then
display it on any number of pages in your Web. Unfortunately, any
scripts in your included page will tend to generate JavaScript
errors in the browser, even though the scripts worked perfectly
when the page was displayed on its own.

The reason is that Front Page only includes the portion of the page
between the <body> and </body> tags, ignoring everything between
the <head> and </head> tags. So, if you put your scripts in the
head section of the page--as the gurus tell you to--they'll be
ignored, and a script error will result.

Fortunately, the solution is simple: Just move your scripts into
the body section of the page.

Submitted by: Ivor Jones [ivor.jones@phnt.swest.nhs.uk]

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FrontPage bases every HTML page you create on a template file. By modifying this template, you can control many of the default settings on your HTML documents, such as background colors and meta tags. In both FrontPage 98 and FrontPage 2000, the template file is called Normal.htm. FrontPage 98 stores the file in C:\Program Files\
Microsoft FrontPage\Pages\Normal.tem\. In FrontPage 2000, the file is saved in the directory \Templates\1033\Pages\normal.tem\ within your Office 2000 directory.

To edit the template, you'll need to open it from within FrontPage. (Double-clicking on the file icon will simply open it in Internet Explorer.) Once you've made your changes to Normal.htm, choose Save from the File menu. You might expect FrontPage to save your changes automatically, but instead, it assumes that you're saving a new
document based on normal.htm, not changing the template itself. In the Save As File dialog box, then, type Normal in the File Name text box. When you click Save, FrontPage will warn you that you're about to overwrite an existing file; click Yes. From now on, whenever you create a new document in FrontPage, it will reflect the formatting
options you've saved in normal.htm.

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Like all the other Office 2000 applications, FrontPage 2000 lets
you quickly customize its user interface. You can add commands to
any menu or any toolbar and even create your own toolbar of
commonly used commands.

To get started choose Customize from the Tools menu--or just click
in the empty gray area to the right of the menu bar or any toolbar.
Click the Commands tab if it's not already selected.

The scrolling list on the left shows various categories of commands,
and the scrolling list on the right shows the commands within the
chosen category. Once you've found the command you want to add,
simply drag it to the menu or toolbar where it should appear. (When
you drag it to a menu, that menu will drop down, allowing you to
position the command wherever you want it to appear.

The Customize dialog box also lets you customize the icons and/or
text for any command. Choose the command--on a menu or toolbar, not
in the Customize dialog box--and click Modify Selection. The menu
that pops up lets you change a dozen different aspects of how the
command appears.

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Note: A recent tip described free online FrontPage tutorials on
Microsoft's Web site. Since we published the tip, the URL has
changed. The new URL is:http://www.microsoft.com/education/tutorial/classroom/fp2k/default.asp

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Our tip last week described how the Resample button can drastically
reduce the file size of images in FrontPage. As we noted, however,
that technique only works when you've reduced an image's proportions.

If you want to reduce an image's file size--but still have it appear
just as large on your page--you'll need to reduce the number of
different colors that appear in the file. (You can usually do so
without affecting the image's quality.)

Several popular Web site "tune-up" services can help you. All you do
is enter your image file's URL, and the site generates versions that
are up to 90 percent smaller than the original. You just pick the
version you like, save it to disk, and then import it into your Web.
For more information, visit www.netmechanic.com (for GIFBot) and <a href="http://www.websitegarage.netscape.com> the WebSite Garage (for GIF Lube)</a>.

If you have Microsoft PhotoDraw, which ships with Office 2000 Premium,
you have access to a similar feature through the Save For Use In Wizard.
Choose Save For Use In from the File menu, select On The Web, and click
Next. PhotoDraw will then generate several GIF and JPEG alternatives
for you to choose from.

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By default, FrontPage uses a relatively small font size in
HTML view. If you'd like to increase or decrease the font size --
and you have a Microsoft IntelliMouse or Wheel Mouse -- just hold
down the <Ctrl> key and roll the mouse wheel.

This feature lets you view long lines of HTML without horizontal
scrolling and lets you zoom in on your code without having to squint.

Submitted by: Morten Therkildsen [morten@therkildsen.dk]

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Last week's tip introduced you to FrontPage 2002's WordArt feature. If you haven't upgraded to FrontPage 2002, but do have Microsoft Word, you can still use the feature. How? Create your styled WordArt text in Word and copy it to the Clipboard. Switch to FrontPage and paste it in. When you save the page, you'll be prompted to save the WordArt text as a GIF image.

You won't be able to change the WordArt text in FrontPage, so you may want to save the Word document in a safe place.

Tip contributed by Fr. Brian Cavanaugh, TOR, bcavanaugh@franuniv.edu

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FrontPage's Folders view can show you a lot of information about the files in your Web--including the fact that some pages may not have titles. The text in the Title column will appear in the browser's title bar (and in search engine listings), so it's important to give your page's descriptive titles.

If no title appears for a particular page (or the title is the same as the filename), you can quickly assign a title in Folders view. To do so, select the page in question and press the [Tab] key twice. Type a new page title and press [Enter].

As you might have guessed, you can use the same technique to change the filename, as well as to add text to the Comments field. Just keep pressing [Tab] until the appropriate field is selected.

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Microsoft's Knowledge Base is a massive database of articles (more than 250,000 of them) related to Microsoft products. Some articles give step-by-step instructions for accomplishing certain tasks; others give general or background information, such as which FrontPage features require the server extensions; still others address software bugs, error messages and workarounds.

You can search the Knowledge Base for help with your FrontPage problems by pointing your Web browser to http://support.microsoft.com. Microsoft has recently upgraded the Knowledge Base's user interface, greatly improving the search results you're likely to obtain.

If you're still not finding the information you need, try this approach. Instead of going to Microsoft's support site, go to the Google search engine (www.google.com). Type your search terms, followed by (site:support.microsoft.com) (without the parentheses). Now, click on Google Search, and Google will look for pages within Microsoft's support site that meet your search criteria.

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