FrontPage 2000 is one the finest WYSIWYG Web Site creation programs available. You may have come across comments like "all you need is notepad!". This is what is involved when constructing web pages by hand.
Click here to see an example of HTML code
This may well be incomprehensible to you unless you have already learnt some HTML. You will be pleased to know that you do need to know any HTML to be able to successfully use FrontPage 2000. Later as you get more ambitious with your website it will be useful to know how web pages are constructed but for now just think yourself lucky that you don't have to learn a new language!
Click here to see what that HTML code produces
What is HTML - Hyper Text Mark Up Language? Every web site you have ever seen looks like that in it's raw form. It is the browser you use which turns that code into the web pages you see.
Creating your first Web SiteThe easiest way to create your first web site is to let FrontPage 2000 do it for you!
Choose File, New Web from the FrontPage 2000 menu.
You will see a screen listing all the different web sites that FrontPage can generate. Note that FP2000 only generates a skeleton with places for you to customise as you see fit.
For your first web site I suggest your choose the Personal Web Site option.
This will create a web site with five pages already generated for you.
The first page we will look at is the page name index.htm. This is the name given to the first or home page of most web sites you visit. Type a URL (Uniform Resource Locater - the "name" of a website) such as www.microsoft.com into a browser such as Internet Explorer and when the browser arrives at the site it will look for a page called index.htm to load.
It is usual therefore to make the name of your "home" page index.html.
If you double click on index.htm FP2000 will show you what the page looks like and allow you to edit it should you wish.
The first you change you might like to make is to change the words "Home Page" to a title of your choice such as "Fred's Fantastic Web Site". Double click on the words "Home Page". In the box marked Page Banner text type your title. After you click OK you will see the title has changed. You have now started on the customisation of your first web site!
Now the Navigation Bar.
Double click where it says "Click here to change Navigation Properties ". Simply select the check box where it says "Child Level" and click OK. You will now see four buttons marked Home, Interests, Photo Album and Favorites. You do not of course need a button marked Home on your Home Page. Double click on any one of the buttons. Near the top right is a check box labeled "Home Page". Uncheck this option and click OK. You will now find you only have three buttons to choose from.
You will also notice that you could select which page to go to on the left hand side where you will see three hyperlinks. Let's change those to buttons too. Double click on one of the links and select the checkbox labeled buttons. Click OK and now we have a consistent look to our web page.
Should you wish to test your buttons simply press the Control key (Ctrl) and with that key held down click on one of the buttons. You will be taken to that page.
You can also change the text that is displayed on the button that brings you to this page should you wish. Simple Double click on the title at the top of the page as you did earlier with your Home Page and select a new title. Press Ctrl and click on the "Up" button to return to your home page where you will see that the text on the button has changed automatically to reflect your changes.
You could now change the text in the centre of the page. Simply delete what's there or add to it as you wish. If you have used Microsoft Word you will find that you can use the same Bold, Italic, bullets and numbering options in FrontPage. Experiment with different text colours. Come back here when you are done.
Perhaps you would like a picture on your home page? Easily done with FrontPage. Simply put the cursor where you would like the picture and choose Insert Picture Clip Art from the menu to choose from the Microsoft Clip Art gallery. You could also choose Insert Picture Clip Art file to select an image from a file on your PC or from the internet.
Locate the file or clip art picture you would like to insert and insert it. You may find it is much bigger than you want. Simply click once on the picture and you will see white resizing buttons appear at the corners of the picture and half way down both sides. Place the mouse cursor over the one of these buttons and whilst holding down the left button on your mouse move the mouse to resize the picture. Don't forget if you change your mind you can always click the Undo button in the toolbar or choose Edit Undo from the menu.
FrontPage 2000 has many other options for you to produce sophisticated web sites and pages. Experiment and choose the style that suits you. Remember that large pictures inserted on your pages will take a long time to download and people may get fed up and leave rather than wait. Try to keep your home page reasonably small.
Now we will move on to "Publishing your Web Site" to the World Wide Web. After all it's shame to do all that work and not let other people have the chance to see it isn't it!