Front Page Basics

Open Your "Web" In FrontPage
Each section of the St. Margaret's web site is called a "web."  To open your web, you must first open Front Page.  Click on the File menu and choose "Open Web" - if you are using Windows XP you may have to choose "Open Site".  In the Folder Name blank, type http://www.smes.org/classes/yourlastname.  If you have the same last name as someone else at St. Margaret's, your web may be listed under some combination of your first and last names- check with Cheryl Henderson.

View Your "Web" Files
When you open your web, you should see a folder list window along the left side of your monitor.  If you don't see the folder list, click on the Folder List icon or click on the View menu and choose Folder List.  In your folder list, you'll see your .htm files and graphics files (.gif or .jpg).  We recommend your become accustomed to turning your folder list on and off using the icon.  When it's on, your web page will appear narrower than actual size, but you'll be able to see and easily open all the files in your web.

Edit Your Pages
To edit a page in your web, double-click on the file in your folder list.  The page will open up.  You may have more than one page open at a time.  You can tell which pages are open by looking at the folder.

Change Page Properties
Editing Page Properties is a vital part of formatting your web pages.  To modify page properties, either right-mouse click anywhere on your page and choose Page Properties OR click on the File menu and choose Properties.


Under the General Tab of the Page Properties dialog box, you need to give each page in your web a title.  The title will appear at the top of the web browser.  The title is vital to indexing your pages on our server, so they can be located in a search.  Please use the following format for your titles:

Class Name: SubPage - St. Margaret's Episcopal School

Example:

English 8: Assignments - St. Margaret's Episcopal School

The Background Tab allows you to decide on a background color or pattern, a default text color, and hyperlink colors.

Create a New Page
To create a new page, click on the New Page icon at the far left of your toolbar.   After creating a new page, the first thing you should do is modify the Page Properties to give your page a title (see above) and Save.  When you save, give your new page a short filename without spaces.  If you need to create the illusion of space in a filename, use an underscore.  For example:  how_to.htm

Related topic:  Use a Template

Format Text
Formatting text in FrontPage is very similar to formatting text in other Microsoft.  Use the toolbar for quick formatting:

  • Font Type:  Arial, Courier, Times New Roman, and Verdana are recommended.

  • Font Size:  Seven sizes are available to you in the pull-down menu

  • Font Style:  Bold, Italics, and Underline.  Avoid underlining in web pages, because an underline usually indicates a hyperlink.

  • Alignment:  Choose left, center, or right

  • Lists:  Choose numbered or bulleted list (this is a bulleted list)

  • Indent:  You can increase or decrease the indentation.  Use these tools instead of using the tab key or typing extra spaces.

MISC. TEXT NOTE:  When you use the ENTER key on your keyboard, your cursor moves down two lines.  If you want to type on the next line, use SHIFT-ENTER to move down only one line.

Insert Graphics
To insert a graphic, use the Insert Picture tool .

You can choose from the FrontPage clipart collection, by clicking on the Clip Art button, or you can bring in a graphic that you have saved to another location (preferably your folder on the s: drive!) by clicking on the Select File icon in the bottom, right-hand corner.  Navigate to the folder containing the image.  Select the file and click OK.

Read the guidelines for using graphics.

When you save your page, you'll be prompted to save a copy of the image file to your web.  Click OK.  Graphics files must be contained in your web in order for others to see the picture on your web page.

Create Hyperlinks
You can create a hyperlink from text or from an image.  The hyperlink's target can be another page in your web or a site on the World Wide Web.

First select the text or image you wish to hyperlink and click on the button on the toolbar. The Create Hyperlink dialog box will open up.  If you're linking to another page in your web, single-click on the page to which you're linking and click OK.  If you're linking to a site on the WWW, type in the address in the URL field.  For example:  http://www.smes.org

If you're creating multiple hyperlinks to WWW sites, you may find it convenient to have your web browser open in order to copy and paste the URL.  It saves time and helps eliminate typos that render your hyperlinks useless.

Use Basic Tables
Tables are an integral part of web design. Unlike word processing and desktop publishing software, web development software doesn't allow you to drag and drop text and graphics wherever you want them to appear.  Instead you have to use tables to manipulate where text and graphics appear on a page.

To create a table, click on the Table menu and choose Insert Table.  The dialog box that opens allows you to choose the initial properties of the table, such as the number of rows and columns, the alignment, and the width of the table.  For example, the text on this page is in a table that consists of one row and one column.  The table is center-aligned and takes up 70% of the width of the page.  Putting the text in the table provides white space on either side, making the text easier to read.

Make the Most of the Right Mouse Button
Using the right mouse button can save you multiple steps and actually help you learn the options available in FrontPage.  Whenever you right-mouse click, Microsoft predicts your next step and makes the most appropriate options available to you.  The options will vary depending where you click.

You'll soon notice that a number of web page elements have "properties."  There are Page Properties, Image Properties, Table Properties, Form Properties, etc.  Whenever you right-mouse click on the page, an image, a table, or a form, etc. the appropriate properties option becomes available.  Selecting and modifying the properties is a major component of efficient web design.

Use a Template
 A template will streamline the process of creating new pages to your "web."  Once you've create a page with your choice of background, color scheme, logo (identifying graphic), and the general information that you want on every page, save it.  Then click on the File menu and choose Save As...  Give this second version of the page a name like blank or template. 

Whenever you're ready to create a new page, open the file called blank.htm or template.htm, and click on the File menu and choose Save As... Choose a name that accurately reflects the content of the new page.  Be sure to use a short filename without spaces.  If you need to create the illusion of space in a filename, use an underscore.  For example:  how_to.htm

After creating this new page from your template, the first thing you should do is modify the Page Properties to give your page a title (see above) and Save.

See Your Web Page on the Internet
 The URL or address of your web page is:

 http://www.smes.org/yourlastname

When you edit your pages in FrontPage and save your work, the pages are immediately updated on the SMES web server.  Anyone in the world can you view your work by typing your URL into a web browser.

When you are ready to "announce" the availability of your web page to the SMES community, please contact Cheryl Henderson.  A link to your page will be added to the appropriate Resources page and/or pull-down menu.