Sitebuilder Resources : Frequently Asked Questions

Clean up your FrontPageTempDir and *.web files

dave — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 15:58:00 GMT

"Steve Easton, a FrontPage MVP, has created a new tool called FPCleaner that will delete the temporary files that may get left behind when you exit FrontPage. It will also delete the *.web files (the cached copies of your site that can occasionally get corrupted and cause problems). I've been using it for a while now and gotten into the habit of running it just before I start FrontPage - in fact, it has a button to launch FP when you're through cleaning up.“

Replace lost Office product keys

dave — Sun, 06 Feb 2005 02:02:00 GMT

Every so often we get a request for help from someone who has lost their product key. To obtain a new product key for your Office program in the United States, call 1-800-936-5700 and speak to a Microsoft customer service representative. For more information visit the Microsoft Office Online Web site.

I uploaded my web pages but why are the changes not showing on my Web site?

dave — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 01:34:00 GMT

You must clear your browser's cache first (Temporary Internet Pages).

Internet Explorer
To clear the cache:

Open Internet Explorer
Click on Tools and Select Internet Options.

Next, click on the Delete Files button to eliminate the cached Internet files

To make sure all Temporary Internet Files are removed from your system check
the Delete all offline content box

Click OK to delete and OK once more to exit Internet Options

Netscape Navigator
To clear the cache:

Open the Edit menu and click Preferences

Under the Advanced category, click Cache. (If no options are visible in this category, click to expand the list)

Click on Clear Memory Cache then click on Clear Disk Cache.

HTTP Error 404 Submitting Form w/Save Results Form Handler

dave — Thu, 13 Jan 2005 01:23:00 GMT

When you click the Submit button on a form, the following error message appears in the Web browser:

404 Not Found. The requested URL /nortbots/_derived/nortbots.htm was not found on this server. NOTE: The error may be different depending on which type of server your Web resides.

Cause

When you set up a form on a disk-based web to send results to a file or e-mail address, FrontPage configures the form so that the Nortbots.htm page will be displayed in the Web browser. When you submit the form from the disk-based web, the following information appears in the Web browser:

FrontPage Run-Time Component Page. You have submitted a form or followed a link to a page that requires a Web server and the FrontPage Server Extensions to function properly.

This form or other FrontPage components will work correctly if you publish this Web to a Web server that has the FrontPage Server Extensions installed.

Click the <Back> arrow to return to the previous page.

When you publish the Web to a Web server, FrontPage does not publish Nortbots.htm. FrontPage also does not configure the form to work with the FrontPage Server Extensions.

NOTE: This behavior also may occur if you are using the Discussion Form Handler or the Registration Form Handler.

To work around this behavior use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Remove the Reference to Nortbots.htm

In FrontPage Explorer, open your Web on the server.
Double-click the page that contains the form. The page will open in FrontPage Editor.
Click inside the form area. NOTE: The dashed line indicates the boundary of the form.

Click the HTML tab at the bottom of the FrontPage Editor window. You will see HTML code similar to the following:

   <form method="POST" name="myform"
   onSubmit="location.href='_derived/nortbots.htm';return false;"
   action=\"--WEBBOT-SELF--\">

Remove the entire line of code that begins with the "onSubmit" statement. Your code will now look similar to the following:
```
   <form method="POST" name="myform"
   action=\"--WEBBOT-SELF--\">
```
On the File menu, click Save.

Method 2: Re-create the Form

In FrontPage Explorer, open your "live" Web on the server.
Double-click the page that contains the form. The page will open in FrontPage Editor.
Select a form field and then press DELETE. Repeat this step until you have deleted all form fields.
Press DELETE to delete the form (indicated by the dashed line boundary).
On the Insert menu, point to Form Field, and click the form field option you want to add to your form. Repeat this step until you have recreated your form.
On the File menu, click Save.

How do I remove an Add-in in Frontpage?

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 06:20:00 GMT

On the Tools menu in FrontPage 2000/2002, click Add-ins.
Select the add-in you would like to uninstall.
Click Remove.
Click OK.

If it was added to the toolbar:

On the Tools menu, click Customize.
With the Customize dialog box displayed, click the Add-ins menu item
Drag the add-in menu item off of the menu.

You can find great add-ons for FrontPage at the FrontPage Add-in Center.

Adjusting your site for different Screen Resolutions

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 06:10:00 GMT

Have you ever spent hours trying to get your site to look just right and then viewed it on another PC at a different screen resolution? If I design a site, I want to be sure that it stays the way I wanted it to look no matter what screen resolution the visitor is using. How do you accomplish this?

Tables.

Tables can be a web designer's best friend when it comes to achieving the perfect look. If you just want to make sure your site fits in all browsers you can set up a table set to 100% width and then put your content inside of it. This will insure that it expands and grows to the width of the user's browser no matter what screen resolution they have.

If you want to be sure that your site stays the same in all screen resolutions then you would use tables and cells locked at a specific number of pixels to keep things from distorting.

A few years ago it was good practice to always design for the most commonly used screen resolution - 640x480 but these days, most PCs come pre-set up for screen resolutions of 800x600 or higher. One tip when using tables set to a specific number of pixels is to remeber to take into account that you don't have the full height and width of the browser to take advantage of. You have to account for the scroll bars, menu bars, tool bars etc. For example, at 640x480 you may want to set your table to a width of 595.

An alternate way of doing this is to set up different pages and use a screen redirect script to redirect your users depending on their browser settings.

Creating a Favorites Icon for your Web Site

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 06:04:00 GMT

Have you ever visited a site and noticed that there was a small icon (image) next to the URL in your address bar or bookmarked a site and saw that it had an icon next to it?

This is done by creating a 16x16 pixel icon (.ico) file with a standard graphics or icon maker program, such as IconForge, and importing it into the root of your web site.

Once you have the .ico file in your root you need to add the following tag to the <HEAD> section of your site:

That's it! You can find out more information about creating a Favorites Icon by visiting Favicon.com

Disabling Right-Click

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 06:00:00 GMT

One question that I get a lot of is people wanting to know how to disable the right-click menu in a user's browser so they can't download images and graphics from their site. This also goes hand-in-hand with the questions about preventing users from stealing content off of a web site. Here's the only real way to prevent this:

Don't publish it to your site!

There are all kinds of JavaScript and other tricks you can use to disable the right-click, most of which will just annoy your users, but in the end there is NO possible way to prevent users from getting your content.

Even with right-click disabled people can still get the images and files they want from their Temporary Internet Files cache, doing a View Source on your page and browsing directly to it, copy and pasting the information, choosing Save As from the File menu and a number of other ways to defeat this.

The best you can do is use a service, like Digimarc, to digitally "sign" or watermark your images so they can be tracked.

How to convert a folder to a web (subweb)

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:35:00 GMT

In FrontPage you can easily convert any folder in a web into a subweb. Because each subweb can have its own set of permissions for who can author, browse, or administer it, you can set up individual subwebs with different levels of permissions and different groups of users.

For example, you might set up different subwebs for Marketing and Human Resources; within the Human Resources subweb, you might have different subwebs with different permissions for job postings, employee records, and even the employee handbook. Only recruiters could update the job postings subweb, but everyone in the company could browse it. Only Human Resources managers could browse and author the employee records subweb, while everyone in the company could browse (but not author) the employee benefits web.

Warning Do not convert the root folder (for example, C: or D:) of your computer's hard drive to a web. Doing so may render your hard drive unusable.

In the Folder List, right-click the folder you want to convert to a web, and then click Convert to Web on the shortcut menu.

Notes:

Pages that include other files may not be updated when the included files change.
Hyperlinks on navigation bars may be linked to pages outside the new web.
The larger the contents of the folder, the longer it will take to convert the folder to a web. For a large folder, this process could take several minutes.

How do I set up my server to send email when using FrontPage forms?

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:25:00 GMT

In order to send email from a FrontPage form you need to configure the FrontPage Server Extensions to send email.

In Internet Information Server:

Right-click on your web and choose Properties.
Click on the Server Extensions Tab.

For FrontPage 2002:

Click on Settings.
Your browser will launch and the Change Configuration Settings web-based administration form will appear.
Enter in your SMTP mail server and the email address that will appear as the From and Reply To addresses when a form is submitted.
Click Submit.

For FrontPage 2000 and FrontPage 98:

Select the option to specify how email should be sent.
Enter in your SMTP mail server and the email address that will appear as the From and Reply To addresses when a form is submitted.
Click Ok.

Applies to:

Internet Information Server 6.0
Internet Information Server 5.0
Internet Information Server 4.0

I get a No Catalog error when using the FrontPage search

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:24:00 GMT

This error means that your Internet Services Provider (ISP) or Web Presence Provider (WPP) is running Index Server.

To correct the problem, contact your ISP or WPP and ask them to either:

Create a "Catalog" for your site.
Turn off Index Server on your site.

What is the difference between a disk-based and server based web?

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:22:00 GMT

By default, FrontPage creates disk-based webs when you choose the File, New Web option from the menu. A disk-based web is a web that has not been published to a web server. Disk-based webs are accessed by selecting a folder location on your Hard Drive, such as C:My Webs.

Server-based webs are webs that have been published to a web server. You can access these webs by selecting File, Open Web and putting in the location of your web site, such as http://www.mydomain.com/. If you are running a web server locally you would choose http://localhost/ to open your web.

The advantage of using a server-based web is that you can develop and test out all features that require the FrontPage Server Extensions to function.

Why do my images appear as red x's on my page?

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:21:00 GMT

In order to insure that all of your links work properly, make sure to import all of your files and images into your web before linking to them.

Change to Folder View.
Click on the folder where you want to import your images to.
Choose File, Import from the menu.
Choose Add File or Add Folder (to import an entire folder).
Browse to the location on your Hard Drive where your images are located.
Select the file and choose Open then click Ok.

Once you've imported your images:

Switch to Page View.
Click your cursor at the location where you want to insert the image.
Choose Insert, Picture (for FrontPage 98 the option will say Image), from File.
In the Look In box, browse to the location in your web that contains the image you want to insert.
Choose the file and click Ok.

Applies to:

All Versions

Why are my links pointing to my Hard Drive?

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:20:00 GMT

In order to insure that all of your links work properly, make sure to import all of your files and images into your web before linking to them.

Change to Folder View.
Click on the folder where you want to import your files to.
Choose File, Import from the menu.
Choose Add File or Add Folder (to import an entire folder).
Browse to the location on your Hard Drive where your files or images are located.
Select the file and choose Open then click Ok.

Once you've imported your files or images:

For Text Links:

Switch to Page View.
Highlight the text where you want to create a link.
Choose Insert, Hyperlink (or click on the Hyperlink icon).
In the Look In box, browse to the location in your web that contains the file you want to link to.
Choose the file and click Ok.

For Images:

Switch to Page View.
Click your cursor at the location where you want to insert the image.
Choose Insert, Picture (for FrontPage 98 the option will say Image), from File.
In the Look In box, browse to the location in your web that contains the image you want to insert.
Choose the file and click Ok.

Applies to:

All Versions

How do I get text to wrap around my images?

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:19:00 GMT

Although FrontPage does not have all the power of a traditional desktop publishing program, there are a few ways you can accomplish this.

Method #1:

Right-click on your image.
Choose Picture Properties from the menu (in FrontPage 98 this will be called Image Properties).
Click on the Appearance Tab.
Set the Alignment to the desired location of the image.
Change the values of the Horizontal and Vertical spacing to control the space around the text and the image.
Click Ok.
On your screen you will see a square box with an arrow inside of it near the image. Drag the arrow to the spot in your text where you want the image to wrap.

Method #2:

Create a single cell table.
Insert your image into the table.
Right-click on the table.
Choose Table Properties.
Under Layout set the Float property to the desired direction of the image.

Applies to:

All Versions

How do I remove the blue border around my images?

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:17:00 GMT

You can do this from the picture properties dialog box.

Right-click on your image.
Choose Picture Properties (in FrontPage 98 this will be called Image Properties) from the menu.
Click on the Appearance Tab.
Set the Border thickness to 0 (zero).
Click Ok.

Applies to:

FrontPage 2003
FrontPage 2002
FrontPage 2000
FrontPage 98

Why are certain options on my menu grayed out or unavailable?

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 01:16:00 GMT

FrontPage provides the ability to create cross-browser compatible web sites. In order to do this, you can set the Compatibility options for the browser and version you are designing for. If a browser (ex. Netscape) doesn't support a particular feature, such as background sound, marquees etc, then that option will be grayed-out. To fix this:

Choose Tools, Page Options.
Click on the Compatibility Tab. (in FrontPage 2003 this is the Authoring Tab)
Set the Browsers, Browser Versions and Servers to Custom.
Put a check mark in all the boxes.

Applies to:

FrontPage 2003
FrontPage 2002
FrontPage 2000

FrontPage won't start or it keeps crashing on me

dave — Sat, 08 Jan 2005 00:07:00 GMT

There are three things that might cause this behavior:

Corrupted preference file. Do a search for cmdUI.prf and delete the file. Note: When you do this, any custom toolbars you had will be lost and you'll need to re-create them.
Corrupted meta data. You can fix this doing a search on your Hard Drive for all .web files and deleting them.
Corrupted Registry key.

Choose Start, Run and type RegEdit.

Find and delete the Registry Key, HKEY_CURRENT_USERSSoftwareMicrosoftFrontPage

Warning: Editing the Registry can cause your system to become unstable. Before deleting or changing registry entries you should backup your registry first. To do this, choose Registry, Export Registry File from within RegEdit.

Finally, you should regularly clear out your FrontPage TEMP directory to ensure optimal performance.

Applies to:

FrontPage 2002
FrontPage 2000

How do I "redirect" a user to another page?

dave — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:38:00 GMT

You can use the following method to redirect a user to another page on YOUR site, another site or simply to refresh the current page. This is accomplished using the META tags.

There are two methods:

Switch to HTML View.

in the <head> section of your code, put:

<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="4; url=nextpage.htm"> or
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="4; url=http://www.xyz.com/">

content = is the number of seconds to wait before redirecting the page.
url = is the page you want to send the user to. If you just want to refresh the page they're on, put in that page's name here.
In FrontPage:

Choose Format | Background and choose the Custom tab. In the System Variables Dialog, choose Add.

In the Name field type Refresh

and in the Value window type 4; url=nextpage.htm (note: do NOT use quotes.)

How do I remove the underlines from my hyperlinks?

dave — Fri, 07 Jan 2005 16:31:00 GMT

Switch to HTML View.
in the <HEAD> section of your code, put:

<STYLE>

</STYLE>