Page View's Menu Bar
When you are working in Page view, the FrontPage menus contain the commands and options relevant to document creation and editing. Some of these commands are also available as context menus by right-clicking in various screen areas. Portions of the contents of the menus are covered here, with the remaining commands and options covered in chapters related specifically to those items.
The File Menu
As with the majority of Windows software, the File menu collects commands that deal with files, documents, printing, and related activities. FrontPage is no different in this regard.
The items in the File menu are as follows:
New—Starts a new page, a new task, or a new web from the submenu.
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Open—Brings up the Open File dialog box (see Figure 3.3).
Close—Closes the current document.
Open Web—Brings up the Open Web dialog box. This is a slightly simplified version of the Open File dialog box described earlier. The differences are as follows: The File Name field has been replaced by a Folder Name field; the Files of Type field has disappeared; the Open button has no down arrow (which means no options); and the Tools button offers only five options—Delete, Rename, Add to Favorites, Map Network Drive, and Properties.
Save—Saves the document currently open in the main window to the folder in which it currently resides. If the document has never been saved, this command operates as the Save As command (immediately following).
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Save As—Brings up the Save As dialog box. This is very similar to the Open File dialog box shown in Figure 3.3, with the following changes: The Open button has been replaced by a Save button with no option arrows; the Files of Type field is now called Save as Type; and the possible file types are much more limited. The title of the current document (the HTML title, not the filename) is shown above the File Name field. A Change button beside this title opens the Set Page Title dialog box, in which you can simply type in a new title for the page, click OK, and thus make that change.
Publish Web—Yields the Publish FrontPage Web dialog box for the purpose of uploading the files and folders of the currently opened web to a remote server.
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This dialog box's main area is the file window, which shows icons representing the subfolders and files within the folder that is specified in the Look In field at the top of the dialog box. To the left is the list of frequently accessed folders; clicking one of these folders reveals the contents of that folder (files and subfolders) in the file window. You can browse your computer (or networked computers) using the Look In field and the file window, or you can type the full path of the requested file in the File Name field. You can specify the type of file you want to load in the Files of Type field. By default, this field displays FrontPage document types, such as HTML and ASP, but you can select from a wide variety of additional types by clicking the down arrow. The File Name field also offers a down arrow, and clicking it reveals recently loaded files for you to choose from.
Figure 3.3 The Open File dialog box is common to the Office XP suite. The easily accessible folders are to the left.
You don't need to specify a local computer location for a file. You can select files from computers on your network, for instance, and you can also type in a Web location (URL). If your site is on a remote server, you'll want to access that server, not your local drive. In that case, type the URL for your site. You are prompted for a username and password if the site is password protected; you then have access to the remote folders and files.
The Open button in the bottom-right corner becomes available when a document is selected. A down arrow beside that lets you choose between opening the document in the current FrontPage window or in a new FrontPage window. If it's a new window then a new instance of FrontPage loads with that document in the main window.
To the right of the Look In field, along the top of the Open File dialog box, is a series of navigation icons. The left arrow changes the location displayed in the Look In field to the location that was displayed before you selected the current location. The left up arrow takes you up one level in the folder hierarchy. The Internet Explorer icon takes you to IE's search engine, which lets you search using other search engines on the Web. With these search engines you can search for files on the Web; after you have located the one you want, FrontPage lets you load that file and work with it. The X lets you delete a file or folder, whereas the file folder icon lets you add a folder.
The final two icons offer several choices, and thus provide down arrows. The first, Views, lets you choose how to display the files in the file window. List view, which gives you a simple list of folder names and filenames, is selected by default. Selecting Details gives you a columnar view of the folder names and filenames, complete with the file's size, type, and last date and time of modification.
If you select Properties from this list, the file window splits into two panes, with folder names and filenames on the left and the properties for the selected folder or file on the right. If you select Preview, the file window also splits in half, this time with the right side offering a preview of the page (how it will appear in a browser, for example).
The last icon is called Tools. From here you can search for files (Find), delete or rename a file, print a document, or get the file's or folder's properties. You also can map your local network's drives (yielding Windows' standard dialog box for doing so) or add the selected folder or file to the Favorites folder. Doing so adds a shortcut in the Favorites folder to the specific folder or file location. You can access Favorites from the Open File dialog box or a host of other Microsoft programs, including Internet Explorer and the Office suite.
To open a Web on a remote server, type the URL in the Folder Name field.
For information about the Publish Web feature, see "Publishing a Web to a Server without FrontPage Extensions," p. 403
Import—Brings up the Import File to FrontPage Web dialog box, with which you can bring existing files (such as word-processor documents) into the currently loaded web.
Preview in Browser—Displays the Preview in Browser dialog box, letting you display the currently loaded page in a Web browser.
For more information about the Preview in Browser dialog box, see "Developing Text, Lists, and Hyperlinks," p. 63
Page Setup—Selecting this option gives you the Windows Print Setup dialog box, from which you select the printer you want to use for the currently loaded document, plus features specific to that printer. This is a Windows function, not a FrontPagespecific function.
Print Preview—When selected, FrontPage's main window changes to show what the currently loaded document will look like when printed. From this window you can zoom in to see the page in more detail, print the document, and close the window to return to the regular main window. For documents that take up more than one printed page, you can select Next Page, Prev Page, or Two Pages to see two pages at the same time.
Print—Yields the standard Windows Print dialog box. This is a Windows function, not a FrontPage-specific function.
Send—As with other Windows software, Send enables you to e-mail the document. The command automatically opens a new message window in your default Windows e-mail program. The currently selected document automatically appears in this message as an attachment.
Properties—Brings up the Page Properties dialog box.
Recent Files—This selection cascades to reveal the names of the files you have worked on most recently. Up to eight filenames are included. Simply select the desired file; it loads into the main FrontPage window.
Recent Webs—This selection cascades to reveal the names of the webs you have most recently loaded into FrontPage. Up to four webs are included. Selecting a web name opens that web in a separate FrontPage instance.
Exit—Exits the program, prompting you for save information.
The Edit Menu
The Edit menu contains commands that let you edit documents. Most of the commands mimic those of the Edit menu in other Windows programs. It has the following commands:
Undo—This command resets the text of the document to what it was before your last action (typing, deleting, inserting, and so on). Each Undo action removes one action, and the number of possible undos depends on your system's memory. The actual command reads Undo X, where X represents the most recent action.
Redo—The Redo command reverses the most recent Undo action. In other words, it returns things. The actual command reads Redo X, where X represents the last action.
Cut, Copy, Paste—These commands are standard Windows commands. Cut removes the selected item from the document and places it in the Clipboard. Copy places the item in the Clipboard but also leaves it in place in the document. Paste transfers the item from the Clipboard to the document.
Office Clipboard—Opens the Clipboard to let you select from the various chunks of text stored in memory (from Cut and Copy operations). You can also access the Clipboard from the Task pane.
Paste Special—Brings up the Paste Special dialog box. Your choices are to paste the text into the currently active document as one formatted paragraph (it will concatenate separate paragraphs), as the same number of formatted paragraphs as in the original, as normal paragraphs (normal style), as normal paragraphs with line breaks, or as raw HTML.
Delete—Erases the selected item. If that selected item is the web itself, you will be prompted to make sure you want to delete all the files associated with it. Be careful: This is the way to get rid of entire webs.
Select All—Highlights everything in the document. This command is useful for copying, deleting, or reformatting the entire contents of the document.
Find—Yields the Find dialog box, with which you can search for text strings in the currently loaded document or across the entire active web.
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Replace—Brings up the Replace dialog box shown in Figure 3.4. Type, in the Find What field, the text string you want to locate; type, in the Replace With field, the text string that will take the place of the located string. Two columns of option buttons and a column of check boxes guide you through the options. In Find Where, you can choose to find the string in the selected page(s) or across the entire web, whereas in the Direction drop-down list, you can tell FrontPage to search from the cursor position to the beginning of the document (Up) or from the cursor position to the end of the document (Down).
Check Out, Check In, Undo Check Out—These three commands handle the check-out and check-in features of FrontPage, which are designed to let only one author work on a document at one time. A web author cannot load a checked-out page.
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Figure 3.4 The Find dialog box is identical to the Replace dialog box, except that the Find dialog box does not contain the Replace With field.
The Search Options area lets you select any combination of the three options. You can match upper- or lowercase characters, and you can match the entire word (not portions of words). You can also locate the string in the HTML codes themselves. The buttons at the bottom of the dialog box enable you to find the next (or the first) instance of the string or simply cancel the entire process at any point. The Replace button works in conjunction with the Find Next button: After a string is found, click Replace to change that selection only, after which the next instance of the string will be searched for. If you're certain at any time that you want to replace all the specified strings in the text without stopping at each one to confirm, you can click the Replace All button.
For more information about the Check Out, Check In, and Undo Check Out commands, see "Configuring Webs," p. 343 and "Collaborating on Pages and Webs," p. 531
The View Menu
The View menu lets you change what the FrontPage screen displays:
Page, Folders, Reports, Navigation, Hyperlinks, Tasks—These first six menu items work identically to the icons on the Views Bar that run down the left side of the FrontPage screen.
Views Bar, Folder List, Navigation Pane, Task Pane—These commands toggle the Views Bar, the Folder List, the Navigation pane, and the Task pane, respectively, depending on which you want to work with.
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Reveal Tags—This command reveals the HTML tags in the currently loaded document. Figure 3.5 shows a document with tags revealed.
Toolbars—This menu item cascades into a list of available toolbars.
Refresh—Reloads the current document into the main window. This is useful if the display becomes mangled or for seeing the document with all the changes made. You are asked to save any changes to the file before Refresh takes place.
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Figure 3.5 You can see the HTML tags when you select the Reveal Tags option. You can edit the document with these tags in place.
The Insert, Format, Tools, and Table Menus
These menus are covered in detail throughout Part II, "Designing Web Pages," in the chapters devoted to their respective tasks.
The Window Menu
From the Window menu, you can open a new FrontPage window (another instance of FrontPage) or select from one of the currently open documents (which you also can do using the page tabs at the top of the main viewing window). Up to nine open FrontPage documents can appear in the list; if more are open, you can access them by selecting Windows. Each currently running instance of FrontPage has its own separate Window list (although all maintain the same Recent Files and Recent Webs list in the File menu).
The Help Menu
From here you can access FrontPage's Help system. The Office Assistant can also do this for you.
NOTE
If you're working in Page View and you suddenly find that the formatting has changed dramatically, see "Recovering the Page View You Want to Work With" in the Troubleshooting section at the end of this chapter.
If working with HTML code is confusing and cluttered, see "Dealing with Hard-to-Read HTML Code" in the Troubleshooting section at the end of this chapter.