FrontPage 2002 Workspace Management Techniques
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Introduction
In This Chapter:
- Working with Views
- Working with Toolbars and Menus
- Matching Files with Editors
- Using Macros
- Managing Add-Ins
As FrontPage has evolved, its user interface has improved significantly. But that doesn't mean that the interface is perfect, or that it's perfectly suited to your specific needs. So Microsoft gives you extensive control over FrontPage 2002's interface. This chapter shows you how to customize FrontPage's look and feel. You'll learn how to work with the Views bar, customize the program's toolbars and menus, and even create your own toolbars. The chapter also covers several related topics, including assigning editors to specific file types, using macros, and managing add-ins.
Working with Views
FrontPage 2002 uses views to provide different ways to work and manage files and webs. In all, there are six views: Page, Folders, Reports, Navigation, Hyperlinks, and Tasks. The sections that follow examine techniques you can use to work with the various views. Let's get started with a look at key view management techniques.
View Basics
You use the Views bar and the View menu to switch between views. When the Views bar is displayed, you can switch between FrontPage views by clicking the icon of the view you want to see. The View menu also lets you switch views. By choosing View, Hyperlinks, for example, you go directly to Hyperlinks view.
Because the Views bar and the View menu offer the same functions, you might want to hide the Views bar to give yourself more room to work. Just choose View, Views Bar. Choosing the command again brings the Views bar back, as you'd expect.
You also can change the Views bar's appearance. Right-click the Views bar, and a shortcut menu appears. Here, you can switch between large and small icons or hide the Views bar completely. If you switch to small icons, you'll discover that the Views bar stays the same width. To make it narrower, drag the right border and resize it. You can make the Views bar as small as a one-fourth–inch bar.
Each view has a shortcut menu that you can use to perform tasks relevant in the view. To display the shortcut menu, right-click an open area in the view.
Using the Page View
You use Page view to create and edit Web pages in FrontPage. Previous chapters have examined key features of the Page view, but we have not put all the pieces together in one place.
As shown in Figure 3.1, the key features of Page view are the tabs at the top and bottom of the view. The upper tabs in the view allow you to quickly switch between open pages. Simply click the tab for the page you want to access. Each tab displays the filename of the page. An asterisk to the right of the filename indicates that you have modified the page since it was last opened or saved. A quick way to save changes to multiple pages is to select Save All from the File menu.
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The lower tabs in the view allow you to change how the page is presented. The most commonly seen tabs are Normal, HTML, and Preview. In Normal mode, you see the page in the normal editing mode. In HTML mode, you see the HTML source code for the page much as you would if you opened the page in a text editor. In Preview mode, you can preview the page for proofing, and page elements are presented much as they will be in a browser.
When you work with frames, you'll see two additional tabs: No Frames and Frames Page HTML. The No Frames tab allows you to access and edit the Web page displayed in browsers that don't support frames. The Frames Page HTML tab allows you to access the HTML source code for the top-level frames page. For more information on frames, see Chapter 13 "Designing Web Pages with Frames."
Figure 3.1 Use Page view to create and edit pages.
Using the Folders View
When you select Folders view, you see a list of all the folders and files in the web. Folders are listed on the left, and elements within the currently selected folder are listed on the right. To see the contents of a folder, click the folder in the left view pane or _double-click it in the right view pane.
As you can see from Figure 3.2, Folders view displays summary information for each file in the selected folder. The column title bars are more than decoration. You can click any of the column title bars to alphabetize your files based on the information in the _column. By default, your folders and files are organized alphabetically by filename. You can, for example, click the file's Title bar to alphabetize by title.
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All the columns can be resized as well. Click and drag the dividing bar to resize the _column. When the column is sized appropriately, release the left mouse button.
You can easily edit the files in Folders view. Just move the mouse pointer over an item summarizing information for the file and double-click the left mouse button.
Folders view is useful for performing many common file operations, including
Publishing individual files To publish individual files, right-click the filename and then select Publish Selected Files.
Marking files that shouldn't be published To mark files that shouldn't be published, right-click the filename and then select Don't Publish. Any file that has the Don't Publish flag set shows a Red X in its document icon.
Specifying a site's home page To set a page as the home page for a site, right-click the filename and then select Set as Home Page. If there is an existing home page, FrontPage renames the existing page with –old in the filename and sets the selected page as the home page. You can use this technique to set the default document for folders as well.
Setting file properties To set a file's properties, including the file title, right-click the filename and then select Properties.
NOTE
In FrontPage, the default name for a home page is index.htm. When electing to set a page as the home page, FrontPage renames the page index.htm and then updates links within the current web so that they point to the correct location.
Figure 3.2 Folders view displays much information about the files in your web.
Using the Navigation View
Navigation view provides a textual picture of all the Web pages in a Web and their relationships. As shown in Figure 3.3, links between Web pages are shown in hierarchical fashion so that you get a clear idea of how users can navigate your Web site using the links provided.
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In Navigation view, you can select files and drag them around to reorganize the representation of the page hierarchy. You can also expand and shrink the levels of the page hierarchy. A plus sign next to a folder means that you can expand the hierarchy to see another level of detail within the web. A minus sign means that you can shrink the hierarchy to see less detail. To expand or shrink the view, simply double-click on the plus or minus sign.
NOTE
Changing the representation of files in the Navigation view has subtle effects on the web, particularly when it comes to Navigation bars. With Navigation bars, you can add graphical and text links to other locations within or outside of the current web. The links within navigation bars are organized according to your Navigation view. You can configure navigation according to top-level pages, child pages of the home page, and so on. For details on working with Navigation bars, see Chapter 10, "Using Themes, Borders, and Navigation."
Right-click any open area of the view, and you'll see a shortcut menu that lets you change the size and orientation of the view and perform other key tasks as well.
Figure 3.3 Navigation view provides a textual picture of pages and their relationships.
Using the Hyperlinks View
As shown in Figure 3.4, Hyperlinks view provides a graphical representation of links within documents. The view has two panes. The left pane displays a folder list that you can use to select files. The right pane depicts the organization of your web graphically.
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When you select a page in the left pane, a graphical picture associated with the document appears in the right pane. Links to and from the selected document are shown with a line. The line ends with an arrow that symbolizes the relationship between the linked documents. You can expand and shrink the levels of linking in the right pane. Simply click on a plus sign to see more detail and the minus sign to see less detail.
By default, Hyperlinks view shows files by filename. If you'd rather see page titles, right-click an open area in the right pane and then select Show Page Titles. Other options on the shortcut menu allow you to display hyperlinks to pictures and to display repeated links.
Figure 3.4 Hyperlinks view displays a graphical depiction of links within pages.
Using Other Views
FrontPage has two additional views that you will use from time to time:
Reports Provides access to site summary information and individual site reports
Tasks Allows you to view tasks that you need to complete for the current web
Detailed information on working with reports and using tasks can be found in Chapter 35, "Using Tasks and Site Summary Reports."