Introduction to Microsoft FrontPage
Microsoft FrontPage is a sophisticated web authoring tool, which includes a
WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web page editor, giving you the ability
to create impressive web pages without needing to know the intricacies of the
HTML formatting language. FrontPage can edit existing web pages or create new
ones from scratch. It also contains wizard utilities which can create an
entire site for you based on your answers to plain English questions.
Your WebCom web site can integrate and
operate seamlessly with Microsoft FrontPage. WebCom allows the use of virtually
all of the Microsoft FrontPage "server extensions," including all of
the web management and publishing capabilities, and all but one (see note below)
of the standard Microsoft "WebBots" which can be used to add
additional functionality to your web site. It only takes a moment to activate
the Microsoft FrontPage extensions for your domain name. Just follow the
simple steps below.
(Please Note:
WebCom does not support the FrontPage server extension for displaying a hit
counter on your page. Instead, WebCom provides a counter of identical
functionality. We urge you to use our counter, which is simple to use, offers
greater control over the font, colors, and borders of your counter, and is
substantially more efficient than the FrontPage counter, as it is tailored
specifically to the WebCom environment. Please use the
WebCom Graphical Hit Counter
to ensure your pages load as quickly as possible.
)
FrontPage 2000
WebCom is currently running the FrontPage 2000 extensions. When domains are
configured for use with FrontPage, our system installs the proper files and
directories required for FrontPage 2000. The FrontPage 2000 extensions support
both the FrontPage 97 and FrontPage 98 client software. WebCom users who have
already been using FrontPage 97 or 98 with Webcom will continue to use the old
extensions unless they decide to
upgrade to the
newer FrontPage 2000 extensions. There is no need to upgrade unless you have
the FrontPage 2000 software.
This documentation is written with multiple versions of FrontPage in mind.
Hopefully it will be useful to you. If you find any errors, please report them
to webmaster@webcom.com.
Configuring
Your Domain for Use with Microsoft FrontPage
To use Microsoft FrontPage with
your WebCom site, you must have your own domain name (and thus
you must use the WebCom BudgetSite, BusinessSite, or WebCommerce service plans).
Until your domain name is active, you will not be able to publish your
documents directly to the WebCom server. If you try to publish your site
through FrontPage before your domain is active, you may receive an error
message (FP2000), or you may be prompted to use the
Microsoft
Publishing Wizard (FP97, FP98), which we do not recommend using due to its
complexity and generally confusing design. It normally takes only a few
days for a domain to be registered during which time you may want to begin
developing your site locally.
If you do not have a domain name, you can still create and maintain your site
using FrontPage, but you will be unable to use any of the webbots or publishing
capabilities. For the publishing of FrontPage webs that do not have domain
names, we recommend saving your FrontPage web pages as HTML, and using
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to
publish your site.
Before you can use FrontPage with your WebCom
account, you must activate the FrontPage extensions for your domain. To do so,
follow these simple steps (To report any problems enabling Microsoft FrontPage
for your domain, please contact WebCom
Technical Support at
support@webcom.com
).
What
Happens When You Enable FrontPage for Your Domain
When you enable Microsoft FrontPage
extensions for your domain name, several directories and new files are
created in
your WebCom directory. Please do not edit, delete, move, or rename any
of these files or directories. Doing so will probably cause
FrontPage to not work correctly with your domain. To remove these
files and directories from your account, simply deactivate
FrontPage for your domain (see below).
Any directory beginning with "_vti"
contains important files which are needed to utilize
Microsoft FrontPage with your Domain name. In addition there
is a file named _vti_cnf.html located
in the directory your domain is configured to use.
When
you uncheck the Enable
for use with FrontPage
box, the files and
directories associated with Microsoft FrontPage are removed
from your account.
In addition, there is one directory called "_private"
that is created for you. This directory is a place where
Microsoft FrontPage stores your template files and other HTML
fragment files.
Deactivating
FrontPage for your domain
To deactivate FrontPage for your domain,
simply follow the above procedure, but uncheck the
Enable for use with
FrontPage box.
If you deactivate and later reactivate Microsoft FrontPage for your domain
name, or you change the directory that your domain points to while the
Microsoft FrontPage
box is checked, the following information will be lost:
- Any users (Administrator or Author)
are deleted from that web; you must re-enter them.
- Any subwebs created will be orphaned.
The HTML content will be intact; however, you will not be
able to manage the subweb via Microsoft FrontPage. This problem
can be resolved by republishing the subweb.
- Any search indexes that your have
created must be recreated. This is usually done
automatically by the FrontPage Explorer when you open
the web for the first time.
Using
Microsoft FrontPage
Using Microsoft FrontPage with WebCom is the same as when you created the
original web site content on your local machine through the Personal Web Server.
Once you have published your web, when you start up FrontPage, you have the
ability to open the version of the web on your local machine, or the remote
version on our server. If you select to open the version on our server, you
can open, edit, and save files directly to our server. Making changes directly
to the files on WebCom does have advantages as far as ease and speed, but we
generally recommend that you manage your site by making changes locally and
uploading your changes. The advantage of this is that you will always have a
local copy of your files, and you will not need to have a continuous connection
to the Internet while modifying your site.
Publishing Your FrontPage Web
Publishing your web site with FrontPage is fairly easy. Before you start, make
sure that you have configured your domain to be
FrontPage enabled, that you are connected to the Internet,
and that your domain name is currently active. If you are sure of those two
requirements, you can proceed by following these steps:
- Open FrontPage (FrontPage Explorer for FP97 and FP98).
- Open the FrontPage web located on your local machine that you intend to publish to your domain (Select "Open Web" from "File" menu).
- Select "Publish FrontPage Web..." from the file menu.
- At this point you will be presented with a dialog box.
- If you are using FrontPage 97:
- You will see two input fields. In the first one labeled
"Destination Web Server or File location" enter your
domain name such as www.your-company-here.com (all lower-case).
- Leave the second field as the default <Root Web> or leave
it blank.
- Publish your web by clicking OK.
- If you are using FrontPage 98:
- You should see one input field labeled as the location to publish your
FrontPage web. If you do not see this, click on "More Webs..."
- Insert your domain name such as www.your-company-here.com (all lower-case).
- Click the OK button and the next OK button to initiate publishing.
- If you are using FrontPage 2000:
- You should see one input field. Enter your domain name such as
www.your-company-here.com (all lower-case).
- Click the Publish button to initiate publishing.
- FrontPage will start publishing, and you will be prompted for a username
and password. Enter your WebCom username and password and click OK.
That should be it. At this point FrontPage publishes your site to your
WebCom account online. If you are not publishing for the first time, or
you are publishing
a sub web, the steps are essentially the same.
If you have problems with this procedure (such
as FrontPage invoking the Web Publishing Wizard instead of publishing),
take a look at trouble
shooting section below.