Chapter 16

Going Beyond the FrontPage Editor

• Using Existing Content
• Working with HTML Files
• Working with Text Files
• Working with RTF Files
• Associating File Types with Editors
• Changing Editor Associations
• Removing Editor Associations
• HTML Editors
• Text Editors
• Word Processors
• Spreadsheet and Database Software
• Presentation Software
• Linking to Multimedia Files
• Workshop Wrap-Up
  • Chapter Summary
  • Next Steps
  • Q&A

There will be times when you need to work with existing content or use editors besides the FrontPage Editor. You might want to use a text editor to edit text or ASCII files that are located in your web. You might want to touch up a graphic. You might even want to use another Web page editor to incorporate features that the FrontPage Editor does not support. You can access other editors easily through FrontPage by configuring them with the Tools | Configure Editors command.

Using Existing Content

FrontPage enables you to import any type of file into your web. Besides HTML documents, you can open or insert two types of files, which are converted to web pages for you. They are

• Text files
• Rich text format (RTF) files

Working with HTML Files

You can open existing HTML documents from your local or network hard drive or from the World Wide Web. You use the FrontPage Editor in both cases. The steps are

1. In the FrontPage Editor, select File | Open File. The Open dialog box, shown in Figure 16.1, appears.
   Figure 16.1:Use the Open dialog box to open existing HTML, text, or RTF documents from your local or network hard drive.
2. Use the Look In field to locate the drive and directory where the HTML file appears.
3. From the Files of type drop-down menu, choose HTML Files (*.htm, *.html).
4. Select the file, and click Open. FrontPage opens the file in a new window.

You can insert an HTML file into another web page in the FrontPage Editor. The file is inserted at the current insertion point. The steps are

1. In the FrontPage Editor, select Insert | File. The Insert dialog box, shown in Figure 16.2, appears.
   Figure 16.2:Use the Insert dialog box to insert an HTML document into another web page.
2. Use the Look In field to locate the drive and directory where the HTML file appears.
3. From the Files of type drop-down menu, choose HTML Files (*.htm, *.html).
4. Select the file, and click Open. FrontPage inserts the file at the current insertion point.

You also can open a Web page from the World Wide Web. In this case, you use the File | Open Location command. The steps are

1. Establish a connection to the Internet.
2. In the FrontPage Editor, select File | Open Location. The Open Location dialog box, shown in Figure 16.3, appears.
   Figure 16.3:Use the Open Location dialog box to open a page from the World Wide Web.
3. Enter the URL of the page to which you want to navigate in the Location (URL) field.
4. Click OK. You navigate to the page, and it opens in the FrontPage Editor.
5. Select File | Save As to save the page to your current web.

If the pages that you open contain any HTML code that FrontPage does not support, small yellow rectangles with question marks in them appear, as in Figure 16.4. These marks look like gibberish on your page, but they serve a good purpose. They are HTML markup bots. If you double-click them, you can view or edit the HTML code that they contain.

Figure 16.4:Code that the FrontPage Editor does not recognize is inserted into an HTML markup bot.

Working with Text Files

When you open a text file in the FrontPage Editor, it is converted to a new HTML document that can be added to the current web.

To open a text file from the FrontPage Editor:

1. In the FrontPage Editor, choose File | Open File. The Open dialog box appears.
2. Use the Look In field to locate the drive and directory where the text file appears.
3. From the Files of type drop-down menu, choose Text Files (*.txt).
4. Select the file, and click Open. The Convert Text dialog box, shown in Figure 16.5, appears.
   Figure 16.5:Use the Convert Text dialog box to choose how you want to convert a text file.
5. Choose one of the following conversion options, and click OK. In Figures 16.6 through 16.9, the fpreadme.txt file, located in the Microsoft FrontPage directory, is imported.
   Figure 16.6:When you choose one formatted paragraph, each line ends with a line break. The entire page is one continuous formatted paragraph.
   One formatted paragraph. All the text is converted to a single paragraph of formatted text with line breaks. (See Figure 16.6.)
   Formatted Paragraphs. Each paragraph in the text file is converted to formatted text. (See Figure 16.7.)
   Figure 16.7:When you choose formatted paragraphs, each paragraph begins as a new formatted paragraph. The lines within each paragraph use line breaks.
   Normal Paragraphs. Each paragraph in the file is converted to normal text. (See Figure 16.8.)
   Figure 16.8:When you choose normal paragraphs, each paragraph is formatted as a normal paragraph. No line breaks are included.
   Normal Paragraphs with Line Breaks. Each paragraph in the text file is converted to normal text with line breaks. (See Figure 16.9.)
   Figure 16.9:When you choose normal paragraphs with line breaks, each paragraph is formatted as a normal paragraph. Line breaks retain the original formatting of the text document.
6. Use the File | Save command to save the page to the current web.

When you insert a text file, FrontPage converts the file and inserts it at the insertion point in the current page. The steps are

1. In the FrontPage Editor, select Insert | File. The Insert dialog box appears.
2. Use the Look In field to locate the drive and directory where the text file appears.
3. From the Files of type drop-down menu, choose Text Files (*.txt).
4. Select the file, and click Open. The Convert Text dialog box appears.
5. Choose a conversion option and click OK. The text file is inserted at the insertion point.

Working with RTF Files

You can save any word processing document as an RTF file and open or insert its content into a page that can be saved in your current web. The steps are

1. From the FrontPage Editor, select File | Open File. The Open dialog box appears.
2. From the Files of type drop-down menu, choose Rich Text Format (*.rtf).
3. Locate the drive and directory where the RTF file is located.
4. Highlight the page that you want to open, and click Open. FrontPage converts the RTF document to HTML format and creates a new page for you. Any graphics that are contained in the RTF document are converted to GIF or JPG format, as appropriate.
5. Save the page to your current web with the File | Save command. Assign it a title and a URL.

You also can insert an RTF document into any web page. The steps are

1. Open or create a new web page in the FrontPage Editor, using the Normal page template.
2. Position the insertion point where you want to insert the RTF file.
3. Select Insert | File. The Insert dialog box appears.
4. From the Files of type drop-down menu, choose Rich Text Format (*.rtf).
5. Locate the drive and directory where the RTF file is located.
6. Highlight the page that you want to open and click Open. FrontPage converts the RTF document to HTML format and inserts it at your insertion point. Any graphics that are contained in the RTF document are converted to GIF or JPG format, as appropriate.
7. Save the page to your current web with the File | Save command. Assign it a title and a URL.

Associating File Types with Editors

You will come across other types of files as you develop your webs. If you include or add links to multimedia files-such as sounds, animations, or VRML worlds-you can configure FrontPage to start their associated editors by clicking the file in your web that you need to edit.

To associate a file type with another editor, use the Tools | Configure Editors command in the FrontPage Explorer. After an editor is configured, you can open any file with the extension that you configured. The associated editor is invoked automatically.

To configure an editor and file type:

1. In the FrontPage Explorer, select Tools | Configure Editors. The Configure Editors dialog box, shown in Figure 16.10, appears.
   Figure 16.10:The Configure Editors dialog box enables you to associate an editor with a file extension.
2. Click the Add button. The Add Editor Association dialog box appears. (See Figure 16.11.)
   Figure 16.11:You associate an editor with a file extension in the Add Editor Association dialog box.
3. In the File Type field, specify a file extension for the file type. You do not need to enter a period before the extension. To indicate files that have no extensions, use a period by itself.

   NOTE

   FrontPage enables you to configure only one editor per extension. If you try to add an editor association for a file extension that is already configured, you get an error message.

4. In the Editor Name field, enter the name of the editor.
5. In the Command field, enter the full path to the executable file for the editor, or use the Browse button to choose the executable file from a drive and directory on your hard drive.
6. Click OK. The new editor appears in the Configure Editors dialog box.

After an editor is configured, you can open it from the FrontPage Explorer. In the FrontPage Explorer's Link View or Summary View, just double-click the file that you want to edit. Its associated editor is opened.

Changing Editor Associations

If you want to use another editor to edit a specific type of file, it is simple to edit the association. The steps are

1. In the FrontPage Explorer, select Tools | Configure Editors. The Configure Editors dialog box appears.
2. Select the editor configuration that you want to change.
3. Click the Modify button. The Modify Editor Association dialog box appears. (See Figure 16.12.)
   Figure 16.12:You change the associated editor for a file type in the Modify Editor Association dialog box.
4. In the Editor Name field, enter the name of the new editor.
5. In the Command field, enter the full path to the executable file for the editor, or use the Browse button to choose the executable file from a drive and directory on your hard drive.
6. Click OK. The revised editor configuration appears in the Configure Editors list.

Removing Editor Associations

If you find that you no longer work with files of a certain type, you can remove their editor associations from FrontPage. The steps are

1. In the FrontPage Explorer, select Tools | Configure Editors. The Configure Editors dialog box appears.
2. Select the editor configuration that you want to remove.

   NOTE

   You cannot remove the default editor and file type associations supplied with FrontPage.

3. Click the Remove button. To confirm the removal, click OK. To undo the removal, click Cancel.

HTML Editors

FrontPage enables you to assign only one editor for a specific file type. What if you want to use another HTML editor in conjunction with the FrontPage Editor? This is what you can do:

1. Configure the editor association for the HTM or HTML extension-whichever you use more frequently-to the FrontPage Editor. This enables you to use the FrontPage Editor to design the bulk of your page while you take advantage of the bots and other enhancements in the program.
2. Configure a second editor to use the other extension. Now you have two different HTML editors in your editor configuration.

To open the HTML document in the secondary editor:

1. From any view in the FrontPage Explorer, right-click the Web page that you want to open. A pop-up menu appears, as in Figure 16.13.
   Figure 16.13:You can open a file with any configured editor by using the Open With command in the pop-up menu.
2. From the pop-up menu, choose Open With. The Open With Editor dialog box appears.
3. Select the secondary HTML editor and click OK. The editor opens, and you can edit the file.

Keep in mind these points:

• You lose the capability to use bots in your pages when you work with another HTML editor.
• If the page that you are opening in another editor was originally designed in the FrontPage Editor and contains bots, the commands that reference them are likely to be stripped out in the other editor. When you import back into your FrontPage web, you must add the bots again.
• Many HTML editors check code for compliance before the web page opens in the editor. Your FrontPage web pages might contain code that another HTML editor will not accept.

The solution to these problems is to create as much as you can in the FrontPage Editor. Use the HTML markup bot discussed in Chapter 21 to add additional HTML code.

Text Editors

You can configure a text editor to work with any extension for which you normally use a text, or ASCII, editor. If you use Windows 95, configure these files to use Notepad or WordPad. With WordPad, the files retain their formatting and indentation much better.

Word Processors

If you want to include word processing documents in your web, you can save them in rich text format-that is, with an RTF extension. Figure 16.14 shows a Microsoft Word document in RTF format.

Figure 16.14:This Microsoft Word document has been saved in RTF format.

Figures 16.15 and 16.16 show the RTF document as it appears in the FrontPage Editor. There are some minor differences in formatting:

Figure 16.15:The upper portion of the RTF file converted perfectly, with the exception of the font style of the heading.

Figure 16.16:The lower portion of the RTF file is formatted slightly differently.

• In Figure 16.14, the Arial font is used for the headings. In the FrontPage Editor's HTML version in Figures 16.15 and 16.16, the headings are formatted in FrontPage's default heading style, which uses the Times Roman font.
• In Figure 16.14, the area beneath the picture caption is formatted into four individual lines that are aligned with the left side of the page. In Figure 16.16, the same text is arranged in a single line.

There is a way around these differences. If you use Microsoft Office or Microsoft Word 95, you have two alternatives. If you use another word processor, check whether similar options are available.

• Import the original Word document-doc extension-into your web with the File | Import command. Provide a link on another web page that enables users to download or view it. To view the document in its original Word format, users need the Word Viewer.
• You can provide a link on your page for users to download the current version of the Word Viewer. The URL is

http://www.microsoft.com/msword/internet/viewer/default.htm

• Use Internet Assistant for Word to save the Word document in htm format. (Save a Word document in its native doc format, and then save a copy of it in HTM format after you have revised it.) This adds font formatting commands to the web page, which Internet Assistant for Word includes in its HTML code. When FrontPage imports this HTML command, it places the font formatting commands in HTML markup bots.
• You can download the current version of Internet Assistant for Word from

http://www.microsoft.com/msword/internet/ia/default.htm

• After you save the HTML document from Internet Assistant, use the File | Open command to open it in the FrontPage Editor. Save the page to your web with the File | Save As command. (If you use the File | Save command, it saves the file back to its original location.) When you open the page in Microsoft Internet Explorer, you will see the fonts used in the original document, providing they exist on your system. For users to see the same fonts, the fonts must exist on their system. Otherwise, the default font is used.

Spreadsheet and Database Software

FrontPage currently does not provide direct support for spreadsheet or database files. When you work with spreadsheet or database software, your options are

• Open the spreadsheet or database program, and select the cells that you want to insert into your web page. Copy them to the clipboard. Then open or create a page in the FrontPage Editor. Position the insertion point where you want to insert the data, and format the line as a formatted paragraph. Paste the data to the web page. (See Figure 16.17.) Figure 16.17: Cut and paste data from your spreadsheet or database files into a formatted paragraph on your web page.
• Save the spreadsheet or database data as a tab-delimited text file, and insert it into your FrontPage web page. The data appears as formatted text. (See Figure 16.17.)

If you use Microsoft Office or Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, Internet Assistant for Excel 95 can enhance the use of Excel files in your web. It converts Excel spreadsheets into HTML format and places the cell data in tables. This Excel add-on is provided in Excel (XLA) format. You can download this utility from

http://www.microsoft.com/msexcel/internet/ia/default.htm

You also can import an Excel spreadsheet into your web and provide a link to it on another page. Likewise, provide a link to the following URL so that users can download the Excel Viewer:

http://www.microsoft.com/msexcel/internet/viewer/default.htm

An Internet Assistant for Microsoft Access for Windows 95 is also available. This free utility allows you to publish native HTML documents from your Access or ODBC-compliant databases. You can download it from

http://www.microsoft.com/msaccess/internet/ia/default.htm

Presentation Software

If you use Microsoft Office or Microsoft PowerPoint 95, Internet Assistant for PowerPoint 95 can enhance the use of PowerPoint presentations in your web. It converts PowerPoint presentations into a series of consecutively numbered HTML files and provides navigation between them. The presentation screens are converted to graphics that are placed on each page. You can download this utility from

http://www.microsoft.com/mspowerpoint/internet/ia/default.htm

You also can import a PowerPoint presentation into your web and provide a link to it on another web page. Likewise, you can provide a link to the following URL so that users can download the PowerPoint Viewer:

http://www.microsoft.com/mspowerpoint/internet/viewer/default.htm

If your PowerPoint presentation includes animation, check out what is available in the PowerPoint Animation Player for ActiveX. Internet Explorer 3.0, which is currently available in beta version from Microsoft's site, provides built-in ActiveX support. You can download the PowerPoint Animation Player for ActiveX from

http://www.microsoft.com/mspowerpoint/internet/player/default.htm

Linking to Multimedia Files

You can link to multimedia files in your web. To play the files, however, users must have a helper associated with the file type.

To create links to multimedia files:

1. From the FrontPage Explorer, select File | Import. The Import File to Web dialog box appears.
2. Click the Add File button. The Add File to Import List dialog box appears.
3. Choose All Files (*.*) from the Files of type drop-down menu. Then use the Look in box to locate the drive and directory in which your files appear.
4. Select the files you want to import, and click Open to add the multimedia files to the import list. You return to the Import File to Web dialog box.
5. Highlight the file or files to import, and click the Import Now button. The files are imported into your web one by one.
6. Close the Import File to Web dialog box by clicking the Close button.
7. Create links to the multimedia files on a page with the Edit | Link command.

To play the multimedia files, make sure that your browser has a helper application associated with the file type. You can run the files from the FrontPage Editor by using the Tools | Follow Link command.

Workshop Wrap-Up

FrontPage works with a wide variety of file formats. You can import just about any type of file into your web, as well as recommend helper applications or viewers to visitors to your site. You can open these files by configuring editors in the FrontPage Explorer. You can open and insert text or rich text format files in your web documents directly, and you can save them in standard HTML format to your web.

Chapter Summary

In this chapter, you learned how to work with other types of files. You learned how to configure FrontPage to open an editor associated with a specific file type by clicking on the file that you want to edit. You also learned about using other Microsoft Office documents in your web.

Next Steps

In the next chapter, you continue your web project by working on the techniques that you learned in this section. You create new content for your web and rearrange some of what you have already worked on. The following chapters provide information that relates to this chapter:

• Refer to Chapter 9 "Composing and Editing Page Content," to learn about adding more formatting to the text or rich text format files that you import into your web.
• See Chapter 21, "Using Your Own HTML Code," to learn more about the HTML markup bot.

Q&A