Using Web Page Templates in FrontPage 2003

To open or use any of the Web Page Templates that come with FrontPage 2003, select File, New and then select More Web Page Templates from the New task pane.

As with the Web templates mentioned previously in this chapter, Microsoft has not updated any of the Web Page Templates in this release. Here we will describe, briefly, each of the templates that come with the full install of FrontPage 2003.

General Page Templates

A number of basic page templates come with FrontPage 2003. The following list describes the templates and their use.

NOTE

The page templates that come with FrontPage 2003 haven't been updated for the last two revisions of the product.

• Normal Page Creates a normal page with no mark-up or formatting.

• Bibliography Provides a simple start to developing a bibliography page at your Web site (see Figure 14.5).

  Figure 14.5. The Web page offered by the Bibliography template is simple but provides an easy jumping off point for creating the necessary content.

  

• Confirmation Form Template for acknowledging receipt of a completed form element from within your FrontPage site.

• Feedback Form Provides a template and the functionality for offering a feedback form on your site.

• Form Page Wizard Walks you through the process of building a form on your site (see Figure 14.6).

  Figure 14.6. You don't need to add form elements one at a time. Use the From Page Wizard to create the form you need.

  

• Frequently Asked Questions This quick template is used for producing frequently asked questions.

• Guest Book Provides traditional guest book functionality to any Web site.

• Photo Gallery Uses the Photo Gallery Web component to provide a simple Photo Gallery page.

  For more on the Photo Gallery Web component, see "Using Web Components, Shared Borders, and Link Bars," p. 167.

  
  

• Search Page Provides a basic template for a Search page at your Web site with directions for the end user. By default the page supports FrontPage Extensions and Windows Server enabled Web searches, but the code can be quickly modified to work with other search engines.

• Table of Contents Uses the Web's FrontPage navigation database to provide a table of contents for the site.

• User Registration Provides a basic user registration element to your site. Only provides the interface for communicating with the registration element and does not provide any functionality for creating or distributing id or password information.

NOTE

All the page templates listed previously, with the exception of Normal Page, Bibliography and Frequently Asked Questions, require either FrontPage Extensions or hosting on a Microsoft platform to work correctly.

If you like the idea of FrontPage templates but don't care for the style of templates that come with the product, see "Don't Like Microsoft Templates" in the "Troubleshooting" section at the end of this chapter.

Frames Page Templates

The Frames Pages tab in the Page Templates dialog box provides for a number of frameset options, keeping you from having to design one of your own (see Figure 14.7).

Figure 14.7. You don't need to create a frameset; FrontPage offers any option you might need with the Frames Page Templates option.

For more help on the frames page templates, see "Enhancing Web Sites with Frames," p. 219.

Style Sheets

Perhaps the most powerful of the templates provided in FrontPage 2003 are found in the Style Sheets tab of the Page Templates dialog box (see Figure 14.8). Because these style sheets use the industry standard CSS format and no Microsoft specific proprietary formats, they can easily be interchanged with other Web development packages and systems.

Figure 14.8. The 12 style sheets (and one blank one) provided by FrontPage 2003 provide a simple jumping off point for creating style sheets of your own.

Because there is no need to create a Web page from scratch, there is also no need to create a style sheet from scratch. Find a style sheet closest to the look and feel you are interested in and update/edit the style accordingly.

For more help on the use of style sheets or CSS in Web design, see "Using Style Sheets to Format Web Pages," p. 385.