Understanding FrontPage Navigation Elements

The FrontPage navigational elements have been part of FrontPage since the very beginning. They are part of what separates the product from the others and are often misunderstood by the average FrontPage user. When implemented correctly, they are a powerful tool; when implemented incorrectly, they become an unmanageable beast.

The Navigation Structure

If the FrontPage navigation tools were used in the development of a FrontPage Web site, the site's navigational structure can be seen from the FrontPage Navigation view, seen in Figure 8.1.

Figure 8.1. The FrontPage Navigation view shows how each of the pages in your site are connected to each other.

Pages can be added, edited, and removed through this interface with a simple drag-and-drop operation.

NOTE

Navigation view is a means to view your site in terms of how pages relate to one another. They have nothing directly to do with the design of each page other than providing the linking data for any link or menu bars. However, paying attention to where and how the pages are related to each other can have a great effect on the final design of your site.

For more about FrontPage Navigation view, see "FrontPage's Views," p. 61.

How FrontPage Handles Site Navigation

FrontPage handles site navigation based only on what the user tells FrontPage is part of the site navigation. For example, in Figure 8.2, a 10 page site only has 3 pages listed in the Navigation. As a result, only 3 links would be seen on any link bar.

Figure 8.2. In this example, a 10 page site only has 3 pages defined in the site navigation.

Because FrontPage navigation is based on user definition and not site content, the developer is free to develop a site based on both elements. Site navigation can be modified without requiring a page-to-page correspondence.

TIP

You don't have to put every page in your site in Navigation view. You only have to include the ones you want FrontPage to generate navigational elements for.

For more on adding pages in Navigation view, see "FrontPage's Views," p. 61.

The Navigation Bars and Menus

Once FrontPage has pages assigned to the site navigation, it can dynamically generate navigational elements to the site in the form of link bars and menus. In Figure 8.3, a simple menu bar created from the navigational structure in Figure 8.2 is shown.

Figure 8.3. This simple menu bar was created from the site navigational structure shown in Figure 8.2.

For more on the creation of link and navigation bars, see "Using Web Components, Shared Borders, and Link Bars," p. 167.

Best Uses

FrontPage navigational elements make the addition of pages to a Web site simple and easy. Once the page is created, the developer can drag the page to the desired area of the FrontPage navigation and let FrontPage develop the menu and navigational bars as needed. The developer gets the additional benefit of being able to see the entire site in terms of how each page relates to every other page.

In addition, running all pages through the FrontPage navigational elements makes the generation of tables of contents and sitemaps just a click away.

It should be of no surprise that a number of professional FrontPage Web templates utilize FrontPage navigational structures. A user can quickly take a page from a template and drop it in to the right place, letting FrontPage do the rest of the work.