1.1. The Main FrontPage WindowWhen you launch FrontPage, you see the basic program layout that you'll come to know well. This workspace is your control center for creating Web sites and pages. The FrontPage 2003 editing window looks similar to that of other Microsoft products, so if you're familiar with programs like Word and Excel, you'll be at home in FrontPage. This familiar setup, pictured in Figure 1-1, features a menu along the top of the screen. Below that, toolbars feature shortcut buttons to menu commands.
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GEM IN THE ROUGH Quick Tag Selector Toolbar | ||||||||
If you're interested in learning HTML, you'll love FrontPage's Quick Tag Selector toolbar, which helps you focus on which HTML tags FrontPage is using to create various parts of your page. The toolbar, which appears just above the document window, displays small icons representing each tag surrounding wherever you've placed your cursor. For example, the cursor in the illustration sits in a paragraph (next to the word "Gloves"), which is inside a table cell , which is inside a table. So, FrontPage displays tag icons for all these HTML elements in the toolbar. If you hover over a tag in the toolbar (like the <p> paragraph tag, for instance), FrontPage projects a box over the Design view, outlining the area that the tag encompasses. If you're new to HTML, use the tag selector to help you identify which tags are at work behind the scenes to create what you're seeing in Design view. Later, when you're formatting your pages, you'll find that the Tag Selector is also a great way to select elements, like a paragraph within a table, an image, or list item. When you click a tag in the toolbar, FrontPage selects the tag and all its contents. This ensures that you never leave out part of some text or select the wrong element by accident , which can sometimes happen when you're manipulating elements in Design view. But that's not all. Each icon has a drop-down arrow to its right. If you click the arrow, FrontPage displays a menu that lets you select, edit, remove, or wrap the tag within another tag that you specify. If you want to make a quick edit to your HTML, the toolbar helps you do so with speedy pinpoint precision, saving you the need to slog through a whole page of code. |
Some commands are buried deep within submenus. It's a chore slogging through list after list to find and select the choice you want. Of course, FrontPage 2003 offers shortcuts like toolbar buttons and keystrokes. But the program includes another helpful feature that pops up now and then looking to assist you with a whole bunch of tasks. Not surprisingly, it's called the task pane.
The task pane displays on the right side of the screen (see Figure 1-1). The first time FrontPage opens, the Getting Started incarnation of the task pane appears.
This is just one of a number of separate task panes that display in this area. You can access other choices through the task pane menu, as shown in Figure 1-3.
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As you use FrontPage, the task pane pays attention to what you're doing. When you carry out different functions, the pane changes automatically to offer selections that are appropriate to the task at hand. For example, if you select File New, the task pane presents choices for creating a new page or a new Web site. If the pane takes up too much screen space, you can close it by clicking the x in the upper-right corner (of the task pane, not the overall FrontPage window). But you cant keep this feature down. The task pane opens again automatically if you select an activity that requires use of a task pane, like searching for clip art. And you'll definitely need the task pane if you ever want to do things like add layers or behaviors to a page. (You'll learn all about those features in Chapters 8 and 9.)