FrontPage 2003 is a website creation and management tool that works well with SharePoint 2003 websites and enables a web designer or site administrator to quickly add functionality to sites and customize web pages with some basic training. FrontPage 2003 offers tools to design the layout of the page and site along with tools to generate better code with built-in scripting tools, including XML data-driven websites. This section presents an example of how FrontPage 2003 can be used to modify SharePoint 2003 pages to better meet the needs of users and administrators, and assumes that the reader has experience and training with FrontPage 2003 or previous versions. Before FrontPage is used on production sites, a warning is in order. FrontPage can permanently change the functionality of the page and may have unintended results. Users with little or no FrontPage experience should use FrontPage only on test sites that don't have production roles and that can be deleted. TIP An excellent document to read if you are planning on using FrontPage 2003 for customization work is "What you don't know about Front Page 2003 can hurt you" by Barry Kouda, available from www.msd2d.com, or from www.barracuda.net. It is recommended that when a production site is opened for editing, a copy of the site be saved to a backup location, such as a testing virtual server, to ensure that the production site is not damaged. FrontPage also has the capability to export a package of the entire contents of the site in a single file, which is a useful process when creating and publishing top-level websites or subsites. Using FrontPage 2003 to Add Visual Impact to a WebsiteIn this example, the Documents site used in the last several sections is customized in FrontPage 2003. The average user probably won't be performing customizations to this level, but the processes and tools covered can certainly be used to customize and add value to the portal site, areas, top-level websites, or subsites as well. If FrontPage 2003 is installed on the desktop, the File menu provides the Edit with Microsoft Office FrontPage option when viewing a SharePoint 2003 site. When this option is selected, FrontPage 2003 opens, and the site and all its contents are opened as well and are ready for editing after all the components are loaded. Note that if the user trying to perform this function does not have Administrative or Web Designer site permissions, he receives an error when FrontPage 2003 tries to open the site. Figure 20.11 shows the view from FrontPage 2003 when the site is opened. The left-hand side of the screen displays the folder list for the website that contains the web page that was opened. In Figure 20.11, the My Pages folder was expanded by clicking the plus sign next to it, to display a Forms folder and Documents.aspx, which is the title of the new page that was created previously and had several Web Parts added to it, and is currently open for editing to the right. Note at the bottom of the screen are additional buttonsSplit, Code, and Previewwhich can be selected to change the current view. If Split or Code is selected, the actual code is displayed and can be edited by more advanced users. Figure 20.11. Web page opened in FrontPage 2003.To edit a component of the page, click on the item, and a number of options become available when the component is right-clicked. The following steps show how to edit the My Lists cell from FrontPage 2003:
FrontPage 2003 is closely tied to SharePoint 2003, and Web Parts can be inserted using FrontPage as well as in SharePoint 2003. Figure 20.16 shows the additional task panes available in FrontPage 2003 and can be used by the web designer to customize the web page. The available task panes include Getting Started, Help, Search Results, Clip Art, Clipboard, New, Layout Tables and Cells, Cell Formatting, Theme, Layers, Behaviors, Data Source Catalog, Find a Data Source, Data View Details, and Web Parts. Figure 20.16. Web Parts task pane in FrontPage 2003.As highlighted in Figure 20.16, behaviors can be added to a page. For example, a behavior can be added to text so that it changes in appearance when the cursor moves over it, and reverts to its previous state when the cursor moves away. Figure 20.17 provides a view of the different behaviors available to insert in this Web Page, which include Call Script, Change Property, Go To URL, Jump Menu, Play Sound, Popup Message, Swap Image, and others. Figure 20.17. Behavior options in FrontPage 2003.The website administrator or designer can use these items to spice up a site by providing a level of interactivity with the user by playing sounds when certain actions occur, providing enhanced visual effects, presenting pop-up messages that provide helpful information to the user, or creating embedded menus that can contain URLs to other sites using the jump menu. Adding Clip Art to a SharePoint 2003 SiteMany users respond favorably to the addition of attractive, relevant images, and a quick way to add these to SharePoint sites is to use clip art available from Microsoft Office 2003 applications. A similar process can be used when adding any image to a web page from FrontPage 2003. To access clip art and easily include it in the page, follow these steps:
This personal site now has a more customized look and feel. Although this may sound like marketing speak, SharePoint 2003 administrators will quickly come to learn how important this additional level of customization is in terms of how it affects the comfort level and speed of adoption of the users. Although it may not be cost and time effective to work with each user on creating the perfect environment (the computer equivalent of Feng Shui), some extra attention should be given to the customization of at least the portal and top-level sites, to include items such as the company logo, company color schemes, and graphics designed for different divisions or projects. Allowing departmental managers to provide customized images, or make minor adjustments also enhances their involvement in the customization process. Inserting Web Components in FrontPage 2003A number of handy tools are available by using the Insert Web Component feature. These items quickly add features and functionality that many users will be used to, have seen used on other sites on the Internet, and can leverage the information contained in the sites. The Insert Web Component feature is available from the Tools menu in FrontPage 2003 and is one of the standard icons included in the Standard toolbar. Figure 20.20 shows the Insert Web Component window and the options available for this web page (the Documents page that has been used in previous examples). Figure 20.20. Insert Web Component.Other web components include:
The following steps add a scrolling marquee to the Documents page:
TIP If you are going to customize your SharePoint sites, and you decide to change the default components (menus, navigation bar, etc.) you might "break" the pages. It is a good practice to make a copy of your default.aspx file so that you can "roll back" any changes that you have made. |