Speeding Up Frame Design with Templates


Frames are one of those Web page features that are easier to understand when you actually see them and start working with them, rather than simply reading about them. One smart way to use frames is to start with a standard template instead of trying to create your own frames design from scratch. By setting up a frames structure for you, FrontPage lets you focus on the content you want to create. The easiest way to get started with frames is to open one of Front Page s predefined templates. Just follow these steps:

  1. Choose File, New.

  2. In the New Task Pane, under New Page, click More Page Templates.

  3. When the Page Templates dialog box appears, click Frames Pages.

  4. Click one of the layouts to select it, and read the description that appears on the right-hand side of the Page Template dialog box. (For this example, click Banner And Contents, a common frames arrangement shown in Figure 12-1.)

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    Figure 12-1: Speed up frames creation by choosing a predesigned template.

  5. Click OK to open the layout in the FrontPage window (see Figure 12-2).

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    Figure 12-2: A frames template first appears with empty frames for you to fill with content.

When you insert a frames template, you might be confused as to what you re actually looking at. It appears as if you re viewing a single Web page that has been divided into three separate sections, each with its own borders. What you re actually looking at is a Web page that consists of a set of frames ”a frameset . A set of frames contains a different set of elements than a single non-frames Web page, but the elements are ones that you re probably familiar with. There are many different kinds of possible frames layouts, but they all contain the standard elements shown in Figure 12-3.

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Figure 12-3: FrontPage gives you a Frames menu and other interactive tools for adjusting frames layouts.

Each frame can (and should) contain its own distinct Web page, but initially, it s empty. You need to insert Web pages into each of those empty frames, as described in the following section.

Aha!  

Sketch Out Your Frames Beforehand
Before you choose a template, try sketching out your frames on paper. Determine what kind of content each frame should contain. When you browse through the templates, you ll be more likely to pick one that s just right for your site.

Understanding Frameset Structure: Rows and Columns

Rows are horizontal divisions of a frameset, and columns are vertical divisions. The example in Figure 12-2 contains two rows. The row at the top contains only one column; the row at the bottom of the page contains two.

Figure 12-4 shows some other variations on rows and columns that are available in FrontPage s frames templates:

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Figure 12-4: Framesets are divided into rows and columns.

Why is it important to know about rows and columns? If you need to make changes to a frameset, you need to understand what parts can be split into multiple frames. Understanding a frameset s structure also helps you sketch out frames, so that you can get an idea of what kind of arrangement best suits the needs of your business Web site.

Adding Pages to Frames

Once you create a set of empty frames, you need to fill each one with a Web page. While the need to create three separate Web pages for a set of three frames might seem like a lot of work, FrontPage streamlines the process considerably. Follow these steps for each frame in your frameset:

  1. Click the New Page button in the frame you want to work on.

  2. When the New Page and Set Initial Page buttons disappear, and your frame s background turns to white, edit the page as you would any other, adding text by typing, and adding images or other content with FrontPage s Insert menu.

  3. When you re done editing, click New Page in the next frame in your frameset to begin editing it.

Once you have finished editing, you should save your changes, as described in the following section.

Aha!  

Open a Frame for Easier Editing
Some frames are so small that they re difficult to edit. Click in the frame you re working on to select it, then choose Frames, Open Page in New Window. The frame opens in a new, bigger window so you can edit it more easily.

Saving Framesets to Preserve Your Page Layout

You can save a Web page that s inside a frame at any time. But the first time you choose File, Save when you re working on a frameset, you re working on a page that has been divided into frames ”you ll notice two options under the File menu. Both options allow you to save the Web page you are currently editing, as well as the other frames in the same frameset. Just follow these steps:

See Also  

You don t always have to add a complete set of frames using templates. You can add an inline frame at any time to an existing Web page; see the section on inline frames later in this chapter.

  1. Choose File, Save or File, Save All.

  2. The Save As dialog box appears. The frame you have currently highlighted is selected, to indicate which frame s contents you are about to save (see Figure 12-5).

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    Figure 12-5: Save As highlights the current frame, so you know which one you re saving.

    Note  

    File, Save and File, Save All perform the same way when you re saving a frames layout for the first time: FrontPage prompts you to save all pages in the current frameset, one after another.

  3. Assign the frame a name in the File name box. Be sure to give the frame you re working on a short but clear name that indicates its position in the frameset. Names like top_frame, left_frame, or links_frame make it easier for you to keep track of which frame you re working on.

    Note  

    A good way to name frames so that you can easily remember the name of the main page in the set as well as the frame names is to use the form [mainpagename]_[framename], which helps you remember page names and frame names easily.

  4. Click Save. The file is saved, and the Save As dialog box refreshes, prompting you to save the next frame in the frameset.

  5. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for all frames in the frameset. When you have saved the frames, the Save As dialog box opens again. The area around the page and the frame borders is highlighted, indicating that you should now save the frameset page. For clarity, you might want to save this page with the word frameset in the name ”for example, company_frameset .

  6. Click Save to save the frameset page.

Reaching All Viewers By Creating No Frames Content

If your Web site is intended to represent your company s public face on the Internet, or to generate sales through an online catalog, your goal is to reach as broad an audience as possible. You need to keep in mind that many older Web browsers don t accept frames. Your viewers might be coming to your page with a non-graphical browser such as Lynx; they might be browsing the Web with a handheld device or even a Web-enabled cell phone. To reach such users, you need to create an alternate version of your frames page ”a No Frames page. FrontPage makes it easy to access the No Frames version of a page that uses frames. Open a Web page that has been divided into frames, and make sure you are in Design View. Click the No Frames button at the bottom of Design View.

Technically, you don t have to change the default No Frames content, which is the following single sentence :

This page uses frames, but your browser doesn t support them.

Such a page is likely to leave your visitors frustrated and clicking away to another site as quickly as possible. We strongly recommend that you provide at least minimal information about your site, and what the frames pages contain. At the very least, you should include the name of your company, a description of what you do, and some contact information. It s up to you how closely you want to duplicate your frames layout. You can, if you wish, approximate the frames design using tables, which are supported by a wider range of browsers than frames. An example is shown in Figure 12-6 on the following page.

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Figure 12-6: You can approximate a frames layout using tables.



Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
ISBN: 0735619727
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 179

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