FrontPage 2 Hypertext Editor

FrontPage Express 2 is a simple WYSIWYG hypertext editor. It's included free with MS Internet Explorer version 4.01. Well, you have to download 25MB (Full Installation of MSIE) and install half a dozen programs as well as FrontPage, but it doesn't cost actual money.

The WYSIWYG editor does most of what you need. The other 5% of what you need, you can add by directly editing the HTML code (FrontPage Express comes with a very simple, Notepad-type HTML editor) or by choosing the "Extended..." option from menus for specific actions and adding a specific HTML command within the WYSIWYG editor.

Most of the time, you write the way you would in a word processor such as Word. The toolbar of course is similar to the Office97 toolbar, and looks like this:

I'll assume you know the functions of the standard Office97 editing icons, and will explain only the ones that are specific to FrontPage and those that look the same as Office97 ones but do something slightly different.

	Changes the text size on the HTML scale of 1 to 7: the default is usually 3 which is about 10 or 12 point. You cannot use this button to insert relative sizes such as -1 or +2 (one size less or two sizes more than this text would otherwise be...): for that you need "Format -- Font" from the menu.
	Formats the text, like in Word: Bold, Italics or Underline. Remember that it actually inserts the hypertext code(such as <B> and </B>) around the selected text. If no text is selected, it inserts the opening tag (such as <B>) and when you click the button again to turn off the formatting, it inserts the closing tag.
	Formats the color of selected text. Displays the Windows color palette with the usual option to define a new color. Inserts around the selected text the tags <font color="#nnnnnn"> ... </font> where nnnnnn is the hex code for the color you chose.
	Buttons to align the selected paragraph left, center and right. Place the <p> ... </p> tags around the paragraph with the attribute align=..., for instance: `<p align="center">` your paragraph here`</p>`. If the <p> tag already exists without an "align" attribute or with a different one, it adds or changes the attribute. (This might seem obvious, if you didn't know what a mess previous WYSIWYG editors, including Word and the previous version of FrontPage, make of this simple function).
	These buttons switch the direction of flow of the text between left-to-right and right-to-left, respectively. They insert `<p dir="ltr">` or `<p dir="rtl">` respectively, (or insert the attribute if the <p> tag already exists) at the start of the selected paragraph, and `</p>` at the end. They are meant for languages written left-to-right: this tutorial was written with the Hebrew version of FrontPage Express. I'm not even sure if these buttons would appear in an English-only version. If you just want to align a paragraph to the right, don't use these buttons, use the alignment ones explained above.
	Insert a numbered (in HTML jargon: Ordered) list and a bulleted (in HTML jargon: Unordered) list respectively. You get a numbered or bulleted line to type on. To end the list, just press <ENTER> twice: once to open another item, and once without typing any text for that item. The empty numbered or bulleted line will be removed. It's very difficult to do lists-within-lists, i.e. lists where one or more items are themselves subdivided. For that, use the HTML editor once the main list has been built.
	Runs a "webbot", a little program that inserts something into your page.The "something" can be a date stamp, another file or Web page, or a form for searching. The full version of FrontPage has more "Webbots". The code inserted is not standard, but a command to the FrontPage Extensions installed on the server. Even if part of it looks standard (eg the search form), you can't alter it. Unless you are sure that your server has the FrontPage Extensions installed, I don't see much point in using this button.
	Inserts a table. You get a drop-down grid of cells and by dragging the mouse over them, tell the program the size of the table. The grid is 5 columns x 4 rows but by dragging the mouse over the border you can specify a larger table, e.g. 2 x 10. To add more rows or columns after the table has been created, use "Table--Insert Rows or Columns" from the menu. This button also does not give you any options for table properties: to change them, choose "Table--Table Properties" from the menu. (You can also define cell properties from the menu, but not row properties. You can select all the cells in the row and define, for instance, their background color, but you can't define it once for the whole row. for that you have to edit the HTML.)
	Inserts an image. You can choose "from clip-art" and browse your way through the library of icons that come with FrontPage, or "from other location" and insert either an image of your own, or the URL of an image on the Web. If you insert a URL, FrontPage will try to connect to the address to display the image. If you want your site to work, don't link to images that are not under your control. Personally I advise not to link to images that are not stored within the directory structure of this specific site.
	Inserts a hypertext link. You can choose to insert either a file, a Web address (URL) or a new page created on-the-fly. The latter does not work, presumably it works in the full version of FrontPage. The menu that this button brings up lets you add page names and addresses, targets within pages, and frame names if you want to link to framed sites, but it does not let you type the text of the link anchor. So you have to first type the text you want to appear, then select it, and then click this button.
	"Back" and "forward" buttons; they move between the open pages in the editor, not on the Web. If you have 5 pages open in the editor, for instance, you can move between them in the order they were last edited with these buttons, rather than via the "Window" command on the menu.
	"Refresh": rewrites the current file from the saved version on the disk. It asks you first if you want to save the current version. If you do, you won't see any difference between what you had and what you get after "refreshing", of course. If you don't save, you lose all changes since the last save. (And no, the "undo" button won't restore them).
	"Stop". Works only when connected to the Web. Stops the transfer of a file you have requested (e.g. if you linked to a file or an image on the Web and FrontPage is trying to access it).

Tips on Using Specific Programs:

FrontPage Express