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User's Guide:
USING MICROSOFT FRONTPAGE TO PUBLISH AN OFFICIAL FIT WEB SITE

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Please note: The following is specific to using the FIT Templates in Microsoft FrontPage. Some general FrontPage information can be found here as well. For more, use FrontPage's Help feature.

Table of Contents:
Viewing Your Home Page in Internet Explorer
Accessing Your Official Directory in Microsoft Frontpage
Editing Your Home Page in Microsoft Frontpage
Page Basics
     Changing Font/Color
     Changing Background Color
     Cutting and Pasting Using Notepad
     Linespacing
Linking

     Linking
     Creating an Email Link
     Using Images as Links
Saving

     Saving
     Viewing Saved Changes
Tables

     Creating Tables
     Setting Table Properties
     Setting Cell Properties

New Pages

     Making a New Page
     Adding to the Left-hand Navigation
Images
     Inserting Images into Microsoft Frontpage
     Changing the Size of an Image in Microsoft Frontpage
     Alternative Text for Seeing-Impaired
     Embedding Images While Saving

     Using Images as Links
File Management

VIEWING YOUR HOME PAGE
In Internet Explorer, go to “www3.fitnyc.edu/officialname.” A default home page, news page, and gallery page have already been posted for you and are waiting for your edits.

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ACCESSING YOUR OFFICIAL DIRECTORY
1. In Microsoft FrontPage, under File at the top, choose Open Web.
2. In web name box, enter “http://www3.fitnyc.edu/officialname.” Remember it is all one word, no spaces, i.e. http://www3.fitnyc.edu/textilesurfacedesign.
3. In the box that pops up, enter your user name (firstname_lastname), your network password, and "fitsuny.edu" as the domain.
3a. If you are not offered a domain area, then include it in front of your user name like this: fitsuny\firstname_lastname. Please note the slash direction.
4. Click OK.

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EDITING YOUR HOME PAGE
1. Under File at the top, choose Open.
2. Choose default.htm. This is the home page for your directory. It must be named default.htm.

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CHANGING FONT/COLOR
1. Highlight text you intend to change.
2. Use the formatting toolbar to change the font, size, and color.

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CHANGING BACKGROUND COLOR
1. Under Format at top, choose Background.
2. Choose desired color in pull-down menu next to background. This is for main page only. Color within a table must be changed by cell. See Cell Properties. Notice that you can also change link, visited link, and active link colors.

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SPECIAL WEBMASTER’S TIP: Use Notepad whenever copying text. It removes all formatting from other programs which may interfere with FrontPage formatting.

CUTTING AND PASTING USING NOTEPAD
1. In Word or other program, highlight the text you intend to paste.
2. Choose Edit at the top of the program.
3. Choose Copy or use shortcut Ctrl+C.
4. Open Notepad which is generally on your computer under Programs > Accessories.
5. Choose Paste at the top of Notepad or use shortcut Ctrl+P.
6. Follow the same procedure to go from Notepad to Frontpage – highlight, copy, and paste.

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LINESPACING
In Microsoft Frontpage, hitting the Enter key creates a double line break. To create a single line break, use Shift+Enter.

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LINKING
1. To link a page from one page to another, highlight the word or select the graphic that will serve as the link.
2. Select the globe/chain-link icon in the standard tool bar.
3. Enter an “http://” address in the address box if you are linking to an external site or select from the files listed if you are linking to an internal page.

CREATING AN EMAIL LINK
1. Enter email address that you want to link.
2. Highlight the email address.
3. Select the globe/chain-link icon in the standard tool bar.
4. Choose E-mail Address in left-hand column.
5. Enter email address and subject of email if you choose.
6. Click OK.

SPECIAL WEBMASTER’S TIP: Use Ctrl+Click to follow a link in FrontPage. The page you requested will open. You can have several pages open in FrontPage at one. Use the tabs to move between them.

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SAVING
Under File, choose Save As or use the little disk icon on the standard toolbar. Pages with an * next to their name are pages where changes have been made and not yet saved.

SPECIAL WEBMASTER’S TIP: Do not use file names with spaces in them. File names should all be one word with capital letters denoting new words, i.e. FacultyBios.htm or HowToRegister.htm. Same goes with folder names.

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VIEWING SAVED CHANGES
In Internet Explorer, go to “www3.fitnyc.edu/officialname/pagename.htm” to see any changes. It is best to keep FrontPage and Internet Explorer open simultaneously. As you make and save changes, go to Explorer and hit the Reload button at the top.

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CREATING TABLES
Tables are the basis for every single web page on the internet. Most are invisible but they allow designers to layout a page. Most web pages are tables within tables within tables.

Under Table at the top, choose Insert.

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SETTING TABLE PROPERTIES
In the dialog box that pops up,

Set number of rows and columns: Often designers use a 1 row, 1 column table as the basis of their entire page, which creates 1 large cell.

Choose alignment of table: left, right, or center

Specify border size in pixels: Most of the time, designers choose a border of 0 to create an invisible table.

Specify cell padding and cell spacing in pixels: Cell padding is the space between the text and the inside line of the cell's or table's border. Cell spacing is the space between the inside line and outside line of the borders. A good number for both is 5 pixels.

Specify width: You can choose 100% which will either span the width of your screen or if it is inside the cell of another table, it will span 100% of that cell. You can also specify the width in pixels. The work area in the FIT templates where you might place a table is 540 pixels. You wouldn’t want to specify anything bigger. The largest recommended width is 500 pixels.

Once you have created a table, you can add rows or columns by choosing Table at the top, then Insert, then Rows or Columns.

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SETTING CELL PROPERTIES
Under Table, choose Table Properties, then Cell.

In the dialog box that pops up, you can

Specify width in pixels

Specify horizontal and vertical alignment of material within each cell: in FrontPage, the default vertical alignment is “center,” and you will usually want to change that to “top.”

Specify border color and background color: each cell can have a different background color.

Specify rows spanned and columns spanned: this is how you really begin to manipulate layout.

This is a table with 1 row, spanning 2 colums.

 
   

This is a table with 1 column, spanning 2 rows.

   
 


SPECIAL WEBMASTER’S TIP: Tables are especially good for positioning an image with text to the right or left of it.

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MAKING A NEW TEMPLATE PAGE
1. Open existing page, either default.htm, news.htm, gallery.htm, whichever format you prefer.
2. Save page using name of your new page.

SPECIAL WEBMASTER’S TIP: You may want to save blank versions of the default.htm, news.htm, and gallery.htm pages to use as templates for new pages.

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ADDING TO THE LEFT-HAND NAVIGATION
1. Place your cursor in the left-hand navigation. Add one space, and type the name of the new link.
2. Highlight the new link and select the globe/chain-link icon in the standard tool bar.
3. In the dialog box that pops up, click on Style on the right hand side.
In the additional box that pops up, under Class: use the pull down menu to choose nav.
4. Click OK.
5. Enter an “http://” address in the address box if you are linking to an external site or select from the files listed if you are linking to an internal page.
6. Click OK.

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INSERTING IMAGES INTO FRONTPAGE
1. Under Insert at top, choose Picture, then choose From File.
2. Choose your digital image.

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CHANGING THE SIZE OF AN IMAGE
1. Place cursor over image and click. Black "handles" should appear around the image.
2. Size can be manipulated by choosing a corner handle and "sliding" it in for a smaller image.
3. Size can also be manipulated by right-mouse clicking on image and choosing Picture Properties.
4. Check box, "Specify size." Enter new size. Make sure "Keep aspect ratio" box is checked or image will become distorted.

A little downsizing is fine, but upsizing is not recommended. To learn about sizing and cropping images for the web, see Preparing Web Images Using Adobe Photoshop.

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ALTERNATIVE TEXT FOR SEEING-IMPAIRED
We are required by New York State law to make our sites accessible to the seeing-impaired. Therefore, we must include a text description with each image on our site.
1. Right mouse click on image and choose Picture Properties.
2. Choose General tab at top of dialog box.
3. Under Alternative Representations, enter description of image in box for Text.
4. Click OK.

EMBEDDING IMAGES WHILE SAVING
When saving a page with an image for the first time, you will be asked to Save Embedded Files. Click OK, or if you have created a images folder, choose Change Folder, choose your images folder, and then click OK.

USING IMAGES AS LINKS
1. Right-mouse click on image and choose Hyperlink.
2. Enter an “http://” address in the address box if you are linking to an external site or select from the files listed if you are linking to an internal page.
3. Click OK.

FILE MANAGEMENT
In the left-hand column of FrontPage, choose Folders. A folder list will appear in a new column on the page. You can add new folders and delete folders here. If you rename folders, links to pages within that folder will automatically change. To return to the editing view, choose Page in left-hand column.

SPECIAL WEBMASTER’S TIP: It is a good idea to create a separate folder for your images.

SPECIAL WEBMASTER’S TIP: The best way to learn any new program is by trial and error. Play with it. Click on the buttons and see what they do. Also use Help at the top; it can teach you quite a bit.

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