A Table of Contents contains
hyperlinks to articles in the discussion topics. Adding a TOC will enable
your users to find content that is of interest to them.
p A Search Form lets users search
the articles for a word or phrase.
p Threaded Replies allow users the
choice of either creating new top-level topics for discussions or replying
to topics in current discussions. (I would click threaded replies)
p A Confirmation Page displays a
confirmation of an entry in a discussion to a use.
p A submission form, which is
required and so, is greyed out.
p A registration form that lets site
visitors log in to the web site, if the discussion web is protected
NOTE: Only the UNIX operating system
allows registration through a Web browser.
5. Enter the FrontPage web Title of your discussion group, and
the name for the discussion folder. Usually it is best to leave the
FrontPage default name in, but you don't have to, just make sure you leave
the underscore ( _ ) in and click Next.
6. Choose the input fields for the submission form from the list
provided. Click Next.
You have a choice of:
Subject, Comments
Subject, Category, Comments
Subject, Products, Comments
NOTE: You can always add more fields
later if need be.
7. You are now asked if you want the web to be protected or not.
Select whether or not users will be required to register for the FrontPage
discussion web and click Next. If you select to register users, the
Discussion Web Wizard will create a registration form. You need to configure
and insert the registration form in your main root FrontPage web to make it
available to users.
NOTE: Only the UNIX operating system
allows registration through a Web browser.
8. Select the sort order for the table of contents and click next.
(Newest to oldest is best)
9. Specify whether or not you want the table of contents to replace
your Home page and click Next. (Say NO you don't want the discussion web to
overwrite your main web's index page.)
10. Select the settings for the Search form and click next.
You have a choice of:
Subject
Subject, Size
Subject, Size, Date
Subject, Size, Date, Score
NOTE: You can create a search form to
let a site visitor search a specific discussion web site for words or
phrases. If your server finds the search text in the text index for the
specified discussion web site, the visitor sees a weighted list of
hyperlinks to the pages containing the search text.
A. If your server is using Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS),
the search form uses the Indexing Service to search the text index. Indexing
Service has more extensive support for searching non-English systems and
Microsoft Office documents. In Page view, right-click the search form
you want to format, click Search Form Properties on the shortcut menu, and
then click the Search Results tab. In the Scope of search results
section, click Directory, and then enter the name of the folder containing
the discussion web site to which you want to limit the search.
B. If your server is not using IIS, Microsoft FrontPage uses the WAIS (Wide
Area Information Server) search engine that is included with FrontPage to
search the text index. In Page view, right-click the search form you
want to format, click Search Form Properties on the shortcut menu, and then
click the Search Results tab.
In the Word list to search box, type the name of a discussion group folder
to limit the search to that folder.
11. Select a frameset (if applicable) in which to display the discussion
group and click next.
You have a choice of:
No Frames
Dual interface - use frames if available, or normal pages if not
Contents above current article
Contents beside current article
NOTE: The discussion web documents can
be configured for use with browsers supporting frames. In a framed
discussion, users can see the Table of Contents and the articles at the same
time.
Not all browsers support frames. If you select one of the first two options
above, the discussion web will work with any browser. The last two options
are only for browsers with frames.
I find the last option works best.
12. On any panel of the Discussion Web Wizard, you can click Finish to
create the FrontPage discussion web using defaults for any settings you did
not modify, at this point you can go back using the back button or click
Finish to conclude the creation of your discussion web.
13 The discussion web is then created and appears in your files and folders.
In Navigation View, select the file named disc1_frm.htm and drag it into
your navigation view to include it in your Navigation bars if you use them.
Click on the name of the file in navigation view to select it and right
click and choose 'rename' change to something more appropriate than
'Frameset for discussion' and then right click within the navigation view
and select apply changes. The Discussion Web (DW) is then updated. Next,
right click in an open space in Navigation View and select Web Settings |
Advanced Tab | and tick the 'Show hidden files and folders box' under
'Options'. Click OK and click Yes when asked to refresh the web. (This will
enable you to edit posted articles.)
Double click the disc1_frm.htm to open or right click and choose open and
customize the DW as needed.
CUSTOMIZING YOUR DISCUSSION WEB
A. HOW TO CONFIGURE FONT AND HEADINGS ON THE POST RESULTS PAGE
First you need to make a theme and configure the theme headings, fonts, font
size, background and links. You then apply the theme to all the files within
the Discussion web to maintain a uniform look.
In the root web
disc1_cfrm.htm
disc1_frm.htm
disc1_nav.htm
disc1_post.htm
disc1_srch.htm
disc1_tocf.htm
disc1_welc.htm
In the _borders folder
disc1_aftr.htm
disc1_ahdr.htm
In the _disc1 folder
tocproto.htm
This last file in particular is important, as this is the post results page.
To make a theme, go to Format | Theme. Select any theme and, for our
purposes, lets say we want a plain look.
Untick Vivid colors, Active graphics and Background picture. Then click
modify and three buttons will then be available. Click the Text button. The
dialog box changes to the modify theme mode, click the 'More Text Style's
button. Another dialog box called 'Style' will pop up. Then click the h1
under Styles and then the 'Modify' button, and then click the 'Format button
and select font from the drop down menu. Now you can select the font type
and you can insert more than one font. For example,
Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans serif. You can select the colour and the size,
plus other features if wanted. Make your selections and click OK twice and
you are back at the 'Style' Dialog box. Select the next heading h2 and
repeat your configurations and selections.
Do this for other styles you want to configure. When finished press Ok
and Ok again on the 'Modify Theme' Dialog box. Now you are back at the
Themes box. Click the 'Colors' Button and select the Custom tab. Where
it says 'Item' select your background colour from the colour box beside it.
Then click the drop down menu next to background and select each of the
hyperlinks in turn and select their colours (Hyperlinks, Followed and
Active).
You can do similar selections to what we have already done for the headings
but there are not as many choices in this section. Press OK.
Once you have finished configuring your theme click 'Save As' and name your
Theme (Do not use the names of any of the themes you have or they will be
overwritten)
Now you can apply the Theme to your files listed above. Open up each
file (for example disc1_post.htm) and click Format | Theme | make sure
'Selected pages' is ticked and select your theme from the alphabetical
listing of your themes. Untick Vivid colors, Active graphics and
Background picture and press ok. The theme will then be applied to your
file. Repeat for each of the files above.
Now when visitors post you won't have the ugly default look of the
Discussion Web.
HOW TO RECEIVE AN EMAIL, WHEN SOMEONE POSTS TO YOUR FRONTPAGE DISCUSSION
WEB
Go to Folders View and locate disc1_post.htm (the number depends on the
amount of
discussion webs you have made in any particular Web).
Select the file and double click to open or right click and press 'Open'
Go to HTML View and locate the following code. (There will similar sections
of code, you want the one that is last in the line of code)
url="disc1_?.htm" --> (Where I have put ? indicates the page file name,
depending on how you set up your DW it could be post or cfrm or other files
names in the DW, so just look for this line of code which comes last in the
sequence.)
Insert DIRECTLY before the --> end comment arrow the following code:
S-Email-Address="Tina@accessfp.net" S-Email-Format="TEXT/PRE"
So the end of the code should now look something like this. As
mentioned above, where ? is inserted in the code below, will indicate the
file name you have last in your code depending on how you set up your DW.
url="disc1_?.htm" s-email-address="Tina@accessfp.net"
s-email-format="TEXT/PRE" -->
NOTE: Things you MUST do:
Cut and paste the code to notepad and then reselect and cut & paste to HTML
View.
Change the email address to your own.
REQUIRE POSTERS TO INSERT EMAIL AND SITE ADDRESSES
If you require your visitors to leave their email or site URLs, you
can insert scrolling text boxes via Insert | Form | Textarea. Next, select
the scrolling text box and mouse over one of the selection points, then pull
the box out to the size you want.
Next right click and choose Form Field Properties. Where it says Initial
Value insert the text mailto:
Next click Validate and tick the box marked required.
For the site URL scrolling text box do the same but insert http:// this time
in Initial Value.
If you wanted to make your own 'URL of Validation Failure Page' the option
is now ungreyed.
PRESENT YOUR RULES FOR POSTING IN THE WELCOME PAGE
Open the disc_welc.htm file and add your content
MODERATING YOUR DISCUSSION WEB
First Open the web live
Open up FrontPage and close down any webs you have open.
To open the site live
File | Open | on the pop up box click 'Web Folders' on the left hand menu
Insert the URL of the site you wish to open
e.g.: http://www.accessfp.net/
A box will appear asking for your username and password. Insert them
and press OK. In FrontPage, click on the navigation view so you know when
the site will fully load.
Next go to Tools | Web Settings
1. In the Advanced tab, select 'Show Documents in Hidden Directories'.
2. Click OK.
3. On the View menu, choose Refresh.
4. Change to the Folders view to see the pages (named 0001.htm,
0002.htm, etc.) created by users.
Do not delete offending articles. Open them up and type a standard message
replacing the article body, such as "[Deleted Article]." This will protect
forward and backward hyperlinks to other articles in the thread.
TIPS:
1. Be sure to close all files and go to Tools | Recalculate Hyperlinks
BEFORE publishing after all your tweaking.
2. When you want to move your site to another host, download
your site first so you can take your posts with you. The posts reside on the
host server, NOT on your hard drive where your local web resides. So you
must first download the site and then you can republish to your new host.
Tina Clarke - Microsoft MVP - FrontPage, is
the Webmaster of AccessFP - FrontPage Resource Centre
http://accessfp.net/
and http://addonfp.com
She is also an editor of AnyFrontPageBytes Ezine. Subscribe to the ezine
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AnyFrontPageBytes and
get FREE FrontPage E-Books upon joining. And don't forget to subscribe to get
Weekly FrontPage Tips. Tina is also an artist and the owner of
http://clarke-abstract-art.com
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