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Presentation/Web FrontPage - Formatting Using Whole-Page Tools |
It is impossible to predict the viewing size of the computer on which a web page will be viewed. Monitor screens are sized from 14" diagonal right up through 22" - digital televisions and multimedia projectors go much larger. The actual size and appearance of the display area is a combination of physical size and density, measured in pixels. A pixel is one cell of visual information. A 14" monitor is generally used to display 640 pixels by 480 pixels, though it can display more. 1280 X 1024 pixels might be the selected video setting of a large monitor, though it could be set to 640 X 480 as well. It is actually the pixel setting that determines how much information will be displayed at once by a monitor, and as you can see, it varies wildly. As a result, you must re-think the way you format information. Gone is the luxury of knowing your page will always be 8.5" X 11", and knowing that 12 point Times New Roman will give you 80 characters from edge to edge. If you arrange images perfectly for an 800 X 600 pixel setting, it may look crazy at 1152 X 864.
If your page is all text, this is of no consequence - just follow the general rules for text size, and you're done. The page will look shorter or longer, depending on the pixel width, but this is minor. If you'll have images, menus, and other formatting complexities, you need more control.
Frames
allow you to break up a web page into pieces, so you can separate out some
things. For instance, a web page might have a framed section spanning the
left border from top to bottom, another frame across the top, and a view window
taking up the rest of the screen. The left frame could then be the menu
structure, the top a banner or title, and the rest the text to be viewed - since
they're physically separated from each other, you don't have to worry about
arranging them on the page.
Frames actually use a web page for each frame part, but
FrontPage manages the pieces for you, 
so
you don't have to worry about editing them separately. To create a framed page,
got to "File/New/Page," and click on the
"Frames Pages" tab. Clicking on any page shows its appearance in
the lower right hand corner of the box. Here
is an example of a framed page. Resize the window to see what the
frames do to compensate for variations in size.
After having mentioned this . . . don't use framed web pages! Most professional web jockeys don't use them, and the reasons are too numerous to mention - but I will mention a few anyway:
- Framed pages do not print properly, or at all.
- Frames are often of fixed size, and can appear with scroll bars on some screen settings. Three frames = three sets of bars, and the site is suddenly no fun to view!
- Frames take longer to load.
- Frames are not handled the same by different browsers, so appearance is harder to predict.
Shared
borders are like frames, except they are actually incorporated into a page, and
so require no separate navigation such as a scroll bar. The web page you
are currently viewing uses a left-column shared border for menu structure - a
good use of shared borders. A top shared border can also be used for a
title. Since shared borders become part of a web page, they create no dilemmas
for printing, while guaranteeing uniform formatting for all pages. To
apply a shared border, Select "Shared Borders..." from the
"Format" menu. You have the option of selecting up to 4 shared
borders, and applying them to all pages or only the current one.
The shared border will then appear, in "Normal" view of FrontPage, on one side of a dotted line like the one in the "Shared Borders" dialog box. Any change made inside this area will appear on all web pages using the border. It is not possible to have different contents for shared borders on different pages within a site. You can overcome this by creating subwebs within your site (if you do not have administrative rights to your website, you'll need the help of your school Webmaster to do this), or by using FrontPage's menu bars - an automated menu system generated by the site's logical structure.
Backgrounds can be whole colors or images tiled across the entire page. Many themes provide backgrounds automatically, but you need not use them. Be forewarned - backgrounds will add to your workload, since they complicate the display of many images, and can run up against font colors.
To change the background, select
"Background" from the "Format" menu. If you intend to
use a background picture, click the box and browse for the image
file. If a color, click the pull-down color menu for
"Background." If you choose a color, make sure that the
selected colors for  "Text,"
"Hyperlink," "Visited hyperlink," and "Active
hyperlink" are sufficiently different to be seen on the page.
After making this change, if you have selected a theme, you'll be asked if you wish to save a copy of your modification - only necessary if you are generally altering and saving themes. |
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