PART II  --  Bells and Whistles

To use background sounds on your web page, the sound file must be imported into FrontPage Explorer, then you can access it via the FrontPage Editor.

In the FrontPage Explorer click File, Import, click Add File and locate and highlight the sound clipping then click "open".  When the file appears in the Import Files window, click "Close".  The file will now be uploaded to the web.

In the FrontPage Editor, click File go to Page Properties.  On the "general" page that opens, under the "Background sound" group, click on the "Browse" button and locate the file you imported above.  Highlight it and click OK, the name should appear in the location field. Click OK

Save your changes and test it out.

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A hover button is a button that changes in some way or that controls an action triggered when the user moves the mouse pointer over the button (the buttons at the top of this page are hover buttons)

In the FrontPage Editor, place the insertion point on the desired location.

Pull down the Insert menu, point on Active Elements, and then choose Hover Button.

For links you can browse to  select the file (URL) or Bookmark (as explained in the previous page)

The Custom button allows you to set a sound to be played or a custom image to be displayed when the mouse pointer moves over the button

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Applets are short programs written in Java that are attached to a Web page and executed by the computer on which the Web browser is installed.  Use applets in a FrontPage web is a two step process.

Step 1.  In the FrontPage Editor, you insert a Java applet into your page on the Insert menu by pointing to Advanced and then clicking Java Applet. In the "Java Applet Properties" dialog box, type in the name of the applet source file that you want to insert. Java applet source files usually have a .CLASS extension. Enter any general size and alignment options properties, and then use the "Applet Parameters" section to set particular properties for a control. Since Java does not provide a mechanism for displaying the valid properties and values are for a given control, you’ll need to consult the documentation that comes with the Java applet and input the right property names and legal values for each property.

Step 2.  In the FrontPage Explorer you will need to import the "class" file and any other associated files to your web.  Click File go to Import and then click on the Add File button.  Find the directory where the class file and the associate files reside and enter them to the list; click OK when done.

Example:  

I used the lake.class applet and a photo of St. Joseph's Peak in Stevensville (Bass Creek) to create a picture with "lake ripples" on the bottom.

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Page transitions are also known as "fades" in presentation  programs and television jargon.  When the user opens or closes a page, the transition effects modify the normal "remove current page add new page" process by fading the current page into the new page.  There are approximately 2 dozen different effects that modify entry into and the exit from the current page, or entry/exit the site.

Page transitions are easy to create, click on Format  then click on Page Transitions

Example:

The other examples in this tutorial use various fades, as does the entry and exiting of the web.  NOTE: Netscape does not display these fades, therefore you should use Internet Explorer to see the actual fades in production.

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A marquee is an area on the screen that displays scrolling text

To insert a marquee open the FrontPage Editor, place the insertion point on the desired location.  Click on  the Insert menu, point on Active Elements, and then choose Marquee.  Enter the desired text and choose the desired effects.

Behavior effects -  Scroll causes the text to move over the screen and disappear character by character (example above).  Slide causes the text to move over the screen and when the first character gets to the opposite edge the entire message disappears.  Alternate causes the text to dance between the left and right edges of the marquee area (example below).

Using alternate and a larger Delay speed

The above marquee was also modified with the "styles" button.

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Forms in a web are similar to those on paper. The user is given boxes to fill in, options to select , and choices to make. The three rules of thumb are:

• Keep it simple
• Keep it short
• Make it very clear what the user is supposed to do

There are several different types of fields to choose from.  In the example below, I'll use the one line text box and create several fields of this type within the form.  The best way to learn about forms is to just create a new page and mess around with one line types.  Start by clicking on Insert, then Form Field and select one-line text box.   Move the cursor to the far left of the "response" box and type name (see below)

To make the form larger, move the cursor to the left of the submit button and press enter.  Then add another field.  Keep doing this until the form is complete.   Experiment with the different types of fields.  To add an e-mail address click on the submit button to highlight it, then right click and go to Form Properties.   The options button allows you to link to a confirmation page (you have to create that one before you can link to it)

Click here for an example.

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