Special Edition Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003

At times in the Web design process, clip art provided by FrontPage and Microsoft (or anywhere else for that matter) simply isn't enough and you will need to actually create your own graphics and content for your Web site.

For more on the surprisingly considerable clip art collection provided to you, the FrontPage user, see "Enhancing Pages with Graphics and Multimedia," p. 113.

In this chapter, we look at the different options for graphics on your Web pages and look at ways to both edit existing items to better meet your needs or create new graphics and images from scratch. In the "Front and Center" section at the end of the chapter, we'll examine the use (and abuse) of graphics by the "non-artists" of the world and offer a few options for the "creatively challenged."

A Web site typically uses graphics to design, identify, and navigate.

Some of the images you will use throughout your site include the following:

• Background images These are images that load into the background of the page. Sometimes referred to as wallpaper, background images set the tone of a page.

• Headers Headers give an individual page its identity. They can also include the site's logo.

• Navigation buttons One click of a navigation button, and you're on your way to another page within a site.

• Bars and rules Used to separate text or elements on a page, graphic bars and rules can customize a site's look.

• Spot art This is the term used to describe clip art or photography that will accentuate the textual content on a page.

FrontPage has some unique dialog boxes to create some of these types of images, but you will want to use a graphics tool, such as Photoshop, to create others.

For content specifically related to the development of graphics with third-party graphic programs, see "FrontPage and Graphic Tools," p. 887.

Within these types of images are a variety of techniques to employ to ensure professional quality.