Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003

Typing Web page code from scratch is time-consuming , and a single typing error can force you to do more searching and debugging than you d like, just to track it down. Inserting one of the FrontPage Web components that allows you to copy and paste HTML, Java, ActiveX, or other objects into Web pages can save you from having to type them from scratch. The Web page code controls are found by opening the Web Component dialog box, clicking Advanced Controls, and choosing one of the following options:

• HTML When you choose this control, and click Finish, the HTML Markup dialog box appears. You can then type or paste in some HTML code to add. If you have some standard code that you need to appear on each Web page (such as the comment <--! Created by John Miller of Web Team 3-26 -->), you can paste it here.

• Java Applet Java is a powerful programming language that lets you add sound, animations, and many other interactive features to Web pages. When you click Java Applet, and then click Finish, the Java Applet Properties dialog box appears. You use this dialog box to identify an applet: a small, self-contained program written in Java. You can specify the size and alignment of the area on the Web page where the applet will execute ”as well as a message for users with older browsers that don t support Java, to tell them what they re missing.

• Plug-In One of the most common plug-ins is Acrobat Reader, which displays Adobe Acrobat PDF files in a Web browser window. Choose Plug-In, then click Finish to display the Plug-In Properties dialog box. Use this dialog box to set properties for a plug-in you want to process a file on the current Web page.

  Lingo

  A plug-in is a player or reader application that works within a Web browser to process content that the browser can t handle directly.

• Confirmation Field This Web component is used to send a confirmation page to a user who successfully fills out and submits a form. Confirmation tells the individual that the data was received. Use this component when you are creating a form, as described in Chapter 14, Working with Forms.

• ActiveX Control Use this Web component to add one of a set of common objects that are installed when both FrontPage and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 or later are present on your system. The objects let you perform a variety of functions, for example:

  • ActiveMovieControl: Plays a video file you have linked to the current page

  • Calendar Control: Adds an interactive calendar to the current page

  • Microsoft Office Chart: Creates charts and graphs from data sources you identify

  • Microsoft WindowsMediaPlayer: Plays an audio file

• Design-Time Control Use this component when you need to add an ActiveX component or Java applet to the current page.

• Flash If you have created an animation with the popular application Macromedia Flash and you want to add it to the current page, use this component to insert it.

  Lingo

  Design-time controls (DTC) give Web page designers the ability to easily embed prewritten HTML or other code within a Web page. A design-time control can take one of two forms. It can be an ActiveX component or Java applet embedded within a Web page. Or, it can be a control that is usable only while the page is being designed ”in other words, at design time.

Web components and DHTML effects add a new degree of interactivity to a FrontPage-based Web. Many business Web sites include among their most important goals the ability to connect with, and find out about their customers and visitors . The most detailed and direct way to solicit information ”creating a Web page form ”is examined in the next chapter.