Any (former ) MS Front Page Users Out There?

I need a little help with Front Page, and I was wondering if anyone could help me? I know it's outdated and has been replaced with Expression Web and one other program in Office, and I do plan to upgrade, but in the meantime I just need to make some stop gap fixes to my web site. Usually, I can figure out how to do anything I need to in Front Page, but this time I can't. And all the former Front Page forums are either dead or gone!

My question is about changing the background color on the main table/structure of my web site's home page, and its template, so that the change will go through to all the other pages of the web site too. I know that function is usually under formatting/borders and shading, and in the Design Mode I try changing the background color of every substructure table of the page - because I'm not sure which one it is - but none of them makes the change I want. I'm trying to figure out why I seemingly can't find the substructure that controls the background color in question.

Also, related to that, if you have a template in Front Page that is controlling the unchanging portions (basic layout and design) of each subpage of your web site, how do you make a change to that template and ensure that the change you make actually goes through into effect on all the pages? Is that supposed to happen automatically, or is there a function that needs to be applied?

Lastly, is Expression Web the best upgrade choice? I'm not going to be doing a whole lot of new designing, just basically importing my site to that program so that I can edit and update and maintain it, as necessary.

Again, like I said, I know this is not a Front Page forum, I just need a little help in getting started on this project before I upgrade and take the necessary tutorials. Thank You.

 

Hey AloisD;
I can't say I can honestly help you but I am a former frontpage user, I remember back when I was using frontpage 2003 before I changed up to Expressions Web 3 (since that was the newest at the time) however what i have learned in regards to webpages is this:

If your trying to change up a portion of a website right now and getting frustrated with it cause it's not working, then change up to Expressions Web 4 (since it's now freeware) because 9 outta 10 websites that one creates in frontpage will have to be redone for EW (Expressions Web) so don't stress about making minor changes right now since the task of rebuilding shall be upon you when you upgrade.

Hope that helps

Kennie

 

Rebuild, really? You can't just pick up and go?

 

it really depends on how your site is built but 9 outta 10 people say to rebuild because of the huge changes between the two.

 

I hate to be that guy...but this is a textbook example of why WYSIWYG editors are bad.

They are fine for general layout, but if you don't know how the scripting language works, it really makes it hard when the editor fails you.


This is probably a 5 minute CSS job if it was written by hand.

Post a URL if you like, and what you want to see. I can look at it if I get a chance.

 

Thanks, yes, I know Front Page isn't the greatest, but even so, up til now, I have been able to figure out how to make all the changes I need to. I just got stuck on this one.

My web site is www dot ConcreteVeneers dot com . What I'm trying to do is the change the beige/tan background color (behind the text) on the interior part of each page to white. I just can't find that table or structure to modify.

Also, based on Kennie's advice, what I was thinking of doing was hiring someone to upgrade/"rebuild" my web site so that is compatible with Expressions Web. Then, buying Expressions Web and doing the editing myself from there. Do you think that would be a good approach?

Previously, what happened was, I built my web site in Front Page, then had a company make improvements. They did a good job and only charged about $800. I think the guy used Dream Weaver, but I found that editing it with Front Page didn't cause any problems.

I am pretty good at picking up on new software. Again, do you think Expressions Web is a good choice, after maybe having the same company do the upgrade? Also, you say the CSS script would only take about 5 minutes. About how much work would it be for a company to upgrade the site as Kennie refers to? If it's really that easy, then I'll know when I get estimates, if they're reasonable for the amount of work that's entailed.

 

I'll take a look at it this weekend.

 

Okay, thank you, I appreciate it.

 

I had a quick look at your page. There is a tiny bit of CSS (commented out):

Code:

body {
	font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
	font-size: 14px;
	background-color: #866A4A;
	background-image: url(new_images/bgtile_brown.jpg);
	background-repeat: repeat;
	margin-left: 0px;
	margin-top: 0px;
	margin-right: 0px;
	margin-bottom: 0px;
	color: #EEE1C5;
}

You could re-enable that, then set the background-color to what you want. (And remove the styles you don't want.)

 

Do you have the site on your computer in a directory?

Are you willing to send it to me?

my email is adrynalyne at gmail dot com.

It will make it easier to look at it. If not, I can make due with looking at it online.

Let me know, thanks.

 

In my opinion, that background color looks fine. It seems to go well with the border and the page background with the textured background. Perhaps you should seek more comments on it before making the change.

 

Is this what you want?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsn4m2yf4lwgs5m/Screenshot 2014-01-25 10.54.06.png


Any other places? This is a one line fix otherwise.

This is a rough example because I do not have all of the site files. Therefore some images are missing and/or look different.

 

The changes AloisD wants are in an external css file.

 

There are 23 validation errors on this site (The QA side of me is twitching). As a business, you want to be careful about that. Easy fixes, but you can hurt how the page looks in other browsers.

http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=c...alidator/1.3+http://validator.w3.org/services

 

LOL. Thanks all, for helping out. Adrynalyne, yes, that's what I want. usafveteran, I know what you're saying, it's just that a white background makes everything easier to read. I've read that several times in articles about creating marketing material, and I tend to agree. Plus, that tan is so drab. Maybe I just need to choose a warmer tan color. I would be interested in everyone's comments, though. My business has been on hiatus for a couple years, and that's probably why it has so many validation errors. I will email you the site, Adrynalyne.

I still have my basic questions: 1) figuring out how to change that color; 2) the amount of work involved in upgrading the site to Expressions Web (and resolving the validation errors); 3) whether Expressions Web is a good choice of software for me to use in the future to make changes; and 4) if you make changes to a template, which I have, how to ensure that the changes extend to all the pages of the site. Thanks for all of the helpful comments everybody!

 

1. Change line 72 of style2.css to this: background-color: #FFFFFF;
2. Pretty easy, we can discuss via email.
3. Yes, it is free and easy to use.
4. We can discuss that via email.

 

Kudos and thanks to Adrynalyne. He provided a great deal of help in getting my web site set up for Expression Web. I downloaded EW yesterday and started to use it, no problems. And I am going to stick with the tan background.