Using FrontPage to Create Web Pages

Visit the site below and work through the tutorial. The tutorial includes some simple exercises that assist you in creating a simple website. As you complete the tutorial answer the questions below.

http://office.microsoft.com/training/Training.aspx?AssetID=RC011140711033&CTT=6&Origin=RC011140711033

1. What two steps are recommended in planning you site?

• Create goals for your website. eg. who is the site intended? does the content suit the purpose of the website?
• Sketch a common layout of the site

2. What is a web server?

Web server can refer to either the hardware (the computer) or the software (the computer application) that helps to deliver Web content that can be accessed through the Internet.

Here is a video on web servers:

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/harvard-extension-school-s-computer-science-e-1-understand/2722-web-servers-video.htm

3. Provide examples of some features that FrontPage Server Extensions provide for a website. 

It provides Web-based and command-line administration for extending virtual servers. Extending virtual servers with FrontPage Server Extensions enables the site owner to author the site in FrontPage and delegate site ownership and administration credentials.

If you build and maintain Web sites for customers and coordinate these efforts with multiple authors, then the features included in FrontPage Server Extensions can help you accomplish the following tasks:

• Manage Web sites either on the local server or remotely, by using HTML Administration pages or a quick command-line interface.
• Secure Web sites and grant authoring, browsing, site management, or other user rights to authorized users.
• Analyze site usage to find out who is viewing the site and how often.
• Track errors on the server to help prevent site or server crashes.
• Upgrade FrontPage Web site management functionality with features like forms, search tools, and usage analysis.

Extending a Web site means enabling various FrontPage Server Extensions features to improve how you manage the content development and security of your site. Extending a Web site adds another level of security to the site, and after a Web site is extended, a FrontPage client can open the site and author it in FrontPage. A site that is not extended cannot be opened or authored in FrontPage.

4. How do you put your website on a web server?

To put your site on a Web server, you publish it. Publishing generally means copying all of the files to a remote location on a server. In most cases, the remote location is either an HTTP path or an FTP path. The path you use depends on what technologies your server supports.

5. FrontPage has two key functions - website design and?

Managing files

6. What are some commonly used file names for Home Pages accepted by servers?

Home pages can be named either index.htm, index.html, default.htm, or default.html depending on the kind of server your site will reside on. They are named this way so that when people visit the URL for your site, the server knows which file to automatically direct them to. For example, if the URL for your site was http://www.adventure-works.com, the server would direct you to the home page automatically.

7. What is FrontPage Metadata and which two folders contain these files?

FrontPage metadata is information about your FrontPage Web site that makes managing the site possible. When Windows Explorer is configured to show hidden files and folders, you can see the additional FrontPage metadata folders, like the _vti_cnf folder and the _vti_pvt folder. The _vti_cnf folder contains information about every file, such as which links are within the file and who modified the file and when. The _vti_pvt folder stores all of the configuration information for the site, for example, which subsites are in the Web site and the permission configurations for the site.

8. There are two basic types of website you can create in FrontPage. What are they and how do they differ?

There are two types of website that you can create in FrontPage: 

• Disk-based: disk based is created on your local hard drive. It can be designed and worked on before being published to a remote location like a Web Server. Disk-based sites are the most commonly used because they have a clear advantage: you can edit and test them on your hard drive before they go live. However, some FrontPage features rely on the server and cannot be tested when using a disk-based site.
• Server- based: server based can be designed and worked on directly on the web server and not on your computer. To use a server-based site, your FrontPage Web site must be on a server running FrontPage Server Extensions or SharePoint Services.
  

9. Follow the prompts in the "How to create a web page" section at the end of the tutorial to create a FrontPage website containing one or more pages.