Frontpage II

In this course, students learn how to create Web sites that incorporate table layouts, frames, and forms.

Web design isn't getting any easier. Anyone who builds a professional-quality site today needs to know how to organize content, create a compelling layout, manage and maintain site functionality, add interactive forms, and perhaps even add some dynamic effects. A demanding guy, this Joe Q Public!

In FrontPage II, you'll discover how Microsoft's premiere Web application puts these functions at your fingertips. Learn through detailed step-by-step lessons how to create tables, frames, forms, and more, taking your technical skills to an intermediate level.

You'll create an entire Web site in the first lesson alone, using given text and graphics to establish a basic template and process for your site design. In the lessons that follow, you'll build on this knowledge by adding frames, site maintenance, and special functions to your skillset. If you're on a PC, there's no easier way to get your sites up and running.

Instructor:
Nancy Taylor is the creative director and owner of Nancy Taylor Design ... get bio

Course Developer:
Remo Campopiano is an artist, educator, and Web developer ... get bio

LESSON 1 Creating Tables Tables are fundamental to every Web designer's toolkit — essential for organizing content and controlling page layout in any Web site. Lesson One gives you a hands-on introduction to creating tables in FrontPage, showing you how to insert and edit tables, convert text to tables, modify table properties, and avoid common pitfalls. In the exercise, you'll apply what you've learned by building an entire site using given text and images. We'll walk you step-by-step through the entire process, showing you how to use tables to create a consistent look and feel. Then, if you're feeling creative, you can build and submit your own site using our basic template and process!

LESSON 2 Using Frames For large-scale Web projects, you may need to use frames to establish a consistent design and navigation scheme. Lesson Two shows you the easy way to create frames, framesets, and frames pages in FrontPage, using given templates and modifying their properties. We'll guide you through the critical steps of hyperlinking and targeting frames so that your site all syncs up accurately. In the exercise, you'll put these principles into practice by "framing" either a given site or a site of your own.

LESSON 3 Managing Your Webs In Web design, building your site is only half the battle — to keep your projects "live" (and develop client relationships) you must also know the mechanics of site maintenance. Lesson Three gives you a tour of FrontPage management tools, showing you how to take the pain out of tracking and fixing site errors. Spell-checking and find-and-replace features are covered, in addition to the protocol for restricting user access. In an optional troubleshooting assignment, you can reinforce this knowledge by breaking and fixing your site, then a Mid-Term exam tests your knowledge on topics covered so far.

LESSON 4 Forms and Interactivity Using FrontPage, there's no need to leave form design and interactivity to "back-end" programmers. Lesson Four shows you how to create interactive forms, customize their properties, and assign Form Handlers to report the data via email. You'll cover the ins and outs of each form field, look at form validation issues, and learn how to build a basic search function. The exercise that follows walks you step-by-step through the construction of a sample form, encouraging you to adapt and submit your own designs.

LESSON 5 Dynamic Effects and Style Sheets Don't feel like coding? FrontPage puts sophisticated functions like DHTML and Cascading Style Sheets at your fingertips. Lesson Five explains how to use these advanced HTML features — and, just as important, when not to. You'll start by looking at compatibility issues and learning how to limit functionality based on target audience. Then you'll delve into FrontPage's DHTML effects library and explore the potential of Cascading Style Sheets 1.0 and 2.0. In the exercise, you'll add DHTML effects and style sheets to your course project, testing out the strengths and limitations of these tools.

LESSON 6 Miscellaneous Useful Stuff Many of FrontPage's most useful features defy easy categorization. Lesson Six rounds out your FrontPage studies with a tour of lesser-known features. You'll find out how to set up a Web team using FrontPage as a common work environment. A section on Subwebs shows you how to manage and test your Web projects by "staging" them. Finally, to help you work with clients, we'll cover how to import different file formats and Webs. The course culminates in a Final Exam testing your technical knowledge.

Tuition: $829 US