Microsoft FrontPage® FAQ
Versions 2000/2002/2003The following FAQ are to help you configure and use Microsoft FrontPage® to publish your website to your Crosswinds hosting account. It is not a complete tutorial on using Microsoft FrontPage®. Please make sure you have already read the instructions and Help files which came with your FrontPage program.
- Which Microsoft FrontPage® options are supported by Crosswinds' servers?
- How do I configure Microsoft FrontPage® to work with Crosswinds' servers?
- How do I publish my files using Microsoft FrontPage® extensions?
- Why don't the extensions work properly with my Microsoft FrontPage® software?
- How do I publish my files without Microsoft FrontPage® extensions?
- How do I install Microsoft FrontPage® extensions in my account?
- How should my files be named?
- My links work on my desktop but not online... Why is that?
- Why are my images missing?
- How do I see my home page?
- Why are my website visitors unable to see ActiveX, VBScript etc?
- Where did my cgi-bin folder go?
- Suddenly many of my pages have disappeared! Where did they go?
- Can I upload files without using the FrontPage Publish utility?
- Is there a more effective way to design a website?
- Which Microsoft FrontPage® options are supported by Crosswinds' servers?
Crosswinds runs UNIX-based servers. Unix/Linux systems have different features and filenaming conventions than Windows systems do. Proprietary Windows-only features, like ActiveX, ASP, and VBScript are not supported. Some server-side features, like FrontPage® extensions, are only supported on Pro accounts. For more details, please view our page of Crosswinds supported services.
- How do I configure Microsoft FrontPage® to work with Crosswinds' servers?
Before doing any publishing to Crosswinds, change the following default settings:
- Tools»Page Options»Compatibility and uncheck the following boxes (see Compatibility screenshot):
- |¯| ActiveX controls
- |¯| VBScript
- |¯| Active server pages
- |¯| VML graphics
- |¯| Downlevel image file
- Go to Tools»Page Options»HTML Source and choose the "Preserve existing HTML" radio button. (see "HTML Source" screenshot)
- Go to Tools»Options»Configure Editors. When creating .php, .css, or other text-only files, configure FrontPage to open an external plain-text ASCII editor. (e.g. Notepad in Windows or TextEdit on a Mac, but never use a word processor for coding a web page!)
Highlight 'css' (or other filetype extension needed) and click on the 'Modify' button. In the 'Modify Editor Association' dialogue box, type Text Editor into the 'Editor name' window and the full path to your editing application into the 'Command' window. Click "OK".
If the filetype you want is not already there, click the 'Add' button and add the file extension and the path to your text editor.
(see "Configure Editors" screenshot)
- Tools»Page Options»Compatibility and uncheck the following boxes (see Compatibility screenshot):
- How do I publish my files using Microsoft FrontPage® extensions?
Your account should already have Microsoft FrontPage extensions installed. (Installation instructions in case they are not installed.)
Use your Microsoft FrontPage program to open a new Microsoft FrontPage Web @http://www.yourdomain. You will be asked for your username and password (use the same info you use to log into your CPanel).
Once you are able to access your website through Microsoft FrontPage, you can begin to create your content using several methods laid out for you in the Microsoft FrontPage Help files. Or, you can upload existing content from your computer's hard drive by going to the Microsoft FrontPage menu and choosing File»Import. (If Import is not a visible option, click the down arrow at the bottom of the File menu and it will appear.) You can then import individual files, folders, or files from existing Microsoft FrontPage Webs on your computer. Make your selections, then click OK to start the transfer.
- Why don't the extensions work properly with my Microsoft FrontPage® software?
Crosswinds continually provides the latest extensions available. However, FrontPage versions are not always backwards compatible. You should always use the latest version of FrontPage, in order to make sure it will work with the extensions installed in your account. - How do I publish my files without Microsoft FrontPage® extensions?
You can still easily upload your website using the CPanel File Manageror any FTP.
- Using the File Manager
To upload FrontPage created files to the File Manager (Pro and non-Pro accounts alike), FrontPage's internal Publish function will not be used at all. Instead, it will be necessary to first create any subdirectories (folders) in the File Manager that you will need in your account, and then open each one before uploading the appropriate files to it. This includes an 'images' folder, which will not be created automatically for you. When using the File Manager, all files, including images, must be uploaded manually. - Using FTP
- Publishing from within FrontPage:
You do not need a separate FTP client outside of Microsoft FrontPage. You can Publish your files directly to the Crosswinds FTP server straight from within Microsoft FrontPage:
Go to the FrontPage menu and choose File»Publish or File»Publish Web. (If Publish is not a visible option, click the down arrow at the bottom of the File menu and it will appear.) The Publish dialogue box will pop up. You must fill in the form with the requested information before you click Publish again. For the Destination web, type: ftp://ftp.yourdomain (use your actual domain name, of course). (see File»Publish screenshot)
You will see that FrontPage has created folders inside your hard drive's Web with names like "_private" or "_vti_cnf". These will most likely be uploaded along with your site; FrontPage uses these folders to keep track of what is in your Web, and it is advised to leave them in your account as long as you continue to use FrontPage.
If you choose to "Publish all pages, overwriting any on the destination", please note that all corresponding files currently in your online webspace will be deleted, and replaced with the complete contents of your Web folder. When asked whether or not you wish to keep or delete files which are not in the Web folder on your computer, answer carefully!
Click "Publish" again for the file transfer to begin. You will be asked for your username and password-- enter your Crosswinds membername and password here. Do not cancel the upload process in the middle of uploading, or there may be unexpected results. - Using a separate FTP program:
You can also choose to use a separate FTP client to upload your website. In this case, remember that you will need to upload all files in your site, including images. Nothing will be uploaded automatically.
- Publishing from within FrontPage:
Please see our File Manager FAQ and our FTP FAQ for further uploading instructions.
- Using the File Manager
- How to install Microsoft FrontPage® extensions:
If extensions are not installed in your Pro account, you can install them yourself by logging in to your domain's CPanel (Control Panel). Use the login information which you received by email when your account was created.
Next, click the "Frontpage Extensions" icon and follow the instructions to install the Microsoft FrontPage extensions in your domain's webspace.
IMPORTANT: To make sure the extensions are installed in the correct order, your CPanel will not let you install FrontPage extensions for a subdomain unless they are installed at the root level of your account first. If you have subdomains in your account, you must install FrontPage extensions at the root level before attempting to install them for any of your subdomains. Once they are installed for your root domain, you may then also install them for any of your subdomains or addon domains.
Once the extensions are installed, you can use your Microsoft FrontPage program to open a new Microsoft FrontPage Web @ http://www.yourdomain.com. You will be asked for your username and password (use the same info you used to log into your CPanel).
- How should my files be named?
When choosing names for your web pages in FrontPage, it is recommended that you stick to the standard 8-character name followed by the .htm or .html extension (e.g. filename.htm or filename.html). Names must be alphanumeric, meaning they may contain letters and/or numbers, but no spaces or other symbols. (A hyphen (-) or an underscore (_) may be used as a separator within a file name.) Letters may be uppercase, lowercase, or mixed case, as long as you type your links using the same format exactly. (See next question for more about this.) - My links work on my desktop but not online... Why is that?
- Case Sensitivity.
Check that your file names do not have case changes in them (example: filename.html and FileName.html and FILENAME.html are all different files.) On your Windows or Mac desktop, it makes no difference whether you use uppercase or lowercase letters. However, Crosswinds' servers are indeed case sensitive, and require you to match your filenames exactly with the links to those files. You may use mixed case if you like, as long as your links match your file names exactly, including letter case.
For this reason, it is very important not to allow FrontPage to change the case of your HTML code. To prevent FrontPage from altering your code as it saves or uploads, click Tools»Page Options»HTML Source, and choose "Preserve existing HTML". - Wrong File Path.
Another reason for broken links is that they point to local files on your computer, instead of to files in your online website. Here is how to make sure they point correctly in FrontPage:
When creating your web files on your computer, make sure that all files for your Web are in your Web folder rather than in other locations on your computer.
Type your links so that they point to the path where the file will be on the server. This is most easily done by first arranging your website files on your computer with the same structure they will take online. For example, if your FrontPage Web is located onC:\website, then all of your website files should be kept in theC:\websitefolder. Don't link to files which are located in any other directories likeC:\files, because when you upload the files they will still point to theC:\filesdirectory on your computer, and not on your actual website.
PLEASE NOTE:
If you created your entire Web in FrontPage 200x, and are uploading your site via its Publish utility, or if you have a Pro hosted account with Crosswinds, then you do not need to tell FrontPage to preserve your HTML. The Publish utility in FrontPage automatically fixes the links to the files as they are being uploaded. - Missing Files.
Of course broken links happen also when the files you are linking to are simply not there. Make sure you actually uploaded all of your files, including images, to your account.
- Case Sensitivity.
- Why are my images missing?
- Broken Links.
If your webpage is loading correctly, but you cannot view your images, make sure that you actually uploaded the image files and also that you uploaded them into the correct subdirectory of your website. Double-check the HTML in your files to make sure the<img src="">tags are in fact pointing to the correct files (remember, case-sensitive!) and file locations. See the previous question for more about broken links. - Wrong File Type.
Be sure your images are of the correct file type; they must be eitherjpg/jpeg, gif, or png. No other image types can be displayed universally on a web page.
- Broken Links.
- How do I see my home page?
Your home page should be namedindex.htmorindex.html. This will cause your home page to load automatically when you go to your website. To view your home page, go to your website's address (URL):
http://www.yourdomain/
- Why are my website visitors unable to see ActiveX, VBScript etc?
ActiveX, VBScript, and ASP are only supported by Windows servers. They are not supported by UNIX/Linux servers. Please see Questions 1 and 2 on this page for configuring Microsoft FrontPage® to work with non-Windows servers. - Where did my cgi-bin folder go?
During publishing, some versions of FrontPage may automatically delete empty folders unless they are also in your computer's Web folder. If the empty cgi-bin folder that was installed into your Pro Account has been deleted, you will need to re-install it. To do so, simply create a folder named cgi-bin in the Web folder on your hard drive. The next time you publish files to your website, that cgi-bin folder will be uploaded as well.
IMPORTANT: The cgi-bin requires special permissions. Since not all versions of FrontPage have the ability to change file permissions, the best way is to set them (chmod) via FTP, after uploading your replacement cgi-bin. If you don't do this, any cgi scripts you run later may not work properly. (You only need to do this if you have manually replaced the original cgi-bin; the original will have been set properly already.) - Suddenly many of my pages have disappeared! Where did they go?
It is very important that all the files you publish with FrontPage are in your computer's Web folder. If you do upload some files to your Crosswinds site from another computer, you must also put copies of those files in the Web folder on your hard drive. If you are using more than one computer to upload FrontPage files, just remember when to say "yes" or "no" to the deletion questions you will be asked by the FrontPage publishing utility.
Also, make sure your extensions are installed, and use them to publish your Web. This will avoid the loss of any files already in your online website.
- Can I upload files without using the FrontPage Publish utility?
Absolutely. But remember that if you go back to using the FrontPage Publish utility and those files have not yet been copied into your FrontPage Web folder, you must remember to say "no" when the FrontPage Publish utility asks if you want FrontPage to delete the file(s) that are not in the FrontPage Web folder on your computer. - Is there a more effective way to design a website?
Yes -- you can code it yourself in any plain text editor! It is always recommended that you learn the basics of HTML and how to use it. Overdependence on a WYSIWYG editor like Microsoft FrontPage® can dull your skills at troubleshooting, creating, and developing your websites. Many books and online HTML tutorials are available. Keep a general website design book handy as a reference, and bookmark an HTML tutorial in your browser. You'll find that creating and editing your web pages manually will offer you much greater control than any webpage building program can provide.
