Microsoft FrontPage 2003, Introduction to

A new section of each course starts monthly. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to space the start date for each course at least two months apart.

All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end. Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course. You do not have to be present when lessons are released. You will have access to all lessons until the course ends. However, the interactive discussion area that accompanies each lesson will automatically close two weeks after the lesson is released. As such, we strongly recommend that you complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.

The final exam will be released on the same day as the last lesson. Once the final exam has been released, you will have two weeks to complete all of your course work, including the final exam.

Lesson 1
So you want to build a Web site? Web sites range in scope from the simple to the wildly complex. Whatever the site you have in mind, FrontPage 2003 makes it easier than ever to create it. In our first lesson, we'll explore how Web pages work, including the underlying code that makes each Web page something unique. You'll quickly understand how Web sites and Web servers work and interact with Web browsers to display what you see when surfing the Internet. You'll learn about the different types of Web sites you can create, from personal sites to commercial sites, and you'll get your first taste of Web site design ideas, learning tried and true methods for planning and implementing your Web site. By the end of the lesson, you'll be on your way to building your first Web site with FrontPage 2003.

Lesson 2
Today we'll take an in-depth tour of the FrontPage interface. You'll learn the names of all the different places, toolbars, menus, and so on, so you, your fellow students, and I can talk the same language throughout the rest of the course. What's a "main pane?" What are "Page view views?" Inquiring minds want to know, and this lesson has the answers! We'll also go over the functions of each of the tools in FrontPage so you'll know some of the cool and outrageous capabilities you have at your disposal with this powerful Web-development program.

Lesson 3
In this lesson, you'll begin building your Web site in earnest, adding new pages, then working through any navigation issues so surfers can effectively make their way through your site. This is definitely a nuts-and-bolts kind of a lesson?just right for starting off the second week of class.

Lesson 4
Most Web pages are made up of a lot of text and a few pictures, so knowing how to work with text in FrontPage 2003 is a critical skill you'll need to master. Today's lesson is all about text manipulation, so you'll soon be working madly away with words. You'll also get insight into how paragraphs work in Web pages and learn the tools FrontPage provides to help you size and shape your paragraphs. Finally, you'll get a healthy dose of the page layout tools available in FrontPage so you won't create Web sites that wobble all over the place.

Lesson 5
What would the Web be without pictures? One dull place, if you ask me! You learned about text in the last lesson, so now it's time to tackle the other major component of Web pages: images. In this lesson, we'll explore the ins and outs of the three common image formats you'll find on the Web: JPEG, GIF, and PNG. You'll master the tools built into FrontPage 2003 for image manipulation, including the ever-popular auto thumbnailing and the Photo Gallery. We'll wrap up the lesson with a discussion on several ways to acquire images that are suitable for your Web site.

Lesson 6
Most students enjoy this lesson immensely because they get a chance to dive into the world of scanners, digital cameras, and digital-image editing with third-party programs. Although this topic is somewhat on the periphery of a course on FrontPage 2003, many students want digital imaging skills to help them build better Web sites. I've also found that even a short lesson on working with images in a typical photo-manipulation program (such as Adobe Photoshop) can make a huge difference in the quality of your Web site. We'll start by talking about scanners. You'll learn how they work and how to pick the right one for your Web site needs. Then we'll go into a similar discussion about digital cameras. You'll get the inside scoop on image quality issues, storage media?such as CompactFlash and x-Digital?and copying images from your camera to your computer. We'll wrap up with a discussion on digital image editing steps, using a free-for-download program as an example. It works like a lot of other popular commercial image-editing programs, so you can follow along and pick up new techniques for a variety of programs.

Lesson 7
The magic ingredient that makes the Web such a dynamic and unique tool is the use of links. Links, or hyperlinks, enable you to traverse the world?literally?with a simple click of the mouse. We'll start out by going through a scenario to teach you how to insert, configure, and change hyperlinks on your Web pages. It will help to keep you interested because you can see the changes taking place in the Web site as we go along. By the time you're finished, you'll know all about relational and absolute links, and when to use one or the other. You'll know how to link to a specific page on the Internet, to a file on an external computer, and to e-mail addresses. We'll explore FrontPage's tools for verifying whether the links in your Web pages still point to valid targets or whether they're broken links. And you'll find out how to keep your site current and not stagnant. Finally, you'll learn how to create links to specific sections of a Web page and to create links within a digital image.

Lesson 8
Tables provide the basic layout tool for Web pages, so mastering how tables work will give you incredible power to go from page design to page reality. In today's lesson, we'll pick up from where we left off in our page layout in Lesson 4 and move into the nitty-gritty details of working with tables in FrontPage 2003. Using another extended scenario, you'll learn all the mechanical steps for creating tables, adding and deleting rows and columns, formatting the cells, changing the background, and so on (and it won't be boring!). We'll finish up with a look at layout tables, a powerful tool unique to FrontPage that will give you a chance to get very creative with your tables and page layout.

Lesson 9
In casual Web surfing, I'm sure you've come across a well-designed Web site that makes complete sense. In these sites, you intuitively know how to find the information you want, with hyperlinks and a navigational structure that carry you effortlessly through the site's many layers without letting you lose sight of the home page or the site's purpose. In today's lesson, we'll discuss how to turn your Web site into a tightly integrated masterpiece! You'll learn how and when to apply shared borders for your Web pages. You'll get the inside scoop on link bars, including how to create custom links and links based on the navigational structure you've been implementing since Lesson 2. Finally, we'll explore using the Navigation view tool to manipulate and manage complex Web sites.

Lesson 10
In today's lesson, we'll examine FrontPage's themes in depth. Themes can give your Web site a coordinated look and feel by replacing plain backgrounds, headings, and links with consistent colors and buttons. You'll learn how to apply a theme to one page or to your whole Web site. You'll modify a theme to create one that works just right for your site, and you'll learn how to remove a theme that's gotten unruly. Finally, we'll look at cascading style sheets?how they work, why you should know about them, and how to implement them in FrontPage 2003.

Lesson 11
You've spent much of the course so far building and modifying your Web site. Now it's time to publish it to the Internet or to an intranet server. In today's lesson, you'll learn how to choose the Web host that's right for you. We'll look at acquiring a dot-com domain name and issues like online storage, tech support, FrontPage Server Extensions, and cost. I'll give you the inside scoop on what to do before you publish your Web site. Then we'll look at the many tools in FrontPage 2003 for publishing your Web site and synchronizing between the online and local copies of the site.

Lesson 12
You know the saying: If you build it, they will come. Well, that isn't necessarily true--especially when you're talking about a Web site. That's why we'll spend our final lesson concentrating on the skills you need to master to publicize your Web site. By the end of this lesson, you'll know how to optimize your Web site so that search engines pick it up. You'll learn various strategies for publicizing your Web site so that the maximum number of visitors can admire your brilliant Web design!