Creating hyperlinks with drag-and-drop (book excerpt)

This is the second in a sequence of five articles excerpted from Chapter 11, "Building Hyperlinks."

See links to all articles in this sequence

In this article

One way to drag-and-drop

Another way to drag-and-drop

Using the Link Bar component

Hyperlinking to Adobe Acrobat and other special file types

One way to drag-and-drop

If you're working in a Web site — either disk-based or server-based — creating hyperlinks within your Web site is as easy as dragging.

Here's the procedure:

1. Open the page that will contain the hyperlink.
2. Locate and select the target Web page in the Folder List.
3. Drag the target onto the open page.

Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 creates a hyperlink to the page that you dragged, using the page title as the hyperlink text.

The following table shows the results of dragging or pasting objects of various kinds onto an open Web page.

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Another way to drag-and-drop

The following procedure is more flexible and easier to remember, and it offers more options for dragging files onto an open Web page:

1. Open the page that you want to update.
2. Locate the file that you want added to the open page.

The file can be in the FrontPage Folder List, FrontPage Folders view, or Windows Explorer.

3. Use the right mouse button to drag the file onto the open Web page.

Releasing the right mouse button displays the following shortcut menu. If current context prohibits using an option, FrontPage dims it.

• Create Hyperlink     Adds a hyperlink from the open Web page to the dragged file. When you drag a file from Windows Explorer, this command is dimmed. Drag the file from Windows Explorer into the Folder List, and from there onto the open Web page.
• Open File     Loads the dragged file into the default editor for the file type. This performs the same action as double-clicking the dragged file and doesn't modify the open Web page.
• Insert File     Performs two different actions, depending on the type of file. For pictures, it displays the picture on the open Web page as if you'd used the Insert Picture command. For other types of files, it converts the file to HTML and merges the result on the open Web page.
• Auto Thumbnail     Creates a thumbnail version of a dragged picture, adds it to the open Web page, and hyperlinks the thumbnail to the full-sized version.
• Cancel     Cancels the dragging operation without taking any action.

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Using the Link Bar component

Several FrontPage components create hyperlinks automatically. The most common of these is the Link Bar component, which creates an array of hyperlinks based either on a structure you diagram in Navigation view or on freestanding "mini-structures" called custom link bars. If you like to create Web sites by diagramming them in Navigation view or if you just like the highly formatted appearance of link bars, this component will probably grab your attention.

Find links to more information about link bars in the See Also section, which is visible when you are connected to the Internet.

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Hyperlinking to Adobe Acrobat and other special file types

Nothing about the Web stops it from delivering any kind of electronic content known to humankind. In addition to Web pages and pictures, it can deliver Microsoft Office documents in their native formats, Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files, ZIP archives, and essentially any kind of file you can think of. In most cases, the procedure for delivering such files is amazingly simple:

1. Open your FrontPage Web site.
2. Drag the file from its location in Windows Explorer, and drop it into the Folder List or Folders view.
3. Open the Web page that your visitors will view before retrieving the special file.
4. Using the right mouse button, drag the file from the Folder List and drop it onto the open Web page.
5. When the shortcut menu appears, click Create Hyperlink.
6. If you want, edit the hyperlink text.

This will create a hyperlink that delivers the file to your Web visitor. It doesn't, however, guarantee that the Web visitor's computer will handle the file the way you want. This depends on two factors:

• The Web visitor's computer must have the proper software installed. If the Web visitor's computer doesn't have a copy of Adobe Acrobat reader installed, for example, it can't possibly display any Acrobat files you send.

To avoid this problem, any Web page that provides special kinds of content should inform visitors what software they need to view it. If possible, the page should also provide a link to obtain that software.

• The Web server must correctly tell the browser what kind of file is arriving. In some cases, the file extension might provide all of the information that the browser needs, but in others, the Web server must also send the browser a MIME type.

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Next article in this sequence

Part 3: Creating hyperlinks with menus

About the author     Jim Buyens is a FrontPage, Web programming, and networking expert who has written several books, including Microsoft® FrontPage® Version 2002 Inside Out, Web Database Development Step by Step .NET Edition, Faster Smarter Beginning Programming, and Microsoft® Windows® SharePoint® Services Inside Out, all from Microsoft Press. Jim is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) who contributes extensively to the Microsoft FrontPage online communities. He currently develops Web-based business systems for the telecommunications industry.