Managing Sites on Your Intranet with FrontPage

Sending a Web page or an entire Web site into cyberspace has been a scary experience for some. “Where is it going?” and “What’s happening to my document?” are just some of the questions Web authors ask when they publish to the Web. Now, Microsoft FrontPage not only simplifies maintaining a Web site but also takes the mystery out of Web publishing.

Adjusting the Web site for the Web server

By using FrontPage, you do not have to adjust your Web site because of the type of Web server where you are publishing your Web site. At the time you publish your Web site, FrontPage detects the Web server and then adjusts your Web site to make it compatible with that Web server. If the home page is missing a name that the Web server requires — usually either “default.htm” or “index.htm” — then FrontPage automatically modifies the name of the home page.

FrontPage has built-in support for File Transfer Protocol (FTP) that allows authors to publish on any Web server, whether or not Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions are installed on that Web server. If the Web server has FrontPage Server Extensions installed, then FrontPage and the Web server use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to transmit information between them.

Keeping hyperlinks up to date automatically

FrontPage automatically updates hyperlinks. If you move a page, rename it, or delete it, FrontPage keeps track of each folder that contains each page, as well as which pages and files a page is linked to. You can view the pages and files that are linked to a specific page in Hyperlinks view.

In addition, FrontPage updates pages directly on the Web server. That is, after you edit a page on your own computer, FrontPage makes all necessary changes to the pages that are dependent on the edited page. For example, if you change the name of a page, FrontPage immediately updates the hyperlinks to other pages, on the Web server.

Tracking the status of the publishing process

FrontPage has always made it easy to publish a Web page but FrontPage 2000 makes it easier because FrontPage 2000 provides a progress indicator. After you click the Publish button in the Publish Web dialog box, FrontPage displays the progress indicator in the middle of your screen. The progress indicator shows the names of the files, one at a time, being published to a Web site. After the last file is published, FrontPage displays the message, "Web site published successfully!" The message includes a link to the Web site.