1) Use tables to hold your content.

2) Do not drag the edges of the table or cells. It often will mess up the math and not show correctly in Netscape (to fix, change the cell properties so they add up correctly for the width of the table)

3) Empty cells need to either be merged together, or put a small transparent gif in them to keep them open in Netscape.
(some people use spaces; this isn't completely dependable but may work)

4) Don't use Frontpage hover buttons! They are not stable in Netscape.

5) Page transitions my look nice, but cause problems and increase page loading time.

6) Don't let me make you a background cause apparently I make some really bad ones.

7) Set FP to be compatible with 3.0 versions of both browsers. (just to be safe)

8) Invest all the money you can in to headache medicines.

9) Learn HTML if you don't already know it.

10) Don't get discouraged

I'm sure I'll be back with me.

12 - get NN and IE installed on your computer (find a friend with a Mac - it's a different world)

13 - set your browser background default colour to bright pink (picked that tip up in here) ... and then go and correct your mistakes

14 - remember you will NEVER know enough, and you will ALWAYS be learning

15 - don't be scared of frames, they can be very useful ... and only a little bit confusing

16 - look at your own HTML code and other peoples as a way of learning what goes on

17 - a LOT of people are still surfing at 800x600 pixels (more than any other res!) ... use the [file] menu, and then select preview in browser, set it to 800x600. horizontal scroll bars are BAD form

18 - TABLES ... you have control!

19 - a FP theme can be spotted a mile away ... be a little more adventureous

20 - surf a lot for inspiration

21 - navigation - it has to be intuative, the back button in a browser shouldn't be needed?!?!?!

22 - META tags ... are very important if you need to get hits from search engines

23 - conventional targetted magazine/newspaper advertising is a great way of gettting hits if your business/website is regoinal/local

24 - this forum is a great place to learn and share

25 - authoring accompanied by music - is a great idea

26 - authoring accompanied by beer - is not a great idea

27 - did I mention TABLES

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nothing to do with the LA Lakers
laker-media ... web design & photo solutions
laker-images ... travel, abstract & social imagery

[This message has been edited by capitao (edited 04-13-2001).]

• 28. Don't use "splash" pages, have at least 'some' content on your "Home" page.
• 29. Only use frames if forced and not on the "Home" page.
• 30. If you just have to add background music, give the visitor a way to turn it off.
• 31. Use "popups" sparingly.
  

TheHostFactory.NET

[This message has been edited by Gil (edited 04-13-2001).]

quote:

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Originally posted by capitao:
13 - set your browser background default colour to bright pink (picked that tip up in here) ... and then go and correct your mistakes

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To explain a bit more on this one: If your browser's default background is set to something other than white or gray, it will be easy to see when you haven't set a color for your page background.

If you specify the background color on your page, you also need to set the text and hyperlink colors. You can leave all of these set to "automatic" if you want the viewers default colors to be used.

Linda

ps - #6) Busy backgrounds make it hard to take in the content of the site... nothing against your backgrounds in particular, MN!

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Ruby Marketing

quote:

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Originally posted by MysticNight:
13) VERY IMPORTANT IMO! Right up there with....uhh...oh yeah tables. My background is a pale, not web friendly and browsers would probably shoot themselve green. Not very commonly used color. Anyhow, sites like Yahoo! and a few others I can't remember have pages with backgrounds set to automatic. In other words. Common mistake. Help yourself out.[/B]

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Ahh, Yahoo's is NOT a mistsake, they haven't set any of the Body attributes which is fine. Just make sure if you set any (bgcolor) you set ALL of them....

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Gil Harvey
The Host Factory
Resellers are our speciality
"Is there another word for synonym?"

quote:

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Originally posted by Gil:

Ahh, Yahoo's is NOT a mistsake, they haven't set any of the Body attributes which is fine. Just make sure if you set any (bgcolor) you set ALL of them....

[/B]

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Ok, then I'm confused. On Yahoo there most of the pages have a white background, but others have a green background (my default color). Yahoo homepage is my default color, but like the Yahoo shopping has a white background. The login screen for the mail is defaulted, but the account itself and the logout confimation screen are white. I mean what if someone had black as their default background? Yahoo would be pretty much useless except for links and the few pages that have a specified background color.

quote:

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Originally posted by MysticNight:
Ok, then I'm confused. On Yahoo there most of the pages have a white background, but others have a green background (my default color). Yahoo homepage is my default color, but like the Yahoo shopping has a white background. The login screen for the mail is defaulted, but the account itself and the logout confimation screen are white. I mean what if someone had black as their default background? Yahoo would be pretty much useless except for links and the few pages that have a specified background color.

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Well, common sense would say IF someone set the background color to black, they would set text to a light color (white?) and so everything would be fine. The concept of the WWW is; each user has the ability to set a default color scheme or to accept the author's scheme. When an author or an user sets only a portion of the scheme they "break" the system. If you have your bgcolor set to green, what do you have for text, link, alink, vlink ?

I haven't looked at all the pages at Yahoo, but from what you describe they use style sheets for "some" pages and not others - which is OK.

I normally do not set any body attributes unlees I am using a style sheet (more & more) - who am I to tell you a background should be white if you've chosen green?
BUT when I do set an attribute I set ALL of them...

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Gil Harvey
The Host Factory
Resellers are our speciality
"Is there another word for synonym?"

33) Break up text to make it easier to read and digest quickly. How long do you stick around a page with miles and miles of text unless you're reading a story?

34) Use tables for layout (but don't nest them too deep)

(A) When copying in text from anything other than notepad...

right click>
paste special>
normal paragraphs with line breaks>

(B) Single pixel gifs are our friends

(C) LB is FP2000 guardian angel!
(I gotta look into how to do those smiley faces)

Rich

48) Backup, backup, backup - each publish in case you mess things up badly.

49) Recalulate and Verify hyperlinks often and fix any broken links

50) Use footer includes so you only have to change one file. Footers are good for main/secondary web section links and publish dates.

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Denise Hendrix
www.ternion.com
FLAMES Simulation Framework

If you have to use a java applet have the elementary cop-on to test it thoroughly.

Otherwise send me the url to your site so that I'll know *not* to go there.

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Hope this helps :-)
Gorilla
aka Mark Saunders
http://www.computerdriving.com

marksaunders@techie.com

"We offer the most compleet serviece of any internet design company."

53. Bookmark this site and visit it often.

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BARD Enteprises
Writing & Editing
Print & Electronic Media

57) Use include pages instead of shared borders

58) Discover good keywords for your sites theme ahead of time. Write content geared towards those keywords.

59) Never think you know everything, you'll stop learning at that very second.

60) Use external files for Javascript and CSS as making one change is better than making one hundred.

Brian

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Work hard, play fair, stay sane

62) Learning comes from experience and most of those were bad (Oh ok, Will Rogers wrote that one just for us Front-Page Users )

63) [Not always] but often you can quickly map out a sites layout by creating all the pages using the navigator view. This works like a flow chart and even if you do not use the FP Navigation Bars, it forces you to design a more logical thought out site. If you start with a Home Page, right click on it, select "add new page" then before doing anything else, right click on the new page you just created and select "rename" it will create file names and titles that are the same as what you just labeled the Navigation box to say. I have created 300-500 page websites this way in a matter of hours where you have pages that are almost identical with minor variations between pages. [The only drawback to this method is its inability to use templates but this can be remedied I believe with "Vince's program" (which I keep meaning to buy) or by using Style Sheets.

Just like any competitive sport Practice makes perfect.

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SUZKAW

[This message has been edited by suzkaw (edited 10-11-2001).]

67. When starting a new site draw the layout on a peice of paper and then fold the paper in half. This way the top represents what shows on screen first then the rest comes below. just an idea

68. Get familier with the search button on the top of outfront.net

It is wonderful!

To put this tip to best use, edit with the "show all" button activated.

70. Don't use FP2002's text boxes to make hyperlinks for navigation. NN6 (and some other IE users) can't see them.

Questions for capitao:
What's the problem with FP themes? (#19)
What's the problem with merging cells? (#41)

I'm using a simple theme just to hold a banner, but I could eliminate it simply by putting the banner graphic in the top cell on each page. Should I do that?

I've merged lots of cells in my site. I don't think I could find them all. If this is a problem, I will just have to go through the site making new tables to move the old content into.

Thanks

There's nothing wrong with merging cells. The person who suggested this must have had some other problem with his table properties.

Linda

quote:

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Originally posted by dth:
47?

* how to remove hyperlink underlines <style>a { text-decoration: none } - place in head

I tried that - It wiped out all of my text - thank god it was my dev page. I guess it's because I use a white font as defualt in my e-mail right now.

Does anyone know a way around this - and not changing my font colour :-D

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