[How To] The official Microsoft Frontpage Publishing How-To Thread.

[Matt]

Any Frontpage questions should go here. I will start it off with the most common issues:

Q: How do I upload my Frontpage Web site?

NOTE: Frontpage versions vary. The instructions below should apply to all version, but if you need specific help on FrontPage you need to visit Microsoft's FrontPage Support Site located HERE

If you are publishing a web to the Web server you must have Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions installed on it. Your account DOES NOT have FrontPage extentions on installed by default. You must install the extentions from your control panel before attempting to publish your site.

If you attempt to publish before you have installed your frontpage extentions you run the risk of destroying your site and it will have to be deleted from the server and re-created.

Publish a web using HTTP ONLY!! If you use ftp you will damage the site.

EXAMPLE: http://yourdomain.com

not http://www.yourdomain.com
and not ftp.yourdomain.com

Publish the files in the current web when you are ready to present your web for public viewing, or when you want to update the files in your web. You can publish using HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) if the the FrontPage Server Extensions are installed on the Web server to which you are publishing.

Before you publish your web, you can specify which pages you want to publish. Then, when you publish your web, you have the following options:

Publish only the files that have changed. FrontPage compares the files on your local web to the files on the Web server, and only those files that are newer than those on the Web server are published. However, files that have been marked Don't Publish will not be published.

Publish all files, except those that have been marked Don't Publish. The files from the local web will overwrite all files on the destination Web server, even if the files on the Web server are newer. On the File menu, click Publish Web.
Click Options to expand the list of options. Specify whether you want to publish only pages that have changed, or all pages.

FrontPage publishes your web. If you want to verify that your web was successfully published, click the hyperlink that is displayed after the web has been published — your Web browser will open to the site you just published.

If you cancel publishing in the middle of the operation, files that have already been published remain on the destination Web server.

Tip: To publish only pages that have changed to the same location you previously published to, click Publish.

Tip: If you have published your web and cannot see any changes, your browser may be storing an old version of the site. This is called "cache"

To clear the browser cache, you need to delete your temporary internet files. Refer to your browser's help file on how to do this. For internet Explorer, click Tools > internet options > delete files. Then try to view your site again.

If you still have issues, contact MicroSoft support, you may have a bad installation, or didn't follow the instructions carefully enough

[Matt]

Q: Do I publish to my IP address or my Web site name?

For best results with Frontpage 98/2000+ use your website name when publishing. For example: "http://myname.com" would be CORRECT

http://www.myname.com would be INCORRECT
www.myname.com would be INCORRECT
ftp.myname.com would be INCORRECT
IP address 123.456.789.012 would be INCORRECT

Publish directly to your DOMAIN name -- not your IP address, with no "www" in the http:// address line and not to ftp.

if anyone has successfully published their site to an IP address before the Domain has resolved, feel free to post instructions for others.

[Matt]

Q: I get an error that frontpage extentions are not installed.

This is because frontpage extentions are not installed on each site by default.

Login to your control panel and find the "site management" box. In that box you will see "Frontpage Extentions" Click that link and install/reinstall your FP extentions.

Remember that uusing FTP rather than publishing your web directly via http will break the frontpage extentions.

If frontpage is too complicated or too limited for your needs a good (the best) HTML editor to use is Macromedia Dreamweaver in combination with ftp.

[Matt]

Q: I get an error that frontpage extentions are not installed but cPanel says they are.

Frontpage Extensions can become corrupt on some occasions, or even removed.

In all cases, if cPanel says they are installed, you can select the option to "remove frontpage extensions.

Next an option will appear to "clean up old extensions."

Please choose this option.

Now you can select the option to (re)install the extensions.

Now try publishing your site and see how it goes..

[trickyBizzness]

I hear that Microsoft discontinued Frontpage, is that true? What will happen to those people on your servers that use frontpage?

[Matt]

Yes it is true, some would say "thankfully."

www.microsoft.com/frontpage/

See the bottom of that page that says: "What happened to Frontpage?"

What happened to FrontPage?

After nine years of being an award-winning Web authoring tool, FrontPage will be discontinued in late 2006. We will continue to serve the diverse needs of our existing FrontPage customers with the introduction of two brand-new application building and Web authoring tools using the latest technologies: Office SharePoint Designer 2007 for the enterprise information workers and Expression Web for the professional Web designer.