FrontPage Tips and Tricks

Unfortunately, FrontPage does not produce paired tags when dealing with lists, which causes inconsistent display of the topic. The result is that the unclosed tag is embedded within the closed <LI> tag pair. This does not comply with the ECMA-262 Standard and will break XML when we port the help to the dotNET platform.

Incorrect

  <UL>
    <LI>
      <P CLASS="txt">List item 1 text goes here.</LI>
    <LI>
      <P CLASS="txt">List item 2 text goes here.</LI>
  </UL>

Correct

  <UL>
    <LI>List item 1 text goes here.</LI>
    <LI>List item 2 text goes here.</LI>
  </UL>

To remove unwanted unpaired tags located within list items:

Either

When viewing from the HTML tab, edit the HTML directly; or
When viewing from the Normal tab, and with tags visible, and with the HTML Tools toolbar visible, select the unwanted tag and click the Remove tag button on the HTML Tools toolbar.

You should be aware of and avoid the possibility of creating unwanted unpaired tags during the creation of a list when using FrontPage, by only adding list items one at a time to the bottom of an already clean list, or by
To view the ECMA-262 Standard, visit W3C.org
To toggle tag visibility when viewing from the Normal tab, press the keyboard shortcut CTRL + /.
To install the HTML Tools toolbar, see How to install the HTML Tools toolbar in FrontPage.

Creating wanted paired tags within lists

Unfortunately, FrontPage does not produce paired tags when dealing with lists, which causes inconsistent display of the topic. As with the previous problem (Removing unwanted unpaired tags within lists), the result is that the unclosed tag is embedded within the closed <LI> tag pair. This still does not comply with the ECMA-262 Standard and will break XML when we port the help to the dotNET platform.

Incorrect

  <UL>
    <LI>List item 1 text goes here.</LI>
      <P CLASS="txt">Paragraph
 text displays here.
    <LI>List item 2 text goes here.</LI>
        </UL>

Correct

  <UL>
    <LI>List item 1 text goes here.</LI>
      <P CLASS="txt">Paragraph
 text displays here.</P>
    <LI>List item 2 text goes here.</LI>
        </UL>

To add paired tags within lists:

This procedure is useful for adding paragraphs within existing lists whilst remaining in Normal tab view. Create the list outline first, then go back to insert any extra paragraphs within the list where required.

Make sure that the list is properly formatted with start and close tags paired and nested properly. ie:

<OL>
<LI>List Item 1</LI>
<LI>List Item 2</LI>
<LI>List Item 3</LI>
</OL>

Make sure each list item has some content, and is not just a blank <LI></LI> tag pair. If need be, type in some placeholder text for the moment. This holds the list item's place in the list as FP has the tendency to convert any unused list items it finds at the end of lists into body paragraphs.
When viewing from the Normal tab, (and with tags visible, and with the HTML Tools toolbar visible), insert the cursor at the end of the list item immediately above where you want to add the paragraph within the list. The cursor should be flashing to the left of the </LI> tag. Press the ENTER key. This will create a new list item which we'll convert into a paragraph.
Format the new list item with a paragraph style (e.g. Normal.txt). This adds the single opening tag within the list item tags. The following example shows the new paragraph added between list items 2 and 3.

<OL>
<LI>List Item 1</LI>
<LI>List Item 2</LI>
<LI>
<P class="txt">
</LI>
<LI>List Item 3</LI>
</OL>

Click the Edit tag button on the HTML Tools toolbar. This displays the edit tag dialog containing the unpaired tag.
Move the cursor to the right of the  tag and type in the closing  tag. Then press the ENTER key.

xyz

Click on the parent <LI> tag (whilst still in Normal view) to highlight the whole tag set, then click the Remove Tag button on the HTML Tools toolbar. This deletes the list item tag pair leaving the paired  tag paragraph between list items, not within a list item tag set.

<OL>
<LI>List Item 1</LI>
<LI>List Item 2</LI>
<P class="txt"></P>
<LI>List Item 3</LI>
</OL>

Insert the cursor between the  tag pair and type in the text of the paragraph. Every subsequent press of the enter key will create a new properly formed paragraph  tag pair as you would expect. To continue with the next or another list item, click within that list item to edit it.

Turn on "View tags" when in Normal view to see what's going on, or swap to HTML view to examine the source. To toggle tag visibility when viewing from the Normal tab, press the keyboard shortcut CTRL + /.
To install the HTML Tools toolbar, see How to install the HTML Tools toolbar in FrontPage.

Working with Bookmarks

The Create hyperlink dialog does not display the file bookmarks unless the file is already opened in FP. To locate a file bookmark, use the Open File dialog button, navigate to the appropriate file, select OK, then select the file from the file list, and use the bookmark dropdown list as previously intended.
FP2002 introduced a keyboard shortcut CTRL + G to create bookmarks.

Working with Hyperlinks

The Create hyperlink dialog creates absolute paths in links if the destination file is selected from the current list. These links subsequently break in HTML help.
The Create hyperlink dialog converts help links calls using the mk: protocol and changes them to file: protocol links. To remedy, you have to view the HTML and reapply the mk: protocol syntax there.

Working with Tables

Formatting:

Tables display with large ugly grey borders.

Incorrect

Column	Data
NamespaceKey	MS.HelpIntegrDemo.1033
NamespaceName	MS.HelpIntegrDemo.1033
File_Collection	_E933A8FC91204B9B839FF5B8C801A26D1
Description Help	Integration Demo Collection

Correct

Column	Data
NamespaceKey	MS.HelpIntegrDemo.1033
NamespaceName	MS.HelpIntegrDemo.1033
File_Collection	_E933A8FC91204B9B839FF5B8C801A26D1
Description Help	Integration Demo Collection

To properly apply Table styles

FP (or is it IE?) has the annoying tendency to display some HTML tags with default values which are not always obvious to the HTML author. Tables and Lists seem to cause the most grief to the unwary. Even though all table properties are set in the LotechSolutions.css, FP and IE ignore some of them unless certain conditions are met.

FP (& IE) require the TABLE tag to contain the CELLSPACING and PADDING parameters before they'll apply CSS values to them.

When creating the TABLE tag, enter an "equals zero" value (="0") for the CELLSPACING and PADDING parameters;

<TABLE CELLSPACING="0" PADDING="0">

edit the HTML to include the CELLSPACING and PADDING parameters without any values.

<TABLE CELLSPACING PADDING>

Turn on "View tags" when in Normal view to see what's going on, or swap to HTML view to examine the source. To toggle tag visibility when viewing from the Normal tab, press the keyboard shortcut CTRL + /.
Don't copy in tables directly from MS Word as it carries heaps of unwanted inline formatting with it. If you must copy a table from a Word source, paste it into Notepad first (which removes all formatting baggage), then recopy it from Notepad into FP.

Working with character entities

Inserting character entities in FP:

FP has a limited range of characters it can interpret, understand and display properly. This particular problem involves how to insert an en-dash () or em-dash () into a topic in FP.

Note Notes

An en-dash is not the same as a hyphen (-), and is not used in the same places as you would use a hyphen. See Using proper typography.

FP does not apparently recognise or display en-space or em-space character entities. Nor does it recognise thin-space or hair-space either.

Incorrect

hyphen: -
double hyphen: —
underscrore: _
typing "–": –
typing "—": —

Correct

en-dash: 
em-dash:

To insert an en-dash or em-dash character entity using FP:

Unfortunately, FP provides no tool to insert character entities, so you have to manually insert them into the HTML.

In FP Normal tab view, move the cursor to the position you wish to insert the character at.
Swap to the HTML tab view, and enter "–" or "—" (without the inverted commas or "quotes") to insert an en-dash or em-dash appropriately.

Note Note

The start Ampersand (&) and the end semi-colon (;) are required.

Swap back to Normal tab view or Save the document, to view the character.