Make Your Site More Interactive with Microsoft FrontPage version
2002
6 Interactive
Elements to Help Grow Business
Published: March
2002
Table of Contents
Overview
What Will
a More Interactive Web Do for My Business?
Discussion
Groups
Setting up
a Discussion Group
Interactive
Calendars
Online Video
and Streaming Media
Pop-ups Menus
Banner Ads
and Banner Ad Managers
Image Swap
Summary
More
Information
Microsoft Resources
Interactive Web pages add not only interest
and important functionality to any small business online presence,
but also can help grow business. Web authors can use Microsoft®
FrontPage® version 2002 to add a wide variety of interactive elements
such as discussion groups, interactive calendars, online video,
pop-up menus, banner ads, and image swapping. These elements will
help your Web site acquire and keep online customers who want to
be kept up to date on your latest product offers and services.
This article assumes that the reader has at least Advanced Beginner
to Intermediate skills using FrontPage in a Microsoft Windows®-based
PC environment and understands how to author a basic Web site.
Making your Web site more interactive is good
for business because it can stimulate customer interest while providing
a number of tools to improve your customer experience and your bottom
line. In addition, using the powerful authoring features of FrontPage
2002 to quickly develop more interactive Web pages, offers a wide
variety of opportunities in terms of improving- communication within
your organization, customer services, sales tools, and direct sales
via e-commerce technology thus improving your Web site Return On
Investment (ROI). Below are six ways to make your Web more interactive
using FrontPage 2002, how they will help you grow your business
online, and information to get started using them.
A discussion group makes a Web site highly
interactive because it allows site visitors to discuss topics online
about articles or comments that have been posted to the site, and
gives them the opportunity to reply, as well as post new articles
or comments. Visitors can also search to find articles and discussion
threads of interest. Discussion groups in general provide a forum
for your site's visitors to communicate with each other. These forums
can be used to harvest feedback from your customers or gauge interest
in new products or services.
While discussion groups are usually open to everyone visiting the
Web site, with FrontPage 2002 it is also possible to set-up secure
andprivate discussion groups, limited to certain users who must
register and log in to the discussion on the Web site. These private,
secure discussion groups can be used to help your employees, partners,
and suppliers collaborate on projects, brainstorm ideas, refine
documents, just to name a few.
Using Microsoft SharePoint™ Team Services (a technology included
with FrontPage 2002), it is possible to create special types of
discussion groups called "Web document discussions" where
users, working together on the same information, can discuss it
by attaching comments directly to team Web pages and documents.
This type of discussion group is available only on Webs hosted by
Web servers running SharePoint Team Services. To find out more about
SharePoint Team Services, see Microsoft
Resources at the end of this article.
A discussion group makes a Web site highly
interactive because it allows site visitors to discuss topics online
about articles or comments that have been posted to the site, and
gives them the opportunity to reply, as well as post new articles
or comments. Visitors can also search to find articles and discussion
threads of interest. Discussion groups in general provide a forum
for your site's visitors to communicate with each other. These forums
can be used to harvest feedback from your customers or gauge interest
in new products or services.
While discussion groups are usually open to everyone visiting the
Web site, with FrontPage 2002 it is also possible to set-up secure
and private discussion groups, limited to certain users who must
register and log in to the discussion on the Web site. These private,
It only takes a few quick steps to setup a full featured FrontPage-based
discussion group on your Web site. Just open your FrontPage-based
Web in FrontPage 2002 and follow these steps:
- From the File menu point to New, and then click Page
or Web.
- In the New Page or Web task pane, under New from template,
click Web Site Templates and select Add to current
Web.
- Select the Discussion Web Wizard then follow the directions
on your screen to create a discussion group.
Interactive calendars on Web pages display
information similar to what you would expect to find on any calendar
with the additional ability to change their display or take site
visitors to related information based on user actions such as clicking
on a particular day in a month.
These interactive calendars can fulfill many uses based on how they
function in your Web site. For example, a calendar could be used
to browse local activities and events as well as allow users to
post their own activities and events or report any incorrect or
improper messages. Interactive calendars can also be used to provide
a quick way for users to find and select a date on a Web page event
registration form.
Interactive calendars on your business Web
site can effectively provide your sales personnel in the field,
suppliers, or customers with important schedule, event, or time
critical promotion information.
Implementing Interactive Calendars Using FrontPage
2002
There are a number of ways to implement interactive
calendars using FrontPage 2002. One of these is to create a SharePoint
Team Services-based interactive list using the Events list template.
A SharePoint Team Services-based interactive list is a framework
that you design to enable site visitors to store and view information
in your Web site. For example, you could create an online sign-up
sheet for an event, or you could create a list that allows you to
add content to your Web site remotely, via a Web browser. An events
list is designed to store information such as dates and location
and uses an interactive calendar to display that information. And
if site visitors have a SharePoint Team Services-compatible calendar,
such as Microsoft Outlook 2002 installed, they can export items
from the events list to their calendar. To find out more about SharePoint
Team Services, see Microsoft Resources
at the end of this article.
Another way to implement an interactive calendar is to use the
Dynamic HTML (DHTML) calendar behavior and scripting in your FrontPage-based
Web site. DHTML is a Microsoft enhancement to HTML version 4.0 that
enables you to create visual effects or improve the layout of a
Web page. The calendar behavior is used to provide a quick and easy
method for users to find and select a date. It can be used in any
situation where date input is required, such as on a Web page form,
in utilities, or in applications.
To find out how, go to:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/downloads/samples/internet/behaviors/library/calendar/default.asp
Online video can make your Web site more interactive
by allowing users to run video clips or streaming videos on the
site.
Video clips are made by capturing video segments
with a computer configured with the appropriate hardware and software.
These segments are then stored in files that can be used on Web
sites similarly to the way graphic and text files are. Video clips
can be very large files, even very short, small format clips, and
there can be problems using them as your Web visitor must download
the entire video clip to their browser, before it can be viewed.
The time involved to do this can result in a negative user experience
especially if they are on a low bandwidth Internet connection.
However, with streaming video (and other streaming
media files), downloading is more transparent because the files
are fed to the user in a continuous stream as they view the media.
Streaming video can also be enhanced by including other streaming
media such as slides, graphics, animation and live data.
In addition to making your Web site more attractive,
using interactive video can also be used to create engaging media
rich presentations to deliver messages to your customers, investors,
or partners. Businesses can use online video and streaming media
as a cost-effective means to present business plans, visions, objectives,
products, services, etc, and hopefully in doing so increase their
bottom line.
The Microsoft
Windows Media Player Add-in for FrontPage
You can use FrontPage 2002 to easily add video clips
to one of your Web pages by going to the Insert menu, selecting
Photo and then Video. Or alternatively, you can use The Microsoft
Windows Media™ Player Add-in for FrontPage.
This add-in enables new capabilities for FrontPage users including
the ability to: quickly embed Windows Media into FrontPage-based
Web pages; control the look and feel of the media playback experience;
and publish to a Web or streaming server automatically. All this
functionality is available from within the add-in's wizard without
having to write any script.
To download The Windows Media Player Add-in for FrontPage, go to
the FrontPage Add-in Center URL listed below, click on the download,
then the link to save the add-in to your computer. The download
is available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/downloads/addin/searchdetail.asp?aid=50
Double click on the file WMPFPAddin.exe to begin the installation.
The installation wizard will walk you through setup of the add-in
components. Then, to use the add-in, open a Web page in FrontPage.
To embed the Windows Media Player in a FrontPage-based Web page,
position the cursor in the page where you want the video to appear,
and from the Insert menu, select Windows Media Player.
With the Windows Media Player Add-In Wizard
open you can:
- Select Audio or Video content, and use the wizard to determine
what order you want multiple media files to play in.
- Select the controls you wish to appear in the Web page, enabling
the user to start and stop the playback of the media.
- Select the playback options, such as the number of times you
wish the media file to play, whether the file should start automatically
etc.
When you finish, the Add-In does the rest behind the scenes. You can
then preview the embedded Windows Media content in your FrontPage-based
Web site.
A pop-up menu is a navigational element that
when clicked on displays an additional menu box listing the contents
of the section appearing immediately next to the navigational item
you selected (typically using a nice effect such as a scroll-down).
The pop-up menu can have additional visual effects like when a user
moves the mouse over one of the article titles in the menu, the
title changes color. Clicking the title sends you to a destination
Web page. The menu can remain visible until you click somewhere
else on the page.
Pop-up menus can be key navigational elements
to effectively provide Web site-wide navigation. For example, pop-up
menus used to display a list of articles for each section of a site
and can help your Web visitors by saving them time and effort in
their search for useful information. Pop-up menus provide an elegant
way to simplify the navigation of complex or data-heavy sites and
they avoid the annoyance of using the back button repeatedly or
scrolling to find information. Finally, your Web site will benefit
from the reduction in server hits that comes with more efficient
use of site navigation. All these benefits will improve your customer
online experience.
Getting Started with Pop-up Menus
With FrontPage 2002, there are several ways
to add pop-up menus to your Web site. One is to use a pop-menu or
DHTML menu Add-in for FrontPage which can be found in the Formatting
section of the FrontPage Add-in Center at:
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/downloads/addin/searchresults.asp?idcat=10&x=13&y=10
Alternatively, you can learn how to build a pop-up menu from scratch
in FrontPage by going to the article (with demo and sample code),
Build a Pop-up Menu Using Dynamic HTML and JavaScript at: http://www.microsoftfrontpage.com/content/ARTICLES/articles.htm
Another method of adding interactivity to your
Web site is by adding banner ads, in which ad pictures can contain
one or more hyperlinks to your products and services or to 3rd party
advertising to generate additional revenue streams. Banner ads can
also be configured to act as rotating billboards on a Web page.
Rotating banner ads present products, services and businesses in
a visually more interesting and dynamic way.
Banner ad managers can be used to organize and display advertisements
for several different products, services, or businesses within the
same banner ad Web page real estate.
The FrontPage Banner Ad Manager
and bCentral Banner Network
The Banner Ad Manager in FrontPage 2002, allows you to
quickly organize and display banner ads using a timed sequence of
pictures complete with transition effects between pictures. You
can set the size of the banner ad, the transition effect to display
between pictures, duration that pictures are displayed, order of
the ads, and the default hyperlink for each ad.
To use the Banner Ad Manager in FrontPage 2002, open a Web page
in the program and from the Insert menu, select Dynamic Effects
and then Banner Ad Manager.
The best way to select a transition effect
in the Banner Ad Manager is to create a banner ad and preview it,
trying various effects until one matches your needs. Then preview
the banner ad by clicking the Preview tab or click Preview in Browser
on the File menu.
You can also attract new customers with no
cost advertising by joining the Web's largest banner network, the
Microsoft bCentral™ Banner Network, and advertise online. The bCentral
Banner Network is a cooperative model in that for every 2 ads you
display on your site, you earn a credit toward displaying your banner
on another member's site. The amount of free advertising you receive
is directly proportional to the amount you give others.
To access the Banner Network from within FrontPage
2002, select the Insert menu, click Web Component, then bCentral
Components, and then in the right pane, double-click bCentral Banner
Ad. Or learn more about the Banner Network by visiting the bCentral
Web site at: http://adnetwork.bcentral.com/
Related to rotating banner ad displays, image
swapping adds interest by making your Web site more dynamic. Image
swapping involves replacing images with other images in a variety
ways under a variety of circumstances. Image swapping can be used
to guide users to areas of interest by highlighting an element on
a page when a user's cursor movement triggers a graphic element
to be swapped with another thus creating an eye-catching change.
Image swapping also provides ways to create simple animations and
other dynamic effects without negatively affecting how quickly a
particular Web page takes to be loaded in your site visitor's browser.
Image swapping makes your pages come alive, enhancing your Web site
visitor's online experience, and gives your site a longer lasting
impact.
Scripting Image Swapping in FrontPage
2002
With FrontPage 2002, you can create a wide range of image swap effects
using DHTML and scripting techniques.
To use DHTML to swap an image in FrontPage, open a Web page in Page
view in the Normal pane and select an image you want to swap with
another. Then from the Format menu, click Dynamic HTML Effects.
This displays the DHTML Effects toolbar. On the DHTML Effects toolbar
do the following:
- In the On box, click the down arrow, and then select
the event that will trigger the swap animation, in this case Mouse
Over.
- In the Apply box, click the down arrow, and then select
the type of animation effect you want to occur, in this case Swap
Picture.
- In the Choose Settings box, click the down arrow, and
then choose the settings for the effect: Choose picture.
Now select the picture to swap when the event you selected in
step 1 occurs.
To use scripting to swap images in FrontPage,
start with a search on scripting resources on your favorite Internet
search Web site. It should provide you with all the information
and complete scripts to use you could ever ask for.
Next, use the scripts and information you found on the Internet
to create custom high-end swapping effects using the Microsoft®
Script Editor included with FrontPage 2002. This script editor can
be quickly launched right from within FrontPage and provides powerful
tools to help build just the special effect you want. You can learn
more about the Script Editor in FrontPage and how to get started
using it by going to the following article High-end Scripting in
Microsoft FrontPage version 2002 at:
http://www.microsoftfrontpage.com/content/ARTICLES/articles.htm
As we have demonstrated, there are many ways
FrontPage 2002 can help you create more interactive Web pages adding
interest and important functionality to any small business online
presence. Some of the interactive elements that we have covered
in this white paper include discussion groups, interactive calendars,
online video and streaming media, pop-up menus, banner ads, and
image swaps as just a few ways to make your Web site more compelling
to your customers.
This paper has covered key issues of relevance
and importance to any enterprise, small business, or individual
evaluating why FrontPage 2002 is an excellent choice for creating
more interactive Web sites for your business. The following list
of resources will lead you to more information:
http://www.microsoft.com/Frontpage/
for information and resources on Microsoft FrontPage version
2002.
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/sharepoint/
for information about collaborating on documents, and collecting
team knowledge over the Internet or your corporate network with
Microsoft Office XP and SharePoint Team Services from Microsoft.
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/downloads/addin/default.asp
for information and downloads of add-ins for FrontPage at the new
FrontPage Add-in Center.
http://www.bcentral.com/default.asp
for information and resources on Microsoft bCentral services.
http://www.microsoftfrontpage.com/content/ARTICLES/articles.htm
for articles on Microsoft Script Editor in FrontPage version 2002
and building Pop-menus using DHTML and FrontPage.
The information contained in this document represents
the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed
as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond
to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be
a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee
the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.
This White Paper is for informational purposes
only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS
TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.
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© 2002 Microsoft Corporation. All
rights reserved.
Microsoft, FrontPage, the
Office logo, SharePoint, Windows Media, Windows and Windows NT are
either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation
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The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may
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