Q: What is Microsoft FrontPage?

The Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Web-site creation and management tool gives you everything you need to build and maintain a site of your own, whether it's a personal Web page or a corporate Internet or intranet site. Because it works like the rest of Microsoft Office Premium software, FrontPage 2000 is easy to learn and use.

Q: How do I get Microsoft FrontPage?

FrontPage is available wherever Microsoft products are sold. An overview of the product can be found at the following URL: http://shop.microsoft.com/store/products/ProductOverview.asp?intProductIID=735

Q: How do I create a page using Microsoft FrontPage?

A complete FrontPage tutorial is available at: http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/. FrontPage is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, which allows you to create your site without extensive knowledge of HTML. You can add images, tables, forms, themes, searches, discussions, and much more at the click of a mouse.

Q: How do I edit my site using Microsoft FrontPage?

In order to properly edit your FrontPage-published page, you should use FrontPage to edit and maintain your site, not the Tripod FileManager. Just choose "Open Web" in FrontPage 2000 and enter the URL of your site in the Folder name space. In FrontPage 98, choose "Open an existing Web," click on "More Webs," and enter your Tripod URL where it prompts for a Web server. You'll be prompted for your member name and password next. You can open and edit any of the files in your Web and save the changes to your Tripod member directory. FrontPage will automatically update links as the pages are saved.

Q: What is an invalid file name?

FrontPage allows you to publish files to the Tripod servers with file names that are considered "illegal" on our UNIX-based system. Files will not work on Tripod if their names contain spaces or any of the following characters: !, @, #, $, %, and ^.

Q: How do I fix an invalid file name?

If you have files with invalid names, the first thing you need to do is rename those files on your local copy of the Web (the one on your machine), and then republish the entire site. You should also send an e-mail to: ftp@tripod.com with a list of the illegal file names so that we can remove them from our servers.

Q: Why can't I publish to my subdomain URL?

FrontPage extensions will only function correctly on our system when they are published to: https://members.tripod.com/your_member_name.

Q: What should I do if I delete one of my _vti directories?

If you delete any of your _vti directories, you will need to disable all of your extensions here: https://www.tripod.com/service/frontpage/resetFrontpage. Next, go to the FileManager and remove them completely. Once you have a clean slate, you can re-enable your site at: https://www.tripod.com/build/enable_frontpage/.

Q: What do I do if I receive an error saying I haven't installed server extensions?

This error message is caused by one of two things: a slow connection to the Tripod servers, or a missing slash in the publish-to address. The address to which you want to publish, especially if you have already published the site to your Tripod directory, is: https://members.tripod.com/your_member_name/. Note: The last slash is vital.

You cannot currently publish to your subdomain URL of:
http://membername.tripod.com.

You can also try to "fool" FrontPage into not using the cached error-message information by deleting and retyping the last few letters that are automatically filled in for the publish-to address. The FrontPage program then assumes that you're publishing to a new address, bypassing the cached information that is creating the error.

Another reason for this error message is a slow connection to the Tripod servers from your computer. This happens frequently with such large ISPs as AOL, Mindspring, Prodigy, and Earthlink. Overseas users can also experience this problem. When this happens, close FrontPage completely, then open your Web again in FrontPage and attempt to connect to the Tripod servers. Each time you receive this error message, FrontPage caches it; you need to close the program to restart it to get rid of the message.

Q: What do I do if I receive a "Sorry, page not found" error message when publishing?

This error message is caused by one of two things: a slow connection to the Tripod servers, or a missing slash in the publish-to address. The address to which you want to publish, especially if you have already published the site to your Tripod directory, is: https://members.tripod.com/your_member_name/. Note: The last slash is vital.

You cannot currently publish to your subdomain URL of:
http://membername.tripod.com.

You can also try to "fool" FrontPage into not using the cached error-message information by deleting and retyping the last few letters that are automatically filled in for the publish-to address. The FrontPage program then assumes that you're publishing to a new address, bypassing the cached information that is creating the error.

Another reason for this error message is a slow connection to the Tripod servers from your computer. This happens frequently with such large ISPs as AOL, MindSpring, Prodigy, and EarthLink. Overseas users can also experience this problem. When this happens, close FrontPage completely, then open your Web again in FrontPage and attempt to connect to the Tripod servers. Each time you receive this error message, FrontPage caches it; you need to close the program to restart it to get rid of the message.

Q: What do I do if I receive an error saying the Web server is busy?

This error message occurs when FrontPage publishes a site to your Tripod directory and does not completely finish the publishing. When this happens, a certain file in the FrontPage extensions locks and prevents any further publishing.

To solve this problem, you can unlock and delete the file in the Homepage Studio. Go to "Create & Edit" at: https://www.tripod.lycos.com/build/welcome/build.html, click on "FileManager," and when your list of files appears, click on _vti_pvt. In that directory, check off the service.lck file and pull down the Edit menu to delete. Confirm the file deletion to finish. The file will be replaced the next time you publish, but will not corrupt until you have an incomplete publishing effort.

Q: Why isn't my counter working?

FrontPage-generated counters do not function properly when using your subdomain address: http://your_member_name.tripod.com, but will function properly with the at the regular member address: https://members.tripod.com/your_member_name/.

Q: What happens if my Microsoft FrontPage site exceeds my allotted 11MB of FREE space?

If you exceed your 11 MB of FREE disk space, FrontPage will prevent you from connecting to your site to edit or publish. You must first delete unnecessary files from your directory until you are within the 11 MB limit; this will reestablish your ability to use FrontPage. You should be able to delete files either by FTP or from the Homepage Studio's FileManager.

Q: I've published my FrontPage site to Tripod, but my old pages still show up at my URL. Why?

If you had pages in your Tripod directory prior to publishing using FrontPage, you may have a problem loading your new site at a default location — index.html. If you already have an index.html file in your directory, FrontPage creates your default page as index.htm. You can solve this problem by either deleting or renaming the index.html file in your directory. Delete or rename this file in the FileManager at: https://www.tripod.lycos.com/build/welcome/build.html.

Once the index.html file is gone, you will be able to load the FrontPage-generated index.htm page by simply accessing your Tripod URL.

Q: How does Microsoft FrontPage work on Tripod?

In order to utilize the simple Publish function of FrontPage, you will need to enable the FrontPage server extensions in your Tripod directory. This can be done at the following URL: https://www.tripod.com/build/enable_frontpage/

Q: What are FrontPage server extensions?

The FrontPage server extensions are directories, characterized by the _vti prefix, that contain files that enable FrontPage to publish to Tripod. These server extensions allow all of FrontPage's interactive functions to work, such as counters, forms, and discussion groups.

Q: How do I enable my site for FrontPage?

You can enable the FrontPage server extensions in your directory at the following URL: https://www.tripod.com/build/enable_frontpage/

Q: What are _vti files?

_vti files are the FrontPage server extensions that enable FrontPage to publish to Tripod. These server extensions allow all of FrontPage's interactive functions to work, such as counters, forms, and discussion groups.

Q: How do I publish my FrontPage site to Tripod?

If your Tripod member directory is already FrontPage-enabled, all you need to do to is click on the Publish icon and enter the location you want publish to: https://members.tripod.com/your_member_name/. (You cannot currently publish to your subdomain address of: http://your_member_name.tripod.com.)

Q: Can I FTP my FrontPage site to Tripod?

In order for your FrontPage-created site to function properly on Tripod, it must be published using FrontPage, not FTP. If you upload files via FTP to a FrontPage-enabled directory, these pages will not work properly.