Published: March 2002
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.
For the latest information, please see http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage
Table of Contents
What Will a More Interactive Web Do for My Business?
Online Video and Streaming Media
Banner Ads and Banner Ad Managers
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:
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.
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:
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:
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:
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.