WebJunction

I made changes to several of the pages of the library intranet website. The changes made to the home page are not showing up when patron computers are accessing the home page. The changes made to the other pages are showing up. What am I forgetting to do? Granted I am not that familiar with Frontpage (only what is covered in The Gates Library Content Server easy guide.)

Hi elgin and welcome to All Aboard!

It occurs to me that the problem might not be with FrontPage, but with the browser cache. The browser will take files/pages that are downloaded frequently and store them on the local hard drive for quicker access. This would be especially true of your library website home page, which must be accessed many times a day by patrons.

Sometimes, all you need to do to override the cache is to refresh the screen (F5 in Windows) on each computer, but that doesn't always work. To fully clear the cache in Internet Explorer, go to Tools >> Internet Options >> General. In the Temporary Internet Files area, click Delete Files, then click OK. Then try opening up your library home page again and see if the changes show up. You would have to do this on each patron computer.

I am not very familiar with FrontPage, so there might be something in that program that's hanging you up. Anyone else have any ideas?

I believe you are right. The new page shows up after going to another page and coming back to the home page. I will clear out the cache on the patron computers. Thanks.

I have purchased FrontPage 2003 and _FrontPage for Dummies_ and am working hard to create a library website. I am reasonably literate -- I've even taught courses in word processing, spreadsheets and databases. What I've learned from teaching technology courses is that it can be SO much easier to have a mentor to help with the kind of Bumps In The Road that can really frustrate a beginner like myself, at least as far as FrontPage is concerned.

For example, I've created a template and about half a dozen pages based upon it. Now I want to improve the template -- edit it -- to change the font color and add some background color. I edited the template -- I THINK! -- but the pages based on it do not reflect the changes. Neither the online help nor _Dummies_ seem to address this problem. CAN the template be edited? Gee, I sure hope so!

So now -- two questions. Is this discussion forum set up -- and do you, reader and colleague, read it -- to jump in and help frustrated newbies like me?

Or should I be using this forum to ask for a mentor -- somebody I can contact directly when I'm stuck?

Thank you!

> Does your template use css? If so, you should be able
> to change the font colors and so forth in the css
> file (assuming you aren't using inline css).
>
> You can definitely change templates.
>
> - Mark

When I query the help index, I can read about the Cascading Style Sheet, but I don't know if my template is one of those or not. There is no mention of it in Properties of the template.

Now I've found CSS in the _Dummies_ index, so you've definitely given me something to work on. Thank you so much! I'll be back here with updates, and prolly a whole bunch more questions <grin>.

Chris

If you are working on a local copy and you change the template, you must upload all the pages that use the template. In your software, it will update the local files, but they are not available on the "web" until they are uploaded to the web server. A good alternative to using templates is using "server side includes." These, and there probably would be several, would replace your uneditable areas.