>>A few weeks back a thread in this category discussed various tools for web page authoring.
>>I understood that FrontPage was more than adequate for basic standard pages.
>>
>>Having installed it with Office2000, and never having made a web page from scratch in my life (I have edited pages with notepad), I set out to make my first one. I chose to replicate a simple "application form" from a web app. I have worked on.
>>
>>While I tried to read the Help in some detail, I couldn't even come up with the answer for "How do I create a Label field?" It told me about the Label form (control?) icon, but that was about all I could find.
>>
>>Anyway, though I found it very counter-intuitive, I eventually had 4 labelled text boxes on the form. They looked reasonable in "Normal" view mode. When I checked the "Preview" mode I was shocked. Font sizes were different, a couple of lines 'wrapped' where they had been singletons before, things were not at all placed where they should have been.
>>
>>My biggest concern was positioning things. I found an "absolute positioning" feature and used it for all visible parts on the page. Checking Preview, things were closer but still significantly off.
>>After much detailed moving of things and too much back/forth between "Normal" and "Preview" I got them looking like I wanted But what I had in "Normal" view mode was severely overlapped bits that were very hard to work with.
>>
>>What are the secrets to working successfully with this product???? (There has to be some or no one could rate this as being even adequate).
>>
>>Thanks in advance
>>
>>JimN
>
>Jim;
>
>Here is some code for absolute positioning of a label and a text box. Notice the maxlength of the Input tag. This will allow automatic max length of your field - something that will prevent error codes if your user types in more than the length of the field allows. Just remove the ASP code if you want to try it on a form. Feel free to change the values to see what the effect is.
>
>It will work with I.E. but will not work with Netscape. Why? By design I guess - it uses DHTML and with an I.E. browser you can place what you want where you want it. With Netscape it is a bit different - Netscape places what you want where it wants! Just about the way Front Page likes to rearange your code. The new version of FP is "better" I am told - but I will not use it - unless I am paid - no not even then!
>
>Welcome to the club - the club of those of us who can say "We have had a Browser Experience". No two browsers are alike and even updates of Netscape or I.E. may not work with your code, where a previous version of a browser worked fine. Such fun!
>
>< label id=lblSupplierCode style="position:absolute;
> top:80px;
> left:0px;
> width:100px;
> height:20px">
> Supplier Code:
>< /label>
>
>
>< INPUT id="txtSupplierCode" TYPE="TEXT" Name="txtSupplierCode"
> style="FONT-SIZE: 9pt;
> HEIGHT: 20px;
> LEFT: 0px;
> POSITION:absolute;
> TOP: 100px;
> WIDTH: 150px"
> Value="< %=trim(oQPRRS("SupplierCode"))%>"
> ReadOnly
> maxlength="< %=oQPRRS("SupplierCode").definedsize%>">
>
>Tom

Thanks Tom. I will play with it.

By the way, this reply mysertiously has NOT shown up in my replies number an the top UT menu line.

As to FrontPage, I'm seriously wondering if I don't also have an additional probelm related to my specific system. Particularly the screen resolution of 1400x1050.
I say this because I also had a most frustrating problem with Word2000 on the same system. In this case I had copied (from a PowerPoint2000 presentation of 700+ pages) / pasted (into a Word2000 document) and adjusted formatting as needed. The new Word2000 document was 80 pages and looked superb on the screen. When I printed it, though, it was way out of whack. Close Word2000 and re-open and view document and it looked perfect. print first page and same mess.
Fired up Word97 and viewed the document and it was the same mess on the screen that was PRINTED by Word2000. MS support was of no help - they recommended that I redo using paste special instead of paste!@#$#@!

I would try FP on a different machine except that the install goes and takes my Office 97 stuff out of the Start menu (and who knows where else) even if I tell it to keep the old version around. It keeps it around but makes it hard to get at and any time Word2000 is started after having used Word97 there is a 1+minute lag while it goes and "reloads itself".

I went to buy HomeSite but neither store I used had it. It is 'special order'.

Finally, just to tell the whole story: I did try using tables/cells to get better placement precision in FP. In the end it was just as bad as without tables except more confusing in that extra lines/dots were drawn around 'objects' and they seemed to have differing properties depending on where I clicked.

Thanks again Tom.