Applying Web Site Themes via FrontPage 2003

Themes transform a Web site by applying a coordinated set of text and link colors, fonts, background graphics, table borders, link bar buttons, horizontal lines, and bullets to the site's pages. Each theme generates a different look and feel: For example, the Sumi Painting theme projects peace and serenity, and the Expedition theme creates an earthy, safari look.

When you apply a theme to your Web site, the theme changes your site's formatting (text styles and sizes, table border colors, and so on). You can always remove the theme later, but any formatting you've applied prior to adding the theme may go away. Just keep this reformatting in mind as you proceed.

Furthermore, when you use themes, FrontPage copies all the theme's graphics into your Web site's file system, which increases the amount of storage space your Web site takes up. This makes no difference to your visitors, but it may concern you if you have limited storage space available on your host Web server. To find out how much disk space your Web site takes up, in the Windows Explorer, right-click the Web site's folder, and from the pop-up menu that appears, choose Properties. In the dialog box that then appears, the number following Size on Disk shows you how much disk space your Web site requires.

You can apply a theme to your entire Web site or to selected pages. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Open the Web site. If you want to apply a theme to a single page in the Web site, open that page.

To keep your site's look and feel consistent, apply the theme to the whole site in one go. To do so, in the Folder List, click the site's top-level folder (the first folder in the Folder List). This operation tells FrontPage to apply the theme to every page in the site, including open pages and pages inside folders, but not pages inside subsites.

2. Choose Format --> Theme.

The Theme task pane appears. Here, you get a glimpse of the themes included with FrontPage. Each theme contains a nicely coordinated set of text fonts and colors, bullets, a custom horizontal line, hyperlink colors, link bar buttons, a background graphic, and a page banner.

3. In the Select a Theme area of the task pane, scroll down to peruse your choices, and then click the icon corresponding to a theme you like.

After you click an icon, the page open in Design view gets quite a makeover! (If you applied the theme to your entire site, all of your site's pages have been similarly endowed, whether or not they're open in Design view.)

If you're not sure which theme you like, try one on for size. You can always click another icon to apply a different theme, or you can get rid of the theme by clicking the No Theme icon.

4. Depending on the options you want to use, near the bottom of the task pane, select one or more of the Vivid Colors, Active Graphics, and Background Picture check boxes. Then click the theme's icon again to apply the changes to your site.

These check boxes give you a little control (but not much) over the appearance of theme elements:

• Vivid Colors: Select this option if you want to use a slightly brighter set of text, links, and graphic colors. De-select this check box if you prefer more muted colors.

• Active Graphics: Active graphics add some spunk. In the Active Graphic set, FrontPage creates link bar buttons that change color or shape when clicked. Some themes also contain different page banners and bullets graphics.

• Note: Some of the active graphic effects in FrontPage are powered by JavaScript and, therefore, don't show up in older Web browsers. Visitors who use browsers that don't understand JavaScript see a static version of the active graphic.

• Background Picture: This option enables you to turn on or off the theme's background graphic.

If you don't like what you see, return to the Theme task pane and customize the theme (read on to find out how). Or, if you want to remove the theme altogether, click the No Theme icon in the task pane's Select a Theme area.

The FrontPage/Office program CD comes with a bunch of additional themes; to install them on your computer, in the Select a Theme area, click the Install Additional Themes icon (it's the selection at the very bottom), and then follow the directions that appear on your screen.

If you apply themes to your site and then remove the themes later, the theme graphics and elements still take up file space in your Web site. FrontPage can remove unused themes for you. To do so, choose View --> Reports --> Site Summary to view the Site Summary Report. In the report, click Unused Themes. The Recalculate Hyperlinks dialog box appears, making sure you know what you're doing. Click Yes to close the dialog box and remove the unused theme files from your Web site.