In this section, we are going to assume that you have already purchased and installed Front Page.  If you haven't, and you have questions about buying or installing, please see the General ?'s section.

Front Page offers a pretty comprehensive help section, so most answers can be found there.  We are just going to go through some basics to get you started. 

Before we get too far into this, we need to take a moment to understand a little about how Front Page works.  I know, I know, you don't care how it works, you just want to use it.  But trust me, a few minutes now understanding how it works can save you a lot of heartache on the backside.  

One important thing to know about Front Page is that it uses a registry-like system to track changes to pages within a Front Page "web".   A "web" is basically a group of pages which are all part of the site you are creating.  The Front Page "registry" makes entries for pages within your "web" and entries about what pages are connected to one another and how.  Why does it do this?  Well, one of the features of Front Page is that it keeps track of these links and fixes them for you as you make changes.  For instance, let's say I had a page named pictures.htm.  And later I decided to change the name of this page to images.htm.  If I were writing the HTML by hand, or even using some of the more basic HTML editors out there, the minute I changed the name of the page all links to that page would be broken.  I would have to go into each page with a link to the pictures.htm page and change the link to now read images.htm or my site would be full of broken links.  Now, if I were designing this site in FrontPage and I made the same change, FrontPage would check it's registry, take note of what pages were linked to pictures.htm and correct all those links to read images.htm for me.  Pretty cool, eh.  Now granted, if I only had a 3 or 4 page website, this might not sound like a big thing, but imagine having a 20 or 30 page website and having to track down and make all those changes by hand.  In that case, FrontPage could be a real time and sanity saver.  

So, why am I telling you this?  Well, one of the errors that we see a lot is that people open FrontPage and just start creating new pages and saving them to their harddrive.  Then they try to publish these pages as their site and FrontPage basically rolls it's eyes, publishes one page, and ignores them.  Why?  Because they didn't create a FrontPage web.  Without having a web, Front Page doesn't understand that these individual pages are all part of a whole and it has no idea what to do.  So, when you get ready to start building your website, your first step should be to go to File and then to New Web.  Now, this assumes that you will be building your website on your harddrive and then publishing later to your webspace.  The other option is to build live on the server, but we'll get to that in a minute.  Okay, so selected New Web, and FrontPage pops up a window asking you what type of Web you would like to create and where this web should be located.  Choosing a One Page Web or an Empty Web is fine; you can add pages as you go.  On the right hand side you'll find an entry box under "Specify the location of the new web".  In that entry box, type the hard drive designation and name of the web you would like to create.  For example, if your hard drive is C: and you want a web named myweb then you'd type C:\myweb.    Then click OK and FrontPage will create the new web for you.  Voila.  You are now the proud parent of a bouncing baby web.  From here it's just a matter of creating and saving pages (remember to use the save as function to prevent overwriting previously built pages).  This is where the help section will become your best friend.  I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here.

The only other thing we need to cover here is if you want to build your site live on the server.  Is there an advantage?  Eh.  The only advantage I can think of is that any changes you make are immediately available to internet users as opposed to waiting until you publish.  Are there disadvantages?  Hmmm.  One disadvantage would be that if you save a page wrong, then the wrong page is also immediately available to your users.  Honestly, it's simply a matter of preference.  The biggest thing to keep in mind is that if you are going to build live on the server you need to pull backup copies of your site down to your hard drive in case of a catastrophe.  

So, all that said, you decide you want to build live on the server.  How do you do it?  To start, instead of opening a New Web you go to File and then Open Web.  Now, why would you be opening a web when you haven't created anything yet?  When you hosting provider sets up FrontPage extensions on your account, the extensions create a new blank web on the server.  All you need to do is open that web and start creating.  

Other Helpful FrontPage Links:
Microsoft FrontPage Downloads & Support
Microsoft FAQ & Highlights for FrontPage 2000