Why in Frontpage Do HTML Effects Preview Fine But Then Error Out Later?

October 16, 2004 12:59 PM

Goofy Frontpage question: I use Frontpage to just get a basic visual framework of a site in front of me, then I go in and do my own coding. Yet I'm stupmed as to why, when I use a DHTML effect that previews fine, but upon load is non-existent or gives me an error... any suggestions?

Specifically, I'm trying to do a simple mouseover command that underlines, italicizes, or boldens, but in Mozilla or IE, nothing happens and I get an 'error on page' notification. I can post a link to an example if that helps... thanks in advance.

posted by moonbird to computers & internet (3 comments total)

(Please do not take my answer here to be one of a 'don't do it that way, my friend, do it my way' type response.)

Are you trying to create a simple effect which shall occur when one hovers over a link on the page?

You might try a simple stylesheet to alter the look of your link.

For example, you may put in the head of your document something along these lines:

<style type="text/css">

a:hover {
text-decoration:underline;
color:#900 /* red */
font-style:italic;
}

</style>

If you do choose to go this route, and style other aspects of your link, i.e. normal state, active state, hover state and visited state, remember a simple rule when it comes to time to create your styles, the 'LoVe HAte' rule:

a:link { /*style */ }
a:visited { /* style */ }
a:hover { /* style */ }
a:active { /* style */ }

Keeping your styles in this order will prevent odd behavior.

I do wish I could help you with your specific question, though if you experience too much trouble with DHTML and need a quick solution, you might want to try styles.
posted by tenseone at 2:31 PM on October 16, 2004

Yes, please provide a more detailed example of what you want to do, or the link to the misbehaving page. tenseone's suggestion is the perfect solution for links. No javascript/DHTML required.
posted by mrgavins at 4:49 PM on October 16, 2004

tenseone has a quick solution to your problem. What is below is a bit of a rant, so read with a grain of salt...

While WYSIWYG programs like frontpage can allow you to build a simple HTML page, if you're interested in building anything more sophisticated than a basic page it would really serve you well to learn HTML and CSS (and maybe a bit of JavaScript). It's really not too complicated, and it will give you much more finely tuned control over what what you're trying to accomplish.

Just understand that all that frontpage is doing for you is writing plaintext markup/styling/scripting based on your clicks in various menus, which you could write (and customize yourself) given a little effort on your part. Please forgive me if that sounds a bit patronising, but I teach people to build HTML pages on a daily basis and I really feel strongly that a little understanding of the underlying technology can be very empowering.

If you give a link to the page you're having problems with, I'm sure that someone here could give you a quick solution, or if you want to have a deeper understanding of what's going on behind the scenes, I can recommend: http://www.w3schools.com/ for the basics, then http://www.alistapart.com/ or http://css-discuss.incutio.com/ for more advanced topics. Or keep posting to ask.mefi, there seem to be a lot of savvy folk here too, and I'm sure that the answers to the questions you ask will help out others!
posted by mkdg at 12:06 AM on October 17, 2004