How To Insert, Edit, and Remove Shared Borders in FrontPage 2000

Use this step-by-step guide to insert and edit shared borders.

What are Shared Borders?

Microsoft FrontPage allows you to use shared borders, a feature that automatically applies one or more common border elements to all pages or to specific pages within your Web.

Shared borders are page regions (top, bottom, left, and right) used to hold content that you want to appear consistently throughout pages in the current Web.

How to Insert a Shared Border

To insert a shared border, follow these steps:

1. In FrontPage, open your Web. To do this, click Open Web on the File menu. In the Open Web dialog box, select the Web you want to open and click Open.
2. Open the page on which you want to add a shared border. To do this, right-click the page you want and click Open on the shortcut menu.
3. On the Format menu, click Shared Borders.
4. In the Shared Borders dialog box, follow these steps:
   1. In the Apply to section, select either All pages if you want to add the shared border to all of the pages in your Web, or select Current page if you only want to add the shared border to your open page.
   2. Select the type of border you want to add to the page. For example, to add a top border, click to select the Top check box.
   3. Click OK to close the Shared Borders dialog box.

How to Edit a Shared Border

To make changes to a shared border you can open a page in the Web that uses the shared border, or you can open the file that contains the shared border you want to change.

NOTE: In FrontPage, when you open a page that contains shared borders, the Web page appears to use a table format. If you view the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) code by clicking the HTML tab, you only see the HTML for the central page. You do not see any of the HTML code for the shared borders.

Method 1: Make Changes to a Shared Border Contained on a Web Page

To edit a shared border, follow these steps:

1. Start FrontPage and open your Web. To do this, click Open Web on the File menu. In the Open Web dialog box, select the Web you want to open and click Open.
2. Open the page on which you want to change a shared border. To do this, right-click the page you want and click Open on the shortcut menu.
3. On your Web page, click in the shared border and make the changes you want.
   
   NOTE: If you have not made changes to the shared border previously, FrontPage placed a Comment component which shows the following text:
   Comment: This border appears in all pages in your Web. Replace this comment with your own content.
   Select the Comment text and then type or insert what you want to appear in the shared border.
4. On the File menu, click Save to save the changes you made to your Web page and the shared border.
5. On the File menu, click Close to close your Web page.

Method 2: Make Changes to the Shared Border File

Shared borders are stored in four files (Top.htm, Bottom.htm, Left.htm, and Right.htm) in the hidden _borders folder of your Web. To make changes directly in the shared border file, follow these steps:

1. In FrontPage, open your Web. To do this, click Open Web on the File menu. In the Open Web dialog box, select the Web you want to open and click Open.
2. On the Tools menu, click Web Settings.
3. On the Advanced tab, click to select the Show hidden files and folders check box. Click Apply. Click Yes to the following message:
   The changes you made in the Advanced Settings tab will take effect after the Web is refreshed from the server.
   
   Do you want to refresh the Web now?
4. Click OK to close the Web Settings dialog box.
5. Expand the _borders folder. To do this, click the plus-sign (+) to the left of the _borders folder.
6. Right-click the shared border file (Top.htm, Bottom.htm, Left.htm, and Right.htm) you want to make changes to and click Open on the shortcut menu.
7. Make the changes to the shared border you want.
   
   NOTE: If you have not made changes to the shared border after inserting it, FrontPage placed a Comment component in the shared border file which shows the following text:
   Comment: This border appears in all pages in your Web. Replace this comment with your own content.
   Select the Comment text and then type or insert what you want to appear in the shared border.
8. On the File menu, click Save to save the changes you made to the shared border file.
9. On the File menu, click Close to close the shared border file.

How to Remove a Shared Border

To remove a shared border, follow these steps:

1. In FrontPage, open your Web. To do this, click Open Web on the File menu. In the Open Web dialog box, select the Web you want to open and click Open.
2. Open the page on which you want to remove a shared border. To do this, right-click the page you want and click Open on the shortcut menu.
3. On the Format menu, click Shared Borders.
4. In the Shared Borders dialog box, follow these steps:
   1. In the Apply to section, select either All pages if you want to remove the shared border from all of the pages in your Web, or select Current page if you only want to remove the shared border on your open page.
   2. Click to clear the type of border you want to remove from the page. For example, to remove a top border, click to clear the Top check box.
   3. Click OK to close the Shared Borders dialog box.
      
      NOTE: To reset the shared borders of the current page, select Reset borders for current page to Web default and click OK.

REFERENCES

For more information about shared borders, click Microsoft FrontPage Help on the Help menu, type set shared borders for a page in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click Search to view the topic.