How to configure the authoring properties in FrontPage 2003

This article describes how to configure the authoring properties for a Web page in Microsoft Office Frontpage 2003. Authoring properties determine what types of browsers can view your pages and what types of scripts will run correctly on your pages. Only a member of the administrators group on a computer that runs FrontPage 2003 can use these procedures.

Note Use the following procedures on pages that are already created and saved.

Open the Page Authoring Properties

1. Start FrontPage. On the Tools menu, click Page Options.
2. In the Page Options dialog box, click the Authoring tab.

Edit the Authoring Properties

1. If you leave the Browsers list as Custom, you can click to select check boxes for different options under FrontPage and SharePoint Technologies.
2. To modify the Browsers setting, click the setting that you want in the Browsers list. The following table lists the browser types and the features that are not available with each browser type.
   
   Note The unavailable features limit the kinds of features that you can apply to your Web pages and how different browsers view your pages.
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   Browser type	Unavailable features
   Microsoft Internet Explorer only	Blink
   Netscape Navigator only	Marquee, video, table background picture, cell borders, and background
   Both Internet Explorer and Netscape	Marquee, video, table background picture, cell borders, background, and blink

3. In the Browser versions list, select the browser versions that you want. The following table lists the versions and the features that are associated with that version. If an option is not available with the browser version that you select, that script type or language will not function in your Web pages.
   
   Note For descriptions of the features in the table, see the Description of the Features section later in this article.
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   Browser version	Available features
   Internet Explorer 5.0/6.0 and later versions	ActiveX, VBScript, JavaScript, Java applets, PNG graphics, Frames, CSS 1.0, CSS 2.0, VML
   Internet Explorer 4.0	ActiveX, VBScript, JavaScript, Java applets, PNG graphics, Frames, CSS 1.0, CSS 2.0, VML downlevel image file
   Internet Explorer 3.0	ActiveX, VBScript, JavaScript, Java applets, PNG graphics, Frames, CSS 1.0, VML downlevel image file
   Netscape Navigator 5.0/6.0 and later versions	JavaScript, Java applets, PNG graphics, Frames, CSS 1.0, CSS 2.0, VML downlevel image file
   Netscape 4.0	JavaScript, Java applets, PNG graphics, Frames, CSS 1.0, CSS 2.0, VML downlevel image file
   Netscape 3.0	JavaScript, Java applets, Frames, VML downlevel image file
   Internet Explorer and Netscape 4.0, 5.0, and later versions	JavaScript, Java applets, PNG graphics, Frames, CSS 1.0, CSS 2.0, VML downlevel image file
   Internet Explorer and Netscape 3.0	JavaScript, Java applets, Frames, VML downlevel image file

4. In the FrontPage and SharePoint technologies list, select the options that you want. The following table lists the different settings that are available and the various features that are supported:
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   Setting	Available Features
   Default	SharePoint Services, Browse-time Web Components, Author-time Web Components - including Navigation, VML graphics (Office drawing) - including Downlevel image file
   None	(No features are available)
   Complete	SharePoint Services, Browse-time Web Components, Author-time Web Components - including Navigation and Shared Borders, Generator and ProgID tags, VML graphics (Office drawing) - including Downlevel image file
   Custom	(User-specific features will be available)

Note By default, menu commands that are not compatible with your browser compatibility selections are not available on FrontPage menus. If you override the default setting and enable a technology or feature that a specific browser or version does not support, your Web site may appear incorrectly or contain errors.

Description of the Features

• ActiveX - "ActiveX" is an umbrella term for Microsoft technologies that permit developers to create interactive content for the World Wide Web. ActiveX is a set of language-independent interoperability technologies that permit software components that are written in different languages to work together in networked environments. The core technology elements of ActiveX are the Component Object Model (COM) and distributed COM. These technologies are licensed to The Open Group standards organization and are implemented on several different platforms.
• Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScripts) - VBScript is a subset of the Microsoft Visual Basic language. VBScript is implemented as a fast, portable, lightweight interpreter for use in Web browsers and other programs that use ActiveX Controls and Java applets.
• JavaScript - JavaScript is a scripting language that Netscape Communications developed. It is syntactically similar to Java. However, JavaScript is not a true object-oriented language and has limited performance compared with Java because it is not compiled. You must use a JavaScript-client Web browser to run JavaScript code. JavaScript is now an open standard known as the ECMA 262 language specification.
• Java applet - Java applet is a Java class that is loaded and run by an already-running Java program such as a Web browser or an applet viewer. A Web browser that can interpret Java (for example, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and HotJava) can download and run Java applets. Java applets are frequently used to add multimedia effects and interactivity to Web pages, such as background music, real-time video displays, animations, calculators, and interactive games. Some applets are activated automatically when a user views a page, and some require an action by the user, such as clicking an icon in the Web page.
• Cascading style sheets (CSS) - A cascading style sheet is a document that contains style information that several Web pages can refer to. Styles define the content's appearance and formatting on the Web pages and give authors more control over how browsers display the content.
• Vector Markup Language (VML) - VML is a specification for editable two-dimension vector graphics in an HTML or XML document. As an application of XML, VML uses XML tags and cascading style sheets to create and add vector graphics, such as circles and squares, in an XML or HTML document, such as a Web page. These graphics, are rendered in the native operating system and can include color. They are also editable in a variety of graphics programs. A variety of computer companies, including AutoDesk, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Macromedia, and Visio, submitted the specification to the W3C in 1998.
• The SharePoint Services option - This option provides support for all the features that are provided by SharePoint Team Services v1.0 and Windows SharePoint Services. To use these features, your Web site must be based on Microsoft SharePoint Services.
• The Browse-time Web Components option - This option provides support for browse-time components provided by FrontPage Server Extensions, such as a hit counter that tracks the number of visits to a page.
• The Author-time Web Components option - This option provides support for author-time components. This option can make it easier to add elements, such as photo galleries, to Web pages.
• The Navigation option - This option provides support for navigation features, such as link bars and tables of contents, that you can add to Web pages and sites. This option is available only if the Author-time Web components check box is selected.
• The Shared Borders option - This option provides support for shared borders. This option is available only if the Author-time Web components check box is selected.
• The Generator and ProgID tags option - This option will automatically add generator and program identifier metadata to Web pages. These are metadata (<meta>) elements that identify the program where the Web page was created and the document type for that program. To exclude these tags by default, clear this check box. You do not have to include them in Web pages to display those pages correctly in a Web browser.

Note If you disable any options in the Authoring tab of the Page Options dialog box, those features and any dependant features will not be available when you use FrontPage. For example, if you disable the VML in the browser settings, Word Art will not be available when you create Web pages. Additionally, if you disable the browse-time components, the hit counter and form results features will not be available.