How to insert, remove, and modify shared borders in FrontPage 2003

This article describes how to insert and edit shared borders.

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

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

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, click the Web that you want to open, and then click Open.
2. Open the page where you want to add a shared border. To do this, right-click the page that you want, and then click Open.
3. On the Format menu, click Shared Borders. By default, support for shared borders is turned off in FrontPage 2003. To turn on support for shared borders, follow these steps:
   1. On the Tools menu, click Page Options.
   2. On the Authoring tab, click to select the Shared Borders check box.
   3. Click OK.
4. In the Shared Borders dialog box, follow these steps:
   1. In the Apply to section, click All pages if you want to add the shared border to all the pages in your Web, or click Current page if you only want to add the shared border to your open page.
   2. Select the type of border that you want to add to the page. For example, to add a top border, click to select the Top check box. You can click to select more than one check box to add more shared borders.
   3. Click OK to close the Shared Borders dialog box.

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 that 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 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 make changes to 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, click the Web that you want to open, and then click Open.
2. Open the page where you want to change a shared border. To do this, right-click the page that you want, and then click Open.
3. On your Web page, click in the shared border and make the changes that you want. You can also double-click the comment in the shared border to open a Comment dialog box to make your changes.
   
   Note If you have not made changes to the shared border previously, FrontPage created a Comment component that 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 _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, click the Web that you want to open, and then click Open.
2. Expand the _borders folder. To do this, click the plus-sign (+) that is to the left of the _borders folder.
3. Right-click the shared border file (Top.htm, Bottom.htm, Left.htm, and Right.htm) that you want change, and then click Open.
4. Make the changes to the shared border.
   
   Note If you have not made changes to the shared border after inserting it, FrontPage placed a Comment component in the shared border file. The Comment component shows the following text:
   Comment: This border appears in all pages in your Web. Replace this comment with your own content.
   To do so, click the Comment text, and then type or insert what you want to appear in the shared border.
5. On the File menu, click Save to save the changes that you made to the shared border file.
6. On the File menu, click Close to close the shared border file.

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, click the Web that you want to open, and then click Open.
2. Open the page where you want to remove a shared border. To do this, right-click the page that you want, and then click Open.
3. On the Format menu, click Shared Borders.
4. In the Shared Borders dialog box, follow these steps:
   1. In the Apply to section, do one of the following:
      • Click All pages if you want to remove the shared border from all the pages in your Web.
      • Click Current page if you only want to remove the shared border on your open page.
   2. Click to clear the check box for the type of border that 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, click to select the Reset borders for current page to web default check box, and then click OK.

Note You can also use the dynamic Web templates in FrontPage 2003 as a powerful and customizable solution to replace shared borders in cases where you want common elements applied to a group of pages.

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 in the Answer Wizard, and then click Search.