How To Splash Page without messing up FP Navigation

E

Edwin Hannan

Hi All

Using FP2000, I have been looking for a way to do a splash page that does
not mess up the frontpage navigation.

I have been to front look and read their article on splash pages which
basically entails creating splash.htm and then asking my hosting company to
promote splash.htm over index.htm and default.htm on the web server setup.
(I've just asked them and the answer is NO).

The splash page is currently named default.htm ( and has a swish movie on
the page) and the main page in the site is index2.htm, I am using a
purchased template and I fear that the navigation is looking messed up..as
the splash page is effectively the home page button on the Main Page, which
I understand why..but......

You can see the test at http://www.metrofinance.co.uk

So guys and girls..how do you do it?

Thanks in advance

Ed (treat me as a beginner)
 
A

Andrew Murray

Edwin Hannan said:
Hi All

Using FP2000, I have been looking for a way to do a splash page that does
not mess up the frontpage navigation.

I have been to front look and read their article on splash pages which
basically entails creating splash.htm and then asking my hosting company to
promote splash.htm over index.htm and default.htm on the web server setup.
(I've just asked them and the answer is NO).

The splash page is currently named default.htm ( and has a swish movie on
the page) and the main page in the site is index2.htm, I am using a
purchased template and I fear that the navigation is looking messed up..as
the splash page is effectively the home page button on the Main Page, which
I understand why..but......

You can see the test at http://www.metrofinance.co.uk

So guys and girls..how do you do it?

Thanks in advance

Ed (treat me as a beginner)
Click to expand...

Anyway, the index page or whatever is just the first page people see....other
sites have their splash pages the same as you, which then link or transfer to the
main content page, or homepage however you look at it.

It looks pretty good to me......what do you mean the navigation is messed up?

You could make it a page-refresh instead. In the <head> section of your page put
this?
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="x; url=iy"> where X is the number of seconds
to delay before refreshing and Y is the page to go to.

What this does, is automatically proceed to another page without the user
intervention.

You'd need to make sure that the page doesn't refresh before your swish/flash
movie has completely downloaded and started playing.

But you could also just put a small "skip intro" link if necessary, a text link
(not on the actual movie, but below it somewhere).

Otherwise, viewers can see the animation play, then wait for the main index to
load automatically, say after ten seconds.
 
E

Edwin Hannan

Andrew

I suppose that I did not want the home page to be the the splash page, as
users could / will get confused and when in another part of the site will
press home and not get to the main page but the intro again.

I suppose this is a mute point and I will try and make sure the navigation
structure is clear, ie, if you click on the mortgage application the button
at the top are Home and Up (the template I use puts them in) I could omit
the Home page from the navigation structure on this page and figure out how
to change the u'Up' button to read 'Main Page'

I just thought (for some reason:) that the splash page could be a once only
intro and then into the main site without worry that the viwer will find
themselves on the intro screen again.

I take your point regarding the timed page refresh / automatically loading
the main site, I will look at putting a skip inrtro on the page (not the
movie)

thanks very much for looking at this for me

cheers
 
R

Ronx

Does your host allow you to use subwebs on your site?
If so:
Backup your local copy, just in case things go pear shaped. Use Windows
Explorer to create a folder, say C:\sitebackup, and, in FP, publish your
entire site to that folder.
In FP and the original site, (which I will refer to as the root web), create
a new folder, right click the folder and convert to a subweb.
Publish the entire site to this subweb.
..
In the new subweb, rename index2.htm to index.htm.
Delete the splash page - remember this still exists in the root web.
Rebuild, if necessary, the navigation for your site, excluding the splash
page in the root web.
Go back to the root web:
Delete everything except the splash page, any subwebs, _private and images
folders (but delete the contents of these folders) and change links in the
splash page to point at subweb/index.htm.
You may have to rename index.htm again to the default name required by your
host.

HTH
 
E

Edwin Hannan

Ronx

Thanks for your input, I will investigate subwebs with my host.

How will this setup affect the search engines, is this search engine
friendly?

cheers

Edwin
Edwin Hannan
edwin dot hannan<@>[ntl-world dot com]
 
R

Ronx

If your splash page has a conventional link (e.g. text link) to your real
home page, and some search engine friendly content, SEs should not be
affected.

<IMHO>
In general, splash pages are a waste of time and trouble - I prefer to see
what the web site has to offer, than waste extra time, bandwidth, and
mouseclicks stepping over/through unnecessary eye-candy - though a splash
page may be relevant on some sites.
</IMHO>
 
E

Edwin Hannan

Ron

I agree that splash pages are a waste of time, but this client of mine wants
one..but I am slowly talking him out of it - I think

Sorry for replying direct to you previously..it was in error.

Thanks for your help

Cheers

Ed

--
Edwin Hannan
(e-mail address removed)
Ronx said:
If your splash page has a conventional link (e.g. text link) to your real
home page, and some search engine friendly content, SEs should not be
affected.

<IMHO>
In general, splash pages are a waste of time and trouble - I prefer to see
what the web site has to offer, than waste extra time, bandwidth, and
mouseclicks stepping over/through unnecessary eye-candy - though a splash
page may be relevant on some sites.
</IMHO>
--
Ron

Reply only to group - all emails will be deleted unread.


Edwin Hannan said:
Ronx

Thanks for your input, I will investigate subwebs with my host.

How will this setup affect the search engines, is this search engine
friendly?

cheers

Edwin
Edwin Hannan
edwin dot hannan<@>[ntl-world dot com]
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

You would have to place the main content of the site into a subweb, with the
current home page, etc. then in the root of the web, you would have your new
home (splash) page, with a link to the home page within the subweb.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
W

Wes at Pacbell

I am relatively new to FP but when I got started and was having some
problems my ISP told me that if you have two files in your root web one
named index.htm and index.html the index.html will always load first. Seems
to me you could make your splash page index.html then everything else pretty
much stays the same (and make it easier to change back by just deleting
index.html)?? I am not sure this is a standard for all ISPs but seems
worth trying.

WW
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

True, but depends on which filename the host has listed first. Now if the
server has the FP extensions, FP when publishing will automatically convert
the local home page name to the first name in the list of default document
on the remote server during the publishing operation, so your idea would not
work.

--

==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 

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