Using MS Word 2000 to allow a user to update a FP2000 webPage - How?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Edwin Hannan
  • Start date Start date
E

Edwin Hannan

Hi All

I am new to this, using FP2000.

I wish to allow a user to update a certain webpage with their own content.

I thought they could use word to do this - somehow?

the page I was thinking about uses an include page for the content, can I
allow the include page content to be changed and will it work this way.

Looking for the simplest option, you can view the test site at
www.metrofinance.co.uk/test and the page in question is bestbuys.htm

Any advice on this would be most appreciated

Cheers

Ed
 
There is a reason why there are 2 programs avialable, FrontPage and Word,
rather than one: FrontPage is a web site and web document development
toolkit; Word is a non-web document development toolkit. FrontPage is
designed to work primarily with HTML and other web development technologies;
Word is designed to work with the proprietary Word document format. While
Word has some HTML capabilities, I wouldn't recommend using it at all for
developing web pages.

--
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.
 
Kevin

Thanks for your reply.

I undertand the difference and do not intend to use Word to develop web
pages, I just want a simple method for a user to be able to amend the
content of a web page..any ideas on this?

Cheers

Ed
 
Kevin already gave you his ideas. The difference between developing and
amending a web page in Word is Zero. Don't use Word on your web pages.

Bob Lehmann
 
The simplest method would be for him to get FrontPage. Otherwise, if, for
example, you want to limit his control over the web pages he edits, you
could write a server-side app (ASP, ASP.Net, CGI, etc) that enables him to
use an interface you design to make changes through a browser.

--
Kevin Spencer
..Net Developer
Microsoft MVP
Big things are made up
of lots of little things.
 
I see most folk seem to say don't use word, and I suspect this is because Word
puts loads of additional font and other junk which is not really appropriate
for a web browser. However I have a couple of pages on one web site (I did not
design) which are maintained by a group of users in rotation. As they already
have Word and the Organisation didn't wish to purchase additional copies of
FrontPage the Word route and FTP as you suggested was taken.

The page that is edited in word is actually a sub page within a Frame, thus
achieving the standalone element your link achieves, yet keeping the page as
more integrated. I realise that some Search Engines may find the standalone
page and think that is the biggest disadvantage of this approach, but that is
not due to the page being saved from Word.

The page is probably one of the most frequently visited as it is the most
dynamic (It's just got some share prices which change weekly) and we have had
no feedback regarding formatting problems or anything. Ie. It just works as
intended AFAIK.

William



---
 
Kevin, Bob

Please excuse my ignorance but I said that I was new to this and I do
understand Kevin's Reply , so Bob if you have any ideas on content
management lets hear them.

Forget I ever mentioned MSword, if you want just forget I ever asked the
simple question.

I will struggle on

Bye

Ed
 
William

Thanks for your positive feedback on a solution to my question, as my main
job is in programming I may write a small utility that takes user input and
outputs a formatted html page that can be automatically FTP'd to the content
folder.....yet another project to add to my list.

I just thought that there might be something already out there (I mean a
very simple utility)

Cheers

Ed
 
As a direct answer to your question, without using FP, the include page
would not be updated in the page it is included in. The content of the
include page would be updated, but until the site was open in FP and either
include page open and saved, the changes would not be seen.

--

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

FrontPage Resources, Forums, WebCircle,
MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
As you have seen, you can't open pages within pages using HTML. As
suggested, the proper way of doing this is via a robust browser based
system feeding into a database and having the content pulled out for
later viewing. One product of many is htmlarea, a free system located
at http://www.interactivetools.com/products/htmlarea . As a temporary
and easier solution you could consider pulling in pages using
JavaScript, as it is possible to open pages within pages using this
method. One advantage is that you don't need to use frames to pull in
remote pages. I syndicate some of my website content using JavaScript
syndication and you can visit my page at
http://www.wimbledonvisitor.com/freebies to see how it works. The
process could be used for customer updating of pages as follows:

Your contributor enters content into a provided HTML template. The
source code between the body tags is copied to clipboard. This code
is pasted into the converter and the converter could be stored on a
remote URL. There are loads of HTML to JavaScript converters on the
web and one is at http://www.eggheadcafe.com/articles/20000928.htm .
Conversion is carried out and the resulting JavaScript is copied to
clipboard. Contributor saves this file (without the script tags) as a
text file with a .js extension. This is uploaded, for instance, to an
ISP's free space. You don't really want the problems of FTP uploads
to FrontPage web space, as apart from the possibility of losing
content, it may corrupt FrontPage extensions. You then enter the
external .js URL into a table at the place you want the new content to
appear. If it's properly done, the result is seamless.

If your contributor is at ease and willing to cut & paste code, this
should not present problems. I agree that Word is not a good tool for
producing web pages but if the new content is really very simple then
the Word file could be saved as HTML and the source code copied and
converted to JavaScript. This would enable the contributor to by-pass
the HTML template. There are filters available on the web, which can
remove the messy code that Word (esp. Word 2000) generates. I haven't
used these tools so can't comment on effectiveness. You will, of
course, have the problem of such pulled-in pages not being indexed by
search engines. This could also be a problem with database generated
pages which may have URL's that are not search engine friendly.

=============
Andre Rodziewicz
WimbledonVisitor.Com
The Wimbledon Business Directory
Search Engine Optimisation and Web Design
Helping your business reach the world
http://www.wimbledonvisitor.com/products
 
Back
Top