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screenshot of the FrontPage Source Editor
If you would like to troubleshoot your HTML pages or you are more comfortable with source code editing (that is, you'd prefer to write in HTML), then Front Page Express can give you the option of tinkering with HTML tags from within the editor itself. The screenshot above shows what the features of the Source Code Editor of Front Page. The nice thing about it is its syntax highlighting. With the different colors it provides, one can immediately distinguish the tags from the main text. The only problem with it is that when the Source Code Editor is active, cut and paste functions are disabled and word wrap isn't possible. Of course, for those who have to work with scripts and tags provided by WWW services, cut and paste can be easily done with Windows Notepad. For those who are still beginning to discover the wonder of HTML, Front Page's Source Code Editor can be a wonderful means for deepening one's knowledge of the web's foremost Markup Language.
Knowledge of HTML basics is necessary for creating web pages. It is not enough that one knows how to work with the Tool bars of a WYSIWYG. One must also be able to check whether the pages one browses offline can be seen by another surfer online. Further, while WYSIWIGs (like Front Page) simplify the creation of web pages in that they are able to dynamically reproduce the way some HTML tags are meant to format a particular block of web elements, they can only go so far. For example, one won't be able to take advantage of Cascading Stylesheets if one does not know how to edit the source code of a web page. Those nifty mouseover effects that one see's in a lot of web sites today can't be done through Front Page Express1. Besides, one who knows HTML will find it very convenient to type them into a web page manually rather than clicking on a lot buttons for a desired effect (e.g., the clickable footnote reference, the text-formatting in the footnote on this page were done manually through the Source Code Editor.).
Accessing the Source Code Editor is easy. Click on "View" and choose "HTML." That opens up the Source Code Editor. Once you have written your codes, click "OK" so that you can return to WYSIWYG mode. Here are some limitations of the Front Page Express Source Code Editor
- there is no way you can word wrap the characters you type.
- the effects of your Cascading Style Sheets (whether linked or embedded can only be seen through the browser, not in WYSIWYG mode
- Front Page may at times change the way you code (it is after all programmed to rewrite codes that it does not understand
- Front Page can beautify your codes only after you return to WYSIWYG mode.
- It provides no help for creating Meta Tags 2.
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1 Hard coders will have to make their mouse over effects through the Source Code Editor. Those who make use of the Cut and Paste resources of the Web willl have to use Notepad on their web pages or some other javascript-friendly HTML editor. Front Page will just rewrite those scripts and even in a lot of cases render them non-functional.
2 Meta Tags are special HTML tags placed between the <HEAD> tags of a web page so that it can be seen and recorded by search engines. It has the format <META NAME="XXX" CONTENT="XXXXX">