The Microsoft FrontPage website on www.microsoft.com can also be accessed easily with the Help: Microsoft on the Web command from the Microsoft FrontPage client. This site also contains help on advanced FrontPage topics such as working with Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, or how to author securely (using SSL) against Netscape servers on UNIX.
[Contents]
-Top Ten New Features
-General Issues
-Setup and Compatibility
-Working with the FrontPage Editor
-International Issues
-Other Notes
[Top Ten new Features]
The top 10 FrontPage 97 with Bonus Pack Features are:
1. FrontPage Explorer support for Microsoft Office Hyperlinks
2. Support for ActiveX controls, Java Applets, Plug-ins, VBScript and JavaScript
3. Shared code with Microsoft Office: Spell checker, thesaurus, text converters and clip art
4. Ability to edit HTML source code in FrontPage Editor
5. Preview in Browser functionality
6. Cross web spell check and find and replace
7. New Folder View in FrontPage Explorer
8. WebBot Components
9. Microsoft Image Composer
10. Microsoft Personal Web Server
[General Issues]
* As with any beta product, before using Microsoft FrontPage 97 Beta 2 with existing data you should make a backup copy of your content directory. This is especially true if you will be upgrading your FrontPage 1.1 installation of the Personal Web Server with the Beta version of the FrontPage 97 web server. Upgrading over your existing installation will permanently convert your content to the new FrontPage 97 format.
* FrontPage Server extensions for UNIX platforms are not available in the Beta 2 release. They will be available soon on http://www.microsoft.com. Use the Help: Microsoft on the Web command in the FrontPage Explorer to see information on any new releases or issues.
* Many of the issues described in this readme reflect the current areas of incomplete functionality with the Beta 2 version and will be resolved before FrontPage 97 is released.
[Setup and Compatibility]
FrontPage 97 Beta 2 is an evaluation copy which will expire on 1/31/97 after which it will not launch.
FrontPage 1.1 and FrontPage 97 can coexist on the same machine. However, we do not recommend that you install FrontPage 97 Beta 1 over FrontPage 1.1, but either install FrontPage 97 to a different directory (such as \...\program files\microsoft frontpage 97) or uninstall FrontPage 1.1 before installing FrontPage 97. We also recommend that you install a fresh copy of the FrontPage 1.1 Personal Web Server to port 8080 rather than upgrade your existing server on port 80. You may have to start your web server manually with this configuration.
You must install Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 before installing the Microsoft Web Publishing Wizard.
[Working with the FrontPage Editor]
If images are inserted into a new unsaved page, absolute URL's are created to the temp directory in which the page was created. For best results with hyperlinked images in new pages, save the page immedately after creating it and relative URL's will be created.
The "link to new page" operation can also create incorrect absolute URL's resulting in the error "file.htm does not refer to a page in this web.". This can be fixed by renaming the page.
The Beta 2 version of Microsoft FrontPage does not have spell checking or the thesaurus enabled.
Renaming a page while it is in the FrontPage Editor may cause all image map hot spots to be replicated at least once. These duplicate hot spots can be simply selected and deleted.
If you insert an image into your page from someplace on your hard disk (not already in your web), when you go to save the page to your web, FrontPage converts the original image to be a GIF image. You should make a copy of your image in the current web before inserting it into a page.
[International Issues]
The localization of the Microsoft Web Publishing Wizard is not complete.
Currently in the Japanese setup, there is an icon available for installing Microsoft Image Composer. This option will not be available in the final product, and Image Composer is not designed to be compatible with Japanese versions of Windows.
Importing RTF into the FrontPage Editor does not yet work with all multibyte characters.
[Other Notes]
When working against an SSL enabled server the Explorer may pop up an empty dialog with Yes/No buttons the first time the server is accessed. Just click Yes and everything will continue to work.
