HOW TO: Use the Compatibility Tab in FrontPage 2000

This article describes how to use the Compatibility tab in FrontPage. It discusses the various technologies on the Compatibility tab and other aspects of changing options on this tab.

The Compatibility tab helps you keep pages that you author compatible with the browsers your target audience is using. It also allows you to specify whether your server is using Internet Information Server 3.0 or later, as well as Apache or another Web server. You may also customize the technologies used to meet the needs of your target audience.

How To Change Compatibility Options

To change the Compatibility options, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Page Options.
2. In the Page Options dialog box, click the Compatibility tab.
3. Select the compatibility options you want and click OK.

Descriptions of Compatibility Settings

Changing these settings may make some menu and dialog box options unavailable. This helps you to create web sites containing only those components supported by the options you specify here.

Browsers

In this section, you can choose the browser your target audience is most likely using.

NOTE: If the Browsers list is set to Custom, the check boxes in the Technologies list may or may not remain selected when you change this setting.

The choices in the Browsers list include the following:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer only
• Netscape Navigator only
• Both Internet Explorer and Navigator
• Microsoft Web TV
• Custom

NOTE: If you are using a browser other than those listed, select Custom so that you can customize the technologies your browser supports (Technologies list).

Browser Versions

The Browser versions list settings allow you to further customize the version of the browser you want your Web pages to be created in:

• 4.0 browsers and later
• 3.0 browsers and later
• Custom

NOTE: The Custom setting allows any custom mix of technologies you want to use with your browser.

In addition to the above choices, if you choose Netscape Navigator only, Both Internet Explorer and Navigator, or Microsoft Web TV in the Browsers list, the following commands and settings are unavailable:

• Marquee (on the Insert menu, click Component).
• Video (on the Insert menu, click Picture).
• Use background picture (on the Table menu, click Properties, and click Table).
• Cell Borders and Background (on the Table menu, click Properties, and click Cell).

If you select Microsoft Internet Explorer, Both Internet Explorer and Navigator, or Microsoft Web TV in the Browsers list, the following setting is unavailable:

• Blink check box (on the Format menu, click Font).

Servers

You can select the server you want to use for your Web page. This setting allows you to specify what kind of server technology is used to host your Web site. The options are the following:

• Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0 and later
• Apache server
• Custom

Also, you may select or cancel the check box that states Enabled with Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions.

This setting turns on or off features that are only available if the Web server has FrontPage Server Extensions.

Technologies

The following is a list of the technologies that you can optimize your Web pages to use. To turn on the technology, make sure the check box of the technology is selected. If you do not want to use the technology, clear the check box.

ActiveX Controls

When you clear the ActiveX check box, you see the following results:

• On the Insert menu, under Advanced, ActiveX Control is unavailable.
• If you have Office ActiveX Controls installed (Office Spreadsheet, Office Chart, Office PivotTable), they are removed from the Component list on the Insert menu.

ActiveX Controls are a suite of products and technologies that support Web development and enable software components to interact with one another. ActiveX Controls are based on the Component Object Model (COM).

For more information about ActiveX Controls, please visit the following Microsoft Web site:

VBScript

Microsoft VBScript, a subset of the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications programming language, is a fast, portable, lightweight scripting language for use in Web browsers and other applications that use Microsoft ActiveX Controls, Automation servers, and Java applets.

Selecting this check box does not change the way any code is written in FrontPage.
For more information about Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

JScript

Microsoft JScript, a powerful scripting language targeted specifically at the Internet, is the first scripting language to fully conform to ECMAScript, the Web's only standard scripting language.

Selecting this box does not change the way any code is written in FrontPage.
For more information about Microsoft JScript, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

Java applets

A Java applet is a scaled-down version of a full Java application, and it runs inside a Java virtual machine (VM) that is implemented as part of a Web browser.

Clearing this check box makes unavailable the Banner Ad Manager button and Hover Button (on the Insert menu, click Component) and the Java Applet button (on the Insert menu, click Advanced).

For more information about Java, please see the following Microsoft World Wide Web site:

Dynamic HTML

Dynamic HTML (DHTML) is a Microsoft enhancement to HTML version 4.0 that offers users more engaging and interactive Web pages. Dynamic HTML provides authors with enhanced creative control so they can manipulate any page element at any time. Dynamic HTML is also the easiest way to make Web pages interactive, using open, standards-based technologies.

The DHTML Effects toolbar of FrontPage allows you to apply dynamic effects to items in your Web pages. Items on this toolbar are only available if you have Dynamic HTML selected on the Compatibility tab.

For more information about using Dynamic HTML, please see the following Microsoft World Wide Web site:

Frames

This option turns on or off the use of frames in your Web page. If you select this option, you cannot create a frameset in FrontPage.

Selecting this check box removes the Frames Pages tab from the New dialog box (on the File menu, click New). All items on the Frames menu become unavailable. If you open an existing frameset page, you can only access the Frame Properties from the Frames menu.

CSS 1.0 (formatting)

In this option, cascading style sheets (CSS) 1.0 refers to the ability to manipulate the formatting of an object on your page. This allows you to manipulate colors, font sizes, and styles of an object, such as text or a graphic on your Web page.

If you clear this check box, the CSS 2.0 (positioning) check box becomes unavailable also. In addition, you see the following changes:

• All Style buttons become unavailable.
• In the Paragraph dialog box when formatting your paragraphs, all Indentation and Spacing boxes are unavailable.
• The Apply Using CSS box is unavailable in the Themes dialog box (Format menu). You can only change the alignment of the paragraph.
• The Style tab is removed from the New dialog box (on the File menu, click New and then click Page).
• The Style button on the Style toolbar is unavailable.
• In the Effects section of the Font dialog box (Format menu), the check boxes for Overline, Small caps, All caps, and Capitalize become unavailable.
• In the Font dialog box, on the Character Spacing tab, the Spacing options are unavailable.
• The Highlight Color button on the Formatting toolbar is unavailable.
• On the Format menu, Borders and Shading, Position, Style, and Style Sheet Links are unavailable.
• Items on the Positioning toolbar are unavailable.

For more information about using cascading style sheets, please see the following Microsoft World Wide Web site:

CSS 2.0 (positioning)

By turning on cascading style sheets (CSS) 2.0, you can absolutely or relatively position elements in your page.

Clearing this check box turns off all of the buttons on the Positioning toolbar and removes the Position Absolutely, Bring Forward, and Send Backward check boxes on the Positioning toolbar.

Active Server Pages

Active Server Pages is a method for creating programs that run on a Web server. An ASP page is an HTML document that contains embedded server-side scripting--in other words, scripting that runs on the server, not on the client computer. With server-side scripting, the user sees the results of the script, not the script itself. Also, the user's browser doesn't have to be able to interpret the scripting language.

Clearing this check box turns off the ability to access the Database Results Wizard on the Insert menu.

NOTE: Turning off Active server pages does not turn off the ability to use the Send to database feature in Form Properties. (To access Form Properties, on the Insert menu, point to Form and click One-Line Text Box. This inserts a form into your page. Right-click the form and click Form Properties.) You also can still save pages with the .asp extension. For the most part, this feature does not allow you to create any new pages that use the Database Results Wizard.

For more information about using Active Server Pages and the database features of FrontPage, please see the following Microsoft World Wide Web site: NOTE: If you created pages containing technologies that you later turn off, FrontPage does not delete these items from your page. At the same time, it does not change these pages to make them compatible with the settings you choose. For example, if you add an ActiveX Control to a page and save it to your Web, and then you remove that technology from the Compatibility tab, the page is not removed or changed in any way.

NOTE: When you make modifications to the Compatibility tab, the changes remain for all of your Web authoring. For example, if you turn off CSS and ActiveX Controls, the Web pages you author do not use those technologies unless you return to the Compatibility tab and turn them on again.