Using Alt-text in FrontPage

FrontPage News
FrontPage Article
FrontPage Links
General Links

Editor: Tina Clarke
Issue 4 Vol a: 25th March 2006 Members: 2,395

~~~~++++FrontPage SPONSOR AD++++~~~~~

J-Bots Plus 2004
http://anyfrontpage.com/rd/jbots/Default.asp

The latest upgrade to your current J-Bots package-is available now! Exciting New Program Features. Plus, more new components.

-Element Sense automatic detection and use of elements.
-Windows XP Styles - cleaner, crisper, brighter dialog boxes.
-Version Detector - automatic version/upgrade detection.
-MRU Menu - shows Most Recently Used components with a right click.
-Faster Program Download - Setup file is 2MG smaller.
-Component Enhancements - easier and quicker to use, better error checking, shortcuts.

http://anyfrontpage.com/rd/jbots/Default.asp

~~~~++++FrontPage SPONSOR AD++++~~~~~

FrontPage News

~ Editors ramblings

I've made a executive decision and instead of having to join the ezine to get the full content. I've decided that NOW, Members will get it straight away and Non-Members will too.

Of course members have access to past giveaways and articles that non members don't which includes this issues offering of New Stationary made by myself using my artwork from Abstract Art so it really is worthwhile joining.

NOTE: This is only available for members of the ezine, if you join you can obtain the free stationary and ebook.

As usual I've not been sending out issues but it's been rather a hectic year. What am I currently working on? I decided I needed a new art site as the old one was bad SEO wise and to cap that, the cart had started eating itself and marking everything sold, I also needed a more grown up name and came up with http://clarke-abstract-art.com nothing to do with FrontPage but it is the first site I've not used tables at all, and the first site I've used an interactive CSS menu with.

I spent a lot of the time updating http://accessfp.net/ which was sorely in need of a template update. It now sports a DWT and CSS with a lot of old links updated and some pages thrown out.

Another thing I've spent a lot of time on this year is helping others make their sites through my FrontPage List , every time I help someone I gain a little more knowledge, Nancy Barry of http://cake-greeting.com/ kindly let me play at tweaking a template for her.

Lastly, I decided to take my own advice and be in control - this time of my own blogs. I have two blogs, one at FrontPage Advice which is a free community blog and one at msmvps.org. The msmvp guys decided to move from .Text to CS (community Server) blogging software, which was all to the good as we had a lot of problems and with downtime too due to hosting issues. As a result we all have new urls mine was http://msmvps.com/frontpage/ but is now http://msmvps.com/blogs/frontpage/ New features such as seo file names only let you use underscores, and search engines see underscores as a scrunched together keywords. So I decided enough was enough, I bought http://expression-web.net/ and proceeded to install WordPress To help me I followed Cricket Bailey's Word Press Installation four part tutorial, and Cheryl Wise of FrontPage Babblings got me through some sticky points and figured out why I was getting an error. Thanks guys.

I also neglected to post my FrontPage Tips since June, but I've made up for that and I've been posting for the past month. I even sent a bonus tip last Thursday.

I've just finished the Volume Two of my FrontPage Tips ebook Series available now from FrontPage Tips or FrontPage Ebooks

Finally I held off publishing this issue till I know weather or not I was a Microsoft MVP - FrontPage for another year.

The answer being yes <grin>

I have just finished making a Free Dynamic Web Template (DWT) available to anyone. You can see it working at
http://frontpage-ebooks.net/plainsite /

~ FrontPage News

1) CartIT 8.0 Shopping Cart (F REE)
http://www.cartit.com/
As of early last year CartIT is now a f ree product, this cart used to be a professional level e-commerce package that once sold for $349.95, available since 1996. The CartIT Corporation is now a consulting and custom software devleopment company and instead of closing their 'baby' down they decided to make it into a free product, not only that there will be free upgrades along the way. They also have a f ree FP plugin CommerceMonkey 3.0 which adds a new menu to the FrontPage Editor environment. It is a client side development tool. All you need to do is download and install the program on your local omputer. It will also assist in designing catalog pages for the CartIt
Commerce System.

2) For visitors of AnyFrontPage we have just secured 10% OFF CSS 101 - Introduction to CSS - Cascading Style Sheets - for web page creation and layout Class. Register NOW FOR this 6 week class. You will learn the fundamentals Basic Concepts of Syntax, Fonts and Text, Positioning and Contextual Selectors. Pre-Requisite: Any CSS or text editor (code view of many popular HTML editors qualifies) maybe used in this class but the ability to work directly in the code is required.

Regular price is $59.95, YOU can take this class for 10% OFF

COUPON CODE: tc-anyfp731

You can redeem this coupon during checkout. Just enter the code in the box provided, and click on the redeem button. Don't lose the coupon code, make sure to keep the code safe so you can benefit from this special offer. This course while at 100 level covers everything you need to get started making a good basic site, it's well laid out and easy to follow, I highly recommend it. Current class registration closes Jan 14th. Next session is first week of March. However there is still time to sign up if you want to be one of the limited amount of students (30) SIGN UP NOW for the first session.

The class is given by Cheryl Wise Microsoft MVP - FrontPage

3) There is a new listing of Microsoft MVP - FrontPage. January 2006
FrontPage MVPs for 2005 - 2006
The MVP Award, which stands for "Most Valuable Professional" is an annual award given to outstanding members of Microsoft's peer-to-peer communities. The following list contains all of the names of the current MVPs who have received awards for the 2005 - 2006 award cycle. We welcome one new MVPs.

Cheryl D. Wise Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://mvp.wiserways.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Leeds Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://nedp.net/
http://contentseed.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christoph Schneegans Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://schneegans.de/frontpage/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
David J. Berry Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://frontpagemvps.com/
http://www.net-sites.com/sitebuilder/
http://radio.weblogs.com/0103924/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
James S. Huggins Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://JamesSHuggins.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jens Peter Karlsen Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Buyens Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://www.interlacken.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jon Spivey Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kathleen Anderson Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://www.spiderwebwoman.com/resources/
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spiderwebwoman/archive/category/321.aspx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kevin Spencer Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://www.takempis.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Louise Villeneuve Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://www.lino.com/~vmartino/logiciel.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark E. Fitzpatrick Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mike Naughton Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://www.texaswebdevelopers.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Paul Colligan Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://frontpageworld.com/
http://frontpagetalk.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Riccardo Rausch Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://www.rausch.it/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ron Symonds Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://www.rxs-enterprises.com/cgi-bin/btifaqs.pl
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stefan B. Rusynko Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://sbrenjoy.bizland.com/frontpage/resources.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Steve Easton Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://95isalive.com/fixes/index.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thomas A. Rowe Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thomas D. Willett Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tina Clarke Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://accessfp.net/
http://addonfp.com/
http://anyfrontpage.com/
http://frontpage-tips.com/
http://msmvps.com/blogs/frontpage/
http://frontpage-ebooks.com/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yoshie Kohama Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://blogs.msmvp.jp/wanichan/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ian Haynes Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://www.data-insite.co.uk/devnews/fpexamples.asp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joe Rohn Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://www.timeforweb.com/frontpage/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tom Brunt Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
http://outfront.net/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEW Murray Summers Microsoft MVP - FrontPage

FrontPage Article

Using Alt-text in FrontPage

Web pages specify pictures in HTML source code using IMG (image) elements. These elements can carry various attributes among which is ALT-text, intended as a description of what an image or animation visually depicts.

ALT-Text can be seen when graphic is not visible.
Comparison of image display with and without graphic capability.
Text on the right is supplied by the ALT-Text attribute.

ALT-text descriptions can help certain handicapped visitors and those that browse pages in text only mode. Its a good idea to ensure your page images carry this attribute to describe what was visually intended. This makes your site a bit more accessible and friendly.

TIP - images should relate well to page Title and Description. This should make it appropriate to include a keyword in your ALT-text description.

Two ways to manage Alt-text

There are two ways to enter and edit alternative (image) descriptions in Microsoft FrontPage.

Method-1: Edit HTML
Using the FrontPage Code (HTML) "view", we can add the ALT attribute (Tag) to image tags by editing source code directly. This requires changing the editor mode by selecting the "Code" (HTML) tab. This is not an efficient way to add (or edit) the attribute to image tags.
FrontPage Editor mode selection

Method-2: Picture Properties Dialog
An easier and more precise method of adding ALT attributes is available from the FrontPage "Picture-Properties" dialog box.
While in "Design" (Normal) editor mode (see previous image), click a graphic on your page to select it and right-click. A popup menu appears. Scroll the selector-bar down and choose 'Picture Properties' as shown next.

The pop-up menu to select the Picture Properties
After making this selection, you are presented with the Picture Properties dialog. (see next image)
In this dialog you'll notice a number of edit-line fields and areas in the General Tab. Half-way down is one labelled 'Alternative representations'. Below that label are two edit boxes, the box containing the line "YOUR ALT-TEXT GOES HERE" is where you'll enter ALT descriptions.
The box labelled Text: is where you'll enter ALT descriptions.

Picture Properties Dialog -- the white on blue text is used to call out the correct edit box.
After entering your description in the box labelled "Text", click OK. You are done -- your image now carries an Alt-text description.

When to add a Title Attribute to a graphic.

ONLY when a graphic is LINKED should it carry an Alt Attribute (Tag) AND a Title Attribute (Tag).

Title attribute is somewhat like an Alt Attribute (Tag) but it is designed to be used for links. These attributes are often referred to as "tool tips" because some browsers will show the title attribute information in a small "pop up" when the cursor hovers over the link.

- Although you can't put an Alt Attribute (Tag) on a text link, you can put an Alt Attribute (Tag) AND a Title attribute (Tag) on a linked image.

Example:

In FrontPage 2000 and earlier versions you have to add the Title Attribute (Tag) manually within HTML View, In FrontPage 2002 and later however, this can be done from the Hyperlink Screen Tip button Dialog box.

Set Hyperlink ScreenTip.

Set Hyperlink ScreenTip Dialog Box

Why should we use Alt Attributes and Title Attributes on a linked Graphic?
This is for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) advantages, however very particular advantages.
Optimization advantages of this attribute is a benefit to the PAGE THE LINK IS DIRECTED TO!
Generally speaking, any optimization advantages of this attribute is a benefit to the page the link is directed to. It does appear to help with targeting particular keywords to a specific page.
Let me repeat that to make SURE you understand this:
Optimization advantages of this attribute is a benefit to the PAGE THE LINK IS DIRECTED TO!
Title Attribute Overview
- Make use of the title attribute AND the alt tag for linked images.
- As with alt tags, do not use this attribute as an opportunity to "stuff" keywords.
- The title attribute should match the primary title of the page the link is directed to.
- Do not include text in the title attribute that is not directly related to the link.
If you would like more information concerning the purpose of title attribute and the benefits of carefully selecting your anchor text, I recommend:
Increase Website Traffic Free
Quick tips on Accessibility Compliance from W3C

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
******************************
Tina Clarke, Microsoft FrontPage - MVP
http://frontpage-tips.com
Tina Clarke is the Editor of AnyFrontPage and other FrontPage Resource sites (see Sister Sites on anyfrontpage.com) Her latest site is the Original Abstract Art site http://clarke-abstract-art.com/ which is all her own work.

******************************

FrontPage Links

Inside Microsoft FrontPage - Jan 2006 Index
1. Easily manipulate your pictures using the Pictures toolbar
2. Simplify the user experience with a custom navigation bar
3. Eliminate simple errors when creating hyperlinks
4. Capture users’ attention—and their information—by adding visual clues to your form fields
5. Add style to data tables with automatic formatting
6. Fix FrontPage problems painlessly with FP Cleaner
7. Let FrontPage do the work in building forms
8. Customize emailed form results with form-field data
9. Why you sometimes can’t restore a website backup
10. Regain valuable working space by toggling and squeezing the Views Bar and Folder List

Index for Inside Microsoft FrontPage

HTMLTagClean
When you paste data from Excel to FrontPage you end up with lots of extra formatting HTMLTagClean helps get rid of all attributes from selected tags, and can remove other tags completely. (FREE and NEW)

FrontPage Video Tutorials
There are 25 Microsoft FrontPage Video Tutorials, a lifetime Membership, 10 insider guides and 50 blank banner graphics with 100+ logos to use anyway you like available from FrontPage Video Tutorials.

General Links

Windows XP Power Toys
RSS Feeds on FrontPage sites

Photographers and Graphic Artists
Here is your chance to show off you work and possibly earn a monthly income. Shutter Shots opened its doors in 2005 for selling stock photos and graphics. Come and sign up today and upload your photos and graphics.

Do you have a good digital camera and are you really good at taking pictures? If you are, Shutter Shots needs you, and we will pay you 75 cents for each photo that sells that belongs to you. We pay on a monthly basis when your sales reach $25.00 and send it through PayPal, so when you sign up, if you use your PayPal account it will be easier for everyone.

You do not need to be a professional, just good at taking pictures of interesting subjects and be able to take good clear, crisp photos with good lighting and good usable subject.