Using Americart with Front Page 98 (version 3.0) The section of the FAQ on using FP98 for general use was largely contributed by Sean Fee. The section of the FAQ on using FP98 with html tables is authored by: Steve Duell ( A-FIRST Website Designs http://www.afirst.com ) General usage: Save the add, view, and checkout button graphics into the Frontpage folder. This is done by making a test page, loading in the graphics and saving the page. FP will prompt you to add button.gif (or other name) to frontpage web. Answer yes to all. This page can later be deleted, but the buttons will be ready for future use. Once a product page is ready for the cart buttons [cart html code], one then "cuts" and "pastes" the code as you pointed out in the set-up guide instructions. The problem with Frontpage is that the "copy" or "cut" command won't work to bring the code to the HTML page. The key to bringing the code into Frontpage off your web site is to use the "control-C" command, or highlight the code and then simultaneously hit the "control and "c" button. This will in effect copy the code into the windows95/98 "paste buffer". cut the code and save it. [Note: This is standard windows95/98 "copy"...works anywhere text can be highlighted]. One then brings up the Frontpage Editor with the product page. You then go to the top of the menu bar and highlight the "View" command, then highlight the "HTML" command. After the HTML command is highlighted, you will see all the HTML code for the page. You then find the place you want to insert the code, (put code in the left side of the page) and use the "control-V" button or simultaneously hit the "control" and "V" button on the keyboard, and the code will be pasted in. [This is standard windows95/98 "paste"..works anywhere text can be inserted]. You would then make the changes to the code as necessary, such as substituting your own cart-id, product description, etc. then hit the "ok" button at the bottom of the page. You will then be brought back to the Frontpage editor and the button should appear. The thing about Frontpage is that it changes the code slightly when you save it. This comparison will show the code from the Americart setup page and the final saved version of the same code in FP. AMERICART CODE:
SAME CODE PASTED INTO FRONTPAGE 97

Sean's Comments on page layout issues: The main problem here was getting the graphics to line up. I was doing all these adjustments in the frontpage editor (not HTML page). What you have to do here is put the cursor next to the button and use the Align Left, Center, Right buttons at the top of the Editor to center or move the graphic. You don't have a lot of choice here, just left, center, or right. DO NOT highlight the button.gif image and try to center it, or move it with the align buttons. The key distinction is having the cursor next to the button and not highlighting the button itself. When Frontpage makes a form with the Cart button, it looks like this in the Frontpage Editor _______________________________________________________________ | | | | | | | | | | |BUTTON.GIF | | | | | | | |______________________________________________________________| In this large rectangle area, its hard to put in extra features like tables because that whole area is a "form" and thus its difficult (although probably not impossible) to put a table in that area. Again, I have not extensively tried changing things here, but it would appear to be a difficult task. I hope this helps. My advice is to keep it simple and not use a lot of extra things. Keep working with 1 product page until it works on americart, then duplicate it, by cutting all the code from the page and pasting it onto the next page. End of Sean's comments. USING FP/Americart with tables (by Steve Duell) The following, presents three different methods for putting an AmeriCart form into a table cell using MS FrontPage 97 or 98. NOTE: For all 3 of these methods, it is recommended that you have begin with a web page that already has your table and your AmeriCart form on it. Be sure that you have already setup the AmeriCart code for the price, your ID, part number, etc. before putting the form into the cell. You can always change it later, but this way makes sure that it is working before you put it into the table. Then if it doesn't work after you've tried to move it, you will know that it is because it wasn't moved correctly and not because of how you setup your form or whether forms really do work inside of table cells. (They do.) TESTING PROCEDURE 1) Try It, 2) Click on Preview tab, 3) Evaluate the Results, 4) IF you LIKE IT, Save It. Go to Step 5 ELSE IF you HATE IT, THEN Do Not Save It Return to Normal View (Method 3 should use HTML View) Undo It, Go Back to Step 1 5) Be Happy. ***** Method 1 ****** As you have already discovered, MS in it's attempt to ensure that FrontPage produces legitimate HTML, had to scale back some of it's flexibility in HTML coding structure. To make up for this and to allow unusual coding like we are trying to do, MS has created what is called an "Insert HMTL" web bot. This bot can be placed anywhere in your web page (FrontPage Editor - normal view) and any HTML inside of it will be ignored by the FrontPage HTML correction features. To use the "Insert HTML" Web Bot, do the following: 1) You need to highlight your form in the FPEditor. That's everything inside, and including, the dotted lines. (Double-clicking along the far left margin of the form's dotted lines will usually cause the entire form to be selected.) 2) Then, click on the HTML tab and wait until you see the highlighted area appear. (If you have a large web page or a slow computer this may take several seconds. It is a good idea to wait until you see colors like red/blue/purple in the text beneath the highlighted section, before copying just to make sure that FP has finished loading the web page. * Your PC may or may not display colored text when in the HTML view. If not, don't worry about waiting.) 3) Right-click on the highlighted coding and select Copy from the menu. Note: The highlighted area should start with "
". 4) Switch back to the Normal view. 5) Move your mouse to the table cell that you want to put the form in, and click inside the cell. 6) Insert an Insert HTML Markup Bot by using the FPEditor menu. Or by clicking on the little web bot "robot" button on the Speed Bar and then choosing "Insert HTML" from the list of web bots that will be presented to you. 7) Right click in the Insert HTML box and select Paste from the menu. 8) Click OK 9) Click on the Preview tab. 10) Voila' Clean-up: After testing to make sure that you have done it correctly, you will still need to go back and delete the orginal form, if you don't want extra copies of it floating around. ****** 2nd Method ********** This method is just about the same as the first except that you should: 1.) Create the table first. 2.) Create the AmeriCart form. (Use the same page, just make it outside of your table.) 3.) Double Click on the form to select the entire area inside and including the dotted lines that indicate where a form begins and ends. 4.) Click and Drag this highlighted form into your table cell. 5.) You will notice that the table cell has extra unwanted space above the form. To fix this: Move your cursor to the top of the cell. Press the Delete key one time. This should remove the extra space. 6.) Click Preview 7.) Voila' ****** 3rd Method: ********* This is the most direct method, and in my opinion, the most reliable method. Although the other two methods work, this will let you visually confirm that the form is exactly where you need it to be. 1.) If you click on the HTML tab in MSFP Editor*, you should find some coding that looks like this: {example 3.1}
THIS IS HIGHLIGHTED
* TIP: Highlight something near where you want to insert the HTML Markup Bot BEFORE clicking on the HTML tab. Then when the HTML view is displayed, what you have highlighted and maybe a little more, will be highlighted and the page will have been scrolled down to where the highlighted text is visible. Of course, now it will also be the "real" HTML code that is highlighted, so don't be suprised if you seen some extra words and angle brackets highlighted too. 2.) Now if you will do the same thing for the Americart form that you are trying to put into the table, you will see some coding that looks like this: {example 3.2}

My Product costs $2.99. Click if you want one.

3.) Your goal is to move everything from through , including the "form" tags, to where the words THIS IS HIGHLIGHTED are at. This means you should see something that looks pretty much like this when you are done. {example 3.3} *** beginning of the table row *** and This tag *** end of the table row
*** This tag
... I am inside your form.
I am in the next cell.
This makes a table that looks something like this: {example 3.4} ______________________________________ | I am inside your form | I am in the next cell.| |---------------------------------|-------------------------------| 4.) Your AmeriCart form needs to be in between the and tags. 5.) An easy way to fix this problem is to locate the coding for your form first, and then copy it. Next move to where you want to put your form at and paste it in between the tags of the table. Be sure that you are still in the MSFP HTML View when you do the Pasting. ******* Method 3 Addendum ******** Because some PC's have problems with allowing you to copy text from the HTML View into the Insert HTML web bot, you can also use this method. 1.) From the FrontPage Explorer, right click on your web page's file name. 2.) Choose "Open With..." from the menu. 3.) Choose "Text Editor" (usually it's Notepad.exe) 4.) Click OK. 5.) Select your form HTML from this page and copy it. Do not make any other changes to the form and if you are prompted to "Save Changes", select NO. 6.) Proceed with pasting the text into your Insert HTML web bot. NOTE: You actually can have your web page open in both MSFP Editor and the Text Editor at the same time. But you should close the Text Editor before attempting to save the changes in MSFP Editor in order to prevent having all your hard work overwritten by the Text Editor. ** For you web-heads that have discovered that you can use to comment out pieces of your HTML, be warned that using these to try and force your form into a table cell will NOT work. Anything contained in between the will be ignored by both the MSFP Editor correction process (yeah!) AND by your visitor's web browsers (boo!). The FP Insert HTML web bot is specially designed to be ignored by the FPEditor ONLY!!! The HTML code that you put inside is made available when the web page is seen through a web browser. About the Author: Steve Duell is a Web Design Consultant at A-FIRST Website Designs. He is an occasional contributor to AmeriCart with MS FrontPage issues involving AmeriCart. He can be reached at: A-FIRST Website Designs sduell@afirst.com (408) 723-4778 [San Jose, CA]