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4. Inserting Navigation/Link Bars
What are Navigation or Link Bars?
You probably already know what this is! In most web sites, there is
some way to navigate the site. Usually there are buttons or text
links that are in the same place on every page that you can click on to
go from page to page. These are often called "navigation bars."
When you see navigation bars made up of images that change when you
mouse over them, you're seeing a "mouseover effect," typically created
with a bunch of different images and some JavaScript programming code.
But what if you're not a JavaScript expert? FrontPage makes it easy with
what it calls "navigation bars" or "link bars" -- you define a few
parameters, and it generates the pictures, text, and code for you! These
navigation bars are typically built based on your
navigation structure, but FP 2002 also allows you to build custom bars with your
own links or "back/next" bars based on your own custom sequence of pages
(instead of being limited to the navigation structure). Furthermore, in
FP 2002, you
may choose your style of button from any other theme, or you may use one
of the seven styles of text links.
- Go to Insert / Navigation. A dialog box will pop up. Choose the
top option: "Bar with custom links." Click Next.
- Now you may choose the style of your bar (don't worry, you can
change the style later, also). If you want to use buttons from the
page's theme, make sure you've selected the right one and click
Next. You may also scroll down and choose buttons from other themes,
or scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list to view the
text link bar styles.
- Now choose the orientation of your navigation bar -- horizontal
or vertical. Then, click "Finish."
- If this is the first link bar you are creating, the dialog box
below will appear. Otherwise, click "Create New..." You may name
your link bar if you wish. This will help you reference it later.
[If you want to insert a link bar that you've already created on a
different page, simply select the link bar and click OK. You're
done!]
- Now you may begin to add the links that you want on your custom
link bar. Click on the "Add Link" button.
- A dialog box will pop up (see below). You may browse through the
pages in your existing web to choose the page your want to link to.
You may also link to an outside web page by clicking on the Browse
the Web icon
or create email links.
Linking to an Existing File or Web Page: Link to another
page within your web or a different url. You may browse the web, or
type in the URL in the "Address" field.
- Text to display: This is the text that will show up on your
link bar (please see below for more detail). We will change it
to "Contact Us."
- Address: The URL of the page that you want to link to.
Place in This Document: Allows you to link to a "bookmark"
in your page.
Linking to an E-mail Address: Create an "e-mail" link (see
diagram below).
- Text to display: This is the text that will show up on your
link bar.
- E-mail address: Start typing your email address -- the
"mailto:" text will automatically appear.
- Subject: Some email programs will allow the link to place a
subject. For example, if your email link is about "Requesting
Brochures," you may wish to set the Subject Line as "Brochure
Request."
- Continue to add more links to your link bar, then click OK. In
Normal View, your link bar will look like this. Click on "add link"
to add another link to your link bar.
To change the style of the link bar, right-click on the link bar
in Normal View and choose Link Bar Properties. Click on the Style
tab to change the style of the link bar.
Back to Top
"Back and Next" Link Bars allow you to create a navigation bar for a
sequence of pages without being limited to your navigation structure.
When you create a Back and Next Link Bar, you must define a sequence of
pages. You may then insert the link bar on the corresponding pages. Only
"Back" and "Next" buttons are displayed, but they link to the next and
previous page in the sequence.
- Open one of the pages that will be part of your Back/Next
sequence. Go to Insert / Navigation. A dialog box will pop up.
Choose the top option: "Bar with back and next links." Click Next.
- Now you may choose the style of your bar (don't worry, you can
change the style later, also). If you want to use buttons from the
page's theme, make sure you've selected the right one and click
Next. You may also scroll down and choose buttons from other themes,
or scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list to view the
text link bar styles.
- Now choose the orientation of your navigation bar -- horizontal
or vertical. Then, click "Finish."
- If this is the first link bar you are creating, the dialog box
below will appear. Otherwise, click "Create New..." You may name
your link bar if you wish. This will help you reference it later.
[If you want to insert a link bar that you've already created on a
different page, simply select the link bar and click OK. You're
done!]
- Now you may begin to add the links that you want on your custom
link bar. Click on the "Add Link" button.
- A dialog box will pop up (see below). You may browse through the
pages in your existing web to choose the first page in your
sequence. You may also link to an outside web page by clicking on
the Browse the Web icon
,
but note that the outside web page will not "back" or "next" buttons
on it.
Existing File or Web Page: Link to another page within
your web or a different url. You may browse the web, or type in the
URL in the "Address" field.
- Text to display: This is the text that will show up on your
link bar (please see below for more detail). We will change it
to "Contact Us."
- Address: The URL of the page that you want to link to.
- Continue to add more links to your custom link bar. Be sure to
include the page that you are currently on. When you are done, click
OK.
Here, you can see that we have specified four pages in our
back/next sequence: Contact Us, Home, FAQ, and Feedback.
You may move a page up or down in the sequence by clicking "Move
Up" or "Move Down."
- This is what the link bar looks like on our page, in Normal
View:
- To change the style of the link bar, right-click on the link bar
in Normal View and choose Link Bar Properties. Click on the Style
tab to change the style of the link bar.
Back to Top
- Go to Insert / Navigation. A dialog box will pop up. Choose the
top option: "Bar based on navigation structure." Click Next.
- Now you may choose the style of your bar (don't worry, you can
change the style later, also). If you want to use buttons from the
page's theme, make sure you've selected the right one and click
Next. You may also scroll down and choose buttons from other themes,
or scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list to view the
text link bar styles.
- Now choose the orientation of your navigation bar -- horizontal
or vertical. Then, click "Finish."
- Another dialog box will appear. You will now choose what kind of
buttons will appear on your page. (See detail below.) Click OK when
you are done.
- Parent level will create buttons for the level
directly above the level of your page when you are in Navigation
View.
- Same level will create buttons for the level that
your page is in.
- Back and Next will create the special "quick back"
and "quick next" buttons. These buttons navigate through the
level your page is in.
- Child level will create buttons for the level
directly below your page's level.
- Top level will create the special "global" buttons
for the very top level of your web.
- Child pages under home will create buttons for the
child pages of your main home page.
- A navigation bar will be created. If you wish to change the
style of the link bar, right-click in Normal View and choose Link
Bar Properties, then click on the Style tab.
If you want to change
the text on the buttons, you will need to go into Navigation View
and change the page titles.
Next: Editing Navigation/Link Bars
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