How do I prevent Frontpage from changing (and breaking) my relati.

B

Begging4u2help

HELP! PLEASE!
Frontpage 2003 repeatedly changes my functioning relative links, most are
modified to point to the root directory C:, some to file:///c:... , and some
receive multiple ../ prefixes that do not lead to the proper folder.

I have tried defining base locations for the files under Properties, but the
file location is greyed out & I can't force a fix here. Is this another
problem - or a symptom of the same one? I think the latter?

I've spent days fixing links only to have them modified willy nilly and
broken by FP.

I've tried finding where to 'preserve html' in FP2003, but the current menu
options are not the same (referring to prior suggestion for similar problem
in a former version of FP) .

Yes, I built my site in folders ...is there any hope?
 
T

Tom Pepper Willett

You have to create a web first, then open the web and create your pages.
You sound like you just been creating pages without having a web.
--
===
Tom "Pepper" Willett
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage
---
About FrontPage 2003:
http://office.microsoft.com/home/office.aspx?assetid=FX01085802
FrontPage 2003 Product Information:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/frontpage/prodinfo/default.mspx
Understanding FrontPage:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/frontpage/
FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions Support Center:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;fp10se
===
| HELP! PLEASE!
| Frontpage 2003 repeatedly changes my functioning relative links, most are
| modified to point to the root directory C:, some to file:///c:... , and
some
| receive multiple ../ prefixes that do not lead to the proper folder.
|
| I have tried defining base locations for the files under Properties, but
the
| file location is greyed out & I can't force a fix here. Is this another
| problem - or a symptom of the same one? I think the latter?
|
| I've spent days fixing links only to have them modified willy nilly and
| broken by FP.
|
| I've tried finding where to 'preserve html' in FP2003, but the current
menu
| options are not the same (referring to prior suggestion for similar
problem
| in a former version of FP) .
|
| Yes, I built my site in folders ...is there any hope?
|
|
|
 
B

Begging4u2help

I was under the impression that you could create a web and import existing
files and folders...I did this, and things were working fine with relative
links - in files and folders in a web. But now the links are primarily
broken and change back (to broken) if I fix them.

Any suggestions on how to fix my mess - and keep it that way?
 
R

Rick Budde

You have to create a Front Page web (File | Open | Page
or Web | Web). This is a special folder that is in
essence a "mirror" of what your site will be when
published to your host server. Plain old Windows file
folders won't cut it!
 
B

Begging4u2help

Please clarify - I have multiple *.htm documents inside folders that reside
inside a web. Do I have to convert all of the folders to subwebs to get the
links to work? But they were already working - and changed!
 
B

Begging4u2help

Yes, the folder containing the web has the globe, but the folders inside
that are regular folders. So, do all of those folders also need to be
converted?

(as a side item, frankly, I'm afraid to 'convert' them because of the
warning that pops up.>>>
"pages w/o files may not be updated"
"hyperlinks on link bars may be removed"
"themes on pgs may be lost"....)
 
B

Begging4u2help

Sorry Rob I missed your first comment & responded to the second one in my
last reply

This is a web that is destined to be CD-based. It contains over 1,900 files
and over 230 folders.

I tried to recalculate several times, and it has only gotten worse. The
first time, the web was located inside 'mydocs/mywebs' and paths clear down
to the root c: were assigned in place of my relative links. This wouldn't
have been quite so bad if they were at least correct - but they don't even
work.

So I fixed the primary links in 'reports', created a new web at C:,
imported the content to that web, and tried to recalculate, thinking that I
could check the links there, and then just change from c: to e: when I save
it to CD. But once again, the links go not just to c:, but the whole OLD
(wrong) path from c:... ...mydocs/mywebs/etc.

This web is not destined to go online. I searched and found documentation
that a couple of other people had the same problem, but that was a couple of
years ago. The fixes that they suggested in 2000 and 2002 do not work with
FP2003 (see my first post, this string), and those old strings never reached
a solid conclusion either.

Please help! I'm in deep doo doo. boo hoo.
 
B

Begging4u2help

Rob - I sincerely appreciate your responses - but FP is definitively not
taking care of the links. The web does recognize the pages - if that is any
sign that they were done properly. Once again - the relative links were
working fine - until FP updated / recalculated them.

I'm most likely doing something wrong - any other suggestions on what to
check?

The prior discussions that I reviewed came up with two basic issues -
stopping the FP recalc function, OR inserting base paths OR avoiding base
paths like the plague...but those old strings ended without resolution, and
this is FP2003.

So:
Is there a way to stop FP from updating / recalculating links?
Should I be defining base paths for all pages?
Should I avoid base paths in all pages?
should I only set a base path for the home page?

I'll grasp at any straw offered. Thanks.
*************
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

Make sure that when you work on your pages after having create a web / site in FP, that you always
open the web first, then open your pages and that all content has been imported or create within the
current open FP web / site.

The folder within the web do not need to be convert to subwebs / subsite. However it might be best
to publish this site to a folder right off the C drive, such as, c:\myCDsite, then continue to work
on if from there.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
B

Begging4u2help

Rob - please read my 4th post (7th this string). There I explain what I'm
trying for. You may have missed it because I answered you out of order my
accident.

Not to be redundant, but this web is destined for CD, not the www.

I have specified some paths by hand coding in code view and also via browser.
Why? It escapes me at the moment. Sometimes because I was designating a
link for a page that did not yet exist (these links worked once those files
were placed in the proper structure). There are many cross links between
pages.

I specified the links to be relative to the folder structure in my hard
disk-based web, which will be duplicated on the CD-based web. THe links
worked. But when I did the following three things (and I tried all three)
they get totally screwed up:

- published it to a CD
- published it to new web right at the root directory
- recalculated the links

the once relative links - even the ones in the new web at the root directory
- now point all the way from c:...to my
documents/mywebs/subjectweb...subjectpage.htm

Also, most of the absolute links that I kept also were screwed up,
(for example http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document) got
changed to file:///pls/owadisp.show_document ??

help?
 
B

Begging4u2help

Thomas:
I have tried to develop this web ( and any future web) that way... but I
know that some of the files were copied & pasted rather than 'imported'.
These are not the only files having link issues. What can I do now to fix
this monster?

I have already opened a web right off of C:, and have imported the content
there. I recalculated the links, and they are still as messed up if not
more. If I fix these thousands of links again, are they going to stay the
way I put them? Do I need to avoid recalculating forever? Will I be able to
place the web on CD & use recalculate to get the links to look at E: rather
than C: ? Or should I do search/replace in the code?
 
B

Begging4u2help

It is one of many. The web (that I am creating) is an environmental
managment program that will be used by people that will not always have
access to the www. (Also, it is confidential, and the client wants to keep
it in-house). In addition to confidential, site-specific information, the
web includes subfolders with copies of many regulations (OSHA, EPA, DOT,
etc.) downloaded from the www so that the users w/o access to the www can
readily refer to these exciting documents.

I have attempted to maintain the links within these docs that refer to other
www. sites & pages, so that on occasion, the user can check on updates and
pursue these links via the www.

These external links have been broken - apparently via the recalculate tool.
Internal links leading to the downloaded docs have been broken.
Internal links leading from *.htm page to *.htm page have also been broken.

How to fix this & even more importantly - how to prevent it from happening
again?
 
W

Wes

The first rule to remember is that ALL files MUST reside somewhere INSIDE
the web you are creating.
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

When you want to move a web from one location to another, always use File Menu | Publish. By default
FP will always create relative links based on the root of the FP web you are working in. However if
you open a page without opening a web, then FP will create relative links back to the location on
your HD. Can you type an example of your web folder structure?

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
B

Begging4u2help

Thomas: I think you're on the track to my solution.

Previously, I had
c:/mydocs/mywebs/webfolder/progfolder/planfolder/
and at the next level the main *.html files and appendix folders with other
files and subfolders.

I've been learning the hard way on this one. I set up the structure from
progfolder on down as regular folders, then imported them into the web.
After that I have been making my changes from within FP.

Now I have set up a new web at C:, and the structure is
c:/progfolder/planfolder/ and then the content as above.
t
 
B

Begging4u2help

oops, tried to cut & paste & accidentally entered post... so to continue that
last reply:

I'm afraid that I may be doing just what you said - opening the file. But
when I open FP, >> File, open, and browse to the web folders, the box asks
for a FILE to open, so I have been giving it a FILE. I thought that once I
had a file open in FP that the web was open??? The reports can be run for the
web when any file is open..right?

<<<NEVER MIND THAT LAST PARAGRAPH!! >>>

Well, I just looked at the FP FILE drop-down menu. The OPEN SITE option
was hidden!! I have never seen that option, and thought THE WHOLE TIME that
I was opening my site by opening a file. I am both ashamed of myself, and
angry at MS for making the drop-downs 'intuitive'. I have often wished for
a way to turn off that feature, so the whole drop-down will show every time
in the same exact order. I'd appreciate hearing how to do that.

Wes indicated that all files must be INSIDE the web. What about external
links?
Can't I maintain them in a CD-based web so that occasionally the user can go
to the www?

So, I'll try to fix things WITH THE WEB OPEN...and hopefully report back
w/success.

THANKS ya'll for your input. Thomas - it's hard to hear that I've been
doing something so stupid, but better now than later.

................begging4U2help
 
T

Thomas A. Rowe

IMO: I think MS should only show the Open | File menu option after a web / site is open.

--
==============================================
Thomas A. Rowe (Microsoft MVP - FrontPage)
WEBMASTER Resources(tm)

FrontPage Resources, WebCircle, MS KB Quick Links, etc.
==============================================
 
R

Ronx

" I have often wished for
a way to turn off that feature, so the whole drop-down will show every time
in the same exact order. I'd appreciate hearing how to do that."

Right-Click on a tool-bar, choose Customize.
Options Tag, tick "Always show full menus"
Close
 
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