What Works and What Doesn't
Some elements of FrontPage's advanced functionality demand that the server extensions be installed in order to function. However, many of FrontPage's features will function regardless of whether you have the server extensions available or not. Here's a list of what does not work without the server extensions:

• Forms processing (although you can still use FrontPage to design forms, and use a Perl or other CGI script to process the form; see below)
• Themes
• Search form
• Bulletin board
• Security
• The hit counter
• SubWebs
• Database features

There are CGI substitutes for most of these features (try Matt's Script Archive for some quality alternatives). Although installing CGI scripts on your server is not particularly difficult, you may want to have your Web hosting service tech support person or a knowledgeable friend help you with it the first time you try it.

Publishing Your Website From FrontPage
Being able to build and edit your website on your hard disk, then publish it to your Web server, is one of FrontPage's stronger features. It perfectly synchronizes the two versions of your website, and to save time, uploads only those pages that have been changed. If your Web server doesn't have the server extensions installed, you can probably still take advantage of this feature. Here's how:

• Choose File > Publish Web...
• In the Location input box, you'll need to enter the FTP address of your server. Your Web hosting service should be able to tell you this address (it will start with "ftp://"). It might be as simple as ftp://www.yourdomain.com, or you may have to specify a folder, like ftp://www.yourdomain.com/public_html.

If, for some reason, publishing your website with FrontPage doesn't work, you'll have to upload it to your Web server with an FTP program.

Publishing Your Website With an FTP Program
Many website builders use FTP programs to upload their websites. It's not particularly difficult; the major shortcoming is that you yourself will have to keep track of what pages have changed in your website.

The first thing you'll need is an FTP program. I use CuteFTP (http://www.cuteftp.com). It's been around a long time, and it's fairly easy to use. Below is a screen shot of a typical CuteFTP session (graphic reduced to fit this page):

The top "window pane" (below the toolbar) contains message from the server. Below that is an area split vertically; the left side contains the contents of your hard disk, the right side contains the contents of your Web server.

Here are sample directions on how to upload your website using CuteFTP; if you have a different FTP program, these instructions will probably still work. This example assumes that you're editing your website, and saving it to the personal Web server on your hard disk. Be aware that if your Web server does have the FrontPage server extensions installed, you should always publish your Web from FrontPage; never use an FTP program to publish to a server with the FrontPage extensions installed.

• Start your FTP program, and log on to your Web server with your user name and password. You'll need to contact your Web hosting service to find out the proper FTP address to log on to your website.
• You may need to switch to a folder on your server specifically for uploading your Web pages. This folder is often called public_html, although it may be different. Again, your Web hosting service should provide you with the information on which folder you need to upload your Web pages to.
• In the area that lists the contents of your hard disk, navigate to the following directory: C:\WEBSHARE\WWWROOT\
• If you've created a folder on your personal Web server for your website (usually by choosing New > Web in FrontPage), you should see it in the WWWROOT directory. Open that folder.
• You'll probably see several folders that start with an underline character ( _ ); they might look something like _vti_bin, _vti_cnf, _fpclass, etc. You want to select all folders and files that do not start with an underline character, and copy those to your Web server. (When you create a Web, FrontPage creates several hidden folders to store its own "bookkeeping" information; these are the folders starting with the underline character. Since your Web server doesn't have the server extensions, we don't need these folders.)
• After the files have finished uploading to your server, test your website in your Web browser. If something doesn't look or work right, you either missed copying over a file, or you tried to use a component of FrontPage that requires the FrontPage extensions (the problem will probably be pretty obvious, either indicated by a "File not found" error, or an undesired message that mentions FrontPage like [FrontPage Save Results Component]).

When you want to update your website, use FrontPage to edit the copy stored on your personal web server. That way, FrontPage will automatically keep track and update changed links, page names, etc. Then, follow the directions above, but upload only those pages or files (like graphics) that have changed during your last edit. Note that if you rename one of your pages, links to that page may change on several other pages. If something isn't working right, you might want to upload all documents that end in .htm or .html (but not the graphics or other large files); uploading all page files probably won't take too much time, and you'll be assured that you have the latest version of all the pages on your Web server.

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