Lesson 2: Web Page Design in the FrontPage Editor

Modifying a Theme

Although the page banner of this theme looks nice, something directly related to the subject matter of the Millennium Celebration Web might fit better. We've prepared a custom page banner that you will use to modify the current theme with. This custom banner provides a colorful fireworks backdrop for the page banner text.

To modify a theme

1. On the Window menu, click index.htm.

   FrontPage brings the home page back into view.

2. On the Format menu, click Theme.

   FrontPage displays the Themes dialog box. In the list of themes, the Artsy theme is now the default theme because it has been applied to the current Web site.

3. In the Themes dialog box, make sure All Pages is selected.
   In the Answer Wizard, type:
   How can I change a theme?
4. Next, click Modify.
5. Under the question What would you like to modify? click Graphics.

   FrontPage displays the Modify Theme dialog box. Here, you can supply custom graphics for various theme elements such as page banners, navigation buttons, background pictures, and other elements. FrontPage superimposes text over these graphics, so there is no need to change graphics when you change the names of your pages, or add or remove pages.

   For this example, we will change the graphical page banner on which FrontPage places the titles of the pages in the Millennium Celebration Web.

6. In the Item list, click Banner.
7. On the Picture tab, click the Browse button below the file name of the current banner graphic.

   FrontPage displays the Select Picture dialog box and shows the current pictures in your current Web site. Since the graphical banner we want to use isn't part of the Web site yet, you will search your file system for it.

8. In the Select Picture dialog box, click the Select File button.

   FrontPage displays the Select File dialog box.

9. Navigate to the folder named Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Tutorial by double-clicking each folder in this path until the Look in box displays the Tutorial folder.
10. Double-click the file 2000ban.

    FrontPage replaces the current page banner graphic with the custom graphic.

11. Click OK in the Modify Theme dialog box, and then click OK in the Themes dialog box.

    FrontPage displays a message asking you whether you want to save changes to the current theme.

12. Click Yes. Enter Millennium as the title of the modified theme, and then click OK.

    FrontPage saves the modified theme and applies the new banner to all pages.

13. To save the page, click Save on the File menu, or click the Save button on the toolbar.

Your page should now look like this:

Making your own themes
For this tutorial, we've provided only a custom page banner to help show you how easy it is to customize existing themes. To create your own designs, repeat the steps in the previous procedure to customize other theme elements with your own custom graphics.

Congratulations, the Millennium Celebration Web is almost finished! To make sure everything will look great on the World Wide Web, you'll now preview the Web site in your Web browser.