MS Front Page - Local or Remote
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Q. What are the recommended methods for working with Microsoft FrontPage?

FrontPage-based webs can be one of two types; local or remote, and it's very important to understand the difference. Local webs are those you develop on your hard drive. Unless you maintain a full time, high-speed connection to the Internet with a persistent URL or address, these webs are not usually available to others. To make your FrontPage-based web public, you transfer ("Publish") the files to a remote server, like the ones we maintain here at Jiffynet Hosting.

FrontPage is somewhat unique among web authoring programs in that you can develop, or author, your webs remotely as well as locally. In other words, you don't have to develop your web site first on your local machine. You can do all your work directly on the remote files on the server. There are pros and cons with each method:

 

Editing Local FrontPage-Based Web pages

Advantages
This is the fastest way to work with your web pages, since files are transferred directly to and from your hard drive. Your primary web files are always on your local machine and you can maintain your own backups. You can also experiment and try new things without the site being "live", publishing only when you feel the site is ready. Recommended for beginning to intermediate-level web authors. 

Disadvantages
You must publish your web to the server before anyone can see it, and it's more difficult to work collaboratively with others.

Editing Remote FrontPage-Based Web pages

Advantages
This is the preferred method if you need to make heavy use of FrontPage's multi-authoring capabilities, with many people working together on a web site. It's also the best way to develop a site if you log in to edit your web site from many different locations and don't want to store your primary web site files on any one local machine. However don't forget to make backups!

Disadvantages
Loading and saving pages is very slow with this method, because FrontPage will use the HTTP protocol and your Internet connection for all file operations. It's a frustrating way to work if you have a 28.8k or slower connection. Whenever you do any local editing you must remember to Publish from the remote web to your local machine first, to refresh the local copy of the files. Finally, remote editing is always "live"... every time you hit Save from the FrontPage editor, your changes are instantly online. So this method is best for experienced web authors.

Most users will prefer the local method, working on files and testing them on their own computer before publishing them for the world to see on the remote server. But it's nice to know you can work remotely if you ever have to!  

In Short:

To work locally, always open a FrontPage-based web using your local machine name as the Web Server location, and use Save to save files. When you're ready to put your files online, use File/Publish with your site's domain name as the destination server.

To work remotely, open a FrontPage-based web with the domain name as the Web Server location, and use the " Save" command to save your work remotely on the server. This action will also transfer any new graphics or other files you've added to the site. Use File/Publish with your local machine as the destination to copy and archive the remote files onto your local machine.