Working with Images

There are two ways that images typically are presented. The most common way is as an inline image, where the picture appears as part of the Web page. The less common way is as a separate external link that you need to download apart from Web pages. Images are actually separate image files and do not "live" in the HTML document itself. The images that appear on your Web page can be image files on your local disk, or on a remote computer.

Most of the current Web browsers support either of two image formats; FrontPage Express supports both formats as well:

GIF files lack the higher quality of JPEG files but are usually faster because they're more compact and optimized for electronic downloading.

You can get images by drawing them yourself, scanning them, or buying them as part of a commercial clip art package. You can also find GIF images out on the Net in one of the many image archives available. If you intend to use images on your Web pages, it's wise to create your own, get permission from the owner of an image, or use royalty-free clip art so you don't infringe on a possible copyright.

FrontPage Express provides two alternatives to displaying images: alternate text and low-resolution images. Alternate text is displayed in place of images. You should specify alternate text for those readers who use text-only browsers.

Low resolution images are another alternate to normal image display. You simply specify a low-resolution image to display while the normal image is loading.

Inserting an Image
Tip: To quickly insert an image, cut and paste it from the clipboard, or drag and drop it to the location you want on your page.

To insert an image:

  1. Place the insertion point where you want the image to appear in your document.
  2. Choose Insert - Image or click the Image button on the  toolbar. The Image Properties dialog appears, type the name and path of the image file you want to insert in your document. If you're not sure of the file name or its location, click Browse to select an image file from the directory list. Important: If you move an image file from the specified location, it will no longer appear on your Web page.  Don't forget the image file, as well as all other files that you want on your website, must be in your public_html folder.

Now that the image has been inserted, right-click on the image to open the image properties dialog box. Under the "General" tab, you will see a section that says alternative representation.   You should insert a low-resolution image if your image is a large file and will take a long time to load.  Don't assume that everyone has a T1 connection! The low resolution image will appear while the original image is loading.

Type the text that you want to have appear in place of the specified image file. You should always specify alternative text for readers who use text-only Web browsers, such as Lynx, or who have graphics turned off. If you don't include this alternative, your readers might see placeholder images instead of informative text. 

Under the "Appearance" tab, you can change the size of the image, the alignment of the text with the image, and the horizontal and vertical space around the image.

 You can also insert a video in your webpage using this dialog box or by choosing Insert - Image from the menu.  The video file should be in AVI format, to insert the video, click browse and select it from your U drive.  You can select how many times you want it to loop, and weather or not it should play once the page is loaded.