Theme Problem

[EMO007]

When I use MS_themes I can use backgrounds that will appear in IE5,IE6 ,and later versions of Netscape. Can anyone tell me how to make the same background appear in Netscape 4.X ?
I have been looking for this solution for a week. When I have MS_themes turned on and try to set up body background and try to save it, the body background statement gets removed. If I turn off the theme, I can use the body background statement.
All other theme items seem to be OK in Netscape.Thanks

 

[WebSong]

It sounds like you might be making one of two errors or both. First make sure that you have your page compatabily set to be viewed in Netscape 4.xx and later. FP automatically uses the most adavanced method possible for acclomplishing a task. If you don't assign compatabily to be viewable in an old Netscape FP wont select an old method.

The second thing to look at is your aproach to modification of a page. It sounds like you may be conflicting with your own programming. It it important to keep in mind that even a blank html page has setings from the browser's point of view. For example, an page with no desiginated background color will use the colored white by default.

Remember that the purpose of a theme is to over-ride individual page settings and apply rules of the theme, and FrontPage does it better than anyone.

If you want to modify the background while applying a theme to a page, just edit the theme to have a different background.

TIP: When you apply a theme to a page, the theme designates a background. The theme may use either a tiled image or a color.
TIP: If you want use a page color instead of a background image select "none" as the backgrond image, because the background image sits above the page you are trying to color ( and of course you'll never see anything but the image ). Note: This is done for good reason. Some browsers let the client chose a background color for pages. Their choice may conflict with your design's use of color on a page. By tiling a background image you assure that your presentation is viewed as intended.

TIP: You may want to do more than simply modify a theme some times. Let's say you are building an intranet portal for your company and you want to use a FrontPage theme for consistency, but want to use a blue background for the HR department pages and a green background for the Accounting Department. Select a theme that you like, say "Artic" for example. to be used as your "Master design".

TIP: Here's an easy way to do this. Create a "new page" (to avoid confusion) and apply the theme "Artic" to that page and save the page. Then while in "page view" or design view depending on which version of FP you are using, bring up your theme editor and edit Artic to have a blue background and save the THEME as "ArticHR". Now bring up the Artic theme again (the original) and apply again it to your "new page" but this time edit the Artic theme to have a green background and save the THEME as "ArticActg".
You can now delete your "new page" as it serves no purpose.

Now, apply the ArticHR theme to to HR pages. Next, apply ArticActg theme to your Accounting pages.
What you have done is to create two variations of an original theme to didplay you desire while leaving the original theme in tack for future use.

The best part of this is that this approach is infinity variable and extensible. Let's suppose in reality the theme "Artic" needed 20 changes to fit your "master plan" but you still want to change page colors between departmnts.

Make a "new page" and apply the Artic theme to to the new page and save the page. Next bring up the theme editor while viewing the new page and make your 20 changes, and then save the THEME as "Artic20". You can then call on Artic20 as your "master theme" and by using the process of the first example create variations changing only the background color. You might name one theme variation Artic20HR and the other Artic20Actg so that when you are creating pages it is easy to spot the theme you wish to apply. This technique will provide great site consistency. This will also save you development time because your previous work is preservered in "Artic20" and you don't have to start from "Artic" each time.

Hope this Helps.