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How to get the
best answer to your questions in the Microsoft® FrontPage®
Newsgroups
In order to make sure that you get the best possible response
to your questions posted in the Microsoft FrontPage newsgroups, news://msnews.microsoft.com/
, please take a moment to review the information below.
This
information has been compiled by the Microsoft
FrontPage MVPs and is intended to better assist you with any questions or problems
you may be having by listing the type information you should supply to
get the best possible answers to your questions.
- Which FrontPage newsgroup should I post to?
- How should I structure my post to get the best answer?
- What additional information should I supply?
- What is the proper etiquette for posting to the FrontPage newsgroup?
- Are there any rules for posting to the FrontPage newsgroup?
- How do I find the FrontPage newsgroups?
Which FrontPage newsgroup should I post to?
The first step in
ensuring that your question is answered as quickly as possible, by the
most knowledgeable people in the subject area you are looking for
information on, is to post your messages to the proper newsgroup.
Below is a list of the various FrontPage newsgroups and the subjects
they cover:
- The microsoft.public.frontpage.client
newsgroup is for all "in-box" FrontPage feature
usability including:
-
Database Results
- Compatibility / Dimmed Menu Options
- Themes / Shared Borders
- Images
- Hyperlinks
- Publishing HTTP or FTP
- Frames
- Discussions
- ASP questions relating to FrontPage
- Basic HTML questions relating to FrontPage, etc.
- The microsoft.public.frontpage.addins
newsgroup deals with the finding of, use of and
support of third party FrontPage add-ins.
This newsgroup is a support
newsgroup ONLY for the add-ins posted in the Microsoft FrontPage® Add-in
Center at http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/downloads/addin/
The microsoft.public.frontpage.programming
newsgroup is to handle
all "out of box" support questions including: VBA, COM Add-ins, JavaScript,
VBScript, etc.
The microsoft.public.programming.vba newsgroup is no
longer active and has been discontinued.
Please use microsoft.public.frontpage.programming
instead.
The microsoft.public.programming.com_addins newsgroup is
no longer active and has been discontinued.
Please use microsoft.public.frontpage.programming
instead.
The microsoft.public.extensions.windowsnt
newsgroup is designed to handle FrontPage Server Extensions issues on a Windows
Server.
the microsoft.public.extensions.unix
newsgroup is designed to handle FrontPage Server Extensions issues on a UNIX
Server.
The microsoft.public.frontpage.mac newsgroup is no
longer active and has been discontinued. Mac related questions should be asked in
the microsoft.public.frontpage.client
newsgroup.
Question related to SharePoint Team Services should be directed to those
specific newsgroups: microsoft.public.sharepoint.teamservices
(Usability) microsoft.public.sharepoint.teamservices.caml
(Custom Development)
>> Back to Top
How should I structure my post to get the best answer?
This next section is
designed to help you in better formatting your question so you receive
the best possible answer.
Please review the recent postings to see if your question has already
been asked and answered recently.
If it has not been asked and answered, you should always supply the following
information:
- Any error messages you're getting.
- The version of FrontPage you are using. If none is specified FrontPage
2002 will be assumed.
- Which Web Server you use. Ex: FrontPage Personal Web Server (FP
PWS), Microsoft Personal Web Server (MS PWS), Internet Information
Server (IIS)
or other (name) and which version it is.
Also specify if you don't use a server. For example, you're developing a web
locally and use a folder on your Hard Drive. This is the default
for FrontPage 2000 and 2002.
- Which Operating System you are using. Windows
95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
- Supply language (Locale) information if not US English.
- If you're having a problem on your web site, please include the
URL (address) of the site so we can take a look at the problem.
>> Back to Top
What additional information should I supply?
For questions regarding posting to a server on the Internet and/or the
functioning of your web on that server. Please supply the following:
- Does it have the FrontPage Extensions installed.
- Which Operation System is in use on the Server
- What Web Server (IIS, Apache, etc), and what version is being
used.
- Supply an URL so we can check the page in question. If the page is
not published please do so.
- Please be as specific as possible in your question. Partial error
messages are generally of very little use.
For ASP errors, the following information would be very
helpful:
- Is this problem occurring locally or remotely?
- What is the Connection String to the database
- What database are you using?
- Is this a server-based web?
- What web server is being used?
- Are you accessing the pages via HTTP in your browser, or by file
location?
- If the error message includes a line number, post the snippet
of code that the line number refers to
- Use a meaningful subject. Don't use generic subject titles like "FrontPage
help" or similar.
There are so many postings that many people just scan the titles to see if
it is something they know about otherwise they may skip it.
- Structure the message body right. Start with stating the problem plain and
simple and then give additional information.
Leave personal thoughts to the
last. This is because there are hundreds of postings to this newsgroup and
if people can't see your problem immediately they are likely to simply skip
it.
It is also a bad idea to post to a thread with a similar problem. It is
better to start a new thread.
>> Back to Top
What is the proper etiquette for posting to the FrontPage newsgroup?
- Don't post the same question multiple times with different subjects. People
find it very annoying and may decide not to answer because of that. If you
don't get an answer within a day, repost and supply more information as lack
of information is the number one reason why a question isn't answered.
- If you would like an E-mail response to your question, please use the
correct return address.
Most people that answer questions in the newsgroups will
not try to correct an incorrect address. This is because of a time issue.
For those of you that are concerned about Spam we suggest that you use one of
the free email services such as MSN HotMail, http://www.msn.com/
, the SPAM Motel http://www.spammotel.com/
or USA NET's E-mail service
http://netaddress.usa.net/ all of these implement excellent Spam filters.
- Posting in HTML is not a good idea unless it helps to describe the problem.
Some News Readers can't view it directly, requiring that it be saved and
then opened in a Browser. Many people will not do this and simply skip the
message instead.
Also do not send in Quoted printable but use the more
standard 7bit/8bit.
- Please post your responses or follow-up question back to the
newsgroup. Many people receive a large amount of email and
may not respond to personal requests. Also, by posting back
to the newsgroups everyone can benefit from the answer.
>> Back to Top
Are there any rules for posting to the FrontPage newsgroup?
- Do NOT post attachments. Doing this is inconsiderate to people that have
metered Internet access and generally could be expressed just as easily in
words.
If someone wants a screen shot they will ask for it. You can also
put the screen shot or attachment on your web site and provide a
link to it.
- SPAM and Advertisements are not permitted in the Microsoft
newsgroups. A posts will be submitted for deletion if:
- It is considered SPAM.
- It contains *adult* content.
- It contains a virus or scripting code that can cause harm.
- It is an Advertisement.
- It was an Advertisement posted as an answer to a question but it wouldn't help solve the question.
- It was a reply to a post marked for deletion and included content from the original post that was marked for deletion.
- Please keep postings on topic (ie. related to FrontPage). It is normal for
threads to drift a little from the subject at hand but please keep this to a
minimum.
For General Rules of Conduct in Microsoft Newsgroups see:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/news/rules.asp
To get more info on Microsoft's MVP program visit:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/mvp/
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How do I find the FrontPage newsgroups?
There are several ways to access the FrontPage newsgroups.
- You can use a standard newsreader such as Outlook Express.
To do this, open your news reader and create a new news
account. For the name of the news server put msnews.microsoft.com.
You can also type news://msnews.microsoft.com
in your browser (or click that link) and it will launch your news
reader for you.
- You can use the Microsoft
Communities web-based newsgroup site and click on
"FrontPage" to view the newsgroups.
- You can also use the MSDN (Microsoft Developers Network) web-based
newsgroups. Click the links below to access these groups:
>> Back to Top
Note that these newsgroups are for Peer to Peer support. If
you want Technical Support from Microsoft, contact them at one of the
Addresses or Phone numbers mentioned in your documentation, or visit
http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/ and click on Support.
Thank you for your cooperation! - The FrontPage MVPs
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