Super Themes: The Best of Paul Vineburg #3

DPA Software – www.frontlook.com

Maureen Shannon, NJPCUG

Super Themes “The Best of Paul Vineburg #3” is the third release from FrontLook - DPA Software. The FrontLook applications plug in to Microsoft FrontPage 2000/2002. The themes are “wrap-around themes”.  These themes can be used either on a brand new site or to update an existing web site with a new and innovative look.

I used a theme from the Best Of Paul #2 Super Theme set to create the Graphics & Web Development SIG pages.  I did this to demonstrate how beautiful the look of the theme from that collection was and to show exactly what the themes look like in use. Each of the three sets of the Best Of Paul series has great designs in it with enough variations between the sets to offer web designers plenty of options to work with. The example above is “Aluminum”.

In order to use Super Themes you must have either FrontPage 2000 or FrontPage 2002 installed on your system and Windows 98, Me, NT, 2000, or XP. There are themes in the package that are specifically designed for the 2002 version of FrontPage.

The Best Of Paul #3 or any of the other FrontLook applications are available for download from the (DPA Software) FrontLook web site and when you become a customer you are offered their other products at a discount.  Once you have downloaded the file to a folder, double-click the executable file, follow the onscreen directions, and it will be ready to use in a few minutes. The process is extremely easy to do and you can have a new theme in no time at all.

The software installs into your FrontPage directory and becomes available when you select “Format” from the toolbar, then click SuperThemes.  This will bring up all of the Super Themes that are installed and you select which theme you would like to put on your web site. Please note these themes do not work on sites with frames. You may also edit the theme selection if there is something you would like to change. Use the Format menu, choose theme, and then modify, to make changes to the theme. I used this option to change the Active Link choice from the color orange to a cyan. It is recommended that you back up the web site you are applying the new theme to it. Be sure to read and follow the instructions that appear on the screen when you are applying the Super Theme.

 The Super Themes Browser, which comes with the first Super Themes Package, sets up the shared borders, the navigation bars, and copies the additional graphics to the web.  Use the “Customize” button to edit your information such as copyright, author, company name, logo, and tagline. There are customizable areas inside the shared borders that you can use to insert new information. This makes the global changes to the web site. Information added in a shared border will appear throughout the site in the area that was edited. The browser is also available as a separate purchase. With the click of a button, your web site can have a brand new theme! They are as easy to use as the regular FrontPage theme selections. Super Themes can also be used with new web sites – bring up the new – web - from the menu, then select the Super Themes from the Format menu.

When the theme has been applied to the web site, follow the text information that is inserted on the pages to customize the web site information.

These themes use FrontLook Series 3 applets. FrontLook Series 3 is not part of this package and is available as a separate purchase. If you don’t wish to add these components, they can be replaced with something else of your choice. If you have FrontLook Series 3, to edit the text double click the DPA graphic to edit the text with new information.  FrontLook Series 3 contains the following: Presentation/Slide Show Applet, Scroller Applet, Button Bar Helper, over 30 personal and business themes, a selection of over 300 professionally designed clip art, buttons, bullets, banners, backgrounds and separator elements inserted in the FrontPage Clip Art Gallery, and 90 audio clips that can be used as background sounds and message triggers. The FrontLook Series 3 is $39.95 and $29.95 for previous customers. There are two other FrontLook Series packages that have some great effects too. Each of these packages is unique and adds interesting design elements to your web pages.

Super Themes “The Best of Paul Vineburg #3” comes with 12 themes….5 theme variations for FrontPage2000/2002 and 3 for FrontPage2002 only.  It sells for $39. I have been working with FrontLook applications for some time now and am very pleased with all of the products that I have. I would definitely recommend them to anyone who is designing web pages using Microsoft FrontPage 2000 or 2002. Visit DPA Software’s web site (www.frontlook.com) and take a look at all the things that they have to make your web pages more attractive, active, and exciting. There are demo’s available for download too if you would like to try them before you buy them.

Click here to view an animated demo of how to add a SuperTheme to a web site. The demo is in Flash format but will take some time to load. It is approximately 1.5 megs.

 Themes