Does anyone have any helpful tips or suggestions to help with this project?"

Well, to my dismay I was bombarded with "flame" after "flame" replies in the forum. It seems there's a lot of Joomla designers out there who absolutely HATE the idea of Microsoft, Microsoft FrontPage, HTML table code and (in there esteemed, unenlightened opinion) ANYONE stupid enough to consider building a Joomla template using ANY Microsoft product.

I replied to first person's vile response by explaining that I have been using FP for over twelve years. I know it has limitations and faults. However, it was one of the first programs that allowed web developers to actually see what the web page under development actually looks like while data was being inputted. This speeded up the whole development process and probably aided the growth of the Internet as a whole. FrontPage was designed to interact with all of the Microsoft Office Programs and that probably accounts for many of the perceived bugs user often come up against.

This (reasonable and polite) comment was met with absolute derision and outright hostility by many of the forum members. Not only did the forum replies become far more abusive, someone also did a bit of research and found my email address. They then began an email spam campaign of such intensity that I had to close the email account down.

So be warned; so called "Joomla Support Forums" can be dangerous places to ask innocent questions about FrontPage, unless you intend to trash the software and anyone using it.

OK... This is MY RESPONSE

The V sign, when the palm is facing toward the person giving the sign, has long been an insulting gesture in England and later in the rest of the United Kingdom, as well as in Ireland and parts of France. It is frequently used to signify defiance (especially to authority), contempt or derision and is often accompanied by the phrase 'fuck off'.

Project: Joomla Template Build Using FrontPage and Other Software

Introduction

Proving a point can work out to be expensive and ultimately produce worthless results. Therefore; this project will only use resources freely available to the author and aim to publish a fully working, interesting and hopefully profitable web site.

1. A new sub domain of www.jackchosting.com (my reseller account at HostGator) was setup and a default install of Joomla was uploaded to www.teamusk.com (an unused domain from years ago).

2. The aim of the Tea Musk site is to present controversial headlines of current events. This is actually an old idea, revamped for this project, as it does present some unusual coding problems.

3. Make the site user friendly and allow visitor participation.

4. Reduce maintenance of the site to the absolute minimum.

Template Build Using FrontPage for Layout of Tables and Images

View Development Screen (opens in new window 162k)

Positions for various modules can be inserted as text notes.

The Tea Musk web site will use a JavaScript snippet to display a different headline each time the page is refreshed or a link to another item is clicked.

Here's the code and how it has been masked from FrontPage to avoid code errors:

<!--webbot bot="HTMLMarkup" startspan --><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="790" bgcolor="#DEDFDE" height="274">
<tr>
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript type="text/javascript">
/*
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| Ad Simple Copyright www.YugDesign.com |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
| This program may be used and hosted free of charge by |
|anyone for personal purpose as long as this copyright |
|notice remains intact. |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
*/

var img_width = "790";
var img_height = "274";
var img_border = "0";
var img_title = "";

The important part of the code is:

document.write('<td valign=\"top\" align=\"left\" background="'+ad[xy]+'" width=\"790\">');

This calls the headline image array and inserts it into a table cell background image.

Everything else is standard HTML

I did find FrontPage to be a little "clunky" when inserting the Joomla module code, so I used Notetab Light to replace my marker text with the properly formatted call for each module.

The whole project is now live and be viewed here:

Support Forum for Uploading Ripped Headlines This forum enables users to upload their own Ripped Headline image for inclusion in the Tea Musk headline rotation program. This is a free service anyone can use. The Tea Musk support team will help anyone struggling to make a headline image. Just ask; it's free and a lot of fun. Make the headlines that SHOULD have been published! It's FREE so, give it a go!

Total web development time - 6 hours. This was mainly taken up by researching a theme (ripped headlines), making the various logo images (graphic design is NOT one of my most developed skills) and the actual "Ripped Headlines". Putting all the bits together in FrontPage took less than 1 hour.

Conclusion

Yes, it IS possible to layout a Joomla powered web site using Microsoft FrontPage.

You will generate a Joomla web site that uses TABLES and will be compliant with ALL browsers that can read HTML and JavaScript.

AskJack may well continue to develop the Tea Musk site, as the basic concept of "Ripped Headlines"... has the potential for a bit of mischief that is just too tempting to miss out on!

Here's a screenshot of one "Ripped Headline" the web site has been checked in 43 different browsers and operating systems... THIS Joomla site USES TABLES FOR TEMPLATE LAYOUT AND WORKED PERFECTLY IN ALL 41 of 43 TESTS.

The exceptions:

MSIE 4.01 using Windows XP OS... just didn't like the JavaScript? This browser was probably released back in the last century, so I don't think it's a big user issue.

Dillo 0.8.6 / PLD 2.0 (Ac)... which, to be fair, I've never heard of let alone be tempted to download it. Again, JavaScript issues.

In both cases the site still remained readable.

There were a few font issues when some of the older browser type tried to run the CSS file, apart from that no problems noted.

Browser Check by: http://browsershots.org/http://teamusk.com/

Search Engine Issues

It is often claimed that a "tableless site" will outperform a web site using standard HTML.

This is utter rubbish and just another Internet myth that can safely be consigned to the bin.

A spider's eye view of the Tea Musk Home Page

Publishers of Ripped Headlines News Sport and Whole Lot More Forum List Tea Musk Public Forum The Laughing Camel Road Trips Tours and Interesting Destinations AskJack List of Questions Answered Monday 18 February 2008 Support Forum for Uploading Ripped Headlines This forum enables users to upload their own Ripped Headline image for inclusion in the Tea Musk headline rotation program This is free service anyone can use The Tea Musk support team will help anyone struggling to make headline image Just ask its free and lot of fun Make the headlines that SHOULD have been published Its FREE so give it go Silver Hand Sculpture North Nottinghamshire Blinx Entertainment Video Wall Nottingham to Edinburgh Calling in at York and Newcastle Unique Online Road Trip York England History Culture and Places to Visit Advertisement Tea Musk Public Forum Forum Show latest posts Rules Help Welcome Guest Please Login or Register Lost Password Submission of Ripped Headlines Frustrated amateur or professional news writers can submit Ripped Headlines that they really think should have been published In general no topic or subject is taboo although the Tea Musk Team reserves the right to NOT publish content that is too demented Read the FAQ posted in the Ripped Headlines forum for details of how to make ripped headline and submission guidelines Forum Topics Replies Last Post No New Posts Support Forum for Uploading Ripped Headlines This forum enables users to upload their own Ripped Headline image for inclusion in the Tea Musk headline rotation program This is free service anyone can use The Tea Musk support team will help anyone struggling to make headline image Just ask its free and lot of fun Make the headlines that SHOULD have been published List of Ripped Headline Images Used to Date by jack Today 04 22 Show most recent message Recent Posts Topic Author Categories Date Hits emo List of Ripped Headline Images Used to Date jack Support Forum for Uploading Ripped Headlines Monday 18 February 2008 emo Binging Minger Ripped Headline jack Support Forum for Uploading Ripped Headlines Sunday 17 February 2008 emo Re FAQ How to Make and Upload Ripped Headline Guest Support Forum for Uploading Ripped Headlines Saturday 16 February 2008 emo FAQ How to Make and Upload Ripped Headline jack Support Forum for Uploading Ripped Headlines Friday 15 February 2008 Tea Musk Public Forum Forum Stats Total Users Latest Member admin Total Messages Total Subjects Total Sections Total Categories Today Open Yesterday Open Today Total Answer Yesterday Total Answer View Recent Posts More About Stats User List Online Members and Guests forms jumpto submit Board Categories Submission of Ripped Headlines Support Forum for Uploading Ripped Headlines New Posts New Posts No New Posts No New Posts Powered by FireBoard Tea Musk Public Forum Full Web Site Map Tea Musk Public Library Links News News Feeds Tea Musk Home Username username Password password Remember Me Remember me Lost Password No account yet Register RSS 91 RSS RSS ATOM OPML

A spider's eye view of the site map page

Publishers of Ripped Headlines News Sport and Whole Lot More Silver Hand Sculpture North Nottinghamshire Town Which City Gloucester Just The Laughing Camel Road Trips Tours and Interesting Destinations AskJack List of Questions Answered Monday 18 February 2008 Support Forum for Uploading Ripped Headlines This forum enables users to upload their own Ripped Headline image for inclusion in the Tea Musk headline rotation program This is free service anyone can use The Tea Musk support team will help anyone struggling to make headline image Just ask its free and lot of fun Make the headlines that SHOULD have been published Its FREE so give it go Silver Hand Sculpture North Nottinghamshire Blinx Entertainment Video Wall Nottingham to Edinburgh Calling in at York and Newcastle Unique Online Road Trip York England History Culture and Places to Visit Advertisement full site map of all sections categories and articles in the Tea Musk web site Silver Hand Sculpture North Nottinghamshire Written by Jack Tickler Vicar Water Hand Sculpture Vicar Water Hand Sculpture 360 panoramic image showing the Silver Hand located at Vicar Water Park near Clipstone North Nottinghamshire This amazing sculpture gives the appearance of hand being thrust out of the ground by giant buried deep underground On closer inspection was rather sad to find most of the sculpture had graffiti scrawled all over it Location Map View Larger Map The 360 image was taken on very cold frosty day with low winter sun causing the lens to flare Probably not the ideal conditions for Photography but its my first panorama outing this year and it seems waste not to publish it Just visible in the panorama is Vicar Pond hectare fishing lake that was created by the 5th Duke of Portland in the 1870s In the past the lake has been used for boating and swimming but today it is thriving course fishery day tickets available Blinx Entertainment Video Wall Written by Jack Tickler Click anywhere inside the video wall to activate the preview pop outs Pass your mouse over the top edge of the wall to see links back to the Blinkx web site Want video wall on your blog or site Its easy Just cut and paste this code into your page Works with MySpace Blogger Xanga Facebook and more Well theres big problem embedding the Blinkx code into Joomla page The only way seems to be using the snippet Mambot Devon Probably Englands Most Pleasant County Written by Jack Tickler About Torquay Devon England Devon Map Sporting mini corniche and promenades landscaped with flowerbeds TORQUAY the main centre of the tourist conglomeration at Torbay comes closest to living up to the self penned English Riviera sobriquet The much vaunted palm trees actually New Zealand cabbage trees and the coloured lights that festoon the harbour by night contribute to the towns unique flavour slightly frayed combination of the exotic and the classically English The town is focused on the small harbour and marina separated by limestone cliffs sprouting white high rise hotels and apartment blocks from Torquays main beach Abbey Sands Walking north round the promontory from the harbour youll reach some good sand beaches nearest of which Meadfoot Beach lies at the end of pretty half mile coastal walk that takes you through Daddyhole Plain large chasm in the cliff caused by landslide locally attributed to the devil Daddy If youre searching for something little more low key continue round the point to where series of beaches extends along the coast as far as the cliff backed coves of Watcombe and Maidencombe Destination Guides Europe Russia Europe England Devon and Cornwall Devon English Riviera and the South Hams Torquay Read more Dover Gateway to Europe Could be Place to Stop and Linger Awhile Written by Jack Tickler Dover From the Air Picture of the Docks Badly bombed during the war DOVERs town centre and seafront just dont have what it takes to induce many travellers to linger before speeding onwards to Europe or inland to London or Canterbury This could be mistake for the traveller with time to linger The town authorities have put lot of effort and money into sprucing the place up Dover Castle is by far the most interesting of the numerous attractions which plug the ports defensive history Entertainment of saltier nature is offered by Dovers legendary White Cliffs which dominate the town and have long been source of inspiration for lovers travellers and soldiers sailing off to war Dover is situated in river valley surrounded by chalk hills which are rich in wildlife with splendid views of the castle and the harbour The fantastic fortifications of Dovers Western Heights were built to defend England against invasion by Napoleon and are now surrounded by local nature reserve with magnificent views over the town of Dover Nestling just below the Western Heights Cowgate Cemetery provides quiet spot close to the town centre Read more Stratford upon Avon to Gloucester calling at Evesham and Cheltenham Cotswolds Tour This drive is short in distance but long on interest and full of historical and scenic attractions for both the virtual traveller and the real motorist alike Stratford Upon Avon The journey starts in Stratford upon Avon the birthplace of William Shakespeare and famous for its picturesque half timbered buildings its two theatres and charming riverside walks From there we take time to stop off and explore Evesham rural market town with historic interest At this point you can also take brief detour to visit the beautiful Cotwold village of Broadway before heading off to Cheltenham Spa the beautiful Regency Jewel of the Cotswolds Gloucester The route ends in the historic Cathedral City of Gloucester where the carefully restored Victorian warehouses of the Docks house many excellent shops bars and restaurants as well as museums and an antiques centre Enjoy your road trip Read more Gloucester The Historic Waterfront City Gloucester Cathedral Located on the eastern bank of the River Severn Gloucester makes an idea base from which to explore the surrounding Cotswolds the Forest of Dean and the Malvern Hills The city has long and venerable history dating back to at least Roman times when it was municipality and visitor today will find Roman foundations magnificent Norman Cathedral narrow cobbled streets with medieval and Tudor half timbered houses and the restored Victorian Docklands along with bustling and vibrant city centre that boasts an incredible range of shops markets restaurants pubs and visitor attractions How to get there Gloucester is served by The M5 motorway which runs to the east of the city The A38 connects the city with Tewkesbury and Bristol the A40 connects Gloucester with Cheltenham and The Forest of Dean and the A417 links Gloucester with Cirencester If youre driving the best advice is to head for the docks well signposted and park there National Express runs buses from all neighbouring cities and beyond and there are frequent local services from Cheltenham Trains arrive every one or two hours at the station at Bruton Way five minutes walk east of the Cross from London Cheltenham Cardiff Worcester and Bristol the bus station is right opposite Read more More Cheltenham Englands most complete Regency town Stratford upon Avon the Birthplace of William Shakespeare Evesham the Gateway to the Cotswolds Wonderful Windsor Home of Kings and Queens of England Start Prev Next End Results 10 of 17 Back Tea Musk Public Forum Full Web Site Map Tea Musk Public Library Links News News Feeds Tea Musk Home We have guests online Username username Password password Remember Me Remember me Lost Password No account yet Register RSS 91 RSS RSS ATOM OPML

I don't see a problem here and it's hard to think how a tableless design could improve things.

Search Engine Spider Simulator strips out the HTML tags from the page you specify and shows you how the page would look to search engine spiders. Give it go at:

http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/search-engine-simulator.shtml