Member Avatar for gomike

I'd like to change the web site I work on to look like the site, where the information sits on top of a background. I use Frontpage 2003. My site is buit on frames that fill up the entire page. Is it possible to make a background like the one on using Frontpage?

Thanks,

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by efaith77

Dani AI

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For the look you described (page content sitting on top of a decorative background) the usual pattern is to put the decorative image on the page root (html/body) and place the site HTML inside a centered wrapper that has its own solid or semi‑transparent background so text stays readable. That yields the “msn-like” effect without sacrificing contrast or responsiveness.

Frames complicate this. Each frame is a separate document, so a single background behind all frames either has to be put on the outer frameset (deprecated and not recommended) or replicated in each frame document. The practical, long‑term fix is to stop using frames and convert the layout to modern CSS + a wrapper div (frames are obsolete — see MDN: frameset). If staying with FrontPage 2003 for now, edit the top frameset file or each framed page’s HTML to add the decorative background; make sure image paths are correct for each file.

Example (modern approach — not a FrontPage wizard command):

/* decorative background applied to the page root */
html, body {
  height: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  background-image: url("assets/bg-large.jpg");
  background-position: top center;
  background-repeat: no-repeat;
  background-size: cover;
  background-color: #f0f2f4; /* fallback if image fails */
}

/* centered content area kept highly readable */
.wrapper {
  max-width: 980px;
  margin: 0 auto;
  padding: 20px;
  background: rgba(255,255,255,0.95); /* keeps text legible */
}

Accessibility and performance notes: agree with — avoid busy/colorful backgrounds behind body text; aim for sufficient contrast (WCAG guidance) and prefer a semi‑opaque content panel. For speed, a small repeating pattern or compressed image formats are better than a huge unoptimized file (as observed). See MDN: background shorthand/property and W3C WCAG guidance for contrast requirements.

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Member Avatar for MidiMagic

First of all, don't put text on top of a bright colorful background, or people with certain vision problems or dyslexia can't read it at all. Use a pastel background.

Second, use the background style on the body or a div. If Frontpage doesn't offer this, change to writing pure xhtml code.

Member Avatar for Davidpeter

it is possible, try it

<URL SNIPPED>

Member Avatar for wickedsunny

hey why dont u use this style in the div u want to aply the background or the body tag if u want it to display on full page. style="background:url(image.jpg)"
it will work :)

Member Avatar for financeSEObegin

This is right, except what most sites do (ie yahoo.com) probly msn too id have to check, but anyway, to ensure fast loading:

create an image with just a couple pixels in width and 700? or however many pixels in hight your page is, and tile it accross the screen. use -x for across horizontally and -y for vertically.

You can make excellent graphical backgrounds in seconds if you use linux, just use 'the gimp' graphics editor... If you want some examples PM me and ill give you some URLS. They are fairly common throughout the net, you can even right click a screen and do save-as to grab someone elses tiled bg image and use it yourself. I suppose thats not very ethical tho? :)

hey why dont u use this style in the div u want to aply the background or the body tag if u want it to display on full page. style="background:url(image.jpg)"
it will work :)

Member Avatar for efaith77

i have many background files you can use if you like just PM and I will send them to you.

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