MicroSoft are trying to lock their users into using MicroSoft only software. FrontPage claims to require a MicroSoft server to publish a web site that contains a feedback or any other kind of form. In this article we show you how to set up a form to submit something to your web site in Frontpage 2003 on our — or anyone elses’ — servers.

  • Open your web in Frontpage 2003: File | Open and chose your web’s name
  • Open the HTML page that contains the form: right click on Contact me.htm and select Open
  • Disable support for proprietary (MicroSoft only) extensions: click on Tools | Page Options..
  • Select the Authoring tab and select None from FrontPage and SharePoint technologies. Close the Page Options dialogue.

FP2003 Tools Page OptionsFP2003 Tools Page Options

  • Change the settings for the form: right click anywhere inside your form and click on Form Properties.
  • In the dialogue window that comes up select Send to other

Form Properties Send to otherForm Properties Send to other

  • Now click on Options.. and enter /cgi-bin/formmail.pl in the Action field. Leave the Method set to POST and close the Options window.

Options.. ActionOptions.. Action

  • Now click on the Advanced button. In the Advanced Form Properties window click on the Add.. button. and enter recipient in the Name field and your email address in Value field

Advanced From Properties AddAdvanced From Properties Add

  • Close the window and the Form properties window
  • Switch to Code view to check everything shows up correctly: look for a line that begins with the form tag. It should say:POST” action=”/cgi-bin.formmail.pl” name=“Online orders”>. If there’s anything mark it and delete it.

Code view Form tagCode view Form tag

  • Now save and publish the page and try out your form!