Complete Dummies Guide to Creating a Personalized Hit Counter and Making It Work - FrontPage Tutorial

Jacquelin Vanderwood May 1, 2003 1 I struggled for quite awhile to find out why my own hit counter that I created would not work. I searched the Help in FP and then searched the web. No one ever seems to give you the complete process so after an hour or so of wondering why it wouldn't work, I left the idea alone and then it came to me. It was so simple that people who write tips and tricks and tutorials just assume you know. Duh! If I struggled with it just imagine someone a lot less computer literate trying to figure it out. Let's get started with this very informative and COMPLETE GUIDE to creating your own personalized hit counter AND making it work. Begin by opening up Photoshop or any other program you might have to use. I'll use Photoshop for this lesson.  Create a new layer. Select the Rectangle tool. Create a square or rectangle, whichever you decide. Select a color and press Ctrl+Backspace to fill it. 2 Apply a Bevel and Emboss to the button then set an Inside stroke to it. 3 OK. We now have something to work with. 4 Using the Move tool, press Alt and Shift and drag horizontally to the right or left depending on if you are left-handed or not. Do this 8 more times until you have 10 buttons. It is very important that your buttons are evenly spaced. If you have trouble aligning them horizontally, link the layers and use the Align button, Distribute Horizontal Centers, to evenly space them. 5 Now type in a zero for the first box. Any readable font will do. Make sure it's large enough to read. I've decided to add a rather miniscule drop shadow to mine using Layer Styles. Shft+Alt to drag the zero 9 more times. 6 Click on the second zero layer and select the Text tool. Change to a 1. Do this for the rest of the numbers as well until you reach 9. If you have trouble accessing the number to change it, click on the Move tool then click back on the Text tool. Now we have exactly what we will need for the the Hit Counter. Before saving, select Trim to reduce the page down to it lowest coordinates. Press Shft+Ctrl+Alt+S to save as a gif. Use a name that identifies such as counter_johnssite or something of that nature especially if you will be creating several websites. 7 Open FrontPage. Automatically there will be a new page available. Insert the counter on the new page. 8 Right-click and select Page Properties. Change the title to whatever you have named it. I have named this one countercustom. Click the Background button and change the background color to white. Save. Steps 7 and 8 are the two steps never mentioned in other tips and tutorials related to creating a personalized Hit Counter. 9 Open your Default web page for the site you want to have the Hit Counter on. Select Insert>Component>Hit Counter... 10 Select Custom Picture and type in the name and .gif extension. Set the counter to start wherever you want and how many digits you would like to have available. Press OK. Insert text before and after the counter such as Visitors (before counter) and since (the date here). (You will need to have this uploaded to the server you are using to be able to preview it.) Save and Preview in Browser. (If you are working on a network, be sure you are logged on, import the counter into a new page and save it while logged on, and then import it onto the Default page by inserting the component). The counter will only work once it is on a server and live.    Copyright 2003, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved