Top Three Beginner's Traps In FrontPage:

Trap number one:

From my years of service on the FrontPage newsgroups at Microsoft:
FrontPage NewsGroup (news reader link)
Frontpage NewsGroup (web link)

The absolute number one issue new users have that could easily be prevented is not working within a local "web".  The manifestation of this can be broken image links, ruined navigational structure, busted themes and templates, and the list goes on.

Every time you work in FrontPage on a specific project just keep it in a "web"  in FrontPage 2002 and older it was file/ new/ web, in FrontPage 2003 it's file/ new/ site.

You can also right click any folder and select "convert to web".

Why is this important?
FrontPage considers each "web" or "site" to be a completely separate entity from any other folder or web that may contain it.  FrontPage will keep hyperlinks accurate within a web but not outside of it.  It's also something that'll become more and more important as you do your publishing through FrontPage.

To side-step a lot of projects make sure you always are working within a web or site on your local machine, when you hit file/ open you almost never want to hit file/ open/ file but instead file/ open/ web (or site in FP 03).

Trap number two:

Another big point of contention from new FrontPage users are broken image links.  This is represented on the screen as a box the size of the picture with a little red X in the corner.  This almost always happens because the image either didn't get published or the image is referencing a file location on the author's computer.

When you're working with images in FrontPage always do a file/ import.  Browse to the file or folder of files you want to import and bring them into your FrontPage web or site.

Using this technique will ensure that all your images are properly referenced and published up to your server correctly.  It's also a way to make sure you're following tip number one, since you can't import unless you've got a web or site open in front of you.

Trap number three:

The import web wizard.  This tool is much maligned but still useful in the right circumstance.  What is the import web wizard?  It's a functionality in FrontPage where all the files linked to a page on the internet are brought into a new web and assembled as well as FrontPage can figure out.

It's not the way to get a web from the server down to your machine.  To do this just hit file/ open web (or site), type in the http:// address of the site in question and log in.  This will result in the server based web opening in FrontPage for you.

At this point hit tools/ recalculate hyperlinks then file/ publish and publish it down to a location in your computer.  By "back-publishing" like this you'll ensure that you've got all the files up on the server and that all your links are accurate.

If the server based web doesn't have FrontPage extensions applied to it simply FTP the web structure down to your local machine, then with FrontPage hit file/ open web (or site) and browse to your newly downloaded folder(s).  Open it as if it were a FrontPage web, FrontPage will ask if it's OK to add additional information to the web, let it.  Once the web opens in FrontPage for you you're totally set to go.  You can edit and publish it as you would any other FrontPage web.

So, if the import web wizard isn't good for most of the reasons people would want to import a web what is it good for?
I've found it to be a good tool when I take on a client who has a site but has lost contact with the previous webmaster and or host.  In a case where you can't get server user names or passwords you can just use the import web wizard and take it from there.  You won't get everything but you'll get enough to give you a good start.

So, in summation; those are the main things that trip people up and contribute to their initial frustration trying to learn FrontPage, web publishing, and web design. 
As if the latter three weren't tough enough to do you don't need to add extra stress to the process so just keep a steady hand and keep the three tips above in mind as you work on your websites with FrontPage.

Chris Leeds , MVP, WPD
Chris Leeds is a long time digital photographer and web enthusiast.
Chris has recently developed and released a software product that allows webmasters to easily create web sites that can be edited and managed with just a browser.
See: http://ContentSeed.com/
Chris also maintains and operates Northeast Digital Photo:
http://nedp.net/
Chris has also had "Tips and Tricks" published on Microsoft's site regarding various facets of FrontPage and recently served as a technical reviewer for the O'Reilly Press "FrontPage the Missing Manual".
If you'd like to republish this or other articles just Contact Chris.