FrontPage 2003 advances your Web development in three key areas:Designing - Use enhanced design tools to produce better-looking Web sites. New layout and graphics tools make it easier to design your site exactly the way you want.Coding - Use design tools to generate better code or expand your coding skills. Use built-in scripting tools for interactive results. And with professional coding tools, you can write code faster, more efficiently and with greater accuracy.Extending - Connect with people and information in new ways by building Extensible Markup Language (XML) data-driven Web sites using the first commercially available, completely WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) editor. The enhanced publishing features and options help you get your Web pages online more quickly. XML collaboration requires Microsoft Windows Server 2003.Upgrade requires that a full version of a FrontPage application has already installed.
1 I prefer this to Dreamweaver
I've found this newest version of Front Page to be the best Microsoft has ever delivered. It's intuitive, easy to use, has clean HTML and an affordable price. I bought Dreamweaver MX after reading all the reviews about how wonderful it was. It has an easy way of creating rollovers but that's about it as far as I'm concerned. I think FP wins hands down and would certainly recommend it..
2 What FrontPage should have been all along
Microsoft finally got this version of FrontPage right. I have uses FP since 97/98 and started using Dreamweaver because of the limitations and "clunkyness" of the old versions. This version however seems to get it right, and I have no problems recommending this to either amature or experienced webmasters.
3 Oh yes this can make large commercial sites
I have used FP since it first came out. I love it. I have 77 sites and a couple of businesses. My average site is fairly large with sometimes 2000 pages and then there are products for sale. Yes Front page can be used for a business however the one problem that is correctly stated by these reviews is that it does not offer the ability to do special graphics such as mouseover effects that can only be made with Dreamweaver or other products if you need fancy graphics you will need another product to produce it. But then again such fanasy websites with script and java often have their own drawbacks such as problems with search engines listing them. This program will do for 99% of your sites and will allow flash presentations.
4 HTML made easy but.....
Front Page is Microsoft's solution to web page creation. It simplifies web pages by giving you three windows. One is the normal view, which gives you word processing type tools. If you are familiar with copy and paste, and changing font colors and sizes, inserting pictures via copy and paste or the insert file, picture, etc method, then that is a giant leap from learning HTML code. No code experience is necessary. That is all in Normal view. If you click the tab on the bottom that says HTML, you instantly see the entire page in HTML. So what you have is the intuitive interface of Microsoft Word etc, and the automatic capability of HTML. If you click on the third tab on the bottom, you see Preview. Preview activates your creation to see what it will look like when published. If you have any active items, like streaming banners, or little cartoon like characters making movements, they will come alive.
A word of caution is worth mentioning. Front Page commands are a bit different in many ways as well. For example when I first learned the program I was frustrated that I could not put type on the following line. It would skip a line, automatically going to double spacing. After doing a lot of digging in the book, I found out that you have to hold down "shift" then press the return-enter button to go down a single line. I don't want to oversimplify the program. Their is a slight learning curve. In a lot of ways it is like a word processor, and in a lot of other ways, it is learning a new language. It follows the usual MSFT learning curve of frustration followed by elation.
So pick up a book and spend some time with the program. After all conquer this one, and you open up the .com world. With many sites offering free web site hosting for the privilege of being able to show banner ads on your site, you can create multiple sites without any monthly charge. The only expense is the annual .com name registration, which is less than ten dollars at GoDaddy.com for example.
So what Front Page does is give you the capability of easily creating web pages (after the slight learning curve) Do you have a business, publish it. What about a social organization, or your network of friends. Interactive sites with discussion boards, that is easy with FP. The sky is the limit.
To take advantage of features like web page hit counters etc, the server you are publishing to must have Front Page extensions installed. Many web host providers have an extension option. After joining you go online and click on the "Install Front Page Extensions" If your web host doesn't have that option you can still use Front Page to your advantage. By creating your web page in normal mode, then clicking on the HTML view, you can take the HTML code, copy and paste it. This gives you creative power in submitting eBay's ads for example. When you use ebay's insertion tool, you simply paste your creation into the description area. When you preview your ad their it is in its full creative glory with colorful fonts, inserted pictures etc. No simple bland black and white text. That is just another example of the new world that opens up to you with Front Page.
I highly recommend the product. Nothing is perfect, but it makes it possible for the rest of us to create stylish professional web pages with minimal effort. Buy it you won't be sorry.
5 Not for Advanced Web Designers
I use FrontPage mainly for a page editing and design. Also, I've found a few of the other features helpful as well such as themes, shared borders and navigation bars. The guts of my site, however, rely heavily on cgi and various Perl modules. I have not had many conflicts with FrontPage until this latest version. I've experienced program freezes, unwanted file permission changes, unexpected theme changes and many other annoying bugs. For advanced users wanting to upgrade, I would suggest waiting until Microsoft has time to fix all the bugs in this version.
6 Professional Quality WebPages, with ease.
FrontPage 2003 features an excellent overhaul to certain elements of the programs interface. With superior features focusing on making website management and creation targetted to the professional developer, yet making sophiscated web pages for the novice. An excellent feature in FrontPage 2003, is Split view, giving users the best of both worlds by displaying HTML Code and the active web page in real time.The program continues to improve its integration with other popular Office applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access. Users are able to create dynamic content with FrontPage that connects web pages to product databases and hyperlinking documents and spreadsheets is always a synch. Support for third party web browsers is also integrated into FrontPage 2003, this is a feature many users have longed for which breaks the barrier of proprietory with Internet Explorer, opening the doors to Mozilla and Netscape. You can test your web pages at different resolutions, so your web pages always look good.
This program is not a replacement for Macromedia Dreaweaver, but FrontPage 2003 is really showing its maturity with this excellent release, and finally reaching the status of programs like Macromedia Homesite and Contribute. It is a recommended upgrade for users of FrontPage 98, 2000 and even 2002, especially if you want to take your web pages to new heights.
7 Excellent Upgrade
Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 sports a new "Windows XP"-like interface. The major changes to this version, however, occur under the hood.
FrontPage 2003 creates cleaner code than any previous version. FrontPage also supports web development technologies such as ASP.NET. FrontPage 2003 is able to create more complex web solutions easier than any previous version.
One major drawback to FrontPage is its lack of support for PHP. As PHP becomes more common it is surprising that Microsoft still does not support it natively in FrontPage 2003.
FrontPage's more robust code and intuitive interface make it an excellent upgrade.
