Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 [Paperback]

William R. Stanek (Author), Greg Holden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 17, 2003 | Series: Faster Smarter

Now you can do the things you do every day with FrontPage 2003—design and publish Web pages, create rich content, add dynamic features—but do them faster, smarter, and better. Dive in! This friendly, focused guide shows the best ways to get a great-looking Web site up and running, so you spend more time doing and less time learning. Use the quick lists, numbered steps, and helpful examples to accelerate your productivity—and do the cool things you want to do!

• Get expert tips to design and organize your Web pages
• Make templates, wizards, and themes work harder for you
• Take control of your site’s look—and add polish—with style sheets, tables, and layers
• Create amazing still images, video clips, animations, soundtracks, and more
• Create amazing still images, video clips, animations, soundtracks, and more
• Generate and clean up your HTML and XML code—faster
• Produce easy-to-use forms, real-time feeds, and other database-driven features
• Extend the power of your Web to connect people and information in new waysLearn to work with FrontPage the Faster Smarter way!
• 10-Second Summary—see what each chapter covers at a glance
• Fast Wrap-Up—review key points and takeaways from every chapter
• Real-World Examples—apply what you learn to real work, right now
• Aha! Tips—get insider tips and insights to fuel your productivity
• Top 10 Troubleshooting Solutions—find fast answers, right inside the cover!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

William R. Stanek has over 20 years of hands-on experience with advanced programming and development. He has written nearly 100 books including: Microsoft Windows Vista Administrator's Pocket Consultant, Windows Server 2008 Inside Out, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Administrator's Pocket Consultant 2nd Edition, and Microsoft IIS 7.0 Administrator's Pocket Consultant (all from Microsoft Press). He also wrote MCSE Core Exams in a Nutshell and Windows Vista: The Definitive Guide for O'Reilly.

Greg Holden is the author of more than 35 books on Internet- and computer-related topics, including the Web design applications Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. He also does Web development for the design firm NewCor Group. He helped design recruitment literature and course catalogs for the University of Chicago. He lives in Chicago with his two teenage daughters and assorted birds, fish, and other pets.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 1 edition (September 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735619727
• ISBN-13: 978-0735619722
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,652,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Maybe Faster But Not Smarter, February 16, 2004

By 

Frank Dutton (Many, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 (Paperback)

This book would almost certainly have to be a disappointment for anyone. If you are just starting to work with websites this book will give you just enough info to get you in trouble and lost; if you are experienced it will completely disappoint.

Since the book is by Microsoft Press, it shouldn't be a surprise that it promotes every possible Microsoft service to combine with this FrontPage 2003 product.

While the book does a nice job of quickly and concisely presenting the how-to of simple processes - that's all it does. Even when it warns that there can be problems, it doesn't say anything about solving the problems - and it usually seems to assume there just couldn't be much of a problem because you must be using all new Microsoft products and be on Microsoft servers - preferably through their own facilities.

I purchased the book with a lot of web experience and as a user of Macromedia Dreamweaver thinking I might find some of the new FrontPage 2003 features usable and move some of my work to it. While a couple of pages mention ASP (Active Server Pages) it is very brief. Working with existing sites and content is not mentioned; techniques used with ASP are not mentioned; no specifics of any kind are mentioned with respect to how FrontPage 2003 works or what type of code it generates. This book would have you believe you just go through the simple menu items and everything else magically happens - no underlying code or processes that could either go wrong or that you might want to change or be aware of. Even the much touted integration with data access and XML is only mentioned briefly - offering no idea how or if it can be utilized on anything other than a SharePoint Server.

If you are only a rank beginner and plan to work only on Microsoft servers and do a simple site and follow the templates and use all Microsoft products and are fortunate enough not to have any sort of problems with anything - this book might help you get off to a nice start. If you don't understand something or encounter a problem, you will need to look elsewhere for assistance. If, for some strange reason, you want to understand how anything works and what processes are generated or want to integrate features from ASP or do anything that isn't automatic with FrontPage - this isn't the book for you.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, March 18, 2004

By 

Yang Lee - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 (Paperback)

I spent an hour in the bookstore looking for a good book to get me started on FrontPage. For me it was a choice of the best book for the money and $50 seemed way too much to spend on a book plus I didn't think I need a huge book.

There are more than a few $20-25 FrontPage books trust me. The choice to get this book came down to the fact it is the best book. In 350 pages it covers everything I am ever going to do on FrontPage and then some. I liked the cut to the chase approach. Chapter 1 was excellent to get me up to speed on all the technologies adn features needed. Chapters 4-9 is where I've spent the most time. I read each chapter, then used the examples to create my site.

Nothing but praise for this excellent book. I have shared it with several colleagues who set up sites as well.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent...does what I expected, February 22, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Faster Smarter Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 (Paperback)

As a recent DreamWeaver to FrontPage switcher, this book has been invaluable to me. Even with the easy Windows GUI and 2 years of design experience I found this book to be a great read and reference.

I expected this book to target the end-user and designers and in that respect it met my expectations. Faster Smart FrontPage 2003 is exactly what it claims to be: a faster smarter way to learn FrontPage 2003. I was pleasantly surprised when I found the authors emphasized sound design and put in many under-the-hood details. Those little details make all the difference.

It is filled with a ton of *good* info ranging from very basic to fairly in-depth. The material is well-organized and well-laid out, making it easy to read, easy to use.

This is a great book whether you're relatively new to FrontPage or have some experience. If you have already know FrontPage 2003 or have many years of advanced experience, you'll probably want to use this book only as a quick reference for how to get something done. If you are looking for an expert book this isn't it.

Having switched to FrontPage 2003 I was left wondering exactly how to do things. FrontPage is easy to use but there are a lot of times when you need help and this book is a big help. The writing style is both thorough and concise and does a good job of bridging the gap between complete novice and intermediate user needs. Last, the book is very current when it comes to design and does a good job of steering you around design pitfalls.