Customer Reviews

Microsoft® FrontPage® Version 2002 Inside Out (Inside Out (Microsoft))

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

......If you use FrontPage 2002 and want to get the most out of it, this is your book. Buyens covers nearly every important aspect of Web development from site planning to development and deployment. He teaches you how to use FrontPage to do this and fills in the gaps (that any WYSIWYG development tool will leave). The topics include: every aspect of FrontPage 2002 (given), building and managing whole Web sites, design conventions (fonts, colors, graphics, etc.), Cascading Style Sheets, HTML, forms, Web server info, Active Server Pages, database usage, and a host of others. He gives lots of code snippets that you need as well as tips and tricks; intermediates and beginners will benefit greatly from this. More advanced topics like ASP and ADO are given a good introduction if you want it. The CD adds several bonus chapters of advanced content and tools.
......At first scan, I was a little overwhelmed with the whole book. When I finally sat down to go through the whole book (and actually read it) each chapter made great sense. I was able to skim a few sections that I knew well, but still got some helpful "inside" information from them. This book is very comprehensive and is not overly technical.
......I recommend it both for the IT pro who wants complete control over his/her Web site design and management and for enthusiastic beginners (and everyone in between). If you just want to create simple Web pages like Word docs, I suggest something like _Front Page, Step by Step_ instead. If you want to use FrontPage to create dynamic, quality, and easy to maintain Web sites, this is your COMPLETE reference.

As the arrival of Office XP is here so too are a new set of applications and the learning of the application features are imperative to making sure you are getting the most out of the application possible. Since Microsoft created the application, it's no surprise that they are the first to produce a book to help you out.

The book takes Front Page 2002 apart step by step and module by module. The author has gone to great pains to make sure that every part of the application is broken down and explained so there is no doubt of how and why things work the way they do.

From the beginning of this 1200 plus page book you cover topics such as planning the website, using wizards to create sites automatically, editing the basic page, how to publish and the structuring of the web pages.

From there you move on to areas like animation within the page, database integration, personal web server and active X controls. The cdrom included has bonus section like active server pages, visual basic applications and creating your own customized copy of Front Page.

Overall there is a great deal of information in this book. While the book is tailored for the intermediate to advanced user there is bound to be something in here for everyone.

Jim Buyens has written another great book on FrontPage. Microsoft FrontPage Version 2002 Inside Out is 1213 page and over 2 inches thick. Saying it is jam-packed is an understatement.

There are hundreds of solutions and great time saving steps. Jim is great for giving you the straight scoop on everything; he is very detailed and easy to read. Microsoft FrontPage Version 2002 Inside Out is jam-packed with screen shoots. There are an abundance of Tips, Notes and Troubleshooting guides throughout the book.

Both the novice and intermediate will get something out of this book. Experts should be writing books like this.

The companion CD is designed to actually work with the book and not put in as an after thought. I have been using FrontPage 2000 for about 2 years and found Microsoft FrontPage Version 2002 Inside Out, an outstanding resource and learn tool. If your office is upgrading to FP2002, you should not be without this book. If you are new to FrontPage then you should defiantly not be with out this book. In fact if you do not purchase Microsoft FrontPage Version 2002 Inside Out when you purchase FrontPage 2002 you WILL regret it.

Even if you get this book for NEW FEATURES, you will not regret it.

Topics in this book are scattered between the text and a CD. Some of the stuff on the CD is critical, so you have to look at both, a nuisance. Also, topics are really only itemized (like a dictionary (not organized logically). So to do anything (like speaking the language with only a dictionary, and not a phrase book) requires a lot of (i)thinking, (ii) page turning and (iii) CD spinning.

This is my 3rd Buyens book. Anymore, I look forward to his works. This is a must read for any serious FrontPage web site developer. What I *really* like, however, is the electronic version of the book (on CD) with the bonus chapters. It's very convenient to be able to read the book on my computer as I work through the lessons. Especially on my laptop. Casual FrontPage users might find this book a little much, but it would still be a great reference. I can honestly say that the things I've learned from Jim's books have helped me to become a Registered Web Presence Developer for Microsoft® FrontPage®. Thanks, Jim!

A. Demitrius Lopez
http://www.demitrius.com/

I must say, this book was the perfect solution for me. I had a background in object-oriented programming (visual c++), but absolutely NO experience WHATSOEVER with web/internet programming.

At first, I thought my goal was a little out of reach. I wanted to create a database-driven website that could recieve thousands of hits a day yet stay under my ISP's traffic limit of 5Gb per month. To top it all off, I wanted to start from scratch and have it all ready to go within 2 weeks.

This book was my savior. Every single problem I encountered was covered in intricate detail. What really separated this book from the countless other frontpage books I tried was its explanation of database relationships and how to work around the standard conventions.

Also, most people say that frontpage is too limited graphics-wise. That is true if you follow frontpage conventions, however, this book (along with the newsgroups on microsofts's website) will teach you how to "tweak" the code to get almost any result you want.

Highly recommended.

In terms of topic range and coverage, quality of explanations and general layout, this book must be the best value available on Frontpage. The coverage of database integration will get anyone, and I mean anyone, up and running with a database backed website. If you need more bells and whistles, there're laid out here.

Like all the Inside Out books, the text is worth buying just to have the ebook on CD available. It is a great bonus having the ebook accessible in a browser while you're probing a particular implementation. If you need to know how to use Frontpage professionally, this is the book to purchase. I have two other well known Frontpage books which I evaluated for academic courses, and this book towers over both.

Compared to Running Frontpage 2000 by the same author, this book has eliminated a lot of the blather. Instead of unremitting praise, the author now even admits some of the limitations of Frontpage. There is a lot of detail here, but the book is still a jigsaw puzzle if you want to answer a question or put something together. To add to this difficulty, about 270 pages of the book are on the CD. A lot of this CD material is basic, so you now not only have to flip pages, but spin the CD to explore a topic.

Not a winner.

While I absolutely loathe the Front Page program (it's too restrictive, too bland, and too boring) this book is an absolute must if you're stuck using the program (like me). While I'd much rather use Dreamweaver to make creative, intuitive sites, Front Page is good for creating the basic, the bland, and the boring. This book will show you how to push Front Page to its rather too-defined limits and will help you to get the most out of this limited program that you can. The layout and information provided within are great for both beginners and advanced users. It is easy to find what you're looking for when you're looking for it and, best yet, where you expect to find it.

I rate myself as an extremely competent user of FrontPage 2002, and yet I battled so much with this book that I sent it back. It should be made clear by the publishers that the book is only for advanced web designers.