Customer Reviews

Microsoft FrontPage 2000 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

FrontPage 2000 is, like much of Microsoft Office 2000, very little improvement over its predecessors.

I eat, breath and sleep Web design and site management. Since 1994 I have searched high and low for a Web page editor that would provide the same kind of control and ease-of-use that I had come to expect from page layout programs like Quark XPress and PageMaker. I tried them all: PageMill, NetObjects Fusion, AOLPress, and then FrontPage. While better than what had come before, FrontPage has always had one overwhelming shortcoming: it is inexorably linked to other Microsoft software, particularly the IIS Web server and Internet Explorer.

I am not a Microsoft-hater; I use IE5 everyday and think it to be a very good browser. And I used FP98 for a number of sites in the past. However, the many problems raised by other reviewers are legitimate

- HTML "Correction" - All versions of FP give the author access to the underlying HTML code, but not complete control over it. If there was only one right way to do something in HTML, that wouldn't be a problem, but with three or four ways to centre something, how can FP know which one is correct? An HTML editor should give the user complete control over all code. Pointing out errors is fine, but correcting them without asking is not.

- Server-side extensions - While FP offers some cool stuff like a guestbook, what isn't made clear to the novice user is that you will need to have FrontPage extensions installed on your hosting server in order for the gizmos to work. A lot of ISPs don't want to do this, which is understandable when CGI scripts can accomplish the same functions with less hassles.

- Bad HTML Code - Like most Web editors that have come before it, FP2K produces bloated HTML.

- IE-specific JavaScript and DHTML - The first time I tried to slam out a page in FP2K, this problem bit me. JavaScript is a problematic thing: different Web browsers interpret it differently. It is important to use code that will be understood equally well by IE and Netscape. With FP2K, forget it. Some JavaScript and DHTML effects are cross-browser, but many are not, and the interface doesn't tell us which is which.

FrontPage 2000 is not a professional Web designer's tool. For them, there is Macromedia Dreamweaver, and text editors like Allaire Homesite and HotMetal. And FP2K isn't a tool for people just starting out, because they won't know how limiting the software really is until it is too late. For them, I recommend a good free WYSIWYG editor such as Netscape Composer or Namo WebEditor, and some books on HTML.

The bottom line? Take a serious look around before purchasing FrontPage 2000.

As a professional web designer who spends countless hours using different programs, YES I DO WORK IN DREAMWEAVER, I find that the Microsoft Front Page 2000 has gotten a bad rap.

A lot of my professional collegues scoff at the idea that a professional designer uses Dreamweaver. They say Front Page is not a real program, it's for hack web designers.

What most of these designers are missing is the true point of MS Front Page 2000. It is designed for the average joe to come in and be able to design and maintain a simple site with out a huge learning curve. The interface is very familiar to any Microsoft Office user and they don't have to spend a lot of time learning the meaning and locations of new buttons and tools.

My Company AffordableNetSolutions.com has become a great sucess by designing complex web design and graphics and then empowering our customers to use MS Front Page 2000 to edit and maintain their own sites. It is easy to add/change photos, edit text and create new pages based upon an exising model. Our customers are thrilled with our service and the fact that they don't have to pay an expensive web designer to make simple changes to their web site.

I beleive that so many web designers who complain that MS Front Page is a loser program are failing to realizing the benefits that this software can provide for the customers. Sure, from a professional web designer standpoint Dreamweaver is more functional to do layout design and such. But, it's interface is very intimidating to a newbie. Also, a lot of features of Dreamweaver require you to have some knowledge of programming.

Microsoft Front Page 2000 on the other hand is less expensive, easier to use, and no programming is required. People who don't have a lot of time and money to spare will find this to be a useful program.

It is so frustrating to read the reviewers who blast FrontPage and extol their favorite web editor. In most cases it is not the program's fault but the fault of the user. To the reviewer who stated, "...I'd recommend Front Page only to users who know that they won't be creating complex websites..." is totally off the mark. An experienced and knowledgeable web author, not the program, creates a complex web site. Yes, FrontPage hides much of the complexity of creating a simple web site and yes, using the surface features of FrontPage will only get you so far. That is why, like using any other complex product, one has to spend time learning the program and find out what it can and do... Flash animations

If you need a tool to quickly get a web site up and running, and one that will grow with you, FronPage is your best bet for your money. Or if you are a content producer on an intranet where you need basic workflow and group editing features, FP is sill the answer. If you are purely a programmer or scripting professional that does complex database work on enterprise-level databases, FrontPage may not be for you.

Besides its ease-of-use and powerful features, FrontPage also has the largest third-party support of any web authoring product. Dreamweaver does have its extensions architecture that adds additional functionality to the product, but the breadth of available extensions does not match FrontPage's add-in support.

If you are serious about your site and you want a program that will grow with you, FrontPage is the answer. For program enhancements, visit the Microsoft Office Update site (officeupdate.microsoft.com)

A great web site is a product of the web author, not the product that built it.

If you are new to web publishing then Frontpage 2000 may be the way to go. It does not quite offer the same level of handholding that the other Office Suite products offer (like Word). For example, the help file is not as complete as you would expect if you were a long time Word user. But if you are willing to work at it, you can become proficient at publishing fairly complex web pages.

If you want to make your website interactive then be sure you get a website host that uses the Frontpage Extensions. A couple of drawbacks of this software are:

1. It crashes a lot under Win 95 (surprise) 2. The web pages do not, by default, save locally automatically. If you are working on 5 web pages at a time you have to remember to save each one every 15 minutes due to it crashing often. 3. The pages created in MS Frontpage 2000 often look different in Netscape than they do in Internet Explorer.

Some major pluses:

1. It lets you manage even very complex websites with ease. FP 2000 offers powerful management tools that let you see all your web pages in one place with all the directory structure intact. That is a huge bonus if you have to maintain several websites and update on the fly often. Your websites stay local and you update the entire online portion with the click of a button. 2. It has spellcheck. Surf the net a bit... nuff said =-) 3. It is comprehensive and will allow most novice to intermediate web designers to do what they need to do without learning a line of HTML.

I use this software almost daily to develop about 80% of my web sites for business clients. The site management is the best there is. The WSIWYG editor works well and can be hand coded. You can also paste in custom scripts. FP makes some common features available at the touch of a button--forms, hover buttons, search site engines, comment forms, etc. It's a snap to use. It's easy to make cascading style sheets, etc. You can specify which browser versions you want to be compliant to. All of the automatically generated features are easily worked into your page design. A couple of features, like flying banners, aren't viewable in Netscape, but that's a minor flaw. My only complaint is that it writes fatter code than one would write hand coding. Even if you don't host your web on a server that supports FP extensions, this software is still worth the money & effort. The only features that won't work in this situation are the few that require executable scripts, like forms. I'm not crazy about the FP built in themes, but there are extra downloadable ones on the installation CD-ROM. I do custom work, and have only used the themes once. Plug-ins that offer more javascripts are also available from other software manufactures & enhance the product. I would never use Image Composer, but it's certainly more cost effective than buying Photoshop, which is the industry standard. This product works for beginners and also advanced users. The documentation isn't very good, but there are a lot of FP tip sites on the web and also many good books that explain how to do it all. A beginner could do a decent personal or business site in a weekend by using the FrontPage wizards.

Years ago we started out with studying complicated Html andwriting alll this strange code, going through all the tedious,confusing process. But we didn't want to be geeks, we just wanted to create excellent professional-looking Websites with not too much of a hassle in a short period of time. And thanks to Bill Gates for making Microsoft FrontPage 2000 available, it's certainly the easiest Web-authoring tool out there and the results can look just as professional as with any of the other complicated software tools, but with FP2000 you can do the job in a fraction of time. With FrontPage you'll save so much time: once you know it, it's basically like click and paste and it's so much fun to create new Websites and Web pages. Although you don't necessarily need it, but if you combine FrontPage with MS PhotoDraw and other MS applications, your Website will fly with excellent special features and graphics like a rocket. . . . We have only good things to say about it, and of course FrontPage 2000 is a tremendous improvement from the previous version. To really get into the heart of FrontPage 2000 you will need a few easy books to show you some tricks which you won't find in the original MS manuals, e.g. FrontPage 2000 Fast & Easy by Coletta Witherspoon is very helpful, and it will give you a headstart. But using FrontPage 2000 is a walk in the park compared to any other professional Web-creation software. We highly recommend it!

If you know absolutely nothing about creating a Web page, Front Page is actually too complicated for you. That is, if very basic things like "navigation bars" and "banners" are not part of your vocabulary. It's like taking a foreign language: Although Intermediate Hebrew is much simpler than Advanced Hebrew, it still assumes you know the Hebrew alphabet. So, if you haven't yet tackled basic Web principles, go buy Publisher 2000 first, and use its Wizard. That's the best tutorial.

But if you are ready to move to the next level and want a site that demonstrates more stability and consistency than a site created in Publisher can give you, then you should consider Front Page 2000. You do indeed need a manual, combined with calling Microsoft's tech support line during your initial free support period (ie, once you start working, finish your project, so you can use tech support for the duration).

A noticeable flaw in Microsoft's generally decent interface between its various software packages: You cannot import your Publisher Web site into Front Page. They do need to fix this glitch. Nor can you import Publisher "themes" into Front Page, and the themes in the two packages are not at all similar. But do be sure to ask about your discount on Front Page when you buy it (because you owned Publisher).

I would recommend doing your "intermediate level" Web site in Front Page using their 'canned' themes, then tinkering with it as you learn more about design. For example, you will want to customize their themes or abandon them completely, creating your own, in order to preserve your individuality. Fix those kind of design issues later. Concentrate first on learning the new material. Then you can start downloading new buttons etc.

Front Page does not handle JPEGs well as thumbnails, nor smaller versions of photographs, even if you do all the edit work you're supposed to. However, the large versions, once someone has clicked on a thumbnail, are quite good and do not lose clarity.

Additionally, the photographic clip art in Microsoft's online clip art gallery (that you can download free) works well, and seems to retain its sharpness.

I like using Front Page and find it is all that a small to mid-size company (or individual) needs. If your Web site needs to accommodate large databases or fast-loading pictures, you may need to upgrade to Dreamweaver or pay a professional Web designer. Till then, stick with Front Page and learn all you can using its tools, till you are ready to go on to the upper level courses.

NB: An advantage that Front Page has over Publisher, is that it comes with its "FTP" built in. Good, because you don't need to get one of your own. Bad, because it makes it more difficult to send your Web site to someone else on disk (many elements simply don't work till they are uploaded, so you cannot send it to Aunt Sally to look at on her computer, even if she has Front Page).

And you do need to remind the company hosting your site to enable Front Page extensions. You would think that this would be part of their systems check when you upload, but for some reason, most don't bother till you call them and remind them to do so.

If you are looking to write web pages with not much experience writting html, javascript or vbscript. This html composer will only take you so far and leave hanging in the dark. I suggest Hotmetal 6.0. I have 97 and work with 2000 at work. 2000 Frontpage is for someone that just wants to have a web page. If you want a good web page get HTM 6.0 . Hotmetal can take you from novice to hardcore. You can instantly switch between veiws , Html , tags , WYSIWYG(What You See Is What You Get) . The biggest reason why not to get FrontPage you can't edit the html source. As you learn the language it is easier to mess with the HTML tags because WYSIWYG views don't always allow you todo what you want to do, leaving you hanging. Now I love microsoft products (I have Visaul C++ Pro,office,image,much more) but not this one , this was made for someone that is always reading the series books "Microsoft Frontpage for Dummies". I am offering my opinion because I like to make good web pages and Frontpage will not take you there. As for mid range html editors hotmetal is better. In the high range feild go for Microsoft Internet Devolper . It can check you JavaScript and VBScript before you save(it has a debugger). Neither Hotmetal or FrontPage offers you this . I suggest that you think what you want to do. If your looking to take a web far go with Internet DEV. because when you want to write DHTML and other high tech pages internet Dev will help you. If you want a good looking page and a way to generate mutiple pages quickly go with HOTMETAL 6.0 and save a little cash too.

I published my first homepage back in 1995. It required learning basic HTML, and was relatively unattractive. Every file had to be manually uploaded, which took an unbelievable amount of time. Basically, it meant that I created my page, and just left it there for two years, because I had forgotten how to FTP files to it. Enter Frontpage 2000! I've now created a webpage that I add to about once a week. With FP2000, all you have to do is hit the "Publish" button, and all the icky technical stuff is done in the background for you. I've got about 100 photos and 7mb of space in use, and FP2000 lets me handle it all easily. The wizards are particularly helpful, allowing me to create the framework for my site in less than 15 minutes. Creating a new page is as simple as going to the navigation menu, clicking on the square representing the page you want to add to, and dragging a new page from it. All the hyperlinks are automatically updated, and the link to the new page is added to the menu on the original page. I also used the book "How to use Frontpage 2000: Visually in Full Color" by Paul Heltzel, and found it extremely helpful. Armed with this guide and the FP2000 program, I'm sure you could turn your kids loose on the computer for an hour or two, and come back to a new functioning web site. Highly recommended!

I started using Front Page 2000 about a month ago. For a guy who doesn't know HTML and had never set up a website before, it seemed like a dream. The interface is brutally simple if you've used any other MS Office program and I had a site built less than 24 hours later.

But when I wanted to add some animation I created in Flash 4.0, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do it. I ended up creating the webpage in Dreamweaver and then importing it into Front Page. This didn't work and I spent hours reading through different Front Page "bibles" looking for an answer. Not one of the seven books I looked at even mentioned Flash, let alone how to incorporate it into Front Page. If there's a way to do this, I couldn't find it.

So I switched over to Dreamweaver and I'm loving life. It is a little harder to get up and running, but once you figure all the features out, it's just as easy to use as Front Page. And it's got exponentially more features than FP 2000.

So I'd recommend Front Page only to users who know that they won't be creating complex websites. Ever. But if you're looking to learn about creating sites and need a program to grow with you, I'd recommend spending the cash on Dreamweaver.

P.S. Dreamweaver let me import my entire FP 2000-built site into its interface in less than a minute. Five minutes later, my Flash graphics were finally visible to the WWW!