Customer Reviews

Special Edition Using Microsoft FrontPage 98

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I looked forward to getting this book home and delving into - as I bought it in the United Kingdom it cost almost $100.00! It was so huge I assumed that it would have all the information I required and more besides. Well it does and it doesn't. Firstly it hasn't a coloured image in it - bearing in mind the cost of the book and the graphical nature of the subject this seems to me to be a serious oversight.

Some of the black and white illustrations, most of which are screen grabs, are excellent but the tendendency for the authours to introduce their topic and then say - they will discuss the more advanced features later and then have to wade through to find just what they had in mind is most unrewarding, particularly as sometimes I really do believe he forgot to add them!. The section on frames leaves your head reeling and is far than a perfect explanation as the authours tend to fall back on "Microsoftese" - which as we all know "ain't that easy! Similarly the section on Image Composer could have done with some more practical examples. One of the reasons for buying Que Books is because they include a cd-rom at the back - well you tell me what good that does as it is just a collection of bits of software and links for the more erudite - some of which date back to 1986 - oh yes and of course a nice coloured plug for their other books Inn fac the only colour in over 900 pages of b&w.

Frankly despite the appalling costs of books in the UK I am going to have to fork out another £40 - yes you lucky people in the USA almost $100!- to find another book which fills in the gaps.

Perhaps I have asked too much of a single book but would advise the unwary unless they are already fairly familiar with FP would look elsewhere and have been recommended FrontPage Unleashed so hope that will solve my frustrations.

PS Anyone want a well thumbed copy of "Using Microsoft FrontPage"!

The book is impressive - nearly 900 pages, but most of them are just too basic. I am an experienced Frontpage 97 user, and I learn faster just playing with the program. The authors go in extend with beginning stuffs such as adding images, changes text etc.. while on advanced topics such as adding activeX controls and scripts, there is simply not enough information. The layout of topics is confusing too. For example: discussion web (forum) is appeared in 2 places: 1. Chapter 23, pages 537 (deal with creating, posting and deleting articles), and 2. chapter 11, page 249 (discussion form handler). In my opinion, if the author group them together, it will be easier to follow.

The CD have many sharewares, but most of them are not that useful.

I would rate this one worse that the "Laura" series.

I bought Using Frontpage 98 and Mastering Frontpage 98 and neither really said much. Using Frontpage 98 is a book written for beginners in NON-beginner language. Mastering Frontpage 98 is slightly better, but they are still both difficult to follow and where is information on Active Server Pages, JavaScript, VB Script, and any of the advanced features?! They aren't in either of these. However, if you are patient and want to know all the basics of Frontpage, then the books might be for you.

I have to say I was very disappointed in this book. The authors obviously used a Beta copy of both FP 98 and Image Composer. There are many places where there is simply incorrect information. For example, the description of using the Database Wizard to integrate your pages with a database...it was part of FP 97 and no longer exists. Another example, the early screen shots of Image Composer show version 1.0...version 1.5 ships with FP 98.

The majority of the book is filled with non-FP topics, such as ActiveX and VBSScript. Although those are important topics for Web designers, they seem to just be filler because there is so little information about FP itself.

I'm already familiar with all the basic functions of FrontPage and was looking for explanations and guides into more advanced features. I found this book to be very good with lots of detail. It's huge! Use your knees to lift this one!

Getting started with Home Page example was a disaster and big waste of time. The sample (page 33) in the book did not match what was on my screen. I tried with the manual that came with FrontPage 98 and had no problem. One of the steps: Choose File, Open from Web was not even possible to do. With this kind of beginning, I was not about to go any further. I will demand a refund and try another book or go it on my own.

I agree with reader #1. Time and time again, I referred to the book only to find that it contained inaccurate information that simply did not work.

I asked the publisher if there was and updated version, for which there was not.