Customer Reviews

Special Edition Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The other reviewers have done a fine job, and I do recommend the book, but my expectations were not completely met.

Firstly, it has a lot of repetition, which makes for a physically large book. Maybe this is good for learning for some, but I found it a little annoying.
Second, the examples are a little theoretical.
Finally the CDROM is a disappointment. Here is why

1. It includes "Woody's Office Power Pack 2003", which ONLY works with Office 2003, not XP or earlier. You have to pay for the earlier versions. No value to me, as I am an XP user.

2. The examples from the book are "buggy", and so far, I've not found them to work as advertised.

3. The so-called "software library" is only for trialware - 30 days max. The sort of thing you can download off the web anyway, so no added value here.

4. The graphics library is very small and limited when compared with other online sources - again, no added value

5. The remainder of the CDROM is simply advertising, with one valuable exception.

It has a complete copy of the book in PDF form, which is great for searching out references to subjects. Make sure you have the latest Adobe Reader. I would not bother to try reading the manual on my computer screen, but use Reader to find the right pages and go to the paper copy. But that's the only item of value that I have found on the CDROM.

I'm glad I have the book, but don't expect much from the CDROM. The claims of $ value on the CDROM are a little optimistic.

This book is more of a presentation on what Microsoft FrontPage 2003 CAN do and less of a helpful book about HOW to use FrontPage. It's touted as the "the only FrontPage 2003 book you need" but a beginner like me would be better served by buying a step-by-step instruction book.

I actually bought 3 books: Microsoft FrontPage 2003 Step-by-Step, Microsoft FrontPage 2003 Inside-Out, and Que Special Edition Using FrontPage 2003.

Step-by-step is a very useful starting point, but you'll soon run out of this book. By far, the best of the 3 is Que's Using FrontPage 2003 - it is excellent! FrontPage 2003 Inside-Out is good IF you're interested in Active Server Pages.

But all in all - if you want to buy just one I recommend Que Special Edition Using FrontPage 2003. The format lets you learn by solving problems that you run into. For example, you want find out about Banners, the book not only answers your questions but gives you the background and advise on using the feature. And the author is very candid about suggesting when to use and NOT use a particular feature. The authors obviously have used the product for real-world web sites and really wanted to share their experiences and knowledge.

This book is a refreshing departure from the "click here, then click here, choose this, click there. . ." step by step, mindless approach so many books take to teach an application. When you get through a lot of books on the market, you've done a bunch of stuff, but you still have no idea of what the application is capable of beyond the several hundred clicks you made following the plodding, step by step narrative. This book explains the capabilities of FrontPage 2003, how various functions work, and how they integrate. It also provices adequate "here's how you do it" instructions for specific procedures without treating the reader like an absolute idiot. I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning to build and manage a website with FrontPage 2003. It will not only help you accomplish specific tasks, it will help think through you plans to build your site with long term maintenance in mind.

I loved this book. It is structured in an easy to follow user friendly format. The author's while easy to read serve up each chapter with a great mix of: Info, walkthroughs, and practical advise. The book is well illustrated and encourages, while not requiring, the reader to try even the more advanced features of frontpage when building and publishing a site. I am a novice site builder and in one evening I had a little family web page up and running on the internet.

I whole heartedly recommend this book.

This is a great book. Not only did this book give me all of the information I needed on FrontPage (including a lot of tips and tweaks I couldn't find anywhere else), it also earned a spot on my reference bookshelf. One of my favorite features of the book is the browser compatibility information for all of the FrontPage 2003 behaviors. I can see at a glance whether I'll have trouble in a particular browser. This book also goes into great detail on administering a FrontPage Web site. I finally understand the server extensions and how to manage them.

Highly recommended.

From now on, I judge all tech books by this one! On books that I keep for reference (and this one is a keeper), I generally have so many notes in the margins, and additions to the Table of Contents, that I am writing sideways. I have some great books on my reference shelf, and it is no reflection on them that I don't use the `language' that techies use, so I frequently do not know how to `ask the question'. This book (did I say `Book'? I meant `Library'!<G>) has it all, including the most complete and inclusive index I've ever seen.

From Overview to Trouble-Shooting, FrontPage 2003 is laid bare and made simple - definitions are clearly stated where technical language is used. Thank you, Paul Colligan; thank you, Jim Cheshire!!

I obtained my copy of Special Edition Using Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 before I even received my FrontPage 2003 web editor. On first sight I was overwhelmed with the size of the book and decided to start with the cd as the book was not going to make sense to me till I got FP03 and could follow the book visually. I was delighted to discover some goodies I could not get elsewhere. It includes WOPR 2003 which you can use with Office 2003 (only). There was a Electronic version of the book on the cd and good selection of free graphics. Trial versions of a selection of FrontPage add-ons and a new add-on developed just for this book from Jim called SnipView.

As if that were not enough, I know I won't need any other FrontPage 2003 book because this one has everything I need and in step by step detail, often covering features to the extent that other books don't (whatever version) This is something I try do with my own writing and I'm glad to see this in a book. I know that FP03 has big learning curves in some areas and I'm pleased that Jim and Paul decided to get together and give me a resource that is comfortable and easy to learn from. This is what an instructional book should be and I look forward hopefully (please guys?) to more of the same with future books.

I am a first time web creater. I had a web site that needed to be updated. I did not have the money to pay for someone else to do it. So I bought frontpage and this book. Three weeks later I have a web site that I like. www.yourmakeupartist.com if you want to check it out. I thought this book did a great job of showing you how to do things. I have not used the cd-rom. I find that sort of learning annoying. Once you learn how to use tables, cells, and the layouts your all set. When I would come across a problem I would look it up and bam it worked. I still have some tweaking to do on my site. But I was very happy with this book. I also bought and returned the step by step book from microsoft. They must have outsourced the writing of the book.

As a FrontPage user since version 1.1, I have read all the books to date. Paul and Jim have outshown all the rest. This one's especially good because it's based upon the finished FP product, not the beta. So, what you see IS what you get! As a MicroSoft FrontPage MVP, I consider this to be the the definitive book on FrontPage 2003.