Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Review

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(More customer reviews)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.

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Microsoft FrontPage 2000 makes FrontPage-based Web creation as easy as creating a new folder on your hard drive. With many Web servers, you have one Web site, but with FrontPage, you can create as many Webs as you want, including nested Webs. A FrontPage-based Web consists of three layers of Web structure, folder structure, and navigation structure. Click one of the links below to select a specific topic. You can use Dynamic HTML to animate, use Cascading Style Sheets 2.0 to wrap or layer text and images, and find just the colors you want with enhanced color tools. The program fixes hyper-links when files are renamed or moved, and 13 new management reports summarize the status of a site at a glance. FrontPage shares toolbars, menus, themes, background spell checking, and Format Painter with Microsoft Office.
In-box upgrade good ONLY for those who own one of the following Microsoft products: Microsoft Office, Professional, Standard, Small Business Edition, Developer, or VAR edition version 4 or later; Microsoft Word version 6 or later; Microsoft Excel version 5 or later; Microsoft PowerPoint version 4 or later; Microsoft Access version 2 or later; Microsoft Visual FoxPro version 3 or later; Microsoft Publisher 97 or later; Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 or later; or Microsoft Project version 4 or later for MS-DOS, Windows, and Windows NT Workstation.

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