FRONTPAGE 2000 (MS FrontPage 2000)

Member Name: Themis

Product:	MS FrontPage 2000
Date:	17/06/01 (111 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: ., ., .

Disadvantages: ., ., .

FrontPage is perhaps the most radical of the Web page designers. A cut-down version is included with many editions of Internet Explorer and this results in it being a program that users try out before other Web designers. However, it has many features which make it specific to the Microsoft Web server, Internet Information Server (IIS), and this isn't the most common server found on the Internet. Using FrontPage with anything other than IIS reduces its functionality considerably and hence increases the pressure for ISPs to offer IIS hosted Web sites - a marketing point that cannot have been missed by Microsoft.
In previous versions of FrontPage, it was even necessary to install Microsoft's Personal Web Server to work with a production site before uploading it to a live site. In the latest version, this condition has been relaxed but there are still some very strange features that you need to be aware of.

FrontPage 2000 creates a Web site with a very specific structure and, while it is possible to move a FrontPage Web to some other development software, it isn't recommended. You start off by creating or editing a 'web' which is FrontPage's equivalent of a project. You can select from a modest selection of Web types, which include a One Page Web, Corporate Presence, Customer support Web and so on. You can also opt to import an existing Web site using a Wizard.

The strange thing is that after you have selected the type of Web you want to create, you can't browse to specify a location. It appears at first that the only sort of location that is acceptable to FrontPage 2000 is either a Web server or the local host. In fact, this isn't the case and, as long as you type in the name of the location correctly, it can be an arbitrary folder on an arbitrary computer. However, as with previous versions of FrontPage, unless you have access to a server and server extensions, many of the features offered by FrontPage simple do
n't work.

Once you have a Web set up, working on it is relatively easy. FrontPage opens with a 'Normal' view, which is a wysiwyg editable form of the page. You can select an HTML or non-editable preview form simply by clicking on one of the tabs. On the right-hand side of the screen is a view bar which controls how you view the entire Web. To add a new page you can select from a range of templates, which include frame pages and style sheets. FrontPage 2000 supports both frames and DHTML cascading style sheets with few restrictions. If you add a blank page to an existing Web, it is created using the same style. You can then enter text, format it by applying styles, create tables and insert pictures either by selecting a file name or dragging from a folder within the Web. All of this is achieved in a wysiwyg view even if the page has a complicated structure such as frames. Hypertext links can also be created by dragging a page from the folder list to the page view. Hyperlinks can be followed in design view by clicking on them holding the Ctrl key - which makes it more likely they are correct when you finish your work.

FrontPage 2000 makes advanced facilities, such as cascading style sheets, very easy to use. You can alter the style of any tag simply by selecting the required change in a dialog box. DHTML effects are also supported by way of a toolbar. You can select an event, such as click, and then an effect, like flyout or swap picture. The range of possibilities is fairly small but it does make some of the effects that DHTML makes easily available to the non-programmer or indeed the non-HTMLer.

FRONTPAGE SUPPORTS THE USE OF APPLETS AND
ActiveX components. It also has a range of special components that do a particular job without the need to add any code - usually referred to as WebBots. For example, you can embed a hit counter on a page simply by selecting it from a list. However, this hit counter will only work if the p
age is served by a Web server that has FrontPage extensions installed - without them it just doesn't do anything. The same is true of the other WebBots. You can also write scripts in either JScript or Vbscript and there are full editors for both.

FrontPage also supports Web management. You can ask to see a diagram showing a site map of pages or a diagram showing all the hypertext links used in your site. The diagrams tend to become very complicated when a site approaches anything like a realistic size, but this is just a reflection of how difficult it is to keep a site under control. A link validation and repair facility is available and you can ask for reports on all aspects of your Web including identifying pages which might be slow to download.

Web organisation is aided if you choose to use 'sub-webs'. As long as you can section your web up into meaningful units, sub-webs are a good way to restrict what you see at any one time. A task manager helps you organise what remains to be done, and you can get a team to work on the same web via the Workgroup facility. Publishing a web is also simple but the default is to try to make use of FrontPage extensions at the server to make the update more sophisticated. Many users will come to the conclusion that FrontPage extensions are essential but if you read the small print it does say that if they are not available then FTP will be used. In practice, FTP works well but it doesn't offer the facility to automatically update links if you move a file.



VERDICT
FrontPage is one of the most advanced Web designers available while remaining easy to use. It allows a beginner to use frames, cascading style sheets and even some aspects of DHTML without knowing anything about how they work. Its main problem is its reliance on server extensions to implement some of its more sophisticated features. In practice, this isn't as important as the documentation makes it sound. Even
without server support, FrontPage 2000 is well worth considering.

Summary: