Microsoft FrontPage 2000

Rating:
Summary: Not nearly as good as Hotmetal 6.0
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: FrontPage 2000 is easy to use and beginner friendly
Review: If you have experience with other MS products such as Access or PowerPoint you will find FP2K has a similar look and feel. I had some previous experience with Access but no Web experience and I had my first site up on the web the first day (although it was definitely a little rough around the edges!). The 3 views (WYSIWYG, HTML and Preview) are very useful. The HTML view in particular lets you get into the code as your expertise level grows. But you can do almost anything via the visual interface. One reviewer states that over 50% of viewers won't be able to see your page, I have not found that to be true, although it is true FP2K was designed with the lastest version of IE in my mind. (after all, they're both Microsoft.) I found that approx. 85% of FP2K's features work in any recent browser, 10% work but not exactly as expected and another 5% don't work period (ex: scrolling marquee not visible in Netscape). You also have to watch out for the stuff that requires FP extensions, your provider may or may not support them. Most of the stuff that doesn't work is advanced bells and whistles anyway. You can set up FP to preview your pages in different browsers from within FP but I suggest just downloading Netscape (it's free anyway) and previewing your pages that way. AOL uses a modified IE as its browser so compatibility with it is not a problem....

Rating:
Summary: VERY POWERFUL IF YOU KNOW HOW!!
Review: A lot of people have blasted this software, saying that it's a kid's toy and you can't actually do anything with it. One person even said it's easier to code in html. All these people, in my opinon, have a hate complex about Microsoft, and refuse to actually dip into the program and see it's powers, that you won't find until you spend more than 5 looking at it [and giving off].
This program, in the right and experienced hands, is incredibly powerful. I am a professional who uses both Frontpage and Dreamweaver on occassion, and I must say I prefer Frontpage. I find it more usable, and quicker, and produces the same results with greater ease.
Frontpage is a great program, for beginners, intermediates, and professionals. Sadly, it isn't suitable for people who don't want to learn. Or people who like to bring down good programs because they are too arrogant to learn how to use them properly.

Rating:
Summary: Still you need HTML!
Review: Untill now i couldn't find web publishing program that give you clean html code. I used frontpage 98 for more than 1 year and i found it better than others like Dreamweaver. It has the same interface for all microsoft application which saves your time to understand each icon and its funtion. When i tried frontpage 2000 i like its interface more but i don't think there is a big differences between it and the old version 98. With all frontpage (98 and 2000) you need to know a bit about HTML in order to make clean-coded pages with less bugs. I like the integration between Office software with frontpage 2000 , in which you can easily publish information stored in an Access database or Excel spreadsheet. I hope Microsoft will improve manipulation with tables, because i really need to check the HTML code to organize any table i did in frontpage. Another thing, for arab users, you can not highlight the right arabic text in frontpage 2000 editor i.e if u try to highlight any word the editor will higlight another word!!! which is very annoying thing (you should use the HTML code to manipulate any word!!) So, Stick with your frontpage 98 if you want to design arabic pages.

Rating:
Summary: Great if you want to get a site up and running quickly
Review: I was able to get a functional website up and running in an afternoon with Frontpage -- it is very intuitive and easy to use. It is even useful if you subsequently graduate to more complex software, like Dreamweaver, because you can establish the basic site with Frontpage and then edit the HTML with Dreamweaver to add further bells and whistles. No regrets at all, with this purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Another HTML-editor
Review: The good and the bad:

1. Operates like other Microsoft Office products, so for many of us, there's already an intuitive basis for understanding the program.

**However, it is not intuitive how one is able to reduce the size of one window within the program (example: your index.html file), and open another concurrently (example: your style.css file) -- such as in MS Word.

2. Saves money by allowing users to create an entire Web-site off-line, by being able to write coding and preview it all before uploading it to the server.

FrontPage incorporates Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape Navigator well so that, in conjuction with the above, previewing for cross-browser compatibility becomes very easy.

**However, no matter how much tweaking I've done with FrontPage, the Opera 3.62 browser cannot become one of the preview options along with IE and Netscape. (Maybe this is Opera's problem?)

3. Any program that will write the HTML for the user (WYSIWYG) will always create some havoc, due to redundant and bloated coding. And there might be some credence to the slant for FrontPage coding to be supported by Microsoft's IE better than Netscape, but for those that use FrontPage for testing out hand-written stuff, then it would be a decent choice to use.

Rating:
Summary: Super Web-authoring tool
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: Is this the tool for you? Probably not.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: FrontPage 2000 > More Powerful than You Think
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Microsoft FrontPage 2000
Review: Microsoft FrontPage 2000 is a fantastic webpage creator/HTML editor. Before purchasing my copy of FrontPage 2000, I was using Adobe GoLive 5. What I especially liked about FrontPage 2000 was the ease of use. If you have ever used a Microsoft Office product before, you can learn FrontPage with relative ease. FrontPage brings templates (such as online forms) to you, which other products do not. There is a downside for FrontPage, and that is for some of the more advanced features the host server will need to have FrontPage extensions installed on it. You should check this with your host before purchasing. This is becoming less of a problem, however, because more and more hosts are installing these extensions. If you don't mind moving your site, you could always move it to a host with these extensions anyway. This is one product, I would highly recommend.