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Microsoft FrontPage 2003 Upgrade

Microsoft FrontPage 2003 Upgrade

List Price: $109.99
Your Price: $87.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good step up
Review: I have worked with FrontPage since version 97, which was, overall, a real stinker. I have also worked with Dreamweaver since its earliest versions. In times past, FrontPage has largely been the site management and application development leader of the two, while Dreamweaver was much better at templating and all of the eye candy, like mouseover images, that we have become so fond of using in our sites.

Having said that, FrontPage 2003 is a great step in the right direction. Here are my feelings, broken down:

Site Management
Site Management has improved in FrontPage 2003, although the most bang for the buck will be Enterprise users who have decided to use SharePoint Portal Server in their organization. Much of the new data functionality relies on SharePoint. What this means is FrontPage 2003 gives a lot more power for those in the Microsoft world. Note that it is still backwards compatible with frontPage 2002 extensions, for those without SharePoint.

Behaviors
Much of the work in this area is like Dreamweaver and it is a mixed bag. On the positive side, behaviors are more flexible in FrontPage; on the negative, there are still many missing from FrontPage. The major behaviors are there, however, so I would give FrontPage a plus here.

Intellisense and coding
Microsoft has always lead the charge in this area and FrontPage is no exception. The Intellisense in FrontPage 2003 extends into ASP and ASP.NET code. For developers interested in altering the code created, everything is accessible. The death of FrontPage extensions are the reason, so those with backward compatible sites will have to deprecate some features if they use webbots. The small price is well worth the gain.

CSS
FrontPage has much greater support for CSS than previous versions, and is especially useful for those who like to work with graphical tools or those who like to work with code. The tag explorer, in Dreamweaver, wins for those who sit in the middle, however.

HTML Editing
The ability to go back and forth from code to design and retain positioning is a real godsend. This feature exists in Dreamweaver, as well, so it is not as stellar as some of the other tools. One of the nicest tools is the tag explorer, that allows you to see the nesting of your currently selected tag and easily navigate up and down the tree. In addition, there is a code editor that lets you isolate on a specific tag and use Intellisense to code its attributes. There is also a tool that allows you to quickly find a closing tag, which is a godsend for any developer working with nested HTML tables.

Themes and templates
Themes are much more easily edited in FrontPage 2003, which allows designers to alter templated sites to make nice looking custom built sites very quickly. FrontPage also has the ability to create "master page" style templates which are, possibly a surprise, fully compatible with Dreamweaver MX.

That pretty much covers the major features. Overall, I like the FrontPage methodology of using a side pane that focuses on the task at hand over Dreamweavers sliding tool palette, although I know people that are more fond of the Dreamweaver IDE.

One of the biggest benefits I have seen of FrontPage 2003, in the FrontPage/Dreamweaver battle, is Dreamweaver's tendency to lock up the OS when working on files on a shoddy network connection. As this does not apply to as many users, it is not reason enough to shy away from Dreamweaver. As I use both, I do not want to shy away from either, but here is how I would stack it up.

FrontPage wins with its table designer, Intellisense, coding aids (esp. ASP.NET) and flexibility in behaviors. Dreamweaver still wins with the number of eye candy features, strength of its added CSS tools and its flexibility in coding models (nice for developers who work in more than one language - Java, ColdFusion, ASP and ASP.NET included).

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Still waiting.....
Review: I ordered my product back in November - my credit card was promptly charged for the product - its now Dec 29th - I've emailed the company with no answer and have never received my product. BEWARE

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Service from Amazon.
Review: I recently purchased 'Frontpage 2003'(the first software item from Amazon) & it came in well packed Amazon box, in original MS sealed box & well before estimataed delivery time (free delivery). I bought other software items from different other websites before & my experience with them had been poor viz.tamperd box seal,handled installation CDs with finger prints, delayed delivery etc etc.
I have been a regular internet shopper for last 5 years & it's been wonderful experience with Amazon.com for every single order that I placed with Amazon. Quality service & low prices at Amazon are certainly 'UNMATCHED'. I would stick to Amazon for future purchases & recommend same to other serious buyers.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not for Advanced Web Designers
Review: I use FrontPage mainly for a page editing and design. Also, I've found a few of the other features helpful as well such as themes, shared borders and navigation bars. The guts of my site, however, rely heavily on cgi and various Perl modules. I have not had many conflicts with FrontPage until this latest version. I've experienced program freezes, unwanted file permission changes, unexpected theme changes and many other annoying bugs. For advanced users wanting to upgrade, I would suggest waiting until Microsoft has time to fix all the bugs in this version.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I prefer this to Dreamweaver
Review: I've found this newest version of Front Page to be the best Microsoft has ever delivered. It's intuitive, easy to use, has clean HTML and an affordable price. I bought Dreamweaver MX after reading all the reviews about how wonderful it was. It has an easy way of creating rollovers but that's about it as far as I'm concerned. I think FP wins hands down and would certainly recommend it..

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What FrontPage should have been all along
Review: Microsoft finally got this version of FrontPage right. I have uses FP since 97/98 and started using Dreamweaver because of the limitations and "clunkyness" of the old versions. This version however seems to get it right, and I have no problems recommending this to either amature or experienced webmasters.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What FrontPage should have been all along
Review: Microsoft finally got this version of FrontPage right. I have uses FP since 97/98 and started using Dreamweaver because of the limitations and "clunkyness" of the old versions. This version however seems to get it right, and I have no problems recommending this to either amature or experienced webmasters.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent Upgrade
Review: Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 sports a new "Windows XP"-like interface. The major changes to this version, however, occur under the hood.

FrontPage 2003 creates cleaner code than any previous version. FrontPage also supports web development technologies such as ASP.NET. FrontPage 2003 is able to create more complex web solutions easier than any previous version.

One major drawback to FrontPage is its lack of support for PHP. As PHP becomes more common it is surprising that Microsoft still does not support it natively in FrontPage 2003.

FrontPage's more robust code and intuitive interface make it an excellent upgrade.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent Website Design Product
Review: Microsoft Office FrontPage is Microsoft's website design package. FrontPage allows you to easily create websites using basic or advanced web technologies.

One of FrontPage's major advantages is that it is part of the Microsoft Office family. FrontPage's uses the same interface as other Microsoft Office products. If you are familiar with Office, navigating around FrontPage is no problem.

FrontPage 2003 creates fairly clean HTML code. It allows the user to easily use advanced technologies such as ASP.NET in their websites. Beginners are able to be more productive in FrontPage than most other website design packages.

If you use some of FrontPage's features, your hosting company will need to have FrontPage extensions installed on their server. If they do not have FrontPage extensions, features such as the counter will not work.

Another drawback is that FrontPage does not support PHP natively. PHP is frequently used to create more interactive websites. A plug-in was available for previous versions of FrontPage, but I am unaware of any plug-ins for this version.

Overall if you are looking for an easy to use package, and have access to the FrontPage extensions on your host, this is an excellent package for you. If you are looking for a more professional package supporting all of the major technologies, Macromedia DreamWeaver MX is a much better option.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Too darned easy to use!
Review: The new edition of FrontPage has the same ease of use as previous editions, with improvements in advanced features and more standard HTML code than previous versions, which would often create some strange items when you used the WYSIWYG editor. It's so easy to use, I have a tough time weaning myself off of FrontPage and getting into Macromedia, which has some advantages for the webdesigner. Thing is, I am an amateur web designer, so I don't have time to get totally educated in the more advanced features. FrontPage is just too darned easy to use.

But why is that a problem with FrontPage? It handles CSS well, and the editor is darned easy to use, far easier than Macromedia Studio MX. But if your ISP server doesn't employ Frontpage Extensions (and many of them don't) then uploading pages created in Frontpage can be difficult if not impossible. However, for the average user, I have to say that FrontPage is the web designer of choice. It's far easier to get running than Macromedia, which really is not intuitive. FrontPage is intuitive, and most people will have excellent success right out of the box. Just watch out for the extension support when you choose a web space provider.


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