Is Microsoft Frontpage Rubbish?

[Ahsaniqbalkmc 0]

I used Microsoft Frontpage to develop my website but I have read in a number too many places now that frontpage is not worth what it is considered to be. I read at one place that it generates codes that may damage the ranking of your own website. First i did not believe it at all because i found mywebsite working quite nice with no problems on it and still my site has no problems but what has changed and what has made me write this post is the hugely increased number of ant-FrontPage opinions. So i made the discussion open and I ask you to please advise me that should I continue with frontpage or I should change the software.And if I am to change the software which one is going to be the best alternative of frontpage.

[slidstream 0]

I personally prefer to do html, css, and all other coding in my favorite text editor (for me this is emacs). I find it give me more power over how things look, and it doesnt take any time at all to learn how these things work. Emacs on the other hand has a bit of a learning curve, but its not quite so bad. After a day or two's use of html and css you'll definitely get a handle on it. W3school has a great list of all the css and html usages, so thats a one stop stop for all html and php workings. If you want easeir to quickly learn text aditors try notepad++, alost of my freinds swear by it.

I used Microsoft Frontpage to develop my website but I have read in a number too many places now that frontpage is not worth what it is considered to be. I read at one place that it generates codes that may damage the ranking of your own website. First i did not believe it at all because i found mywebsite working quite nice with no problems on it and still my site has no problems but what has changed and what has made me write this post is the hugely increased number of ant-FrontPage opinions. So i made the discussion open and I ask you to please advise me that should I continue with frontpage or I should change the software.And if I am to change the software which one is going to be the best alternative of frontpage.

[FirefoxRocks 0]

I personally do not believe in the use of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) HTML editors. The best way to design a website is to either write your own code, or to use a content management system (CMS) if you have more than a few pages of content.

 

Here is a list of content management systems, you may be more interested in the PHP ones (note that many of them are designed for PHP, which is the most popular server-side scripting language): http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

 

If you do insist on using a WYSIWYG editor, I would recommend Nvu or perhaps Microsoft Expression Web (since you already using a Microsoft product, this is another Microsoft product but it is far superior to FrontPage).

[Quatrux 4]

I also am not used to working with WYSIWYG applications for generating HTML code, but people, who started learning HTML using it, usually prefer it over the simple way of doing it with hands, especially if they work with Photoshop for creating layouts..It's really faster and if you have the knowledge, you can optimize the code with your hands later on and usually make it a better design which you could use. I remember I used to fix frontpage generated layouts from 68-32 KB to 12-4 KB with almost the same result

[tuds2010 0]

Ihave used MS Frontpage for nearly 5 years. I found it to be usable but not as powerful as many other programa. I currently use Web Plus from Serif. This program is more powerful than MS Frontpage and is also cheaper. I highly recommend this software for anyone working on web development.

I used Microsoft Frontpage to develop my website but I have read in a number too many places now that frontpage is not worth what it is considered to be. I read at one place that it generates codes that may damage the ranking of your own website. First i did not believe it at all because i found mywebsite working quite nice with no problems on it and still my site has no problems but what has changed and what has made me write this post is the hugely increased number of ant-FrontPage opinions. So i made the discussion open and I ask you to please advise me that should I continue with frontpage or I should change the software.And if I am to change the software which one is going to be the best alternative of frontpage.

[Бојан 0]

Well according to me, yes it is... It's better to use some "aftermarket" WYSIWYG software than the stupid Frontpage from Microsoft. Damn I hate that program... it's very stupid!

[iGuest 3]

I have FP2000-2003, Dreamweaver MX 2004, Dreamweaver cs3 &5, Exspression Web 1,2,3,4. I still have client sites in FP2000 that I built, have upgraded and maintained in FP2000 10 years ago. They still work fine, still are on the front pages of the search engines, much easier to maintain, upgrade and look the same in all the browsers.

I've added All Web and Bluementals menus to the ones in FP2000...No problem...I use a 3rd party form, photo gallery, slide show generator with the sites with all my editors)...No problems. I have much less problems with FP2000 than Dreamweaver and EW and get the job done in 1/2 the times doing upgrades etc.

For the ones that do not know how to code, care not to learn how to code, do not have the time and patience to learn how to code...Leave Dreamweaver an Expression Web alone and use Frontpage, Trillion on another free editor DW & EW are not WYSIWYG editors and will frustrate and intimidate you to no end so leave them alone and go with a WYSIWYG editor and have fun building your site or sites. It will show up and will work in all the browsers if you don't try to be a super " I can out code you" web designer and have funky things jumping all over your pages. MANY web designers use free or bought templates now and call themselves super web design guru's.  Some are awesome coders and build their templates from scratch.

You, as a novice and just want to have fun with your site, friends, your church or who ever's site forget what all the "others" are advising you to do and get you a copy of Frontpage and have at it and learn to build your own templates from scratch. As you use FP you'll also begin to learn how to do some coding.

When FP extensions are gone you can still FTP with FP but I would advise you to learn how to FTP and use that over the FP Extensions. Frontpage is NOT dead and will continue on for years to come. MANY pro web designers still have it on their computers and still use it for situations where it works better for them than DW or EW.Have FUN!

-reply by chucker

 

[wutske 0]

First of all, it's a fact that Frontpage generated crippled HTML. Try making a simple page and run it trough the W3C validator, you'll get plenty of errors. Frontpage also tends to rely on using meta tags for describing your webpage, but most search engines ignore this information and even ignore you if you've overdone the information in these tags. If you're still using Frontpage, I'd suggest you to buy something new. Frontpage does not exist anymore, it has been replaced by Expression Web. A better option would be to get Dreamweaver, it's more expensive, but also more powerfull and it creates more standardized html (and it supports newer HTML standards).The best option is still to write your own HTML, if you're willing to learn HTML and CSS

[8ennett 0]

Frontpage Express was the original web design tool I used over 11 years ago, it's what got me interested in web design in the first place, however back then it was not a part of the office suite and came free with windows 98.I found it was an ok tool for developing basic html pages (back in the days when css was hardly used and it was all done using the <font> tag) but as my thirst for knowledge lead me on to other web devolpment languages I found it was unable to cater to my needs.Now I find myself using dreamweaver constantly (I'm still using 8 though, see it as a waste of money upgrading since I already own a perfectly good copy). Dreamweaver is fantastic for both the complete amateur developer and the hyper advanced.The WYSIWIG environment is perfect for modifying those annoying complex table and div layouts, whilst on the code view all the code is perfectly formatted and not left an untidy mess like most other editors. It also has its own content management system built in which helps keep track of your current sites structure, although I find once your website has reached over 500 files like mine it's easier just to use a folder browser to navigate your site structure.Dreamweaver costs a little more than most development tools however you can guarantee once you have it, you'll never get rid of it.

[wutske 0]

Frontpage Express was the original web design tool I used over 11 years ago, it's what got me interested in web design in the first place, however back then it was not a part of the office suite and came free with windows 98.
I found it was an ok tool for developing basic html pages (back in the days when css was hardly used and it was all done using the <font> tag) but as my thirst for knowledge lead me on to other web devolpment languages I found it was unable to cater to my needs.

Now I find myself using dreamweaver constantly (I'm still using 8 though, see it as a waste of money upgrading since I already own a perfectly good copy). Dreamweaver is fantastic for both the complete amateur developer and the hyper advanced.

The WYSIWIG environment is perfect for modifying those annoying complex table and div layouts, whilst on the code view all the code is perfectly formatted and not left an untidy mess like most other editors. It also has its own content management system built in which helps keep track of your current sites structure, although I find once your website has reached over 500 files like mine it's easier just to use a folder browser to navigate your site structure.

Dreamweaver costs a little more than most development tools however you can guarantee once you have it, you'll never get rid of it.

I must agree that the content manager in Dreamweaver is extremely handy as it also keeps your local content synched with what's on the FTP server.
You do mention those pesky div's and believe it or not, those are the main reason I don't use a WYSIWYG because those usualy can't handle those div's very well and if they don't work I'm screwed because I have to find errors in code I've never seen before.

[8ennett 0]

You do mention those pesky div's and believe it or not, those are the main reason I don't use a WYSIWYG because those usualy can't handle those div's very well and if they don't work I'm screwed because I have to find errors in code I've never seen before.

Interesting, i was really referring more to the table layouts than anything, I know what you mean about pre-generated code. I usually prefer to manage my div attributes through a css file instead of writing it into the div style, that way all my div alignments and features are easily edited in one place, and when the css is linked directly in the page header then the wysiwig automatically updates the visual side as you change the css so you can write in code yet see how it looks in a live format

[tansqrx 0]

I used Microsoft Front page for many many years on Xisto with no problems at all. I personally like it because it is easy to use and you can knock out a fairly nice webpage in no time.

This all changed when Microsoft dropped support for FrontPage and went with Microsoft Expression (http://www.microsoft.com/expression/eng/) sometime in 2006. In a way your question is a moot point because FrontPage is obsolete and essentially doesnât exist anymore.

A few years ago the FrontPage extensions stopped working on the Xisto server and after reinstalling the extensions numerous times and spending hours trying to figure out the problem, I decided that it wasnât worth it and jumped ship. I went with Adobe Dreamweaver and completely redesigned my site.

For anyone starting a new website, please avoid FrontPage. It is obsolete and doesnât work with Xisto. For more reference I have already discussed this in a few other threads.

http://forums.xisto.com/topic/91655-topic/?findpost=1064358764
http://forums.xisto.com/topic/92330-topic/?findpost=1064363946
http://forums.xisto.com/topic/95962-topic/?findpost=1064392722

[vhortex 1]

Frontpage does not only mess with your HTML but it requires that you open some port on your server. Expose for reading and execution of a certain config file and an html file. The config file can point to a server executable file that can be exploited to upload viral files into the server. I got a major headache from 2 clients that have frotnpage on their servers. The problem was hack website and the hacker was using frontpage extensions to dump load viral scripts. Luckily majority of them was targeted to load on ASP environment and the server was PHP.Frontpage also have this bad habit of inserting new line breaks for whatever reason MS thinks that renders a readable template file into heavily padded one. Ever tried pasting a single letter from MSword? The result is a mumbo jumbo garbage bin of MS tags that was pure trash and messes browser displays and specially IE one. :)I have spent 1 month on a big project just removing this trash tags from a jungle of HTML file (around 800+ of them).**************I have Dreamweaver and upgrading is optional. Been using Dreamweaver since it was still owned by Macromedia and Notepad plus and Notepad++ in absence of this tool.

[H.O.D 0]

frontpage was convenient to use at one time but later we saw some better tools like dreamweaver and compared to them frontpage doesn't seem like a good choice for building pages today. and since it has been discontinued now we can't expect any new features from it. so it would make sense not to use frontpage for today's websites. i dont know of many tools other than dreamweaver but there are some other software makers like MAGIX coming out with website-building tools which are a little simpler than dreamweaver and are easier to use. there is another tool which you might already be knowing about - bluevoda. it is a good and simple tool to use which can build good looking pages very quickly. that would be a good place to start and then dreamweaver can be used for more complex constructions.

[iGuest 3]

Front Page SucksIs Microsoft Frontpage Rubbish?

Even notepad > front pageFront Page is a joke. I work for a website hosting company, and I can't tell you how many support calls we get that start out with "Well I'm in front page"Front page breeds ignorance, learn how to write HTML and CSS and stop wasting your time

-reply by Developer