Product Description

Microsoft FrontPage 2003 Version Upgrade CD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2594 in Software
• Brand: Microsoft
• Model: 392-02323
• Released on: 2003-10-21
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows 2000
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .75 pounds

Features

• Professional design, authoring, data, and publishing tools to create sophisticated Web sites
• New layout and graphics tools make it easier to design exactly the site you want
• Design tools to generate better code, or expand your code skills
• With professional coding tools, write code faster, more efficiently, and with greater accuracy
• Enhanced publishing features and options help get your Web pages online more quickly

From the Manufacturer
FrontPage 2003 provides the features, flexibility, and functionality to help you build better Web sites. It includes the professional design, authoring, data, and publishing tools needed to create dynamic and sophisticated Web sites.

FrontPage 2003 advances your Web development in three key areas.

• Designing: Use enhanced design tools to produce better looking Web sites. New layout and graphics tools make it easier to design exactly the site you want.
• Coding: Use design tools to generate better code, or expand your code skills. Use built-in scripting tools for interactive results. And with professional coding tools, you can write code faster, more efficiently, and with greater accuracy.
• Extending: Connect with people and information in new ways by building Extensible Markup Language (XML) data-driven Web sites using the first commercially available, completely WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) editor. The enhanced publishing features and options help you get your Web pages online more quickly. (Note: XML collaboration requires Microsoft Windows Server 2003)

Design better-looking sites: FrontPage 2003 includes tools and layout and graphics features to help you work faster and design professional Web sites.

• Work with graphics from other applications, giving you more control over how images are displayed and saved.
• Use dynamic Web templates to modify entire sections of a Web site. By updating the master template, changes are automatically made to all pages linked to that template.
• Target specific browser or screen resolutions by using browser and resolution reconciliation. You can also see how your site will look in various combinations of browsers and resolutions.
• Create and manipulate tables used for layout purposes, and provide pixel-precise control of your layout.
• Use manipulation tools to more easily work with multiple images and pieces of content that sit in the same space, and to create visual effects, such as pop-up menus.

Generate code faster and easier: The design tools in Frontpage 2003 generate efficient and clean Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and give you more control over the code. Or, you can apply your coding knowledge by taking advantage of the professional coding tools. With the scripting tools you can create an interactive experience for your audience. And, because the coding tools are easy to work with, you can even use them to start learning HTML.

Coding Tools

• Use a split view to see modifications made in the Design View automatically updated in the Code View.
• Select, modify, and manipulate tags easily using the Quick Tag Selector and Quick Tag Editor.
• Simplify code writing and make it less prone to errors with Microsoft IntelliSense technology. The technology is available for HTML, cascading style sheets, XSLT, Microsoft JScript, and Microsoft ASP.NET.
• Remove extraneous code generated by Microsoft Word or other Web authoring programs.

Scripting Tools

• Enhance interactivity on your site without writing a line of code by using behaviors to author JScript.
• Take advantage of support for IntelliSense and scripting tools for authoring JScript and Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript).

Extend the Power and Reach of Your Web Site: With Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Windows Server 2003 connected to FrontPage 2003, you can modify and present live data from a range of sources, including XML, to build rich interactive data-driven Web sites in a WYSIWYG editor. Users can post to the Web using just their browsers, while choosing from a broad range of publishing options.

Data-driven Web Sites Enabled by Windows SharePoint Services

• Allow users to post to your Web site using just their browsers. Web logs, issue-tracking lists, and news and reviews sites can be built with just a couple of clicks.
• Insert data views and configure data sources—including XML varieties, Windows SharePoint Services data, Web services, and OLE Database (OLEDB) data sources.
• Handle XML data and authoring and XSLT formatting directly in the FrontPage WYSIWYG Design view to create XML data-driven Web sites.
• Show or hide items or reformats based on data values or position in the data view by using Dynamic conditional formatting.
• Build Web Parts Pages by creating Web Parts Zones and inserting and connecting to Web Parts in other products, including Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server "v2.0" Beta 2, Windows SharePoint Services, and FrontPage 2003.

Publishing Technologies

• Move files easily between local and remote locations and publish in both directions.
• Connect to remote sites easily with the Web import dialog that simplifies connection types and working with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
• Publish to File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) servers from the new Remote Web Site tab.

Upgrade Eligibility

Determine whether your current version of Microsoft FrontPage qualifies you for the upgrade. The following products qualify:

• Microsoft FrontPage: FrontPage version 2002, FrontPage 2000, FrontPage 98, FrontPage 97
• Microsoft Office XP: Office XP Developer, Office XP Professional with FrontPage, Office XP Professional Special Edition
• Microsoft Office 2000: Office 2000 Developer, Office 2000 Premium

Customer Reviews

HTML made easy but.....
Front Page is Microsoft's solution to web page creation. It simplifies web pages by giving you three windows. One is the normal view, which gives you word processing type tools. If you are familiar with copy and paste, and changing font colors and sizes, inserting pictures via copy and paste or the insert file, picture, etc method, then that is a giant leap from learning HTML code. No code experience is necessary. That is all in Normal view. If you click the tab on the bottom that says HTML, you instantly see the entire page in HTML. So what you have is the intuitive interface of Microsoft Word etc, and the automatic capability of HTML. If you click on the third tab on the bottom, you see Preview. Preview activates your creation to see what it will look like when published. If you have any active items, like streaming banners, or little cartoon like characters making movements, they will come alive.
A word of caution is worth mentioning. Front Page commands are a bit different in many ways as well. For example when I first learned the program I was frustrated that I could not put type on the following line. It would skip a line, automatically going to double spacing. After doing a lot of digging in the book, I found out that you have to hold down "shift" then press the return-enter button to go down a single line. I don't want to oversimplify the program. Their is a slight learning curve. In a lot of ways it is like a word processor, and in a lot of other ways, it is learning a new language. It follows the usual MSFT learning curve of frustration followed by elation.
So pick up a book and spend some time with the program. After all conquer this one, and you open up the .com world. With many sites offering free web site hosting for the privilege of being able to show banner ads on your site, you can create multiple sites without any monthly charge. The only expense is the annual .com name registration, which is less than ten dollars at GoDaddy.com for example.
So what Front Page does is give you the capability of easily creating web pages (after the slight learning curve) Do you have a business, publish it. What about a social organization, or your network of friends. Interactive sites with discussion boards, that is easy with FP. The sky is the limit.
To take advantage of features like web page hit counters etc, the server you are publishing to must have Front Page extensions installed. Many web host providers have an extension option. After joining you go online and click on the "Install Front Page Extensions" If your web host doesn't have that option you can still use Front Page to your advantage. By creating your web page in normal mode, then clicking on the HTML view, you can take the HTML code, copy and paste it. This gives you creative power in submitting eBay's ads for example. When you use ebay's insertion tool, you simply paste your creation into the description area. When you preview your ad their it is in its full creative glory with colorful fonts, inserted pictures etc. No simple bland black and white text. That is just another example of the new world that opens up to you with Front Page.
I highly recommend the product. Nothing is perfect, but it makes it possible for the rest of us to create stylish professional web pages with minimal effort. Buy it you won't be sorry.

Excellent Upgrade
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.

What FrontPage should have been all along
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.