front page? anygood? if not why not?

jasonrat

hi getting my brains round in designing a website. i dont think i have patience to learn html but have access to front page. is it any good? i read somewhere to avoid it but don't really know why. if anyone could enlighten me that would be great thx

[Deleted User]

Frontpage isn't a good choice. It's often used solely because it comes with MS Office, no one would intentionally buy it otherwise. It creates horrible HTLM that causes problems when you try to view the site on browsers other than IE. It tempts people into using wierd extentions not always available on servers. It's generally evil.

Try out a demo of dreamweaver, it's the 'industry standard' web editor. It creates much better code, it has a nice template system.. plus no one will call you a noobie fool for using it (unlike using frontpage)

You're not gonna get far making websites if you don't have patience. HTML is the force behind websites.. it's essential to learn it.

f1charlie

If you don't want to be bothered learning HTML, look out for Netobjects Fusion on computer magazine cover discs. Fairly easy to use and comes with numerous templates.
I think it's probably slightly less frowned upon by the purists than Frontpage. :rolleyes:

Charlie

[Deleted User]

If you want freebie software, this list may be of use:

http://www.osalt.com/frontpage

A list of open source/free alternatives to commercial packages

F1F1

ringo_24601 wrote:

Frontpage isn't a good choice. It's often used solely because it comes with MS Office, no one would intentionally buy it otherwise. It creates horrible HTLM that causes problems when you try to view the site on browsers other than IE. It tempts people into using wierd extentions not always available on servers. It's generally evil.

Try out a demo of dreamweaver, it's the 'industry standard' web editor. It creates much better code, it has a nice template system.. plus no one will call you a noobie fool for using it (unlike using frontpage)

You're not gonna get far making websites if you don't have patience. HTML is the force behind websites.. it's essential to learn it.

While I agree that DW is the dog's doodahs, I wouldn't diss FP completely. The newer versions of FP <2000 onwards> produce cleaner code and are user-friendly. 2003 has pinched some of the features from DW, including the ability to create a template page and make others from that. You can produce websites in FP which are cross-browser compliant, although I did tend to not bother with FP extensions.

In the end these programs are tools and are only as good as the idiot <or genius > that is using them. It does help if you know a bit about websites.

Bella13_2

Came on here to ask about buying software off ebay - (how can you be sure it is genuine), because I have been looking at buying Frontpage, if only because it is so much cheaper than Dreamweaver, and have been looking on ebay amongst other places. I don't know anything about HTML (but do want to learn), but need something that will help me do it first! So your views have been very helpful - thanks!!

DrBenway

Bella13 wrote:

Came on here to ask about buying software off ebay - (how can you be sure it is genuine), because I have been looking at buying Frontpage, if only because it is so much cheaper than Dreamweaver, and have been looking on ebay amongst other places. I don't know anything about HTML (but do want to learn), but need something that will help me do it first! So your views have been very helpful - thanks!!

Save your money

There are many free packages out there that are good for novices.

Like AceHTML

Try them out and see.


As for genuine software on ebay all you can do is go for a ebay seller with a good rep and hope.

Some sellers are really good. A mate of mine sent a payment by paypal for over a grand when it should have only been 50 quid or so. Paypal accepted the payment and passed it on. My mate phoned the seller and he said no problem and returned the excess the same day.

kevin.philips

I agree with the vote to avoid Frontpage at all costs and being a purist I would advise you to learn HTML in its natural format before even attempting to purchase a package which writes HTML for you.

Another angle to consider is how your site will work - do you want it to have any bells or whistles and is its entired end state to display data possibly from a database (As most do now)...? If so I would say forget just thinking of HTML on its own and start looking at HTML in context with a server side technology right from the outset. ASP.Net and PHP are now very well documented and are aimed at the complete novice through to the experienced programmer. With ASP.Net you can get the IDE (Integrated Development Environment - Essentially the dreamweaver for this language) completely free from Microsoft - just do a search on their site for Visual Web Developer, there is also a huge community to help you out along the way, I made the mistake when I first started using the easiest tools to get jobs done and now believe that I wasted so much time on technologies that have since become redundant (Or will do very soon) when the latest technologies were there and very much supported.

Another favorite site of mine is:

https://www.w3schools.com

HTH

Regards

Kevin

boxst

Hello

Frontpage is okay. It doesn't create the best of code, but unless you are a professional, do you care?

Steve

jasonrat

it's basically for a village pub doesn't have to be flash but good presentation

boxst

jasonrat wrote:

it's basically for a village pub doesn't have to be flash but good presentation

Hello

Then I would Frontpage. It really isn't *that* bad. I must admit I don't use it, I use Dreamweaver but only because I like to see / alter the code and people pay me to create the sites.

Steve