Should I Buy FrontPage 2000?

[wrelax]

Hey guys. I'm learning HTML right now and I'm getting the hang of it. Eventually, I want to get real good at designing and making webpages. I was wondering if i should buy frontpage 2000. Is there a better or newer version coming out anytime soon that is worth waiting for?

[mairving]

In a word <H1>NO</H1> Here are the problems with Frontpage (any version)
<UL>
<LI>Pages written in Frontpage don't work well in other browsers.
<LI>Pages all look the same. I can look at a page on the Internet and tell that it was done in Frontpage.
<LI>You are not given a chance to edit the HTML. Most people that use Frontpage couldn't tell you how to make this &lt;B&gt; show up.
<LI>It is easy to use.
</UL>
IMHO, it is best to first learn how to use HTML. I started writing web pages using notepad. Now I use Homesite and sometimes a bit of Dreamweaver. Even if you do decide to use Frontpage, please learn HTML first.

[wrelax]

OK gotcha. I am learning HTML right now using just notepad. But its sooo manual. Can you get really cool backgrounds and stuff just using HTML and notepad? Wasn't this website made using frontpage 2000?

[wrelax]

<h3>One more thing</h3>
<p>Can you give me a list of the web languages to learn in order. Like what should i learn after learning <b>HTML</b>,,..etc etc</p>
<hr />
Thanks

[PeteS99]

Get Evrsoft's First Page 2000.

http://www.evrsoft.com/download/

Its HTML, but TONS of features - and is FREE. Check it out. Even includes HTML validation and tons of scripts. Best editor for the price!

pete

[mairving]

<alink="blue" vlink="red">Wrelax, as far as making cool backgrounds, you don't create backgrounds using notepad or Frontpage. You can grab images off of the Internet or create your own using a graphics program like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc. If you have an image that you are going to use as a background, keep in mind that it will tile on the screen so as to repeat itself in each tile.

Start off learing HTML. That is about 90% of it. Some of the other learining can come later like Javascript, style sheets, etc. The other part some people don't use like CGI & Perl & PHP. These are important pieces to e-commerce. To me the most important thing to learn is tables. With tables, you have the ability to put text and images exactly where you want them, which is probably one of the hardest things to learn. Become expert in HTML. Everything else will follow. Another trick to try is to look at web pages and try to figure out how they did it. You can view the page source in IE by going to <b>View/Source</b>.

Here are a couple of tutorials:
<a href="http://htmlgoodies.earthweb.com" target="_blank" style="text-decoration:none">HTML Goodies</a>
<a href="http://html.tucows.com/designer/basictut/htmlbasictutorial.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration:none">Tucows</a>
<a href="http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration:none">WebMonkey</a>

For a pretty good book on the subject:
<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/wdnut/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration:none">Web Design in a Nutshell</a>

You can download free versions of Allaires Homesite & Macromedia's Dreamweaver, also.

[Edited by mairving on 02-24-2001 at 11:53 AM]

[mhayes]

Here are a few more great links to help master HTML,

http://htmlgoodies.earthweb.com/primers/basics.html

http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/

http://www.builder.com/Authoring/Html/?ad.se.keyword.atoz

http://amazinghtml.com/

[wrelax]

Thanks guys. I was just wondering, by just using Notepad and HTML can you make a really good webpage?

[Charliey]

Well if you use image editing programs along with notepad.

Just using notepad (for html, plus other stuff for images) you can make a good site, although doing fancy stuff is lot of work if youre using all code.

I like macromedia dreamweaver for web site creation. its the only program i use now, well besides photoshop.

[DrZaius]

Hi wrelax,

I agree with everyone else, don't use/buy FrontPage. If you really want to learn HTML get a good refrence book (the one mairving mentioned is great) and a good text editor like NoteTab, which has many features for editing HTML code. If you rely too much on programs to write the code for you, you will never learn it. Hope that helps.

http://www.notetab.com

[K A Hall]

I have seen this argument many times on the net and I have to disagree. I use Front Page 2000 all the time and do not have major "other" browser problems. Minor ones, sure. Now Front Page 98 was a POS that would add code where it did not belong. This has not been the case with 2000. If you can do it all in notepad, more power to you. I prefer to use the tools that are available to me and are easy to use.

[mairving]

You can anything in notepad that you can do in a fancy HTML editor. There are three basic kinds of HTML editors:
<ul>
<li>WYSIWYG - What you see is what you get. Frontpage is an example of this.
<li>A pure HTML editor, like Homesite, where you type in the code. Dreamweaver is kind a hybrid between the two.
<li> text editor - like notepad. The disadvantage to using notepad is that it doesn't have any kind of error notification. It also doesn't allow to replace whole strings like in the others.
</UL>
I, for one, don't really recommend that you use notepad if you are doing a lot of coding. But it is a good place to start because you learn all about HTML. A good web designer will need to know HTML, how to manipulate images & how to place them on the page.

If you want HTML pages to look like a lot of other sites, boring, linear, similar backgrounds, pages that don't work properly in Netscape, then use Frontpage. If you want to create decent pages use something else.

[mhayes]

The question is about learning HTML and there is no better way to learn and understand the code that will soon be generated for you than in Notepad. I suppose that an HTML editor that will notify you of improper syntax or missing tags would really be as well, I've never used one, so I can't really comment.

There are a lot of other programs out there that do amazing jobs at quickly building a web site. Personally I use and love creating web sites using NetObjects Fusion, but I use this to create my sites or to make site wide changes. I also use notepad to view my code and make modifications and insert script or code that is not supported by the program.

So I guess to sum it all up, to learn HTML stick with an editor. In reality when you start developing sites if you use notepad you are either crazy or have far too much time on your hands.

[Kangaair]

I have found this small editor to be quite helpfull. You will still need to know HTML, but this one will make it a little easier to manage.
http://www.arachnoid.com/arachnophilia/index.html
Lee

[Xayd]

If you're using Frontpage you'll need the demoronizer (http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/demoroniser/) to go with it, hehe.

It actually works pretty well, if you have Perl capabilities.

Xayd

[Kamakazie_X]

Get Dreamweaver UltraDev !!!!!!!!

if u like asp then get Drumbeat 2000!!!!!