Front Page obsolete?

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I’m getting tired of my web hosting company breaking the MS Front Page authoring feature. About once a quarter, I can’t update my web site (my current situation). They eventually fix whatever they broke, but it is annoying when they say
“Wait, what – you’re still using Front Page??”

The new MS replacement for Front Page is Expression Web. I’m not quite ready to buy into yet another 3rd party platform that MS purchased.

I’m interested in hearing from anyone else out there who has migrated away from MS Front Page. What other software is commonly used to maintain / update web sites, which is comparable to Front Page?

In other words, I don’t want to step backwards to using a simple FTP program. For my needs, DreamWeaver is probably overkill. I’d prefer something that is a bit simpler to learn.

One thing that I do need is the ability to easily transfer / convert all the files for my existing web site. I have 5,000 files which take up 1.3 GB on my hard drive. Most of that is data – I probably have about 500 html pages.

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Have you used any FrontPage WebBot components (FP: Overview of WebBot Components)? These usually appear in the HTML pane as a comment containing the word “webbot”. If not, you are free to change everything. If so, you may need to manually re-code those features first, since other editors are unlikely to recognize them.

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Have you used any FrontPage WebBot components (FP: Overview of WebBot Components)? These usually appear in the HTML pane as a comment containing the word “webbot”. If not, you are free to change everything. If so, you may need to manually re-code those features first, since other editors are unlikely to recognize them.

The main Front Page component that I use simply shows the “date last updated”. I expected that I would have to manually replace that code with something else.

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The main Front Page component that I use simply shows the “date last updated”. I expected that I would have to manually replace that code with something else.

I moved from FrontPage 98 to Expression Web 1 awhile back. I thought it was a slight step backwards for my needs. Expression Web comes across as a serious authoring tool. I used the date last updated bot and of course Expression Web doesn’t have that. What I ended up doing is doing a copy and paste from my other websites and it publishes just fine. I was also getting used to Image Composer. I felt it was adequate for my needs which weren’t much.

I recently bought a new computer and decided to see what was available on the Expression Web side. They are now up to Version 4 (which does have some minor drawbacks in layout compared to Version 1). It too is overkill for what I use it for.

The package I ended up getting was Expression Studio 4 Web Professional upgrade. I got it for $50 through the Amazon Marketplace. With it includes Expression Web and Expression Design which takes the place of Image Composer. Both of these tools are overkill for the simple websites I manage, but at $50, I think it is a steel. Finally, as far as I know FP won’t work with Windows 7.

Bottom line: It is worth the jump. It will have a learning curve…how steep is depends on your knowledge going in and how much time you want to play with it.

HTH

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Using Front Page nowadays is the approximate equivalent of using Windows 98 (and probably not even 98SE)…
You can continue to use both, if you want.

In the time since FrontPage was new and vibrant, Dreamweaver has come – and almost gone.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

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BATcher, I was surprised at your view of FrontPage as it’s the most popular software on Amazon to make websites. Are your colleagues switching to something other than Dream Weaver and, if so, what?

Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds.
Samuel Butler

Using Front Page nowadays is the approximate equivalent of using Windows 98 (and probably not even 98SE)…
You can continue to use both, if you want.

In the time since FrontPage was new and vibrant, Dreamweaver has come – and almost gone.

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I also was using FrontPage and maintaining 3 web sites. I recently went to Microsoft Web Site and searched Expression 4 and when the page came up and I looked around, no product key is necessary for Expression 4 any longer. I downloaded it and installed it on my new laptop and it runs perfect on a Sony Vaio 64bit. A give-a-way ?

Sarge

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Sarge,

Thanks for your response. One question, what is the web address for the page with the free download?

I was able to find a page for downloading a sixty day-trial version, but no page for a free download.

Have a good week!

Charles

“]The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits Einstein

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You had the right URL at microsoft. It loads and says no product registration required. I just downloaded it again for a 64bit laptop. No problems loading.

Sarge

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I have FP2003 on my Win7 laptop, integrates with Office ’07. Works fine but it is obsolete imho. Looking at Coffee Cup software and asked for opinions on another post. Adobe software $ gave me sticker shock!

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-On Soapbox-

This is the problem with any code authoring software you spend hours learning how it works and its quirks only to have it inconsistently upgraded or discontinued. Not to mention the notoriously inefficient code they generate. My advice to all is learn the underlying technology {HTML, CSS, JavaScript in this case} it ain’t rocket science.
You probably won’t invest any more time and you’ll be mostly update/discontinued proof. Sure they have new versions and changes but the old methods are usually supported while transition to the new methods are adopted. As an added benefit you can do it the way you want it not the way the code writer wants to do it.

Just my 2 cents worth.

-Off Soapbox-
:cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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I’m just trying the 60 day trial version of Expression Studio 4 downloaded from MS web site. I have previously used FrontPage 2003 and another nice, easy Web authoring program called Actual Drawing that has most of the WYSIWIG features of front page but no code editor. But then Actual Drawing only costs $100 and still does a good job.
Expression Studio 4 looks a lot like FrontPage 2003 with the same menus, dialogs etc plus a few extra features and a pretier UI. Searching the web shopping sites comes up with the cheapest at AU$144 for a boxed retail DVD, about half the price of the MS dounload. In my opinion it’s worth upgrading and will do so when the trial runs out.

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Expression Web is the replacement of FrontPage.

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I still use FrontPage 2003 for all my web work. It may be old, but it is like an old shoe, it feels very good. I even write PHP code in it.

However, I do not use the FrontPage extensions. This is what gets “broken” when you cannot publish. There are better free code on the net to do anything the FrontPage extensions do and perhaps better. Start publishing using the FTP function in FrontPage. It works just as well as using the FrontPage publishing feature.

If you try to upload a large file and you get a timeout error, look at Filezilla to upload the stubborn file.

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I still use FrontPage 2003 for all my web work. It may be old, but it is like an old shoe, it feels very good. I even write PHP code in it.

If you are using the code view rather than the WYSIWYG features, you can easily work around the proprietary code that FP was designed to generate. Not everyone is prepared to dive in to that depth.

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I still use FrontPage 2003 too, even though my wife (who uses DreamWeaver, Drupal, and WordPress) rolls her eyes and says it is “old fashioned”. But I use FrontPage’s Broken Links report and there are no broken links on my sites, while she has some broken links on her sites. FrontPage has no copy protection, so I can put it on all my computers for free, while she pays hundreds for software and can only use it on her laptop. My sites are simpler for search robots to interpret, and come up higher on Google than hers. FrontPage is easy to show new employees how to use than DW, since it is very much like Word. I love FrontPage and think it will make a come back.

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Sorry to hear about the Host, mucking about with your code. I think I’d find another host. Eh?

My own site host provides me space for my files and nothing else. They never mess with it.

Having said that, a good friend and associate set up my one page web site for me, using Front Page,
but didn’t show me how to use it. So when I needed to make a little change and I pulled the page up
with front page it came up in HTML mode, not WYSIWYG. So there I sat, trying to decipher HTML code,
which I’d never seen before. Yoiks!

But a few hours later, I finally figured out what was going on, and I was able to make the changes that
I needed to make. Now I have no problem with it.

I guess ignorance is Bliss, because I have no problems with Front Page now that I know better how to use it.

Cheers Mates and Happy Holidays,
The Doctor

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Yep, I’m not very good using HTML code but can move around inside FP98/FP2000 (I have a small learning curve) obliviously it’s WYSIWYG

Again, it’s running it in my XP pro disk and don’t even “Care to” know if it’ll run in my win7 partition.

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It’s definitely time to break away from Front Page, for a huge variety of reasons. Web pages are increasingly being viewed on smart phones, tablets, e-readers. The OS systems vary widely, as do the browsers. Many of these devices rely on varying degrees of compliance with HTML5 and CSS3 standards to render pages as the author intended.

But, the biggest reason lies in the fact that you have 5,000 files. Why?? You say that you probably have about 500 html pages. That’s an even bigger why??? The sites that I build are quite modular. That is, there are lots of little parts that make up each page. But, even the biggest has only a fraction of the pages that you have.

Styling and layout is handled by a couple of css files. Data is all in a database where it is easily entered and recalled to populate parts of a page.

At least with Expression Web, the emphasis has been on modern web standards. There will be a learning curve, as there is with any new technology, but the interface appears to be similar enough to Front Page, that it shouldn’t be too frustrating.

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I think the biggest issue is that many hosting companies no longer install Front Page Server extensions. Most of what they did can be reproduced quite simply with a bit of simple programming or javascript.

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I’m arriving to this party a bit late.

I too have used FP since the late 90’s. It’s as complicated as I need it to be, but my server keeps having FP extensions breakdowns, so now I’m looking for options. I own Expression Web, but haven’t used it. You think I should just update this program to Expression Studio 4 Web Professional? I saw the upgrade on Amazon for something like $43.

Really, the reason I have continued to use FP extensions is for the simple form pages. Anyone know how I can just create form pages and then upload everything using FP with FTP? Is there a good form page creator out there?

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