Microsoft FrontPage 2003: Once-Bloated Site Editor
Embarrassment Raids Dreamweaver's Wardrobe

Software; Software Review; Product/Service Evaluation
By Scott Parker

Contrary to popular opinion, we don't hate Microsoft. In fact, most of us at IM would love to have all of the latest Office products sitting on our home PCs. But FrontPage has never been one of our favourite Web editing packages.

Perhaps we've just been bewitched by Macromedia into believing that nothing can touch Dreamweaver MX -- but not everyone can afford its whopping price tag. FrontPage 2003 will cost you less than half that. It's no longer bundled with Office and this latest version has been seriously beefed up to target professional users looking to build sophisticated database-driven sites.

The first thing you'll notice is that it all looks much better. There's a tabbed interface for easy switching between documents and thank goodness--a split view so you can see the actual code you're creating as you design your page. Nice touches include a tag selector which lets highlight and edit any particular tag without scrolling through the code.

FrontPage includes tools to help you create complex tables in no time, and you have much more control over your page layout than in previous versions. You'll also find that this latest incarnation of the software supports layers and Cascading Style Sheets too.

The 'Intellisense' autocomplete tool helps you out with your code, but although it supports ASP.NET there's not much help for PHP fans.

One of the worst things about previous versions of FrontPage was the ridiculously bloated code that it generated--thankfully things have now changed for better. The code is no longer hidden away and there's an integrated HTML optimiser to clean things up. It's still not perfect--especially if you paste in stuff from Word--but it's a clear improvement.

Many of the new features will seem familiar to Dreamweaver users and Microsoft has obviously listened to its critics. Another idea it has borrowed is the creation of template files, with lockable elements to stop people editing the bits they shouldn't. It's nice to see that these are compatible with Dreamweaver.

If you're feeling lazy you can also download various ready-made templates along with the necessary directory structure, pages and even some of the content. There are other time saving tools provided too, like interactive button builders and instant photo galleries.

With Office 2003, Microsoft is focussing very much on XML support and collaboration possibilities--and FrontPage 2003 follows in this vein.

Many of the data features require your site to be hosted on Windows Server 2003 with SharePoint services and are targeted at a corporate market looking to develop complex dynamic applications. On the whole, though, it's a relief to see that Microsoft is shying away from new components that need proprietary server extensions and creating pages the same way as everybody else. Well, almost.

FrontPage 2003 is a major improvement on previous versions, addressing many of the issues that have had us fuming in the past. It's now a grown-up editing package with the power and control that serious developers need.

It's not Dreamweaver MX though, and Microsoft will still play second fiddle to Macromedia when it comes to catering for Web professionals. But is it now all a bit much for beginners too? Those familiar with the older versions should be able to get their head around the changes, but real novices can find cheaper and easier alternatives--such as NetObjects Fusion--elsewhere.

THE LOWDOWN

BRIEFLY Major update to Microsoft's Web editor

PROS Support for CSS and layers, good testing tools

CONS Not as powerful as Dreamweaver, still produces some bloated code

CONTACTS

www.microsoft.com/

PLATFORMS

Windows 2000/XP

TESTING, TESTING

Accessibility is a key design concern at the moment, so FrontPage 2003 checks your pages for problems as you build them. This is more than welcome, but it can be a pain when it picks up things that it need not comment on. It also provides compatibility testing, and you can try out your design on different screen resolutions too. All these tools will help you produce a site which doesn't leave any visitors out in the cold.

BYLINE: Parker, Scott, Copyright 2004 Gale Group, Inc. ASAP Copyright 2004 EMAP Media Ltd. Internet Magazine February 1, 2004