Re: is Front Page good for novice?

Hello!

I've been watching this particular thread for a bit, and although I do most
of my coding with a "shareware" text editor, I teach Front Page, rather
since I'm not certified I should probably say instruct, to a number of
people, many of which have some sort of disability.  A good part of my
"course" is also showing the shortcomings of FP, and how to work with the
built-in editor to get rid of most of them, and also to load your "text
editor of choice" to get rid of the rest of the FP

I'm also an advocate of valid HTML, and accessibility.  Both of which are
ignored by most WYSIWYG web authoring tools.  Most of my clients are
corporate, government and non-profit organizations, and their general
consensus leans towards content first, appearance second.

I find FrontPage a pretty good setup for the amateur, and maybe even for the
professional.  Once the "feel" of the program is developed, it can be a very
powerful development and management tool.
What I like about FP.

1. It's fairly inexpensive.
2. You can buy it at the local "Wal-Mart".
3. Very little skill is needed to create a decent web page.
4. The Web creation Wizards can give you a foundation to start your design.
5. It recognizes and supports embedded and cascading style sheets (FP98+)
6. You can edit and create page templates for often used layout designs.
7. It creates JavaScript, VBScript for a lot of little "bells and whistles".

What I don't like about FP.

1. The code is geared for Microsoft browsers.
2. Doesn't declare "DOCTYPE".
3. It places meta tags that won't validate.
4. It uses code sequences that are considered to be in "bad style".
5. It's "WebBots" create a need to run on an NT based server, or server that
supports FP extensions.

I've used Netscape Composer, Web Factory, and a few of the other "freebie
add ons" that come with other software packages.  For my purposes, I can't
justify the cost of the higher priced, and better tools for web authoring.
Once again, probably the best authoring tool is your favorite text editor
and a good understanding of HTML.  (Although, I am considering HomeSite as
my next additon to my toolbox.)

Personally, I use FrontPage to set up the basic look of the page, and then
load up the text editor to bring the page into validation and multi browser
compatibility.

BTW, I'm a terrible artist, and my layout skills lean in the same direction.
:)

Paul Rudolf paul(at)ntyc.net
Personal Software Systems

http://www.ntyc.net

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