Re: Failings of Front Page

Peter, you are right, if you don't have that button checked off to maintain
the existing code, it will change it to whatever settings you have asked of
it.  I don't quite understand why this would be a problem for you....I set
it once and never change it for ANY reason!  While I've tried other
products, we also host a large number of sites that we do not do the site
development on and a large number of those clients are using FP.  It just
makes sense to be familiar with the products they are choosing to use to
create or modify their sites with so we can offer to step in and fix things
when they throw in the towel :-)

What Greg described happens quite often (client finding it too time
consuming or difficult to make their own website)
As far as whether or not to use Frontpage to finish the job, I don't think
it should matter what editor you use to finish his site.  Use what you are
familiar with!  Why should it matter whether or not you use Frontpage?  If
you use a non-wysiwyg editor and that works great for you, then that's fine!
What 'might' be essential to find out is whether he plans to make more
changes down the road after you are done with the site?  If so, you might
want to limit replacing things that are FP server extension dependent with
CGI scripts.  For example, for clients not using FP I might use SSI
extensively to pull menus into a page.  However, if the client will be
accessing the website with Frontpage to do occasional editing, I'd be more
inclined to use the Frontpage Shared borders feature as they will be able to
edit these easier.   Also, this has happened to me several times: clients
using Netscape composer or MS Publisher to make changes and wondering why
things don't look right anymore.  If he has no plans on doing any
maintenance on the site, then I think you should let him know it makes no
difference.

I do however question why you would feel it should cost more for you to
finish the site because you do not use a wysiwyg editor??  Why should there
be any difference in price?  If it takes you that much longer to build a
site because you do not use available tools, why should the client pay for
this??  (Just my opinion mind you....I also disagree with charging clients
for my learning curve, so what do I know anyhow)

Regards,

Heather





----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Benoit <pbenoit(at)triton-network.com>
To: 'Greg Scott' <gscott(at)midway.tds.net>; <hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2000 2:04 PM
Subject: RE: Failings of Front Page


> I have used FrontPage since it's conception, and still use it on a daily
> basis, but I refuse to ever use it as an editor.  It has some handy file
> manager capabilities built into it (though there are a dozen or so I'd
like
> to see added to it) but the editor is just awful.  If you want to make a
> quick table, frames page, or form it does a good enough job, but if you
want
> to do some advanced editing it's best to set the default editor to
something
> else.
>
> I'm not so sure that there is alot of "fat" code added in anymore with
> FrontPage 2k, but be warned that even if you have the button selected so
> that FrontPage isn't supposed to edit your code... it will, and has done
so
> many times to me if you use it as your editor.
>
> HTH,
> Peter
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Greg Scott [SMTP:gscott(at)midway.tds.net]
> > Sent: Wednesday, February 02, 2000 12:59 PM
> > To: hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org
> > Subject: Failings of Front Page
> >
> > I have a prospective client who has tried to use Front Page (and talked
> > his hosting
> > service in to supporting F.P.) in creating a web site for his business.
> > He has now
> > decided that he doesn't have the time to do it himself but wants someone
> > to use what he
> > has done and finish the job using Front Page.
> >
> > I've never used Front Page, but my impression of it based on discussions
> > that I think I
> > remember from this list were that it wrote "fat" code that in many cases
> > didn't validate.
> > Am I remembering correctly?  I would prefer to just modify or rewrite
his
> > existing work
> > using the non-WYSIWYG editor that I'm used to but would like to be able
to
> > provide some
> > evidence or incentive that this is the better way to go (even though it
> > might not be as
> > cheap if he can find someone else to use F.P. and finish the job).
> >
> > Any thoughts?
> > Greg
>

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