Website designing software.

For this, my first site, i am using Frontpage Express 2002 - from Microsoft.

I am no fan of the Gates corporation -two words 'product activation'. However Frontpage has an enormous amount of backup support including, countless supporting books and online help forums. Frontpage seemed the more simpler option than other more advanced web designers. For the price, it is also one of the best buys that is available, for instance when compared to Dreamweaver MX -which is around the £400 mark - which is way too costly for anyone starting out.

What does Frontpage offer ?
How expensive is it ?
How easy is Frontpage to use ?

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Frontpage - the basics

 


The costs

FrontPage 2002 - the standard full version varies from around £75 - to around £130. It is worth looking around for the latest deals. I got my copy via Amazon, they are reliable and deliver fast.

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Ease of use

So far, after three weeks of page making, i am really getting used to Frontpage. It takes a little time to become acquainted with the menus, however if you have used Word (who has'nt ?) most of the toolbars look familiar.

The three views,  'normal', 'HTML', and 'preview' are the best feature of this programme. It is simple to flip the page view between the standard editing view, the programming code/tag view, and the preview mode.

Extra help?  I find that using the help menu as a means to learning is very troublesome. You end up trying to flip back and forth within the help listings, and it can get quite confusing.
Personally, i suggest that you get hold of a support book or two, i have found two guides to be a great start. I  find having extra guides a key to successfully solving design problems.

For someone starting out, Frontpage is a very straightforward web page application. There are better applications out there, but for the price, and for ease of use, i highly recommend it as your starter program.

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