76 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Idiot's Guide to Web Design, 6 July 2005
This review is from: Office FrontPage 2003 (Software)
After inheriting the maintenance of an non-profit organisation's web site and having never designed/altered or otherwise a web site/page, I decided to buy FrontPage 2003 and a good guide. Absolutely the best move I made. It didn't take long to get to grips with FP, whether you're used to Microsoft products or not. It's a simple package to use with great Wizards for the novice and an extensive help section for both the novice and the more adventurous. It produces professionally designed sites and, as with most MS products, allows you to incorporate your own designs and advanced features. I'm looking forward to learning more and adding some advanced 'active' features to our new (and now much commented upon) web site. Highly recommended for beginners and the more advanced user.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
116 of 120 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Very basic, easy to use, limited in power and performance, 28 Jan 2005
This review is from: Office FrontPage 2003 (Software)
I purchased Frontpage 2003 for my father as he wanted a simple web design programme, and this is exactly what we received. Much hyped and meant to be far superior than Frontpage 2002, we thought Frontpage 2003 would be at least a little superior to the cheap programmes you can pick up for £30 or so. How wrong were we!
Frontpage is fine if all you want to do is design and publish a very basic site. It is quite conservative and does not allow for import from most other programmes (apart from industry standards such as Flash).
It's templates are rather stale and rather boring and simple, all right for the late 1990's - you expect more nowadays. It's WYSIWYG approach is good for a beginner, but even a beginner will get frustrated after a while with it's lack of flexibility. WYSIWYG as long as it fits in with the way Frontpage likes things, otherwise you will need to be an experienced web designer (in which case you wouldn't be using this package).
However, for the Microsoft Office and Word user, this will provide a familiar environment within which to work. The new improved features are also much lauded but have been industry basics elsewhere for a long long time. The customer support from Microsoft is excellent, and they will help you work through problems, though you will be holding on for hours and hours to get through on the telephone. Also, be aware, not everyone supports Frontpage 2003 - even Yahoo Webhosting will only support Frontpage 2002 and earlier versions.
This was good for my Dad, who just wanted to put a few family pics up online, but for that purpose, it was rather expensive. I would suggest that if you are considering purchasing this, please first try it out - there is a trial version on the microsoft site, after which, if you are happy, you can come back to Amazon to buy it. But if you do this, please also consider trying out the trial versions of other software available, especially from Macromedia.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The app the web techies love to hate, 12 Jun 2006
This review is from: Office FrontPage 2003 (Software)
I have used FrontPage for many years and find it a very useful tool. It isn't Dreamweaver, thats why it is less than half the price. What it is though is an easy to learn tool for the production of basic web sites and an ideal tool for the management of existing sites by non-techie users. It doesnt do web graphics well, but if you combine it with other apps like Macromedia Fireworks or similar you can obtain some impressive results.
As for the legendary naff code, well it works (at least in IE6)! And in these days of fast broadband connections, this isnt really a problem. FrontPage pages never pass validation by W3C but, as the average web user has never heard of it, I don't lose much sleep over this.
All in all I recommend FrontPage
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No