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I am not a computer idiot. I know my way around Microsoft Publisher, Word, and Excel (that is to say I can get what I want out of them). However, when it came to FrontPage 2000 I found I was a bit out of my league. Not well conversant in HTML or XML (web page languages), I found myself dismayed. MS Publisher has web page creation that I found simple and easy to use, it just lacked all the nifty bells and whistles I really needed to make my site rock. So...the problems I had with FrontPage 2000 seem to have disappeared with the 2003 version. It's much easier to use (not as easy as Publisher), but I have found it to be a great improvement over the 2000 version.

So far, I have only run into one major problem (major for me). I used to be able to insert a drop-down boxes, I find that I am no longer able to do that. It's probably my problem since I haven't purchased a 1,000 page book describing where they have moved it to (the upgrade only comes with a 27 page book that isn't all that helpful to me.

As for being able to place, display, and organize my page...its loads better than the 2000 version.

Now, if only I could figure out how to get it to find my old clip art...;)

Microsoft Office FrontPage is Microsoft's website design package. FrontPage allows you to easily create websites using basic or advanced web technologies.

One of FrontPage's major advantages is that it is part of the Microsoft Office family. FrontPage's uses the same interface as other Microsoft Office products. If you are familiar with Office, navigating around FrontPage is no problem.

FrontPage 2003 creates fairly clean HTML code. It allows the user to easily use advanced technologies such as ASP.NET in their websites. Beginners are able to be more productive in FrontPage than most other website design packages.

If you use some of FrontPage's features, your hosting company will need to have FrontPage extensions installed on their server. If they do not have FrontPage extensions, features such as the counter will not work.

Another drawback is that FrontPage does not support PHP natively. PHP is frequently used to create more interactive websites. A plug-in was available for previous versions of FrontPage, but I am unaware of any plug-ins for this version.

Overall if you are looking for an easy to use package, and have access to the FrontPage extensions on your host, this is an excellent package for you. If you are looking for a more professional package supporting all of the major technologies, Macromedia DreamWeaver MX is a much better option.

The new edition of FrontPage has the same ease of use as previous editions, with improvements in advanced features and more standard HTML code than previous versions, which would often create some strange items when you used the WYSIWYG editor. It's so easy to use, I have a tough time weaning myself off of FrontPage and getting into Macromedia, which has some advantages for the webdesigner. Thing is, I am an amateur web designer, so I don't have time to get totally educated in the more advanced features. FrontPage is just too darned easy to use.

But why is that a problem with FrontPage? It handles CSS well, and the editor is darned easy to use, far easier than Macromedia Studio MX. But if your ISP server doesn't employ Frontpage Extensions (and many of them don't) then uploading pages created in Frontpage can be difficult if not impossible. However, for the average user, I have to say that FrontPage is the web designer of choice. It's far easier to get running than Macromedia, which really is not intuitive. FrontPage is intuitive, and most people will have excellent success right out of the box. Just watch out for the extension support when you choose a web space provider.