Frontpage 2000 Yet another classical example of Microsoft wants you to do everything its way. According to hype many web designers swear by frontpage. I have no idea why. Frontpage is too much like a layout program. It does not have the professional look and feel about it. Moreover there is a lot of proprietary technology involved, which of course works with only Internet explorer. Starting off is pretty easy. Just select new page or web from the file menu and FP guides you through the rest. FP is considerably easy to use if you don’t want to get down to advanced features. Again, FP creates the directory structure and code based on the Frontpage extensions format. So you need a server supporting FP extensions to get these features to work. If you have moved in from other design programs you will find a FP a bit awkward to handle. The interface is not exactly WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). So you will have to preview it before settling down for a design. You can check for broken hyperlinks, view navigation, create reports all with a click. DHTML effects can be applied by just selecting the effects from a dropdown list. You can sacrifice features for compatibility by choosing the page options, which allow you to specify the target browsers and the technologies that can be implemented on your page.
Microsoft has tried to make the interface as similar to MS word as possible to help new users. Themes have been included which changes the look and feel of you site instantaneously. Its true but not without drawbacks. Its like giving a flame torch to a kid. In the arms of an inexperienced user, themes are a sure way to make mince meat out of your site. One reason is the fact that removing a theme does not bring your page back to its original form. So before you start experimenting on your site with FP make sure you have a full backup. Also FP makes changes to you site and pages on its own even if you just OPEN it in FP! Table handling is very poor in FP. Frontpage is a software that has to be learned to utilize it completely. I wouldn’t recommend it for the beginner because of its inherent complexity. It is more suited for the intermediate user who knows what he is doing.
For the experts I would recommend Macromedia Dreamweaver. Unquestionably the KING among site design software. (FrontPage is not for me. I feel VERY restricted using it. I use Macromedia Dreamweaver for my site design. In fact my entire site was created using Dreamweaver. It is very expensive though.)