Microsoft FrontPage 2000, retail boxes, Front Page, CD roms+

$9.00

The best software for creating your own website.

This lot includes full retail version of FrontPage 97 and Front Page 2000 Upgrade in their original boxes. Includes blank registration cards, mint 300+ page manual for FP 2000, 220+ page manual for FP 97. All three CD disks show very little wear. Also included is a bunch of misc. original paperwork.

FrontPage 98 was an effective, full-featured Web authoring tool, but many complained that the program would invasively alter their HTML code. With this new version, FrontPage 2000, Microsoft has reined in the program's penchant for arbitrarily changing HTML tags and using narrowly supported functions. In addition, FrontPage's Personal Web Server no longer installs itself without informing you of its actions. In fact, the server doesn't even ship with this version.

As part of its new attitude, FrontPage will open an entire Web site without touching your HTML. You can even have FrontPage read a page from your site, and adopt your HTML-authoring style for all the pages it creates. Where FrontPage 2000 truly shines, though, is in its fantastic site-creation wizards.

A wizard on the Web
Whether you're building a corporate Intranet or launching your company's first Web site, FrontPage 2000's wizards can help you complete your task. These wizards ask more questions and manage more details than any other Web-authoring wizards I've encountered. For example, FrontPage 2000 not only propagates all of your pages with boilerplate text (which you replace with your own), it also ensures that you replace the boilerplate text by reminding you to do so in a Task window. This way, you won't accidentally publish dummy text on your Web site.

Another major change in FrontPage 2000 is that the HTML editor is now integrated into the program and appears as one of the three tabs on the interface--the other two are for Normal view and PREVIEW:. Inside the editor, you can drag and drop HTML--but unlike powerhouse HTML-editing applications such as HotDog Professional 5.1, there's no on-the-fly HTML validation to indicate problems in your syntax.

A Better Manager
Managing sites is easier with FrontPage 2000 than it has been in earlier versions. The new Reports view offers more than a dozen instant reports--including broken links, recently added files, component errors and uncompleted tasks--and you can drill down through any of these reports to directly access the affected page or file. The only concern here is that if you change a broken link using this interface, you can't undo the change by simply pressing Ctrl+Z, since the undo command doesn't work in this specific environment. Also new to this version is an excellent Web-safe color selector. It offers a Web-safe palette, complete with hexadecimal values, and even lets you eye-drop colors from anywhere on your Desktop.

FrontPage 2000 marks the introduction of dynamic HTML (DHTML) functionality, as well as absolute or pixel-precise positioning. The latter function is extremely useful when you're building a graphics-intensive Web page in which the position of each graphic is key--pages with forms, animations and multimedia events, for example. You can even use this capability to layer the graphics. Where FrontPage disappointed me, though, is in its implementation of pixel-precise positioning. In this mode, there's no way to apply a grid or even zoom in or out on a page to help you position objects. Worse yet, although you can layer images, there's no way to reveal the layered objects. By contrast, Macromedia's Dreamweaver 2.0 allows you to freely position objects on a page, layer them and even apply complex behaviors to have the layers interact with each other.

FrontPage 2000 now offers a wide array of options for controlling your Web pages, and helps you make decisions about what level of browser compatibility you'll want your Web site to have. Choosing Netscape 4 and Internet Explorer 4 compatibility takes away almost all DHTML capabilities--with the exception of some page-load functions (such as hop-in, fly-in and the like) that are little more than animation flourishes.

Digging for the data
However, if you're working on a Windows NT intranet or Web site with Internet Information Service (IIS) 4.0 and the latest FrontPage extensions installed, you're in for a real treat. FrontPage 2000 makes collecting and viewing data via your Web site easy and straightforward: You create a form page or use a wizard that includes a form page, and then attach a database to the page via the Form Properties dialog box. If you already have an Access database file on the server, great. And if you don't, it's still great. FrontPage can create an Access file for you. You then design a results page and simply link to that database from a drop-down field. Finally, you publish and start your data collection without ever having to open Access.

FrontPage 2000 does all the other things you expect it to do, and does it right. Editing Web pages in Normal view is a snap, and viewing your Web site in the Navigation window is easier than before, thanks to a new zoom capability. In addition, and I found the Task window a great tool for managing the assignments of small workgroups engaged in cocreating a Web site. If you've never built a Web site before, but know Office applications, you'll feel right at home in FrontPage 2000. In fact, there's a lot of shared code between FrontPage 2000 and Office 2000, including background spell checking and format painting.

Entering a new arena
Ultimately, FrontPage 2000 is a flexible product that is both intuitive and high powered. But Microsoft has taken a dangerous risk with this latest version by adding absolute positioning, layering and DHTML--features that put it in competition with Macromedia's Dreamweaver. It's a contest FrontPage 2000 loses. Where FrontPage wins, hands-down, is in automated site creation. For business users who need to make Web sites that look professional and really work, there is no other choice. And it's for those users that FrontPage retains it's WinList crown

 Local pickup in 08610 zip code is OK, cash only if you pick up. Since this is also available locally it is subject to prior sale.

Send your zip code for ship cost- should be between $6.95 and $9.95 if you are in the continental USA (Nov. 2012).

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