switch from Publisher to FrontPage ?

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Guest

I recently developed a website using Publisher. It works and I'm quite happy
with it as my first site, although I've taken a lot of criticism from a few
pros over it's being bloated and inefficient. 2880 long lines of code. But,
as I say, it works, albeit just short of average response time using dialup.
Most of my users don't require more speed.
I don't have a budget for this site and not tons of time to get educated on
some of the new CSS-development areas. This is volunteer work. What I do have
access to is FrontPage and therefore my question is: am I going to gain
anything much by redoing my site in FrontPage?
-TexasChuck
 
Yes, absolutely use FrontPage. You have chosen the wrong tool ... Publisher
.... for web building. It is too bad the Microsoft even gives you the
opportunity to make a web page in Publisher ... they do you a great
dis-service!
Eleanor
 
I'm still interested if anyone knows for sure that I could/should gain much
by switching to FrontPage.
Also, I heard that MS is discontinuing FP in favor of some new product. Will
this likely have any impact on my using an existing FP ?
-texas chuck
 
By switching to any web page editor away from Publisher, you will gain
much, and lose absolutely nothing.
For web pages, Publisher produces the most diabolical code ever. The
critics are 100% correct.

Code produced in FrontPage (and most other editors) is easily edited
with any text editor.
Using FrontPage you can tech yourself the rudiments of web design,
just by seeing how FP writes the code as you create the page,
something you cannot do with Publisher.

On the other hand, Publisher is an excellent desk top publishing tool,
something FrontPage will never be. Always use the right tools for the
job.
 
Hi Chuck
You wrote:
"I'm still interested if anyone knows for sure that I could/should gain much
by switching to FrontPage."

I am far from being an expert. I used Publisher before FT and I thought I
could use my knowledge or at least I could use Publisher and export into FT.
It did not work; furthermore WYSWYG in FP gave me lots of head aches.
I have to agree with E.T. Microsoft should not make us beleive that it could
work.
After months of struggling and asking questions in discussion group I had to
accept what the pros told me at the beginning: Learn HTML & CSS.
I have to tell you that it isn’t that hard what was harder to accept the
fact that there is no other and shorter way. In fact HTML & CSS gives you
the peace of mind that what ever you define it will be the size, the colour
etc. you wanted to be.

Good Luck
 
Chuck,

I used Publisher to develop my fist site: www.advancedaudioinc.com

It worked well and I was able to implement some add-on features like:
Opening up a link in a new window
Showing an icon when the page is saved to favorites

You are correct. The WYSIWYG layout is neat and very easy to implement.
The results are positive so long as the viewer is using IE. If they use
Netscape or Mozilla then the results can be a little less than you'd have
liked (Try my site...)

The real downside to Publisher is that the code is slow and bloated compared
to other tools and you don't have near the flexibility.

I now use frontpage and like it a lot. It's very powerful and still pretty
simple. As you already have a working site then keep that posted while you
learn FP. I think you'll have fun and like some of the advanced features.

Cheers,
Chris
 
Yes;

One big advantage is you'll be using a tool designed for the job (making web
sites) which Publisher is not. Publisher is primarily for print
publications, not online.

Download speed is only one factor to take into consideration - other factors
include the fact that Publisher creates poor code, your word art etc won't
be viewable in browsers other than IE - and other factors all leading to
slow download times.

You said you 'dont' have time to learn CSS' - you don't need to know CSS to
produce a reasonable site in Frontpage. Of course, using CSS would help,
but it isn't absolutely essential, and Frontpage can help with some of the
CSS ; you won't be writing it from scratch. But the more you learn the
better.
 
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