# Alternatives to MS Front Page



## hottesttotty (Dec 12, 2001)

Ok, guys.....I've been using FP 2000 for about 3 years now, and I'm pretty comfortable with it, and can honestly say that I know MOST of the "ins and outs" of it. (Honestly can't say it's caused me any problems, but I'm a victim of curiousity! Kind of like "If it ain't broke, I wanna take it apart, and find out WHY"!! )

HOWEVER.......... I know there are alot of people here who absolutely HATE FP. What I would like to know is what happened to make you hate it (be detailed if you would please) and what do you recommend as an alternative in the line of similar (wysywig) programs? I only dabble in coding as I need it, so I would prefer to stick with something that generally functions like FP, without whatever it is that everyone DOESN'T like! 

Last, but not least, in recommending alternatives, I would like to know how an existing website can be transferred to use the new program. I have a pretty LARGE website, and the last thing I want to do is start from scratch!  

Thanks in advance for any and all advice!


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## mixx941 (Dec 19, 2001)

Hi. I am not really advanced with coding and stuff, but I saw your post and thought I'd reply.

I used to use FrontPage 2002 and 2000 on my site for a couple of years. To be honest, it served me OK. For users without flash, I still serve my FronPage site, and still update it on a regular basis. (http://www.mixx941.com/ and select HTML)

I recently redesigned my site using Macromedia's Dreamweaver MX. I love it. The only thing that I would've liked built in is easy webforms (as I have many on my site). But other than that, Dreamweaver MX is great.

Why not FrontPage? Well for one it is Micro$oft, but aside from that, I think there are many reasons to move up to Dreamweaver or something better.

1) FrontPage has wierd code with those FrontPage extensions. 
2) It doesn't have good support for PHP, CGI and stuff like that.

FP is easy to use, and the FP extensions make it easy to make webforms and stuff, but I think Dreamweaver is much more rewarding. You'll need a good form mail script though. Some pretty good ones can be found at www.hotscripts.com. I use Matt's FormMail (Perl).

I'm not sure how to transfer other than copy and paste. Sorry can't be much help there.

Hope This Helps-Sorry if I rambled along.

-Mark


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## Shadow2531 (Apr 30, 2001)

I just use notepad and upload with ws_ftp 

It's a sin to use front page.  (You might as well use MSWord)

I also like Amaya and HTML Kit for making web pages.

Amaya is a good wysiwyg program, that still needs work, but it has great xhtml 1.1 support and does things the right way.

The only other wysiwyg program I would ever use is DreamweaverMX.

I don't use it though, because I just end up typing in the code anyways, so it's a waste.

It's good for flash of course, which is another plus.

I still find it unproductive, but that's just me.

Dreamweaver, has poor XHMTL support.

Again, use DreamweaverMX, if you must use a wysiwyg program to make web pages.

Amaya

HTML Kit

Html kit and Amaya are great tools.

You will like Dreamweaver better though.

The reason I hate FP is it modifies code when you don't want it to. For example if you put &amp; in your code and upload it the page, FP will convert it to just & , which is totally unacceptable. It deletes every html entity you put in your code. Also, I have multiple web pages with links pointing to my other webpages. If I rename one of my pages so I can upload a newer page with the same file name, it will got through all my web pages and change the code to point to the renamed file. That is bogus. ( I do understand why some might like that though) (I also understand that there are preferences you can change to cusomize pf, but there are no preferences to stop the messing with the entities)

Most of all it doesn't produce html or XHTML compliant code.


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## yul (Feb 11, 2003)

I used to code in NOTEPAD...but then Homesite 5 caught my attention.

It allows you the flexibility to hand code yourself and for the best part it DOES NOT change the code.....not a bit.

although it does not qualify as a proper WYSIWYG.


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## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

Homesite is really good for basic stuff and Dreamweaver MX is even better.


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## hottesttotty (Dec 12, 2001)

Thanks for all the replies! DreamweaverMX sounds like the most common thing I'm getting from everyone.....so does anyone know the answer to the second part of the ?? Will it let me import my existing site, or will it not be able to understand the code correctly because of the FP induced changes?? If I knew it would transfer ok, I'd jump on it!

Thanks!


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## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

It will still open in Dreamweaver and work properly, although from FP there will be extra tags and stuff laying around in your code.

You might try Netscape Composer, thats what I use. Its good for a free solution, but MX is much more powerful. Composer comes with Netscape.


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## suzi (Dec 27, 2002)

It seems like I remember reading that Dreamweaver has a function to clean up unneeded tags from Front Page. I use Dreamweaver 4, never used FP so I never tried it.


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## suzi (Dec 27, 2002)

Another WYSIWYG that a lot of people like is NetObjects Fusion 7.


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## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

There is a FrontPage Migration Kit for dreamweaver but I dont know exactly what it does.


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## hottesttotty (Dec 12, 2001)

Thanks again for the info everyone.........I appreciate all your opinions!  I'm pretty well sold on Dreamweaver after hearing your replies and following up with a little research. Now to come up with the extra ca$h!!


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## Snake~eyes (Apr 18, 2002)

> _Originally posted by yul:_
> *I used to code in NOTEPAD...but then Homesite 5 caught my attention.
> 
> It allows you the flexibility to hand code yourself and for the best part it DOES NOT change the code.....not a bit.
> ...


Homesite is what I use, though I do have Dreamweaver, I don't really use it.

If you want a notepad editor get Homesite

If you weant WYSIWYG then get Dreamweaver


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## mischiefschild (Apr 20, 2002)

Been awhile since Ive been in 'Development'


MS Front Page

MacroMedia DreamWeaver

GoLive

Evrsoft's 1st Page

MacroMedia HomeSite 

Text Pad

HTML-KIT
</td
[TD]Note Pad 

Table of HTML Editors

check em all out for your self and enjoy


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