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Microsoft FrontPage (full name
Microsoft Office FrontPage) is a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web site administration
tool from Microsoft for
the Microsoft Windows line of operating
systems. It was branded as part of the Microsoft
Office suite from 1997 to 2003.
History
FrontPage was initially created by the Cambridge, Massachusetts
company Vermeer Technologies Incorporated, evidence
of which can be easily spotted in filenames and directories
prefixed _vti_ in web sites created using
FrontPage. Vermeer was acquired by Microsoft in January 1996
specifically so that Microsoft could add FrontPage to its product
line-up [2]
allowing them to gain an advantage in the browser wars as FrontPage was designed to
author for their own browser, Internet Explorer.
As a WYSIWYG editor,
FrontPage is designed to hide the details of pages' HTML code from
the user, making it possible for novices to easily create web pages and sites.
FrontPage's initial outing under the Microsoft name came in 1996
with the release of Windows NT 4.0 Server and its
constituent web server
Internet Information
Services 2.0. Bundled on CD with the NT 4.0 Server release,
FrontPage 1.1 would run under NT 4.0 (Server or Workstation) or
Windows 95, and was aimed at providing server administrators with a
tool to deliver rich web and internet content in a package as easy
to use as Microsoft Word.
FrontPage used to require a set of server-side plugins originally known as
IIS Extensions. The extension set was significantly enhanced for
Microsoft inclusion of FrontPage into the Microsoft Office line-up
with Office 97 and subsequently renamed FrontPage Server Extensions
(FPSE). Both sets of extensions needed to be installed on the
target web server for
its content and publishing features to work. Microsoft offered both
Windows and Unix-based versions of FPSE. However, newer versions of
FrontPage also support the standard WebDAV protocol for remote web publishing and
authoring.[3]
A version for Mac OS was
released in 1998; however, it had
fewer features than the Windows product and Microsoft has never
updated it.[4]
In 2006, Microsoft announced that FrontPage would eventually be
superseded by two products.[5] Microsoft
SharePoint Designer will allow business professionals to design
SharePoint-based applications. Microsoft Expression Web is
targeted for web design professionals who create full-blown web
sites. Microsoft announced that they would be discontinuing
Microsoft FrontPage by December 2006.
Features
Some of the features in the last version of FrontPage
include:
- FrontPage 2003 consists of a new Split View option to allow the
user to code in Code View and preview in Design View without the
hassle of switching from the Design and Code View tabs for each
review
- Dynamic Web Templates (DWT) were included for the first time in
FrontPage 2003 allowing users to create a single template that
could be used across multiple pages and even the whole Web
site
- Interactive Buttons give users a new easy way to create web
graphics for navigation and links, eliminating the need for a
complicated image-editing package such as Adobe
Photoshop
- The accessibility checker gives the user the ability to check
if their code is standards compliant and that their Web site is
easily accessible for people with disabilities. An HTML optimizer
is included to aid in optimizing code to make it legible and
quicker to process
- Intellisense, which is a form of autocompletion, is a key new feature in
FrontPage 2003 that assists the user while typing in Code View.
When working in Code View, Intellisense will suggest tags and/or
properties for the code that the user is entering which
significantly reduces the time to write code. The Quick Tag Editor
shows the user the tag they are currently in when editing in Design
View. This also includes the option to edit the specific
tag/property from within the Tag Editor
- Code Snippets give users the advantage to create snippets of
their commonly used pieces of code allowing them to store it for
easy access whenever it is next needed
- FrontPage 2003 includes support macro in VBA
Criticism
Some criticism of FrontPage include:
- In previous versions, the WYSIWYG mode tended to generate
non-validating HTML, resulting in pages that were optimized for Internet
Explorer.
- In some cases, HTML that is manually changed in FrontPage's
code view can revert to incorrectly generated markup after making
even slight changes in WYSIWYG mode.
- In some cases, HTML generated by FrontPage can include
duplicated content and will not necessarily create efficient code.
It is always recommended to manually review generated code before
publishing.
Versions
- Vermeer FrontPage 1.0
- 1995 - Microsoft FrontPage 1.1
- 1997 - Microsoft FrontPage 97 (version 2)
- 1997 - Microsoft FrontPage Express 2.0 (free stripped-down
version came with Internet Explorer 4 and 5, and
could be found online from numerous shareware websites[6][7]
- 1998 - Microsoft FrontPage for Macintosh 1.0
- 1998 - Microsoft FrontPage 98 (version 3)
- 1999 - Microsoft FrontPage 2000 (version 9): Included in Office
2000 Premium and Developer editions
- 2001 - Microsoft FrontPage 2002 (version 10): Included in
Office XP Professional with FrontPage (volume license only), Office
XP Professional Special Edition and Office XP Developer
edition.
- 2003 - Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 (version 11): Not
included in any of the Office 2003 editions, sold separately. It
was included with Windows Small Business Server 2003.
Note: There is no official version 4 to 8, because
after FrontPage was included in some Office editions, the FrontPage
version numbers followed their Office version numbers. Nonetheless,
version numbers may appear in the meta tags of HTML code generated
by these versions of FrontPage.
See also
References
- ^
Microsoft Finalizes Office
2003, Sets Pricing and October Launch Date - By Paul Thurrott
(August 20, 2003) WinInfo - InstantDoc #39901
- ^
Microsoft (January 16, 1996).
"Microsoft Acquires Vermeer
Technologies Inc.". Press release. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1996/jan96/vrmeerpr.mspx. Retrieved December 12,
2006.
- ^
"FrontPage 2003 Frequently
Asked Questions". Microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/office/frontpage/prodinfo/faq.mspx. Retrieved December 12,
2006.
- ^
"Frequently Asked Questions
About FrontPage". Microsoft. http://www.microsoft.com/office/previous/frontpage/2002faq.asp. Retrieved December 12,
2006.
- ^
FrontPage 2003 Help and
How-to microsoft.com
- ^
"You can find the latest version at the www.Microsoft.com Web site"
in Ruth Maran et al.: Office 97 - Superbook, 1998,
Marangraphics, ISBN 1-896283-42-X
- ^
"FrontPage Express is included with Internet Explorer to make it
easy for you to upload all of your HTML pages to a server" in
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 - Step by Step, 1997,
Catapult/Microsoft Press, ISBN 1-57231-514-8
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