At 05:39 PM 6/24/98 -0700, you wrote:
>So, to summarize, the product may not work as well as hand-coding for
>design, but it is possible to use it quite successfully for maintenance and
>updates. [Note: these pages have no JavaScript, and I've heard that
>importing pages with JavaScript can cause FP to delete the JavaScript, so
>without more info on that I wouldn't try using FP to edit a page with
>rollovers at this point in time.]
Hello,
I've been an on-again, off-again lurker on this list since its inception
(sometime in late '96?), but have to put my 2-cents in on the FrontPage
thread.
My company has offered professional web site design and hosting services
since 1994. With customers in over 30 states, I'd say we're a fairly
respectable regional, if not national IPP.
Guess what? We build everything in MS FrontPage. <gasp!> Guess what else?
Our customers are happy with our design services and reasonable rates, we
get tons of referrals and have an enormous backlog of web site design jobs.
Anyone want a job? If you know FrontPage like the back of your hand,
WE'RE HIRING. <I can hear the .html purists gnashing their teeth as I
type.>
Here's something to think about. Our customers dig us because once we're
done building their site, they have the option of taking over as webmaster
- and it's easy for them to do it with a product like Frontpage. It's easy
from a user standpoint, and it's easy from an ISP tech support standpoint.
Are we worried about losing design business? No.
Why? Because even though WYSIWYG editors make it easy for anyone to build
a web site, it doesn't give them the years of experience we have. We're
confident enough in our services to allow our customers to do some of the
work themselves, and to hire us for the "hard stuff".
Software, like any tool, is only as good as the mechanic who's using it.
Sure, MS FrontPage like any other authoring tool has it's quirks - but some
of the comments I have been reading on this list suggest a couple of
things. Either..
A.) a total lack of knowledge of the product
B.) Have only used FrontPage 1.1 or '97, haven't tried FP '98
C.) or more likely an "I'm-cool-because-I'm-anti-microsoft-attitude".
For example, and I'm paraphrasing... "the web pages don't work, or only
look good on FrontPage servers". Huh? .html is .html. It doesn't look
"different" on different web servers. It CAN look different in varying
browers - just like any other pages created in any other authoring tools.
Hells-bells (to quote Brent), I like notepad/textpad for editing .html too
- but we'd never meet our customers deadlines, let alone turn enough profit
to meet our payroll if every page we built was 100% virgin .html, created
in an academic vacuum and hosted on a Linux server.
So, the point is, if you know what the heck you're doing - FrontPage is a
great editor. So is Homesite, Adobe Pagemill, Net Objects Fusion,
Dreamweaver, etc. Don't let anyone call you a 'newbie' because you use
FrontPage.
Julie Silverman
Network Administrator, Internet Instructor, Professional Zamboni Driver
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