Software Review: Microsoft FrontPage98 (Part 2)
By Scott Clark
Figure 2. The FrontPage Manager
The FrontPage Manager (See figure 2) lets you view your site's navigational structure, directories of information, hyperlinks, hyperlink status, or all the files on your site at once. With the automatic hyperlink maintenance that the FrontPage Manager provides, you can make changes without worrying about broken links. The Hyperlink Status View allows the developer to check the status of the Web site and immediately fix any link using this centralized view. Multiple developers are able to collaborate on Web sites which are hosted on remote or local servers using the Manager.
Figure 3. FrontPage Themes
FrontPage Themes (See figure 3) allows the developer to give their entire site a high-quality, consistent look. More than 50 professionally designed thematic templates are included with FrontPage98. Themes may include backgrounds, fonts, page headers, and navigation buttons. The developer may assign a Theme to a group of pages or any individual Web page. If you use Themes, you are able to update the site's "look" with a click of the mouse in the FrontPage Manager (it will handle cascading style sheets too).
FrontPage now includes a Banner Ad Manager which allows you to select from several options that handle rotating information in your Web site, and also lets you add dynamic Web content, such as text that appears to fly onto the Web page from off-screen.
The Microsoft Image Composer and Microsoft GIF Animator are included as part of the FrontPage editor, allowing the developer to create and edit images and animations. The FrontPage editor also includes Wizards and Templates to guide you through the creation process. The developer is no longer required to create CGI programs from scratch in order to work with the data on a Web page form. Using FrontPage components, a developer is able to write the programs by using simple drop-in commands. Of course, the drawback to this is that you must be using the FrontPage Server Extensions (they are included on the FrontPage 98 beta CD and also available for free download).
Many of the new features of FrontPage98 include wizards to guide the user along. The Import Wizard allows you to import existing files or entire folders of information into your FrontPage Web sites, and you can even import content directly from the Web. The Database Region Wizard allows the developer to include dynamic database content directly into your Web pages or connect to ODBC-compliant databases, allowing queries to be performed directly to your database.
Figure 4. FrontPage Hover Button Utility
Another new feature of FrontPage98 is a simple utility which allows a developer to make "Text-over images" and hover buttons (See Figure 4). You can add text directly over your images, and then create animation effects on your button-shaped images, so that when a user’s mouse is over it, or clicks on the button, it changes color or shape, or animates itself in the way you have instructed it.
Most of the time when you see this on the Web is it achieved using a JavaScript routine. FrontPage achieves the effect using a small Java applet. Although the FrontPage interface does make it easier to include such functionality in your Web page, the JavaScript code to do this loads much faster, and using the code that Web Developer® is making available (see Heidi Brumbaugh’s article
JavaScript Tutorial: Switching Images with One Smooth Move), it isn’t much harder than cutting and pasting it into your page. For those that prefer not to ever leave the safety of the WYSIWYG environment, you’d better stick to the FrontPage98 Java applet rollover effects.
With all this functionality, am I going to start using FrontPage98 instead of my trusty text editor? Not a chance—but you might find me using FrontPage98 for the overall site views, link checker, and file views it provides. You also might see me using the GUI to visually perfect my tables or frames. And if I’m making a site in which all the pages use a common menu, you can bet I’ll be making the basic layout using FrontPage98. But you’ll still find me using Notepad for those quick tweaks and fast edits! If you’ve been waiting for a real WYSIWYG HTML editor/manager, you don’t have to wait any longer. FrontPage98 offers the best of both worlds for hardcore coders and novice designers.
Right now the beta of FrontPage98 can be downloaded for free from Microsoft’s FrontPage site as one large file, or several smaller files. It can also be ordered from the site for a small shipping and handling fee of $6.48. When it is finally released, it will ship for $149, with upgrades for FrontPage97 users available for $54.95.
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