STATIC Web DEVELOPMENT
For purposes of this study we looked at the two top selling website creators/editors i.e. Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Pros and cons are as follows:
1) Microsoft FrontPage 2003
a) Pros
The interface, like many of Microsoft's products, is familiar. The application has a similar look and feel to MS Word, or PowerPoint. Navigation is not difficult, and menus are in all the old familiar places.
Viewing the source code is a click of a tab at the lower left. From there, it could be easily manipulated and changed if needed.
Frames are really easy to create and set up, due to Front Page's Frame Wizard.
The Insert menu has a lot of great, ready made objects to put in your site, like Banner Ad Manager, Hit Counters, A Scrolling Marquee, a Table of Contents and more.
Also in the Insert menu is a very easy to use Form insert feature. Clicking on a form object, like a text field, automatically adds a form box, submit and reset buttons, already coded. You only have to select the object and go to Form Properties (In Insert>Form>Form Properties) to designate the server, the CGI script, who to e-mail the results to, and where to get the confirmation page. Everything is right there.
Navigation is pretty easy, as well. Once you have established your root and home page in the Folder List, the rest seems to take care of itself. Images and other items are added easily and embedded.
The Absolute positioning feature. Its perhaps the best thing in Front Page. This feature allows you to select an object and move it anywhere you want on the page. You can even move a table, an image, anything but text. It will not allow you to wrap other things, however. For that, you will need to switch to the Wrapped Positioning (in the Format menu). So you do need to be aware of your text.
b) Cons
The inability to create layers. One of the things about Dreamweaver is its layer feature (more about that later) and Front Page doesn't have it. You can create tables, but it’s not the same thing.
The quick preview option. You cannot choose a browser to do a quick preview. That requires an extra step or two. Still, it’s not that bad.
The site map navigation. Images are not stepped back, either. There isn’t anywhere to establish the Home Page, and then create the hierarchy from there. Plus there were extra folders in the site that you do not put there that we assume are there by default. The navigation for the site map will take some getting used to.
