I'm a graduate architect myself. Basically, you can think of FrontPage as a
desktop publishing program. Like Microsoft Word with additional page layout
and composition features. If you can learn PhotoShop I would say learning
FrontPage will be a walk in the park given your ability to grasp the
concepts of how the web actually works. Now for those questions...
> 1) Is Frontpage totally capable of designing websites beginning to end?
Yes, very useful for "basic" page layout but its other "features" are
crippleware.
> 2) Is it easy to pick up on?
Yes, very easy.
> 3) Are there training courses available online?
Yes, hundreds of free subject matter and context related tutorials are
better than "courses"
> 4) Would you recommend hiring a web designer rather than doing it
> myself.
Yes but only to achieve specific objectives that require web development and
integration skills noting FrontPage is easy to learn and use and can be
thought of as a push button monkey HTML generator which is great at basic
page layout but sucks at just about everything else.
Web design and development is similar to architecture. It is a process. The
real world of web design and development is best described quoting Charleton
Heston, Planet of the Apes, who screamed "Its a madhouse, a bloody
madhouse!" Really. Basic websites are a piece of cake given a couple of
months of study and application but when needing to support multiple
browsers it gets ugly.
Many other issues are relevant in this context. Making things work together
is very time consuming to learn to do correctly. If there's anything I can
convey which I hope to get through to you is the fact that there are few
shortcuts that are credible. FrontPage for example provides many shortcuts
as do the other authoring programs. These shortcuts always lead to a dead
end painting the ignorant into a corner. Always. Its simply a matter of time
and context. So yes, you will likely need somebody to write some code for
youat some point for some thing as you will want to avoid the fallacious
promise of "features" which in reality are crippleware.
You do seem to understand the fact that content management is an issue.
Before proceeding much further you should consider your objectives and
discuss what you expect to achieve with the website, is it a marketing
portfolio, does it need to integrate with an intranet, does it need to
provide access to files for business partners and so on.
<%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL
http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
"newbie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:CDBAC816-ECFE-46E1-B02B-(E-Mail Removed)...
>I am looking to get into web deign for my company. I know nothing about
>front
> page or any other web development softwares (ie dreamweaver). I am curious
> if
> it is worth my companies money to pay for me to be trained in web design
> so
> they can have a web designer on staff. It is a small company and would
> only
> be one website. I know years ago it would not be worth it but software now
> a
> days is incredibly easy to learn and quite powerful. I am not looking to
> be
> able to design crazy graphic webpages. I am an Architect with design
> knowledge and know how to use Adobe photoshop. I was thinking Microsoft
> Frontpage was the easiest solution to my dilema. I am not sure that it is
> that easy to learn. So my questions to anyone who is reasonably
> knowledgible
> about the web design world are:
> 1) Is Frontpage totally capable of designing websites beginning to end?
> 2) Is it easy to pick up on?
> 3) Are there training courses available online?
> 4) Would you recommend hiring a web designer rather than doing it
> myself.
> We would rather have someone capible of web design on staff so we have the
> ability to update things at our convenience. I am not sure if trying to
> learn
> how to design webpages is bigger task than I think it is. Any response
> regarding this post is welcome. I figured there where some smart
> individual
> floating around in these discussion groups
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