What the major difference between FrontPage 2002 from
FrontPage 2003. After I learn FP 2002 will I still be
able to operate FP 2003? Or is it a totally different
program???
The pages that you have been referred to will indeed tell you the
complete story. However, my opinion is that FP 2003 is a marked
improvement over FP 2002 and 2000 (and they were not half bad).
I don't use Office, or specifically FP, for any team activities, so
that as a selling point does nothing for me. There are however a
number of smaller enhancements that make the program actually work
better for the average web designer. I think that this is because MS
started to get concerned about competition from Dreamweaver. And as a
matter of fact FP03 looks more like DW than any previous version.
Among the things that I find particularly useful are as follows (in no
particular order of importance):
- split screen capability - being able to see the code and the WYSIWYG
(design) screen at the same time is very helpful and I find myself
using it more and more.
- I think it is called Quicktag, it shows what the coding of a
particular section of the page has and it come in pretty handy.
- Full FTP with view of both the client and server (local & remote) is
also something simple, but very valuable.
- Accessibility Checker will test your site against standards
developed by the W3C and Section 508. This tester, while not perfect,
is better than the one in DW and can be very helpful.
- browser and resolution reconcilitation is something that can be very
handy. This allows you to view your site with more than one browser
and to simulate what your pages will look like at different screen
resolutions.
- CSS integration is still far below my needs and expectations but,
unlike DW, you can enter page-based CSS coding. You will still need an
external CSS editor if you want to do anything serious.
Some of these features have been in DW for several versions and i am
glad that Mr. MS decided to add them to FP.
I was not impressed when I laid down over a hundred bucks when I
upgraded from FP00 to FP02, but the jump to FP03 is worth the money .
jeb
