Free Hand Code or Design in FP 2003 Design View?

[Guest]

I have been designing webpages for a few years but never that serious about
it. I have always designed my sites in the Design View of FP. Recently I
have been trying to teach myself HTML, CSS and some PHP.

I guess what I am asking here is for an opinion on whether it is better to
design with free hand code or us FP's Design view? It just seems that
desinging free hand would take such a long time to design a simple website.
What are some of the drawbacks to using the Design View Mode? Free Hand?
I have in the past created layouts with tables in design view, but recently
have run into browser compatibility with my tables.(random gaps in cells).
This is why i have been trying to teach myself the coding languages to try
and fix these problems.

I'd like to say that this forum has been of great help to me in learning and
understanding Frontpage. Thanks to everyone!

Matt

 

[Trevor L.]

Wow, what a large question (or a question with a large answer).

It depends on so many things.
How well does FP do what you want it to do?
How much are you willing to learn?
What aptitude do you have for coding?

My opinion is to use FP until you can see what it does and then DIY (do it yourself).

But that is a biased attitude. I spent most of my working life as a programmer before I even started to create a web page.

I would say (and others would say it quite emphatically) - learn HTML and CSS. And then learn Javascript. (I haven't looked at PHP,
but go for it!)

You don't always have to hand code everything, but if you know what the HTML is doing, you will be able to make (initially small)
changes and see the effects. Eventually, you should feel much more confident and code more yourself.

Drawbacks of coding it yourself?
If you make a mistake, things won't happen the way you want and you may not be able to figure out why.
If you can't figure out why, then look at some references for the languages (HTML, CSS, etc.). A good one is www.w3schools.com
When you give up, post a question here.
(Those that have used FP eventually pick knowledge of the languages, so many here don't just help with FP but also, for example,
with HTML.)

Drawbacks of using Design?
You can't always get things to happen the way you want (at least not easily).