What to use to replace FrontPage (Expression Web or SharePoint Design) and get a free trial

re: What to use to replace FrontPage (Expression Web or SharePoint Design) and get a free trial

David Overton — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 07:27:20 GMT

Claire,

Depending on the level of customisation, FP 2003 might not be ideal at all for SharePoint 2007/2010 sites. It will not understand any of the new functionality. Given that SharePoint Designer 2007 is free from www.microsoft.com/.../details.aspx I would personally use that!

David

re: What to use to replace FrontPage (Expression Web or SharePoint Design) and get a free trial

Claire — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 21:26:14 GMT

I assume that your above comments mean Front Page 2003 can be safely integrated into Sharepoint 2007, which is what I have. Is that correct?

re: What to use to replace FrontPage (Expression Web or SharePoint Design) and get a free trial

David Overton — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:18:36 GMT

Steve,

there is not an obvious replacement for FP 2003. There is SharePoint Designer in 2007, but that is it. The FP extension in WS 2008 etc still work and many 3rd party web server products too.

Thanks

David

re: What to use to replace FrontPage (Expression Web or SharePoint Design) and get a free trial

Steve — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:59:49 GMT

I am currently using fp2003 thru a server in another state. We continue to have some extension server problems and the IT tech is no longer with the company so no one knows anything about fp. IT is wanting to change over to a new server and a different program than frontpage because they say it is outdated. Is there anyone I can contact to have tap into our system and see if they can fix the current problems or what system do i look at changing over to that I can transfer all my fp files and documents. I love fp and have used it for years, however IT wants to move to something else. What is avialable that is easy to use like fp that I do not have to learn all the code? Would appreciate any advice you can share.

re: What to use to replace FrontPage (Expression Web or SharePoint Design) and get a free trial

Tina Clarke — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:51:03 GMT

It's pretty easy to change a fp bots web to a standards compliant site in expression web. There is a 50% off upgrade to ew2 at the ms store till jan 29th 2009. Page Includes can still be used in ew and are compliant. If you use fp03 you know about DWTs (dynamic web templates) using page includes for menus and dwts with css for the formatting making sure your dwt validates before you use it... can cut your maintainance in half or more. Allowing more time for content etc. There are easy techniques to clean code and there are easy replacements for the bots... to be honest you can do all that in frontpage right now and always could... just a few more tools in ew.

hth Tina

re: What to use to replace FrontPage (Expression Web or SharePoint Design) and get a free trial

Daan Vreugdenhil — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:29:43 GMT

I have used FP since the mid nineties for my very large and complex websites, http://www.birdlist.org (first) and http://www.adopt-a-ranger.org (recent) and others, like http://www.ilwis.org, www.nature-worldwide.info, www.nationalparks-worldwide.info, etc.

For me it easy wysiwyg page management and particularly web structure management is essential. I can't be bothered with coding and tricks to get my pages done. until now (2008) I have used FP 2008. But now my site is on an Apache server that does not support some of the FP features and I have to change.

I am looking at NetObjects Fusion which facilitates Wysiwyg page structure management..

Still scary to change to something new with thousands of pages.

Dr. Daan Vreugdenhil

re: What to use to replace FrontPage (Expression Web or SharePoint Design) and get a free trial

David Overton — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 23:03:13 GMT

Also,if you are a Microsoft Partner then Expression Web was shipped in the January Action Pack.

ttfn

David

re: What to use to replace FrontPage (Expression Web or SharePoint Design) and get a free trial

David Overton — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 07:58:04 GMT

John,

I agree that if FrontPage suits your needs today then don't change things. If however you want to use some of the newer technologies on the web, such as XHTML, more data managemnt, complex CSS and better ASP.Net design tools then Expression Web is the right tool.

For details on the features, look at http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/expression-web/features.mspx

ttfn

David

re: What to use to replace FrontPage (Expression Web or SharePoint Design) and get a free trial

John Hilvert — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 01:20:48 GMT

Most of my business comes from woirking with Small businesses wanting websites they can drive easily once I set thm up. FP did the trick for most of them - especially with the server extensions.

I love FrontPage and made over a dozen sites with it, since it came out in 1997. FrontPage 2003 also was more accessible than Dreamweaver 8 for my work. One client's corporate team opted for Dreamweaver and Captivate, but after a few months, using FP Express was easier.

But, I wonder about Microsoft's decisions on Expression and Sharepoint Designer. I played with a beta last year and based on your post, thought I'd check it out.

A brief glance suggests its a return to the bloatware (202 Mb download) and proprietary tendencies. Not that many of my clients are into SharePoint and its high cost developer overload.

Having to download a whole new set of .NET thingies just so it will run. I don't think so.

For small business websites, I think the way ahead is to go modular with open source products like WordPress, MODx and Joomla. My clients love them and they scale very nicely for their requirements.

For web page composition, I'm happy to sit with FP 2003 and check the CSS with an editor like TopStyle.