Changing from FrontPage to...?

[cj1720]

Howdy y'all!

I really appreciate any help and feedback anyone takes the time to give me.

I recently have given up on my LG XNote -- one of the worst computers I've ever dealt with for a large variety of reasons both specific to my particular situation and to the engineering and support of the model in general. But, when the xnote went, so did my copy of frontpage.

I like frontpage, which puts me in the minority. It was fine for what I needed it to do. We have a website to supply family and friends with information since we live so far away: pictures, video, and text mostly.

I understand that MS has given up on FP and has replaced it with Expression Web. I don't mind spending some money for another website maker, either. Dreamweaver is a possibility, freeware like Kompozer and NVu are also on the table.

I guess I have to remake the index page and other "popular" pages, like our blog, with whatever new software, but the other pages that are not being updated can just be linked to in their FP form, I guess, right?

I would stay with FP, but getting a new copy doesn't seem possible. And given that it has been discontinued seems like I'll have to change eventually anyway, right?

I'll look into learning HTML and CSS (whatever that is).

Is there anything else that I need to continue our website?

Thanks for any comments or advice. I appreciate it.

Yours,
CJ

[MrDelish]

I wish there was an easy, all-encompassing answer to your question. I think it's safe to say that it would be wise to leave FrontPage. Even if you get another copy of it, it's basically Microsoft abandonware that some servers still include extensions for because enough people try to use it.

If you're willing to learn, I tend to recommend some open source software that really has done wonders for me. Since you mention a blog page, I would give Wordpress a try. You can have a page dedicated to your blog posts and set up static pages as well as install new themes and plugins to change the appearance and behavior of the site. I've had nothing but good experiences with Wordpress, so I can recommend it without any reservations. Plus, it's free software and BlueHost has some handy tutorials on getting started with it: http://tutorials.bluehost.com/wordpress/ and http://tutorials.bluehost.com/usewordpress/

If you'd prefer a more traditional editor similar to FrontPage, I've heard good things about CoffeeCup HTML editor (http://www.coffeecup.com/) and Web Easy Professional (http://avanquest.com/). I believe they have trial versions, which is good. I personally use an older version of Dreamweaver (8.0 - when it was still a Macromedia product... :rolleyes: ), but it does all I need it to.

[quickcrx702]

You may also consider giving joomla a try if your coding skills aren't at a level where you are comfortable. Adding content is not difficult, and there are templates out there both free and available for purchase. It is also a simplescript on bluehost. Give it a try and you might like it.

[felgall]

The editor Microsoft Expression Web can use FrontPage extensions on the server so the server extensions are not dead, just FrontPage itself.

Expression Web is basically a replacement for FrontPage that can produce web pages that work with modern browsers the way FrontPage produces web pages that work with IE6 (and earlier).

[EricJ]

I've seen expressions put out some.. well.. for lack of a better word, Interesting code.. I would say go with expressions if you have to (and you don't have to :))..

As for choosing which program, it really depends on what exactly you're looking for.. Do you want a traditional website editor, where you make pages, and then upload them? or do you want something more like a cms or blogging software. Where everything is web based, and you don't need to upload files (save for themes, plugins etc.).. there are down and up sides to both.

It takes some time to get really good with traditional editors, you have to get to know the tools, and tricks for manipulation of your sites, but the possibilities for what you can create are nearly limitless...

With wordpress, joomla, or any other kind of cms/blog program, you can usually get a professional, good looking site up in about 20 minutes.. all you need to do is install it, upload a theme, plugin some info, and you're rolling. But your limited as to where you can go with it.. You have to worry about software updates, and holes in the code that hackers can (and often do unfortunately) exploit. (Not that you'll be perfectly 100% safe with static html, i've seen it injected before.. forms = evil)... but that isn't meant to scare you away from these products.. there are MANY websites that use them and have never been hacked.. I personally use wordpress.. one of the sites i'm working on now is http://unix.orangelife.org/ It would have taken me more than a few months of hard hard work to learn and write the code for all of the functionality that wordpress provides.. Not only that, but the support out there for the product is boundless.. there are whole sites dedicated to the workings of wordpress (security, plugins etc.)..

Either way you go, it's a good idea to get a basic understanding of the code you are running, you don't have to become an expert, but it'll come in handy a LOT..

Some good coding references are:
http://tizag.com/
http://w3schools.com/

By the way:
CSS = Cascading Style Sheet
PHP = Hypertext Pre Processor (Yeah it should be hpp, but its not haha).
HTML = Hyper Text Markup Language
XML = eXtensible Markup Language
Perl = Awesome! :D
MySQL is pronounced My ehs kiew ehl.. not my sequel.. sequel is an old database program that is now obsolete :)

[altidude]

I switched from FP to Expression Web and found it to be a fairly level learning curve. The upgrade pricing from FP to EW isn't bad, either.

[cj1720]

Howdy y'all
Thank you so much for your responses. I'm busy now trying to figure out which of the options will best serve our needs. I'm looking up each of the products and am considering books on coding.

I'm really impressed by the amount of detail in each of the respnoses, especially eric's. I am happy to have found a forum where these kinds of discussions can be entered into.

Thanks again, y'all. I'll post my results, just to let you know.

CJ