FrontPage 2000: The Complete Reference

Many FrontPage 2000 books mistakenly assume that the latest version of Microsoft's editor for Web sites is a lot like its predecessors: big, slow, and not well-suited to serious Web publishing efforts. That's not the case and the authors know this, explaining with great clarity how to use all of FrontPage 2000's features.

The book includes a lot of procedures, so if you're looking to find out how to enable Active Server Pages (ASP) or draw a table, you'll have no trouble finding specific steps to follow. Coverage of ASP, databases, and other aspects of dynamic site creation is particularly strong here. Sticking to their follow-this-procedure method, the authors explain how to collect data from a Web form and store it in a database, as well as demonstrating the construction of pages from database contents on the fly--a useful technique for such applications as catalogs and directories. This is an excellent resource for FrontPage 2000 users. --David Wall

Topics covered: Web site creation with Microsoft FrontPage 2000. Elementary coverage includes the basics of templates, layout, graphics, text, hyperlinks, and other fundamental design elements. Advanced coverage includes database connectivity, dynamic page generation, Dynamic HTML (DHTML), ActiveX controls, and the basics of electronic commerce. In addition to FrontPage coverage, there's information on Image Composer and PhotoDraw.

Product Description
FrontPage 2000 Web Builder's Bible. Whetehr you're a Web design beginner or a seasoned pro, Frontpage 2000: The Complete Reference, by Martin Matthews and Erik Poulsen, gives you a total toolchest for maximizing Microsoft's award-winning Website creation and management tool. You get up-to-date techniques and little-known secrets for using all of its advanced features, including the fast-action know-how to: Use Wizard and Components to handle Website mechanics; Create sizzling graphics special effects, and animated GIF's with Image Composer; Encourage Website traffic with interactive applets, forms, and scripts; Protect your site and visitors with fail-safe, maximum security features; Understand and maximize HTML, DHTML and XML; Design database-driven Web sites with ADO and OLE-DB; Implement Active Server Page technology; Import and integrate Office and other files; And much more.

The information that they provided on Meta tags and site submission I could not find in any other FrontPage book, only in books dealing entirely with HTML. I think this info alone makes it worth buying, especially for a novice. For the more advanced people, the Java and related info was very good.

This book, along with Running FrontPage 2000, and the Getting Started manual that comes with FrontPage should be about all you need.


Tough book to rate   July 27, 2001
 2 out of 6 found this review helpful

If you are truly just buying it to learn to use FP, I suppose the book deserves more than a 1. If you got conned into thinking that you might learn even one iota of ASP or Database Connectivity from these two HORRIBLE chapters, you would give it less than a one. As for the FP stuff, it does cover almost all the features, but seldom gets into the nitty gritty, so after you learn FP from a surface point of view, this book is practically useless. This is hardly a good reference book.


In-depth, very helpful   July 19, 2001
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Showed me things about Frontpage I never knew, and got me cranking out web pages they way I finally wanted them to look. I won't give it 5 stars because the book got wordy at times and rambled on a bit on some topics, but overall you'll learn a great deal.