The Complete Idiot's Guide to Microsoft Frontpage 2000

Yesterday, maybe you thought that FrontPage 2000 had to do with news about the new millennium. But today, you know that it's the hottest, most popular software tool for creating and maintaining Web sites. And while your mother certainly didn't raise any fools (except your brothers), maybe you're a little antsy about pasting yourself on the World Wide Web. Saddle up, Buck, because this book will launch you and your Web site into the 21st Century. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Microsoft FrontPage 2000 will have you spinning your Web site like a pro. With a focus on doing things the easy way, this book guides you through Web lingo, shows you how to publish your site, and gives you advanced techniques you'll need to work wonders on the Web.

After a brief presentation on general Web publishing, Author Elisabeth Parker focuses on the specifics of creating a new site with the standard FrontPage Webs. She also explains the process of importing an existing site--perhaps created in an environment other than FrontPage--into the program. She documents most of the program's capabilities while concentrating on FrontPage's potential for good page design. You'll learn how to use links, graphical elements, and styled text as well as themes, views, and other FrontPage devices to get the job done efficiently.

Coverage of FrontPage's high-end capabilities, like database connections and Active Server Pages (ASP), is pretty feeble--you'll find nothing more than a few overviews. However, Parker explains how to create frames, tables, forms, and image maps clearly and concisely. You'll also find a catalog of the standard FrontPage embeddable components including a description of Discussion Webs that's very easy to follow. --David Wall

You'd have to like adages such as "too many cooks spoil the broth" and other non-technical stuff throughout, and an index of only average (i.e. poor) standard.

For more serious web site builders who may wish to restrict access to some web pages, or who want to use FP2000's more advanced features, and given that Microsoft has made such a dog's breakfast of FP2000, this book has gaps that you could fly a jumbo jet through. Consequently, some of the steps outlined in the book do not work.


Pretty pictures but little content   May 15, 2000
 13 out of 15 found this review helpful

When I began to use Frontpage I was given a copy of this book to help get started. While the book has many pictures - it provides no practical help when you start working with Frontpage. The online help will provide more details than this book. Check out the alternatives before deciding on this one.


There are better sources readily available   January 22, 2000
 40 out of 43 found this review helpful

To be fair, I need to say that I had built a number of web sites in native HTML before I tried FP2000, and that I was able to create a 10 page site in FP2000 and get it up and running in about 2 hours -- all just from intuiting what FP2000 seemed to be about -- BEFORE I looked at this book. I'm not bragging; FrontPage 2000 is really EASY. Given that Microsoft has made FP2000 a VERY intuitively obvious product, I didn't think the book would be very helpful to the intended audience. The book has something of a tendency to belabor the obvious (always a risk when writing about something that is intuitively obvious) and it was at the same time just a little hard to follow the direction the book was headed at several points. In preference to this one, I think that the 40 pages devoted to FrontPage 2000 in "Creating Web Pages for Dummies Quick Reference 2nd edition" handles the task faster and better, and also does a better job creating a context. While I wouldn't tell my clients NOT to read this one, it's certainly NOT the book I would recommend.


A great book for new Front Page users.   July 29, 1999
 14 out of 14 found this review helpful

I purchased this book based on the other review, and am glad I did. I found it easy to locate answers to many questions.The examples are good but, the author sometimes says to click on an icon and doesn't show you what it looks like. To her credit, there is a tear out page with all the tool bars and their titles. I had had only a limited knowledge of Front Page 98 before buying FP 2000. This book got me off to a running start. If you are a newbie to Front Page this is the book for you!