Get a FREE fully-working copy of Steganos Security Suite 7 (worth £49.99) when you sign up to the Practical PC Newsletter. Review: FrontPage 2003 - The Missing Manual
Iain Laskey finds the book he has been searching for...
| Product | FrontPage 2003 - The Missing Manual |
|---|---|
| Company | O'Reilly |
| Web | www.missingmanual.com |
| Price | From £20.95 |
| We like | Behind the scenes information, fills in some badly needed gaps |
| We don't like | Nothing |
| Rating | |
| Requirements |
Have you got FrontPage 2003? Then buy this book. Oh, you want to know more? read on..
FrontPage has a bit of a bad reputation for producing bloated non standard code. Whilst it has been a great tool for many an inexperienced user or those locked in to the Microsoft toolset, most web professionals have always held it in low regard. Until recently, this was probably not entirely unfair. However, with the 2003 release, Microsoft started to really get it right. The code quality improved immensely and a number of features were 'borrowed' from Dreamwaver. Overnight, it became a real contender. That was the good news. The bad news was, the online help was barely adequate and most third party books were very much of the 'click here, do this, do that' variety with little real information about what was going on under the bonnet.
O'Reilly and specifically Jessica Mantaro have now come to the rescue with another of O'Reilly's Missing Manuel series. These books are intended, as the name suggests, to be everything an applications bundled manual (ha!) wasn't.
This latest title is divided in to five main sections. These cover the basics, improving your web site, building and managing, databases and Office integration. An appendix covers each and every menu option.
One of the real strengths of this book is the amount of timely and real world advice. For instance, it covers how to create frames then points out just what a bad idea they are and why. It is also honest about some of the nastier areas of FrontPage and what to do to avoid problems.
Happily, CSS and layers are promoted strongly although it does also show how to use tables for layout and particularly FrontPage's own powerful layout design tools.
I also appreciated the various boxouts containing workarounds, background information and tips not related directly to FrontPage 2003 but important if you are working on a website.
I've used FrontPage for some time now and I found a whole bunch of useful options and tools I'd either never worked out, realised the use of or even known about. Anyone reading this book is bound to find big increases in their productivity as well as a far better understanding of what FrontPage is doing behind the scenes (and why).
The only real quibble is that I would have liked to have seen more information and recommendations on using FrontPage to create pages with JavaScript, CSS positioning and how it could be used in a more dynamic environment, perhaps with PHP. That apart, it covered all the bases in depth, with clarity and was clearly written by someone who knew FrontPage 2003 well.
If you've bought another FrontPage book and been disappointed, you really need to check this one out. It will restore your faith. Recommended, especially at this price.
