FrontPage vs Dreamweaver

[Norm Donchin]

I'm a novice at web design. I've designed several websites using Microsoft
Publisher, which is pretty good, up to a point; and it's very easy to use.
Now it's time to move on to a more robust web design tool.

I have used trial copies and older versions of FrontPage and Dreamweaver,
and both lack the intuitive feel that Publisher gives me, particulary the
ease with which layouts can be manipulated; but of course both products are
much more powerful and feature-laden than Publisher. I've hit kind of a
brick wall with both. I'm nowhere near the proficiency that I need in
either, but to get there will require a fair amount of time; so I want to
invest my limited time in the one with the greater chance of success.

My websites are for family, personal, and business uses. They don't need to
be highly graphical or animated, although I will use those features to some
extent. I will want to incorporate a limted number of interactive features,
such as forms, etc.

What are the pros and cons of each? Which one should I pursue?

Thanks
Norm Donchin

 

[Dick]

Dreamweaver is a superior product and is by far the most popular WYSIWYG
html editor. Frontpage is half the cost and is easier to use if your already
familiar with the "Office/Word/Publisher" interface. Both will do forms.
Dreamweaver supports a wider range of forms (PHP - Perl - .aspx... etc.),
but Frontpage 2003 is coming out in a few weeks and looks promising. It's a
tough call. For the pro, i would reccomend Dreamweaver (maybe FP 2003 will
be an equal ... don't know yet). For the casual user or novice, frontpage is
fine.

Dick Head

 

[J-Dogg]

Hey Dick,

I'm a Dreamweaver user. My non-profit client has space donated to him on a
Frontpage server. What I did before is create the site in Dreamweaver, and
then upload it in Frontpage. Obviously, this created problems, and I ended
up editing the live site in Frontpage.

Now my client's \annual newsletter has come out, and I was trying to learn
Frontpage. The idea was to use some of their cooler features I've been
reading about, which seem to mimic Dreamweaver's templates. However, the
features in Frontpage seem to be underdeveloped, to the point that it
appears they have a cool technology, but don't trust us with it.

What do you think? Stick with Macromedia? Or can Frontpage actually do cool
things but they are just hard to find?

Thanks,
J-Dogg