Microsoft FrontPage - Definition and Overview

FrontPage was initially created by the Cambridge, Massachusetts company Vermeer Technologies Incorporated, evidence of which can be easily spotted in filenames and directories prefixed _vti_ in web sites created using FrontPage. Vermeer was acquired by Microsoft in 1996 specifically so that Microsoft could add FrontPage to its product line-up.

FrontPage used to require proprietary plug-ins known as the FrontPage Server Extensions to be installed in the target web server for it to work. However newer versions of FrontPage also support the standard WebDAV protocol from W3C.

As a WYSIWYG editor, FrontPage is designed to hide the details of pages' HTML code from the user, making it possible for non-experts to easily create Web pages and sites. Some web developers criticize this approach as producing HTML pages that are much larger than they should be and cause Web browsers to perform poorly. In addition, some people criticize FrontPage specifically for producing code that often does not comply with W3C standards and sometimes does not display correctly in non-Microsoft browsers.

A version for Mac OS was released around 1998; however, it had fewer features than the Windows product and Microsoft never updated it.

FrontPage's primary competitor is Macromedia Dreamweaver, another Web design product.

Versions

The current version is Microsoft FrontPage 2003 (version 6). Other versions include:

• FrontPage 98
• FrontPage 2000 (version 4)
• FrontPage 2002 (version 5)
• FrontPage 2003 (version 6)

Competitors

• Adobe GoLive, available for Mac and Windows.
• Macromedia Dreamweaver
• Nvu - complete open source web authoring system available for Mac, Linux and Windows

External links

• Article about Vermeer from 1995 (http://www.networkcomputing.com/614/614sneak2.html)
• Microsoft's FrontPage site (http://www.microsoft.com/frontpage/)
• Frontpage Code Cleaner (http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/frontpage-code-cleaner.shtml)