Microsoft FrontPage Vs Macromedia Dreamweaver

Introduction:

In the world of the Internet, there is the most essential thing which is the web page. Programmers used to edit their web pages by normal word editors such as Notepad.After many years of web authorizing, web pages became more complex. Therefore, it is too difficult to program web pages manually using normal word editors because of using so much graphics. As a result, many companies provid their own web editors.


The most popular softwares are Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. In the web design world, there are two large groups of web designers, one of which prefers Microsoft FrontPage and one of which prefers Macromedia Dreamweaver. In this debate, there are both advantages and disadvantages in using these two softwares.

Microsoft Frontpage:


Microsoft FrontPage:The idea of providing a web editor as Microsoft FrontPage is to reduce the difficulties of creating websites. The birthday of this software which is offered by Vermeer Technologies, Inc was in 1994. The software was called "WYSIWYG", What You See Is What You Get. Then, Microsoft, Corp bought the software rights and changed the name to Microsoft FrontPage in 1995. After that, Microsoft has made several updates of the software: version 1.1, version 2, express 2.0 and so on until Microsoft FrontPage 2003. However, Microsoft this year, 2007 has stopped offering FrontPage and they created two kinds of softwares, Microsoft SharePoint Designer and Microsoft Expression Web.

There are two advantages of using Microsoft FrontPage. One of them that is the interface of Microsoft FrontPage is the same as Microsoft Word. For that reason, people who usually use Microsoft Word can deal with FrontPage's tools. Moreover, the software is very easy to use. Another benefit of using this software is providing amazing themes with which you can create very useful website. Therefore, there are a lot of web buttons, banners, and images in this software.


On the other hand, there are two disadvantages of using this program. First, the software usually put lots of redundant codes in the web page programming. Your web pages which are created with Microsoft FrontPage could be browsed clearly by Microsoft Internet Explorer, but they couldn't be browsed well by other web browsers such as Mozilla Firefox. Second, you need a web server in order to run some dynamic activities. Joe, in his article "Macromedia Dreamweaver Vs Microsoft FrontPage" says" Another small hindrance of Frontage is that you need a web server that supports FrontPage extensions to get some features to work."

Macromedia Dreamweaver:

Macromedia Dreamweaver is one of the most powerful softwares all over the web authorizing world. Macromedia Corp, which offered Flash and Fireworks softwares, entered the world of web development by providing Macromedia Dreamweaver in 1996. Therefore, Macromedia Corp developed the "WYSIWYG", What You See Is What You Get, to create the Dreamweaver software. Since Macromedia Dreamweaver became the most important seller of the company, they made a number of updates for this software: Dreamweaver 2.0, Dreamweaver 3.0 until Dreamweaver CS3. In fact, Adobe Corp bought Macromedia Corp in 2006, so they became one company last year.
There are three advantages of using Macromedia Dreamweaver. First, the software supports many kinds of animation such as flash. Furthermore, there are some great flash buttons that are offered with Macromedia Dreamweaver. Second, you can make lots of web templates that you use for a very huge number of web pages. Third, the software supports a large group of programming languages. Therefore, you can create your website by Active Server Pages (ASP), Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) … etc.

In contrast, there two disadvantages in using this software. One of them is the difficulty of using the software's tools. According to Joe, in his article "Macromedia Dreamweaver Vs Microsoft FrontPage" using Macromedia Dreamweaver is not easy because of lack of the beginner tools. Therefore, the software's interface has a lot of complicated tools that deal with a huge number of features. Another disadvantage of using Macromedia Dreamweaver is a little more expensive than Microsoft FrontPage.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the most popular softwares that create web pages are Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. Each one has a number of advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of Microsoft FrontPage focus on the easiness of using the program, but disadvantages of that software focus on programming websites. The advantages of Macromedia Dreamweaver focus on how this software is perfect for using the geatest web graphics. In contrast, the disadvantages of that software focus on the difficulty of using the tools and expenses. In my opinion, I prefer to use Microsoft FrontPage since I am familiar with Microsoft Office. Moreover, I have been using Microsoft FrontPage since 2000. As a result, I have a good experience of using this software.

Microsoft FrontPage Vs Macromedia Dreamweaver

 

there is no advantage to Microsoft FrontPage

 

i'm very new to this website things... where shall i start?? any webpage that is for me?

 

Dreamweaver is the best program to make websites..i have used it before..FrontPage was i dunno why i didnt like it from before..maybe now its much better..

but dreamweaver gets better...

 

As I said on another thread earlier this morning (Frontpage or not, page 2), "{s}pend some time at your local library to pick up some books on HTML and CSS. I personally recommend Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way Using HTML & CSS by Ian Lloyd. Designing With Web Standards, 2nd Edition by Jeffrey Zeldman and Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition by Steve Krug are wonderful companions (and are very easy, non-technical books)."

That way you can avoid being locked into a single program by a single vendor that will be updated every year or so, causing you to shell out more money which in turn wastes more of your valuable time you could be spending making Web sites (and more money).

Seriously. Just Say No to WISIWYG editors.

 

there are some good books at local libraries, but I find learning with books hard and time consuming. Online sources are easier because you can experiment with notepad while you learn using Alt + Tab to switch between programs.

 

When you think about it, they actually compliment one another.

But for the long haul, the books are better in my opinion.

 

i vote for notepad++
if i must pick between those two, i choose dreamweaver. i never like frontpage.

 

I was trained on DreamWeaver, but ultimately got frustrated with it. Whillst its built-in behaviours are a great way of creating active sites rapidly (and without errors), I found that ultimately it was making 'mistakes' (e.g. inserting HTML blocks in the wrong places). What really turned me off though was it's predeliction for putting EVERYTHING into tables. And the less said about its CSS toolbox, the better.

In the end, I switched to nPad2, which is just like Notepad, except it has line numbers. (vital if - like me - you specialise in carefully hand-crafted code that produces lots and lots of ASP error messages spiteully complaining about some trivial niggling little problem on line XXX).

I've found that - with nPad2 and careful use of CSS stylesheets and ASP includes - I can create a site (even an active one) faster than I could with dreamweaver. But perhaps this merely shows that I didnt' learn the product properly ?

Who knows ? Not me. I'm just a badly-drawn cat, for goodness sake.


Meow Purr

 

I thin dreamweaver 8 os the ultimate one.especially the css stuff. u don need any references if u install DW8. I havent tested DWCS3 yet.

 

Yes, WYSIWYG always produces problematic HTML at times and while it may do the job, it never does it how you would like it, especially from a coder's perspective. Getting better though, especially with DW's support for XSLT, however it is not worth the cost. I use it for menial tasks but generally, I hand code. I have always seen FrontPage as a joke to web development and had this confirmed when I used it for the first time for some IT task in school. Of course, this may have changed but if I don't like DW, I doubt FrontPage would be good enough for anything beyond simple tasks.

Has anyone tried "Expression Web" or whatever Microsoft's new web authoring program is called? Or is this just a little upgrade to FrontPage re-branded?

 

From what I've heard (don't quote me on this) it's an upgrade to FrontPage, nothing more.

 

I use FP, DW and the wysiwyg built into Wordpress at work. I don't like any of them. They are faster, if you don't mind having your code butchered. I would say DW is the lesser evil but nothing gives you the flexibility of hand coding your source.

I actually think the wysiwyg from Wordpress is better than the one in FP. The version of Frontpage I have will invalidate everything on the page, improperly nest your tags, use html styling (instead of css) whenever possible and try to make your life hell if you use Microsoft Word.

 

i only used dreamweaver never even had frontpage

 

I only use dreamweaver to easiily spot syntax errors and such, but I could aswell use Notepad++ or any other simular stuff instead.
I would recommend coding by hand instead of using any software

 

Used visual web deveoper express for many years before moving to visual studio.

Have used dreamweaver and it is ok for basic template creation but would never use it to code any javascript or serverside as the code it produces is even more bloated and poorly written than the HTML (or at least it was in the last version I used).

 

i stick to EditPlus 2. for me, it is much much more easier to design the layout. we can customize like what we want.
but if i must pick between those two, hurm...i will say yes to dreamweaver.

-cypher.

 

I would definitely say Dreamweaver is the way to go.

 

I'm usind Dreamweaver and I'm very happy with it in fact, I never used FrontPage.. meaby I shall try it

 

I agree, I use notepad++ 98% of the time, and if I have to; I load up dreamweaver so I can get a visual at times.