InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
May 17, 1999
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HTML source code can be controlled through FrontPage 2000's own simple check-in and check-out feature or by integrating with Visual SourceSafe. Source-code control is especially useful for Web pages that are replicated across various staging servers. Keeping track of page versions is a necessity in a distributed environment. Source-code control also prevents clashes on sites with multiple designers by blocking access to a page while it's checked out for editing.
FrontPage 2000 makes links easier to manage with the broken links report and with automatic link updating, which fixes links when pages and graphics are moved or renamed. The Hyperlinks view in the main window presents a graphical link map with click-and-drag link editing. A clever twist that FrontPage 2000 provides is the ability to edit links and propagate changes through all or a selection of pages in which that link is used.
Managing and creating Web sites that welcome non-U.S. visitors is a challenge, but multilanguage support is essential to any company operating globally. FrontPage 2000 leverages Office 2000's new language-support tools to provide a single worldwide executable, multilingual editing, and page-by-page language settings. A single worldwide executable makes it easier to establish a global standardized installation. Office 2000 language packs are applied where appropriate.
The Windows installer used in FrontPage 2000 also enables "install by demand" for just-in-time application of FrontPage features as needed. It also supports roaming user profiles.
Page Design And Creation
FrontPage 2000 Web design themes are better than ever with the addition of custom themes. The easy-to-use theme editor provides a way for Webmasters to integrate their companies' images and colors into design themes that can give multidepartment sites a unified look. Custom themes can be used in Word 2000 and PowerPoint 2000, too.
FrontPage 98 fell far short in support of the latest HTML and scripting advances, but FrontPage 2000 catches all the way up to the latest Internet Explorer 5.0 innovations. Especially nasty was FrontPage 98's tendency to clobber any HTML code you might directly add to pages. FrontPage 2000 now respects and preserves all HTML code added outside of the editor, including server-side code such as Active Server Pages and server-side JavaScript.
Microsoft took this even further by providing HTML formatting preferences. The FrontPage editor will color-code HTML syntax according to predefined rules or according to your settings, including one that says, "Preserve existing HTML". If you let FrontPage reformat, it will follow rules for capitalization, white space, and line breaks.
Another useful feature is the Compatibility dialog. It's used to enable and disable features in the FrontPage editor to match the browsers and servers you're targeting with your pages. You can choose to support Internet Explorer only, Netscape Navigator only, both, and Microsoft WebTV. You can also choose the minimum browser version level (3.0 or 4.0) and the Web server (Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0 or later or Apache) you are targeting. Developers can opt not to use any of these predefined feature profiles and make a custom profile.
One big reason why browser and server compatibility profiles are necessary is because FrontPage 2000 provides so many cutting-edge Web-design options. With pixel-level positioning you can choose exactly where you want HTML elements to appear, but only if using the 4.0 versions of Internet Explorer or Navigator.
Dynamic HTML is another technology available only when targeting the later versions of the browsers. Other cross-browser technologies made available by FrontPage 2000 are JavaScript, cascading style sheets positioning and formatting, and Java applets.
Web Development
If you are targeting Internet Explorer 4.0 or 5.0 with Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0 or higher, or another FrontPage-compatible Web server on the back end, you can really take advantage of FrontPage 2000's power.
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