What to replace FrontPage with?

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+3 Q:

What to replace FrontPage with?

I use FrontPage for two different tasks; authoring html help and authoring a couple of websites. The websites don't require a lot of stuff -- they are there to disseminate a bit of information to a couple of small audiences.

FrontPage has been quick and easy for these tasks. WYSIWYG is good for these jobs and I like being able to click on links to quickly bring up other pages in the editor.

I've been exploring all sorts of options. tools that work online such as Kompozer make editing the html help difficult (at least, I haven't found a way around) and other html-level tools are just too much work. Tried nVu, Kompozer, Aptama, Komodo, Bluefish and so far, unless I'm missing something, I'm not sold on any of them.

I'm about to take a look at SeaMonkey but wondering if anybody has any recommendations. Or should I go back and look at those other tools again -- maybe I missed something?

+4 A:

People still use FrontPage?

I switched a couple of years back to DreamWeaver and never looked back.

Chad 2009-10-29 17:07:29

dreamweaver is definately the best choice

Lil'Monkey 2009-10-29 17:08:36

We're using DreamWeaver here, but I find it a bit clunky compared to Microsoft Visual Web Developer express. However, we use it primarily for classic ASP programming rather than true website design.

Brian Knoblauch 2009-10-29 17:10:06

Some people still use MS Word to make webpages. The world is a sad place.

Will Eddins 2009-10-29 17:12:42

You just killed my inner child Will Eddins

Chad 2009-10-29 17:14:21

Anything that writes bloated markup is crap.

Chris Ballance 2009-10-29 17:17:05

I'll take a look -- I'm not making any money on these websites, it is all community service -- so laying out a bunch of money is iffy.

Blair Mahaffy 2009-10-29 20:21:18

Updated. I've now uninstalled Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 and am using Visual Studio 2005. Works much better for me.

Brian Knoblauch 2010-05-12 14:26:05

Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express perhaps? http://www.microsoft.com/express/vwd/

Works well, and it's free!

Brian Knoblauch 2009-10-29 17:08:08

FrontPage has been replaced by SharedPoint Designed in the Office suite.

You could also use Microsoft Expression Web if you can have it.

David Brunelle 2009-10-29 17:09:50

+9 A:

Notepad++

Chris Ballance 2009-10-29 17:10:43

Yep, nothing beats a good solid understanding of how the page is made and why it does what it does.

cjstehno 2009-10-29 17:25:16

That's all well and good for school and home. However, once you're in the workforce and need to crank things out as fast as possible, IDE type design tools really start to shine since you can get things done faster (and with less RSI inducing typing). However, you DO have to understand what's going on behind the scenes before making that move.

Brian Knoblauch 2009-10-30 11:52:55

@Brian Disagree, I don't ever use a WYSIWYG when doing UX and have been doing this professionally for a number of years since school. Guess I'm a minimalist and a standards fanboy.

Chris Ballance 2009-10-30 15:14:59

@Brian - Actually, I have the opposite opinion; WYSIWYG is fine for your personal projects or school, but you need to know what you are doing (and be able to do it) for commercial work. Also, I am not saying to not use an IDE, just don't rely on the WYSIWYG crutch.

cjstehno 2009-10-30 15:29:39

@cjstehno Well said.

Chris Ballance 2009-10-30 15:50:45

I generally agree with Brian but that's because my goals are different -- the websites are small community-service things. I'm a C programmer so I don't mind getting my hands dirty, but in this case I want to do the job quickly. And turn it over to some non-IT types at some point. Thanks for your input! :)

Blair Mahaffy 2009-10-30 17:03:00

Drewamweaver or MS's Visual Studio/Web Developer Express will do the trick. They're both overkill (especially MS's tools).

I also think MS has (free) HTMLHelp. It's out there, but I don't know if it'll produce the files you need.

inked 2009-10-29 17:12:24

+6 A:

I think the natural upgrade path would be Microsoft Expression Web.

Chris Pietschmann 2009-10-29 17:15:02

I was going to recommend the same thing. Microsoft has done a really good job at under-advertising the Expression family of tools.

joseph.ferris 2009-10-29 18:49:12

I used to be a huge fan of Microsoft. Still am in many ways but I'm working toward an office-less existence because they've been driving me nuts recently. What I've learned, however, is that I really like FrontPage so it, or successors, may have to remain in my toolkit. Thanks

Blair Mahaffy 2009-10-29 20:18:15

It depends on what kind of pages you are designing. If you are using Adobe Flash, Dreamweaver would be the best option but I would recommend "Microsoft Visual Web Developer Express". I am currently using it and totally love it from the bottom of my heart.

Braveyard 2009-10-29 17:22:43

+2 A:

Something to consider is that you could deploy these sites as wikis (which don't have to be publically editable) and edit them directly on the web in your browser. This would give you the ability to click around and do pretty much wysiwyg edits. It would also make it easier to maintain larger collections of data and to make new pages. You also don't really have to do any HTML at all because wikis mostly come pre-HTMLed (and CSSed and Javascripted), you just need to fill in the content.

I should note that this won't work if your webpages are deployed statically on a restrictive shared hosting account, but even most shared hosting supports installing things like wikis these days, so hopefully this is something you can look into.

I should also note that this probably isn't the best way to do local HTML help files, but if the HTML help is online, this is probably still a good choice.

I'm making this community wiki so others can add links to other wikis if they like or add more info on why you might want to or not want to use a wiki for this purpose.

Some wikis to consider:

MediaWiki - The wiki behind wikipedia
MoinMoin - Implemented in Python and popular in that community.
TiddlyWiki - Implemented in Javascript and runs on a single page. This is probably the most different wiki that's out there. Some love it, some hate it.

Daniel Straight 2009-10-29 17:23:10

Cool idea. I'll have to take a look. Thanks

Blair Mahaffy 2009-10-29 20:23:28

I'd say Dreamweaver, but last time I looked there was still bloated code, not as bad as the MX days mind.

Smashing Magazine has a list of WYSIWYG tools that would be worth a look : http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/05/06/25-wysiwyg-editors-reviewed/

I persuaded my friend to ditch Dreamweaver for NetBeans, took a week or so but I got a pint out of that :)

piddl0r 2009-10-29 17:26:37

Yikes. Netbeans for web. That strikes me as like trying to use a sportscar to haul lots of bags of dirt around. Fine tool, but not for that particular task!

Brian Knoblauch 2009-10-30 11:56:50

hope he doesn't see this and ask for his pint back !

piddl0r 2009-10-30 12:27:51

You might look into Aptana (http://aptana.org) which should provide everything you need. I think it even has a WYSIWYG editor, though I would really recommend learning html instead.

cjstehno 2009-10-29 17:28:06

I would use Notepad++ for the simpler things, and Dreamweaver when working with other Adobe products. Notepad++ is simple and has a lot of great features. Dreamweaver is huge and will take some getting used to.

Davey 2009-10-29 18:46:25

+1 A:

NVU and Kompozer both are best suited for you. NVU is my personal choice. Choose your poison. :)

Rakesh Juyal 2009-10-29 18:52:42

Funny, I couldn't get them to edit a local "web" nicely. Tried editing one of my websites directly off the web and thought it was pretty cool....

Blair Mahaffy 2009-10-29 20:24:43

I'm an ex-NVU user. Really liked it, but then development on it stopped. I hear a rumor that it's been forked, but there doesn't seem to be any real development on the forked version either. :-(

Brian Knoblauch 2009-10-30 11:55:04

I went back and tried KompoZer again. I see that it would work nicely for my html help project. But I tried to do a simple website, and we're talking "Hello World" SIMPLE, and it crashed five times trying to get one page and one graphic loaded and did all sorts of weird things. I just don't have the time to sort that mess out.

Blair Mahaffy 2009-10-30 17:06:58

Try dokuwiki. I've implemented a wiki/manual/documentation for my app in a week. It's very simple n easy installing. You just need PHP, no database (mysql), the information is stored on files. Give it a try.

My wiki implemented wiki doku: wiki.vigo.com.br

Clayton A. Alves 2009-10-30 11:02:09

Something similar to FrontPage is Adobe Contribute. It does cost $199, but if you're looking for something as simple as FrontPage, it may be a good option for you.

A freelancer web designer I work with will setup clients who want to make simple HTML edits to their sites with it and they've all been pretty happy. They're all non-technical people.

Mattio 2009-10-30 12:04:53

Dreamweaver is good, but however using the WYSIWYG may have problems getting consistency when viewing between IE, firefox and safari.

Jason 2009-11-03 03:11:11

ansaurus

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