I am building web pages for 2 years now, and I have good experience with web building programs. The first program I used, was "Web Express". This is really good one!
After it, I decided to try with Front Page 2000. In the beginning I thought that this is the best web-building product, ever made. After having some experience with it, I changed my mind, but not that much.
After all, I noticed that FP has some bugs as well. For example if you are working with PHP files, you will notice that every time you want to browse them, you will have to set it to show all files, as it does not have PHP listed in the file extensions.
Another thing that I have noticed, is that if you are making pages with much Java Script, there is big possibility that FP is not doing fine... for example I have a page which uses some special options, and I cannot create it with FP as it just won't work. I have to make it in Notepad, which took me much time, compared to the time I would need to build it with FP.
Front Page is also famous with the FTP Publishing features. Okay, I see the button, but it's grey all the time. I could never run it, so I could never use FP's FTP.
I noticed that I don't have any problems which working with FP. For example, many programs just crash while you are using them. I have never seen something like that, with FP. So, I am sure that my work is safe!

Front Page offers many great features. It's very good if you want to build the basics of a web page. Actually, if the web page is not very substandard, you can build it all with FP. But the sites I am working with are using much Java Script, CSS, and other things, so I have to make some changes in Notepad, as it is impossible with FP. It just shows the page the wrong way. I think it just cannot use some functions, and that's why when it opens the page, it opens them wrong, and if I save it, it saves them the wrong way... That's why, I use Notepad for some advanced building. But I can always put the basis on FP.
The clip art is good, even I don't use it. But you can make your own clipart, which is great, as I've made most of the pictures I use, on my own clipart, and I am doing faster this way.
Another thing that I find to be great, is the built-in special effects. First, there are some Java Script effects, which you can set with just a few clicks. There are also some DHTML effects that are very easy to be set... after you set the effects you want to use, the FP makes the rest...
The themes are fine, too, but actually I find them to be very primitive, and I never use them. But they can be used for some small web sites.

Everyone who is aware of web building, is aware that a web page should not be very big (in Kb) as it will load slow, and no one likes waiting (especially if the one is using modem connection...like me!). FP offers great tool that lets you see how long will your page load. You set for example: "Show me how long would my page load on T1". And it shows you. Great, eh?
Another thing that is useful, is that FP can show you for example how big are all the pictures on your site, or all the links or such...this way you can make good statistics about your site, and you can then make it better.

Every experienced Webmaster knows that a big web page cannot be made only with web building program, like FP. Most of the times, it's needed to modify the code for yourself. I use Notepad to do so, but most of the times I can do it with FP as well. Front Page's workspace is divided in 3 parts - Normal, HTML and Preview.
The "Normal" is what it says- the normal. It is where you build your page. The "HTML" is where you can see the source of your page, and you can modify it as well. The source is very well coloured, so that you can differ some basic commands. And the last - "Preview". This is where you can see the preview of your page, without launching the web browser. Very useful!
You can switch between the workspaces very easy. Just click on which you want to be, and FP takes you there.

After all, I would recommend Front Page 2000 to everyone who is building web pages. It's very useful and powerful tool.


Recommended: Yes