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Microsoft Office FrontPage
Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 running on Windows XP SP2
Developer	Microsoft
Latest release	2003 / Oct. 2003
OS	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
Status	Discontinued
Genre	Web authoring tool
License	Proprietary EULA
Website	The Next Generation - Microsoft Office Online

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Microsoft FrontPage (later full name Microsoft Office FrontPage) was a WYSIWYG ('What You See Is What You Get') HTML editor and web site administration tool from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. It was part of Microsoft Office application suite from 1997 to 2003. A Macintosh version was also released in 1998. Microsoft FrontPage has since been replaced by Microsoft Expression Web and Sharepoint Designer, which were released in December 2006.

Contents 1 History 2 Features 3 Criticism 4 Versions 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

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.^[1]

As a WYSIWYG editor, FrontPage is designed to hide the details of pages' HTML code from the user, making it possible for novices to easily create web pages and sites.

FrontPage's initial outing under the Microsoft name came in 1996 with the release of Windows NT 4.0 Server and its constituent web server Internet Information Services 2.0. Bundled on CD with the NT 4.0 Server release, FrontPage 1.1 would run under NT 4.0 (Server or Workstation) or Windows 95, and was aimed at providing server administrators with a tool to deliver rich web and internet content in a package as easy to use as Microsoft Word.

FrontPage used to require a set of server-side plugins originally known as IIS Extensions. The extension set was significantly enhanced for Microsoft inclusion of FrontPage into the Microsoft Office line-up with the 97 release and subsequently renamed FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE). Both sets of extensions needed to be installed on the target web server for its content and publishing features to work. Microsoft offered both Windows and Unix-based versions of FPSE. However, newer versions of FrontPage also support the standard WebDAV protocol for remote web publishing and authoring.^[2]

A version for Mac OS was released in 1998; however, it had fewer features than the Windows product and Microsoft has not updated it since.^[3]

In 2006, Microsoft announced that FrontPage would eventually be superseded by two products.[1] Microsoft SharePoint Designer will allow business professionals to design SharePoint-based applications. Microsoft Expression Web is targeted for web design professionals who create full-blown web sites. Microsoft announced that they will be discontinuing Microsoft FrontPage by December 2006.

Some features that are part of the last version of FrontPage include:

• Help navigating through your site, and seeing your file structure, visually
• Built-in features for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (partial)
• Built in image editor (MS Image Composer)
• Point-and-click functionality for common tools, like mouseovers, e-mail forms, and hit counts
• Simple to use with previous knowledge of Office products
• Integrated data display with Office products like Access and Excel
• Support for CSS-based themes (like ASP.NET master pages)
• When you change the URL of a page, all the links to that page are dynamically changed
• Task-assignment for team projects
• Content is editable from anywhere with FrontPage (password is needed)
• Support for rich clipboard data import (i.e. copy/pasting data from Internet Explorer into FrontPage 2003 will automatically download media resources such as images and save them locally)
• Built-in support for automated web templates, that include automatically generated multi-level navigation system.

Some criticism of FrontPage include:

• In previous versions, the WYSIWYG mode tended to generate non-validating HTML, resulting in pages that were optimized for Internet Explorer. However, FrontPage 2003 is capable of generating valid XHTML if the author requires it.^{[citation needed]}
• In some cases, HTML that is manually changed in FrontPage's code view can revert back to incorrectly generated markup after making even slight changes in WYSIWYG mode.^{[citation needed]}
• FrontPage is generally not well suited for administering medium to large corporate websites that require database interaction.^{[citation needed]}

The final version of FrontPage is Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003. The company has introduced two new products to replace Frontpage called Microsoft Expression Web and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer. Previous versions include:

• Vermeer FrontPage 1.0
• 1995 Microsoft FrontPage 1.1
• 1997 Microsoft FrontPage 97 (version 2)
• 1997 Microsoft FrontPage Express 2.0 (free stripped-down version came with Internet Explorer, and could be found online from numerous "download" repositories^[4][5]
• 1998 Microsoft FrontPage for Macintosh 1.0
• 1998 Microsoft FrontPage 98 (version 3)
• 1999 Microsoft FrontPage 2000 (version 9) included in some Office 2000 editions
• 2001 Microsoft FrontPage 2002 (version 10)
• Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 (version 11)

• Notice: There is no official version 4 to 8, because after Frontpage was included in some Office editions, the Frontpage version numbers followed their Office version numbers. Nonetheless, version numbers may appear in the meta tags of HTML code generated by these versions of Frontpage.

• List of HTML editors
• Comparison of WYSIWYG HTML editors
• FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE)
• Internet Information Services

1. ^ Microsoft (January 16, 1996). Microsoft Acquires Vermeer Technologies Inc.. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
2. ^ FrontPage 2003 Frequently Asked Questions. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
3. ^ Frequently Asked Questions About FrontPage. Microsoft. Retrieved on 2006-12-12.
4. ^ "You can find the latest version at the www.Microsoft.com Web site" in Ruth Maran et al: Office 97 - Superbook, 1998, Marangraphics, ISBN 1-896283-42-X
5. ^ "Frontpage Express is included with Internet Explorer to make it easy for you to upload all of your HTML pages to a server" in Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 - Step by Step, 1997, Catapult/Microsoft Press, ISBN 1-57231-514-8

• Microsoft Expression Web information & download
• Article about Vermeer from 1995
• Microsoft's FrontPage site
• History of FrontPage - Release Dates and Vermeer FrontPage History Timelines
• FrontPage Help - FrontPage Tutorials
• FrontPage Ezine - FrontPage Tips and Tutorials
• FrontPage and Expression Web Blog
• FrontPage 2003 review

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