Frontpage

[rgrstvr]

I have designed our website using MS Frontpage for perhaps 5 years. Now, having purchased 'Build your own website the right way' and started getting into it I realize I am just a beginner.

I am rebuilding our website, writing and revising the HTML code by hand in Frontpage but I am having problems.

I view each page on the 'normal' version and then make revisions on the 'HTML' version - but then when I go to the 'Preview' version - it looks completely different.

What procedure should I be using to alternately write the code and view the results?

[brandaggio]

You seem like you know what is up and where you are at - that is the first step to improving your work - truthful acknowledgement of your current skillset.

Now you need to ditch FrontPage for good and never look back - it will be a never ending struggle that you will lose if you try to code and manage standards based pages in FP - that is the straight up reality.

MS has a replacement tool for FP (more or less a "Visual Studio lite") that I can recommend and you can actually use as you follow along with your book, it is Visual Web Developer Express (what a mouthful - but it is a solid app that generates clean code).

Most advanced coders tend to prefer just using a quality text editor for coding and a standards based browser for general previewing and testing. You will know when you are there (at this stage) because you won't need all the "features" of an IDE like Visual Web Developer or Dreamweaver, but just look at them as bloat because you can do it faster and better by hand.

[superuser2]

I agree compleetly. GUIs make sloppy code, ditch them for good. I'm glad your are going to reform.

Yes, use a text editor, but not just notepad. Get something with syntax highlighting (on Mac, thats TextWrangler). It will help you a lot, being able to clearly see what's what on your code.

IDEs are not a good idea, they are bloatware, 100,000 features you don't need. Just code will certainly help you and you'll learn a lot.

As for redoing your site, FP makes sloppy code, it will be hard to read, but once you write your own code, google about indenting code. It makes it a lot easier to read.

If you are on mac, get TextWrangler (free) at http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/

its really nice for HTML/PHP.

As for viewing your code, here is what I do. Nothing but 3 windows open: a browser window, TextWrangler, and my FTP client. I open my file through the FTP client (Fetch) with TextWrangler, and edit/write my code. To test, I just click on the browser window. Because I am a PHP developer, I keep a database administration utility in another tab on that window.

This really works for me, but if you have the budget, I would think dual monitors (one for code, one for browser window) would be nice

Happy coding!

--superuser2

[Nadia P]

I agree that you should move away from frontpage.... for all the obvious reasons :-)
I prefer Dreamweaver, but if you don't want to go down that track, then Johns' suggestion about Visual Web Developer Express is a good one - I heard it's pretty good actually.

There is also the freebie editor www.nvu.com which gets a lot of good press from people here at Sitepoint.

Good luck :-)

Nadia

[rgrstvr]

I checked out the various IDE suggestions - too much bs. I think I have to jump into writing my own code.

I like the idea - Nothing but 3 windows open: a browser window, TextWrangler, and my FTP client. I open my file through the FTP client (Fetch) with TextWrangler, and edit/write my code. To test, I just click on the browser window. And dual monitors (one for code, one for browser window) would be nice.

But - I use a PC so TextWrangler is not going to work - and how do I hook up dual monitors?

[brandaggio]

I checked out the various IDE suggestions - too much bs. I think I have to jump into writing my own code.

I like the idea - Nothing but 3 windows open: a browser window, TextWrangler, and my FTP client. I open my file through the FTP client (Fetch) with TextWrangler, and edit/write my code. To test, I just click on the browser window. And dual monitors (one for code, one for browser window) would be nice.

But - I use a PC so TextWrangler is not going to work - and how do I hook up dual monitors?

You need a video card that will support driving output to two displays (start with looking up the specs of your card to see if it is possible).

If you are on a Mac (which of course you aren't, you are/were using FP) TextWrangler is a nice app.

The text editor that is the most Mac like but available on Windows is Araneae - it has only what you need and nothing else.

For FTP, the best app on Windows is SmartFTP.