These Webs contain the files (all your HTML, CSS, images, etc.) and preferences (such as which web server to sync up with or what compatibility settings to use) for that website. What you'll probably want to do is, of course, make a new site.įrontPage's equivalent to "projects" are called "Webs". Like any other Microsoft Office XP program, there's the sidebar on the right with common tasks. I think only the other Microsoft applications of the era like PowerPoint and Visio can top it. is (in my opinion) one of the best interfaces for any program ever. I'll be covering Front2, as that's the version I own, and the one I have the most experience with. other stuff as well, but let's stay positive for now.
By Office 2000, FrontPage had more Office integration than you should shake a stick at nailing down the Office user interface and allowing imports and exports across the whole suite. According to them, not only did it feel like a native Office application, it was perfect for their ongoing plan to become more internet centric.įrontPage over the years got integrated into the Office suite and made a flagship product for Microsoft productivity products. In fact, it was so good that Microsoft ended up buying them out. FrontPage also managed to explode, receiving many awards and positive reviews. By then the World Wide Web was exploding, with a 20% increase in sites per month. (Early start-up culture, perhaps?) Evidently it worked, as FrontPage was released (only!) a week behind schedule on October of 1995.
So, somehow, they managed to hire many professional coders for no salary whatsoever to work on FrontPage. The web needed an authoring tool for websites. The only issue was that it was rather a pain to make websites if you were just some lowly advertising manager or whoever. It was decentralized, open, and even more robust than they were planning. A month later, still in the planning stages, they caught wind of the brand new World Wide Web out of CERN. The two decided to found their own company, Vermeer Technologies, Inc. This hopefully would reduce the cost of development for those corporations, and provide a market for growth by making buisnesses want to have an Interent presence. Therefore, they should create a standardized, completely open server/client combo to replace all the independent efforts. were sinking millions into building their own, completely incompatible dial-in Internet services. His idea was that many corporations such as the Dow Jones, Bloomberg, Apple, etc. Ferguson, renowned computer industry consultant, contacted MIT graduate Forgaard (over carphone, in case you were wondering) to discuss starting a new, internet-based company. This was kind of a pain.Įnter Randy Forgaard and Charles H. If you needed buisness stuff, like stocks or the such, you had to log onto the BBS of whoever had what you needed. At that point in time most internet chatter occured on Usenet groups (think something like Reddit) or BBS systems (think something like old AOL example pictured below). Because this was 1994, when the Internet was still really new. Historyīefore we can talk about goodness and ugliness, we need to talk about carphones and business meetings.
Let's talk about why Microsoft FrontPage was for a brief period of time the ultimate content creation tool of the Internet, and why it later fell from grace. In that regard, FrontPage couldn't be beat. Letting the typical home user at the time create websites, express creativity, and conquer the world by storm, all without being forced to learn HTML or CSS or JavaScript. As a dream of what could have been, and a window into what was. "Everything it touched was ruined with horrific output and proprietary nonsense!" And yes, it was.īut. "FrontPage was utter rubbish from dark ages of GeoCities" you say. The mere mention of that name is making most (if not all) of you seasoned web devs groan. The newest version came out almost two decades ago! The goal of this is not to convince you otherwise. PLEASE don't use FrontPage for modern web development! It's filled with security vulnerabilities and obsolete standards. Home About Articles Doodles Projects Links FrontPage: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
FrontPage: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - Articles - InvisibleUpįrontPage: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly