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FrontPage 98: Why is Bill Gates Rich?
Got your attention, didn't I? But there is a method to my madness. Why is Bill Gates rich? Is it because his company practices unfair competitive tactics? Is it because he has the most commonly used operating system in the world, and therefore has the jump on the competition when it comes to developing for that platform? Well, hopefully by the time we get to the end of this article, you'll know why I think he's rich. If not, I'll tell you. But in the meantime, let's have a look at the latest incarnation of FrontPage. Maybe it might shed some light on the question.
FrontPage 98 has quite a few added "bells and whistles" over FrontPage 97, far too many, in fact, to cover in the scope of a single article. And these aren't just window dressing either. From beginning to end, FrontPage 98 is a giant leap forward over Frontpage 97. Let's take a look under the hood, at a few of the most interesting and useful ones:
FrontPage Explorer
 The new |
FrontPage Explorer has a new "toolbar." When you open FrontPage Explorer, you'll see a bar along the left side of the screen, with a number of icons on it. These are all related to the "view" you see in the 2 panes to the right. Some of these are familiar, and some are brand new. The top one, "Folder," is the same as the "folder" View command on the old menu. Nothing new there. Looks just like the Windows Explorer, with a few minor differences. Works like Windows Explorer too, with a few major differences. But I've discussed these before. Below that is a new one: "All Files." This one removes the "tree" hierarchy, and gives a bit more information about each file, including a column called "Orphan." The "orphan" column states whether FrontPage thinks the file might be an orphan. Why do I say "thinks?" Because, if you design webs with certian kinds of structures, such as using database column value tags in HTX files, or CGI programs, they may show up as orphans when they are not. Still, it's handy to have a list of the possible orphans to work from. The "Navigation" view provides some handy tools for visually constructing the navigational properties of your website, including the use of "navigation bars" and "shared borders." You can create links, move pages, and link pages visually in Navigation View. The "Hyperlinks" view is another view which is inherited from FrontPage 97. This is the view which shows the hyperlinks to and from each page, and allows you to trace links from one page to another, and so on. It will also show you broken links. The "Hyperlink Status" view is similar to the Tools|Verify Hyperlinks command in FrontPage 97, but retains the list between calls, and doesn't dictate that the hyperlinks be verified, unless you want to. In other words, it will show you any hyperlinks which are "unknown" in status, including hyperlinks outside of the current web. In addition, you have the option of only verifying the suspicious hyperlinks which you select. A web with a lot of outside hyperlinks can take a long time to verify all the links. You can select the links you want to verify now. Cool, eh? The "Themes" view is a rather nice addition. FrontPage 98 Themes aloows you to choose from over 50 pre-built themes, which can be instantly applied to all pages within a web. These themes are similar to using a style page and setting the background properties for pages to use this style page, with one minor exception: FrontPage 98 will automatically apply this to all pages in the website, a definite time saver. Don't like the themes provided? Don't sweat it: The CD has a FrontPage 98 SDK, which includes a Themes Editor. Finally, there's the "Tasks" icon. This is particularly useful if the web is being multi-authored, and/or is a large web. Or maybe you just have a lot of clients. This again, was a feature of FrontPage 97, but is imporved in FrontPage 98. What else is there? Well, you aren't restricted to setting the properties of a folder to ONLY "Browse" or "Execute." Now you can set it to both. Why? Probably because of the support for Active Server Pages. More on that later (and earlier - I covered ASP in my last article). Just a few honorable mentions, then we'll move on to FrontPage Editor: How about Channels, and the ability to import and export from remote webs as well as from your local Hard Drive. Huh? Huh? You'll run across one or 2 more as you play with it. |
Frontpage Editor
FrontPage Editor has a great number of improvements. Let's start with the editing window. It now has tabs, 3 of them:
Normal: The Normal view is similar to the Normal view of FrontPage 97, with perhaps one big exception. You can now edit an entire frameset, including the frameset itself, in WYSIWYG fashion. The Frames Wizard is now gone. What a relief, eh?
HTML: The HTML view is similar to the HTML view of FrontPage 97 at fiurst glance. However, the FrontPage 97 HTML editor was not extrememly user-friendly. In fact, it was a lousy text editor. You had to use shortcut keys to, for instance, cut, copy, or paste text. there were none of the typical text editor commands available. In fact, it didn't even have a menu! Well, all of that is gone, now. The HTML editor in FrontPage has it all.
Preview: The Preview tab works just like a browser, in terms of how the pages look, and to a certain extent, how they operate. It isn't quite as functional as a browser; some active components don't work very well in the preview pane, but its' purpose is to give you an idea of how the page will look when it's viewed in a browser, and it does just that - quickly and easily.
New FrontPage Components (in FrontPage 97 these were called WebBots) have been added:
Hover Buttons: These are buttons which are graphic, and change in their appearance when the mouse cursor is over them. They can also play sounds when the ounse is over them, or when clicked. They activate the URL which you specify when they are clicked. These buttons are pretty cool, as they are Java applets. If you've ever used Javascript to change an image when the mouse is over it, you probably know that the images array isn't supported by Internet Explorer 3x and below. The Java applets make the Hover Buttons available to any browser supporting Java applets, which is about 95% or so.
Banner Ad Manager: This component allows you to create Banner Ads of images which change at intervals which you specify. You can also specify a URL to which the Banner Ad points.
Hit Counter: The FrontPage 98 Hit Counter is eminently more reliable and easy to implement than the FrontPage 97 Hit Counter.
FrontPage Editor has numerous improvements over FrontPage 97 with existing features as well. tables, for example, can be drawn or edited, with a pencil cursor. Cascading Style Sheets can be used. If you use Themes for your web, you can set individual themes for pages in FrontPage Editor. I'm sure I must have left out a thing or 2, but I've covered most of it.
Dynamic HTML
FrontPage Editor has been built to support and include elements of Dynamic HTML. this includes things like Page Transitions, Text Animations, Dynamic Outlining, and Form Extensions, such as tab order for form fields. These additions to the HTML language are currently only supported by Internet Explorer 4.0. But when they become accepted into the specification, which I'm betting on, you will have the tools to build them into your webs. You should use caution when incorporating these into your webs at this point, since they are not supported in previous incarnations of Internet Explorer, or any incarnation of Netscape Navigator. However, the tools are there for you to learn with, and prepare yourself for the future.
Active Server Pages
FrontPage 98 is designed to support Active Server Pages. The Script dialog has a checkbox to create ASP tags. These tags contain scripting which is run on the server to create dynamic web pages according to a plethora of possibilities, most especially for interaction with databases. See my last article for more details on ASP.
Conclusion
So, why is Bill gates rich? Take a look at FrontPage 98. Not only does it contain more features than FrontPage 97, but it contains features which look to the future, and on the Internet, the future is always closer than you think. If you're not on the cutting edge, your practically obsolete!
Active Server Pages was developed by Microsoft, and is one of the most powerful technologies available for Internet development. There is no doubt in my mind that ASP will be used almost universally in a short period of time.
Dynamic HTML was developed by Microsoft, and enhances the existing speification greatly. HTML is an evolving language, and there is little doubt that these specifications will become accepted and part of the standard in a short while.
FrontPage 98 was developed in part, based upon Microsoft's listening to the users of Frontpage 97, on the peer-to-peer support groups which Microsoft provides for their products. If you've never visited microsoft.public.frontpage.client, stop by some time. It's an excellent source of information. Many of the features of FrontPage 98 were discussed on this newsgroup, long before FrontPage 98 was released.
So, by listening to their users, and being creatively on the forefront of computing, Microsoft has made Bill Gates a rich man. By using cutting edge products like FrontPage 98, Microsoft might make you rich as well!
IMHO
Author: Kevin Spencer
Date: 11/21/97
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