FrontPage and FutureQuest

[meikel]

Hi Deb,
this should be easy to find out. Frontpage leaves a META tag in every page identifying itself as html-editor. I think it looks like

<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 3.0">

You can do a grep on all pages on your server (you have the access-rights) and address everyone having this.

Greetings from Bonn, Germany
Meikel Weber

[Deb]

http://www.aota.net/ubb//smile.gif That only works for those who do not take the time to edit their pages and clean them up after using Frontpage......

An idea that would work for some... but for many it wouldn't work because they often like to go back and make extra changes... removing that meta tag is one of the first changes they make lol

Thanks though http://www.aota.net/ubb//wink.gif
Deb

[Deb]

Curious,

How many of you are using Frontpage to edit your Web sites?

I am working on some help files for AOTA.net due to some great recommendations and wondering if there are many of you using Frontpage right now?

If you do use Frontpage..could you drop me a note either here or by email letting me know if it is ok to note your Web site as one who utilizes the features of FQuest along with the features of Frontpage...

Thanks
Deb

[alexandra]

Hi Deb -
Thanks again for all your help. (Deb and FQ Tech support carried me and my domain from my prior site to this one.) Everything seems to be doing fine.
I told you I'd update you on front page issues. I think there will be problems for anyone with an existing front page site.
(I'm a writer and editor, not a programmer. I use front page because I was on the web two weeks after I could afford a computer to connect me to it, and needed to get a site up NOW, and because the site is a fairly large one (200 pages now) and front page has the easiest and most efficient site management tools. I know front pagers are considered lower life forms by many programmers and I respect what real web site builders do, but for me, it's a tool.)

So I've got this site that you've hand carried over for me, and I need to make changes. I knew that FP extensions were out(this means no hit counters, search forms, discussion groups), which was fine, because if I wanted such things I could get them from you, in better versions probably. I knew that you needed to go through some extra steps to publish the first time, but, from what I'd read, thought that once that had been done, everything would be the same as using it on a server with extensions. Not exactly.
One of FP's glories is that it integrates changes automatically, calculates what pages have been changed, and uploads only those pages. What I didn't know is that front page without extensions publishes the whole site each time. I update every day. It took 27 minutes to publish, where it usually takes about three.

You also cannot access the site on the server. Not sure that that would be a disadvantage. It is a feature I used, but I don't think it's necessary.


The best workaround for front page seems to be to create and edit in front page, then copy off the files you want to upload into a folder and FTP them. The problem with my site is that there are shared borders, which means a few lines at the top and down the side of each page that serve as navigation aids. When you make a new page and name it, it automatically creates a link in that border. So if I add a page, it may affect 17 other pages, and all would have to be FTP'd -- and you'd have to remember to change them all by hand.

Front page 2000 apparently does not address these concerns. Therefore, front page doesn't seem like the best bet. If anyone has used it successfully, please 'fess up!

I made a copy of the site and opened it with Home Page, which does let you upload one or two pages, but it changed all the URLs (there are about 400 of them) to being disk-based.

If I find anything else out, I'll let you know. I'd be very interested in anyone else's experiences.

But if anyone is starting out with thoughts of Front Page, I'd try test versions, and look hard at Home Page and Page Mill. Or Home Site, but it's HTML not WYSIWYG.

Thanks very much.

alexandra

[alexandra]

An update, if anyone's curious. I copied the front page version of my site into a file on my hard drive (Front Page has something called a Personal Web Server that acts like a server on your hard drive, so you have a copy of your site hidden somewhere that takes you weeks to find). Uploaded that site into Page Mill in 32 seconds. Made some changes and found Page Mill to be just as easy to use as Front Page (I don't get shared borders, but I'll just have to live with it) and uploaded two changed pages, just those pages, as a test. It worked fine. So I've uploaded the whole site and have broken free of Front Page.

I feel like I've graduated from a tricycle to at least a two-wheeler with training wheels!

alexandra