Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:03:24 +0000

Web Design, Data, & Publishing Tools.
FrontPage 2003 provides the features, flexibility, and functionality to help you build better Web sites. Itincludes the professional design, authoring, data, and publishing tools needed to create dynamic and sophisticated Web sites.
Some features that are part of the last version of FrontPage include:
Help navigating through your site, and seeing your file structure and its contents, visually
Builtin features for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (partial)
Bundled image editor (Microsoft Image Composer)
Pointandclick functionality for common tools, like mouseovers, email 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 CSSbased themes (like ASP.NET master pages)
When you change the URL of a page, all the links to that page are dynamically changed
Taskassignment 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)
Builtin support for automated web templates, that include automatically generated multilevel navigation system.
FrontPage 2003 introduced support for Dreamweaver compatible web templates, dubbed "Dynamic Web Templates".
FrontPage 2003 advances your Web development in three key areas:
1. Designing: Use enhanced design tools to produce better looking Web sites. New layout and graphics tools make it easier to design exactly the site you want.
2. Coding: Use design tools to generate better code, or expand your code skills. Use builtin scripting tools for interactive results. And with professional coding tools, you can write code faster, more efficiently, and with greater accuracy.
3. Extending: Connect with people and information in new ways by building Extensible Markup Language (XML) datadriven Web sites using the first commercially available, completely WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) editor. The enhanced publishing features and options help you get your Web pages online more quickly. (Note: XML collaboration requires Microsoft Windows Server 2003)
Design betterlooking sites: FrontPage 2003 includes tools and layout and graphics features to help you work faster and design professional Web sites.
* Work with graphics from other applications, giving you more control over how images are displayed and saved.
* Use dynamic Web templates to modify entire sections of a Web site. By updating the master template, changes are automatically made to all pages linked to that template.
* Target specific browser or screen resolutions by using browser and resolution reconciliation. You can also see how your site will look in various combinations of browsers and resolutions.
* Create and manipulate tables used for layout purposes, and provide pixelprecise control of your layout.
* Use manipulation tools to more easily work with multiple images and pieces of content that sit in the same space, and to create visual effects, such as popup menus.
Generate code faster and easier: The design tools in Frontpage 2003 generate efficient and clean Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and give you more control over the code. Or, you can apply your coding knowledge by taking advantage of the professional coding tools. With the scripting tools you can create an interactive experience for your audience. And, because the coding tools are easy to work with, you can even use them to start learning HTML.
Coding Tools
* Use a split view to see modifications made in the Design View automatically updated in the Code View.
* Select, modify, and manipulate tags easily using the Quick Tag Selector and Quick Tag Editor.
* Simplify code writing and make it less prone to errors with Microsoft IntelliSense technology. The technology is available for HTML, cascading style sheets, XSLT, Microsoft JScript, and Microsoft ASP.NET.
* Remove extraneous code generated by Microsoft Word or other Web authoring programs.
Scripting Tools
* Enhance interactivity on your site without writing a line of code by using behaviors to author JScript.
* Take advantage of support for IntelliSense and scripting tools for authoring JScript and Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript).
Extend the Power and Reach of Your Web Site: With Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services and Windows Server 2003 connected to FrontPage 2003, you can modify and present live data from a range of sources, including XML, to build rich interactive datadriven Web sites in a WYSIWYG editor. Users can post to the Web using just their browsers, while choosing from a broad range of publishing options.
Datadriven Web Sites Enabled by Windows SharePoint Services
* Allow users to post to your Web site using just their browsers. Web logs, issuetracking lists, and news and reviews sites can be built with just a couple of clicks.
* Insert data views and configure data sourcesincluding XML varieties, Windows SharePoint Services data, Web services, and OLE Database (OLEDB) data sources.
* Handle XML data and authoring and XSLT formatting directly in the FrontPage WYSIWYG Design view to create XML datadriven Web sites.
* Show or hide items or reformats based on data values or position in the data view by using Dynamic conditional formatting.
* Build Web Parts Pages by creating Web Parts Zones and inserting and connecting to Web Parts in other products, including Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server "v2.0" Beta 2, Windows SharePoint Services, and FrontPage 2003.
Publishing Technologies
* Move files easily between local and remote locations and publish in both directions.
* Connect to remote sites easily with the Web import dialog that simplifies connection types and working with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).
* Publish to File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) servers from the new Remote Web Site tab.

Web design is a general term for many potential specializations. You can be a interface designer, interaction designer, information architect, frontend developer, backend developer.
I recommend that you solidly learn the basics with html & css in a text editor before you dive into a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) program like Dreamweaver, Frontpage, etc. or even Flash. Knowing the fundamentals will put you ahead of designers who can only create with the cruches of a WYSIWIG. Photoshop will be indispensable in creating graphic elements for site, & later you’ll use it to create wire frames.
It would benefit you to get insight into all areas of web design. http://www.lynda.com/ is a great place to start if you are new to software. The lessons are excellant, but very expensive. Try the out “Visual Quick Start Guide” series of books from Peachpit press. They will really walk you through things. O’Reilly puts out great resources as well after you get more footing. Pick up O’Reilly’s “Web Design in a Nutshell”. If you can afford it, nothing beats taking a class with knowledgeable instructors & helpful classmates. They will give you the second pair of eyes when you can’t figure out why your website isn’t displaying correctly. A book or video can’t do that.
All the development & organization of a website won’t make a website usable if it’s visually unpalatable. If you also do not have any formal experience in design, I would suggest looking into boning up on design fundamentals as well.
Good Luck!