Peter's web page was created using Microsoft FrontPage 2002 (Microsoft FrontPage 5.0).
It is rather easy to use. In addition to the built-in Help area, there are numerous other
help documents, tips 'n' tricks, and the like, available merely by searching
the Internet for frontpage, frontpage help, frontpage tips, etc.
Earlier versions of FrontPage were "buggy" and the application was often
shunned by professional developers. With the latest versions of FrontPage,
the HTML code appears clean and robust.
FrontPage is truly a "drag-and-drop" application. You need to know virtually
nothing about HTML in order to be able to build a basic and nice-looking web page
quickly. If you know HTML, then you're doubly good-to-go. The special effects,
like the hover buttons, the roll-overs for links, as well as the scrolling marquee below,
were done from within FrontPage. Many versions of NetScape browser do not seem to
recognize several of these FrontPage special effects, most recent versions
of Internet Explorer browser do. Opera browser recognizes most of the FrontPage
special effects, but not all of them.
When I was told of Peter's death, I had his basic memorial page up and running and
on-line in less than 3 hours. Scaling, preparing and eventually adding the many
photographs for web use is what requires considerable amount of time.
Preparing the "raw" digital images from camera and scanned files
from start-to-finish cannot be fully done from within FrontPage. I used a program
called Adobe PhotoShop, a high-end image processor. There are numerous other
less-costly similar applications available that'll do the same thing. Keep in mind to have
the main page load as fast as possible, using thumbnails rather than full-size
images to access the higher-resolution images. The thumbnails I used are
in the order of about 4 KB in size. Higher-resolution images accessed via the
thumbnails should be in the order of between 55-85 KB in size (jpg format).
If someone wants a high-resolution image, they can always contact you
and you then send the image via e-mail attachment.
En passant, if you're considering building web pages and are new at it, I highly
recommend Microsoft FrontPage. Others may recommend DreamWeaver or some
alternative or other high-end product, yet FrontPage should be more than adequate
for someone who has never built a web page before. Many professionals now
also use FrontPage.
I've used both. I personally find FrontPage rather intuitive, whereas DreamWeaver
is not as intuitive (not for me, anyway). I've used FrontPage almost exclusively
for the past 5 years. FrontPage can certainly also do frames, which I personally
decide not to use at this time. I consider myself an intermediate-knowledge
user of FrontPage, since I use it occasionally, certainly not on a daily basis.
Some of the text html pages were initially typed using Microsoft Word, then copied
and pasted into FrontPage for final formatting. If you use Word for initial text
drafts, before Copy/Paste into FrontPage, make sure you replace all
Paragraph Marks with Manual Line Breaks (Edit/Replace/Special). If you do not,
the html document lines will appear as having been double-spaced, very disconcerting!
If you want something a cut above for building a website, then you can't go wrong with FrontPage,
at about $199.00 full retail price (latest Version 2003) directly from Microsoft, about $148.00
from Amazon.com, other prices are somewhere in-between, or less if you surf the web
for the best price.
I am not paid for this little blurb, I happen to think FrontPage is a very functional product.
Best Regards,
powersupply01@yahoo.com