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In today's highly connected world, almost everybody has a web site, from local sewing circles to the world's largest corporations. If you're ready for one of your own, Microsoft's FrontPage 2003 has everything you need to create Web pages. It's true. Your geek friends may howl in contempt if you use FrontPage, but that's because the program has a reputation for spitting out cookie-cutter Web pages with messy, overloaded HTML code that takes forever to load. Not any more.

After listening to complaints, Microsoft has given FrontPage 2003 some pretty advanced features, including an HTML cleanup tool that helps alleviate bloated code, and new support for Macromedia Flash and XML. Now, savvy Web veterans can control as much of the process as they want, and even collaborate on a site with developers who use Dreamweaver, GoLive or other Web authoring tools. Yet, unlike those other tools, FrontPage 2003 still has automated features for beginners who don't know where to start.

There's still one flaw, though. Microsoft's idea of a user manual is a flimsy pamphlet. But that's easily solved. FrontPage 2003: The Missing Manual offers you everything from the basics to meaty sections on advanced tasks. Our book puts the program's features in context, with clear and thorough chapters that provide valuable shortcuts, workarounds, and just plain common sense, no matter where you weigh in on the technical scale. With it, you can learn to build simple Web pages, or sophisticated ones with tables and Cascading Style Sheets, and find out how to manage and publish a Web site. You'll also learn to create forms, work with databases, and integrate FrontPage with Microsoft Office.

If you haven't worked with Web pages before, each chapter provides "Up to Speed" sidebars with useful background information. If you do have experience, the "Power Users' Clinic" sidebars offer advanced tips and insights. You won't find tips like those in the pamphlet, or even in the Help file. FrontPage: The Missing Manual gives you the complete lowdown on the program above and beyond any book on the market.

Sink your teeth into THIS puppy!   Rating:
2005-09-27 09:01:04  JS Geare [Reply | View]
Missing manual is right! In just 400 pages, Jessica does what Microsoft's "Help," and bookstore volumes of twice the number of pages have failed to do. Specifically, the Msoft Help, as many frustrated users have discovered, is really not much help at all, and the big "bibles" at the bookstore are tough to navigate.

Jessica, however, not only explains underlying concepts and why some techniques should be preferred over others, but also tells the reader, and SHOWS the reader, exactly what to do. The book is logically organized so that chapters build on one another, allowing the reader to progress from basic to advanced -within conceptual frameworks, step-by-step. Got something you wanna know how to do? It's here.

But wait, there's more: Mantaro writes with a sense of humor, nicely anticipating how a reader's brain will compare technical material to everyday life (parent-child relationships, for example). The frequent (but not too frequent) chuckles make everything more digestible. Beginner or pro, you'll find much of value in this "missing manual," and in no case have I mumbled to myself, "...but what does THAT mean?"

What's missing? Some Msoft gotcha's and bugs and the work-arounds for them as well as some "tips 'n tricks." But she had to stop SOMEwhere. I hope a website based on her book emerges, where users (and hopefully she) will add suplementary material which will become the basis of the NEXT edition.

Don't MAKE me come over there...BUY THIS BOOK! Really.

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