I do not condone using a visual editor for coding, however, here's the situation...

I'm temporarily working with my mother until after my son is born and I got saddled with updating one of the company web sites. The entire thing was thrown together 4 years ago in Microsoft Frontpage and is a disgusting mess of code. I have been running into things doing these updates that I have to clean up to do certain things and after waisting a day going through the code I finally became fed up and strongly suggested to my supervisor that the whole thing be reprogrammed correctly. I've pretty much gotten the go ahead, however the problem is once I'm gone, they'll continue using a visual editor to edit the web site. I have a bad feeling if they import my clean HTML into FrontPage, they'll end up with the same mess they have now.

So between Dreamweaver CS3 and Frontpage 2003, which is the lesser of two evils? I would think Dreamweaver is the best solution, but I am open to opinions.

Keep in mind that hiring an in house programmer or outsourcing the work is not an option for this company.

I would say using Dreamweaver is great option. It's not that complicated of a pragram for anyone to take up and use, for even simple updates.

FrontPage is definitely the greater of the two evils, and you won't be able to administer a FrontPage site from Dreamweaver, or visa versa, so they will have to either learn to use Dreamweaver(probably a bad idea), or you will need to set up the site for Contribute, which is like a scaled down program for administering Dreamweaver sites.

But instead of doing that, why don't you just code the site as you normally would, then set it up in an application like Joomla, so that it can be administered from the web?

Setting up in a CMS system is also not an option. I'm being paid very little hourly for my time. I'm only doing what I am doing as a favor for my mother and only agreed to do a straight static web site.

What exactly is Contribute? They basically only need to add/edit text content. As an example, their is a table of Installers that they need to add/remove weekly on one of the pages.

Well, you could go them one better than FP2003 - can they purchase MS Expression Web ? At least it creates (mostly) standards-compliant code.

DW is no program for people who have NO clue how to create a web page and are used to the interface in FP.

Well, their "tech department" said it's a no go for even switching to a better program. They want them to use FP2003 because they already "know" how to use it. Which that's a bunch of doo-doo because I came to learn that one of the reasons why it's so bad is because they're copy/pasting crap (including "styles") from Word & Excel into FrontPage. I'll program it for them, program it right...But when they mess it up, they're on their own.

I could see the advantages and disadvantages to both programs. Frontpage is obviously more user friendly and for beginners this is a great program to try. More advanced individuals I would suggest using Dreamweaver. You get alot more goodies that in the end will make you a better developer. Of course this is just my opinion.

The biggest problem with FP is that it produces code that ONLY works in IE, so people using other browsers will usually see a real mess - if they see anything usable at all.

Well, I've presented my case and provided multiple options for them...Not anything else I can do. I'm hand coding it and if they pull it into FP and screw it up, it's on them.

i do not know code at all, frontpage was easy for me designing my first website

Dreamweaver is one of the best designing software to web pages. It's have very easy to use and very controls to create the good web pages without typing any HTML.

I prefer using Dreamweaver than Frontpage it is more advisable to use and easy to cope up with!

This project was finally launched yesterday. Hand coding it and then importing into FrontPage did not harm any of my code...I just need to leave very specific instructions on how to add/edit content so FP doesn't screw anything up.

I prefer to dreamweaver because it is a powerful and flexible web editor.Surely dreamweaver is the best choice for coding and layout creation . You can easy to creating static and dynamic website.

Dreamweaver is always a dream of ones webmaster remember that.

For your own websites, I would recommend Dreamwaver. If you want to work on Sharepoint, I would recommend FrontPage.

Dreaweaver is the good choice and perfect for the using the greatest web graphics.This software supports a large group of programming languages and it's makes a lot of templates.

It is time to put Frontpage to bed. Microsoft did more than a year ago. It is time to move on. I would suggest learning how to do the many things Frontpage did. The graphic embedding is the one people want to use. There are many FREE graphics out there and webdev software to do the trick. Microsoft also has some FREE software if you can did deep enough to find it. IT DOES NOT USE FRONTPAGE EXTENSIONS... the bane of my existance!

I use dreamweaver only because it was the best alternative out there with wysiwyg technology BEFORE Adobe too it over. Their pricing is keeping it out of my reach, even for an update. I did take a look at the newer CS4 and I might spend the $599 to UPGRADE... geesh what a price. I knew this would happen when they bought Macromedia. The worst thing they could have done for us small fry.

I'd keep a lookout for the opensource solutions. NVU is a good one.

-Kehf

I'm getting an idea that maybe people are not reading this thread before responding? Please read post #1, #6, #9 & #13.

Funny thing...It did end up getting messed up when I left for maternity (2 Fridays ago)...Someone told my Mum to insert an image on every page of the website and she tried doing it using copy/paste even though the instructions I left specifically said in big bold letters to NOT do that. So now I have to fix whatever she fudged up on it when I get back...



FYI, I use TextWrangler.

Originally Posted by TripleMoons

I'm getting an idea that maybe people are not reading this thread before responding?

Get more backlinkz. I agree.

That's just a little humor. People tend to read only the title and leave a reply that, more often than not, is on a tangent unrelated to your question. Don't take it personally - it's an internet forum thing, especially in webmaster type forums.

It's almost as shocking as people not following your instructions, for how to update the pages.