Dreamweaver 8 Vs. Frontpage
Dreamweaver 8 and FrontPage are software programs that allow users to create and modify Web pages. FrontPage is created by Microsoft and Dreamweaver is from Macromedia. Both products are WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) style for Web design, meaning they require little HTML programming. Each application has its pros and cons, and because of this, many developers choose to use both.
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Front Page Pros
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FrontPage is the easiest Web design software for beginners. It allows users with little knowledge of Web development to quickly create Web pages. Another pro for FrontPage is the number of built in templates that make it easy to get started. FrontPage also interacts extremely well with other Microsoft products, making it easy to complete tasks such as pasting text from Microsoft Word or inserting charts from Microsoft Excel. The largest pro for experienced developers is how well FrontPage develops ASP.net, which is the standard for Windows based hosting and programming.
FrontPage Cons
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Probably the largest con of FrontPage is that it only works well with Internet Explorer. To have a Web page work properly with other Internet browsers, a developer needs to have a clear understanding of HTML. FrontPage automatically adds extra "trash" tags on the HTML. Developers must go through the Web pages developed in FrontPage and remove these extra tags to have the Web pages work in other browsers. This can significantly increase development time. The other major con of using FrontPage is how it handles tables. It easily displays tables in a fixed width, but it becomes cumbersome for a developer to try to make it display in a percentage of the window.
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Dreamweaver Pros
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Dreamweaver is the industry standard for Web development. It is a robust software that allows a developer to create websites for all browsers. This software offers a vast variety of tools, including a reusable page library and easy-to-create templates. Dreamweaver 8 also includes extensions, which are created as modules that allow for ease of managing site task such as allowing Web pages to interact with credit card processing and managing forums. Another pro is how it handles dynamic data using SPRY Data Sets (used in conjunction with Java scripting), which replaces the need for a back-end database.
Dreamweaver Cons
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The biggest con with Dreamweaver is it is difficult and intimidating for new designers to learn. But many experienced Web designers find Dreamweaver intuitive. With Dreamweaver, cascading-style sheets can be ruined by incorrectly entering an attribute. While FrontPage will handle the error, Dreamweaver will incorrectly display the pages using the affected style sheet. Another con is Dreamweaver is about $200 more expensive to FrontPage as of September 2009.
Conclusion
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Both applications are targeted toward different audiences. FrontPage tends to suit users whose need to develop Web pages is intermittent or they have a quick turnaround. On the other hand, Dreamweaver is the industry standard for Web design. It is the most-used Web design software by industry professionals.
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