Resources for Transitioning to Standards Compliant Web Editors
Article ID: KB101862
June 2011
We are at a point in time where it is a good idea to be looking to options other than FrontPage and older tables based web editors.
Note: FrontPage 2003 has been discontinued for three years and was last updated eight years ago. There are some issues involved in continuing to use it. FrontPage can no longer reliably be hosted on UNIX/Linux as the server extensions were “end of lifed” in 2006 (
http://www.rtr.com/fpsupport/). Microsoft support for Office 2003 and FrontPage ended in April 2009. The Web Bots and many FP functions will probably not work on newer Windows Web Server (IIS):
http://lnk.nu/blogs.iis.net/szp.aspx.
The code that FrontPage produces is nowhere close to meeting the current W3C standards (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHTML) and worst of all, you cannot, from a practical standpoint, edit the newer Tableless CSS Templates in the Design View. It is time to pick current, standards compliant, Web editor.
The Microsoft Path:
If you mostly work with Microsoft software then we recommend that you review the following:
Checkout Corrie Haffly’s articles at the Microsoft Expression Community Site:
http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/dd326841.aspx
Read Corrie Haffly’s Expression Web White Paper:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/f/2/ff2d736a-9ec6-4e3b-b094-d782aa7cda72/Microsoft_FrontPage_to_Expression_Web.doc
Visit the Microsoft Expression Web Solution Center:
http://support.microsoft.com/ph/12105
Visit the Microsoft Expression Web Community Site:
http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx
Don’t want to buy Expression Web?
Get the Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2007 Full Version (not a trial) here for FREE:
http://lnk.nu/microsoft.com/u74.aspx
Microsoft SharePoint Designer Home Page:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointdesigner/FX100487631033.aspx
You can use SharePoint Designer 2007 with any of our Expression Web or HTML templates and publish your site to any hosting environment, just as you did with FrontPage. While you do not need a SharePoint Hosting account to use SharePoint Designer we do recommend hosting on Windows web server (IIS) to maximize the features and ease of publishing in either Expression Web or SharePoint Designer.
Note: SharePoint Designer 2007 is very similar to Expression Web and you can use any of the PixelMill CSS web templates with it. SharePoint Designer 2010 is very different from the 2007 version and has become a dedicated SharePoint tool and is not suitable for general website design like the 2007 version was. For SharePoint 2010 you would want to use our SharePoint Design templates like:
http://www.pixelmill.com/products/pm65565spmpdl2.htm
Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Foundation and Server:
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com
Microsoft SharePoint is a web application platform developed by Microsoft. It is designed as a centralized replacement for multiple web applications and supports various combinations of enterprise website requirements. It is typically associated with web content management and document management systems. SharePoint's multi-purpose platform allows for managing and provisioning of intranet portals, extranets and websites, document management and file management, collaboration spaces, social networking tools, enterprise search, business intelligence tooling, process/information integration, and third-party developed solutions. SharePoint can also be used as a web application development platform.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SharePoint
Check out Ferrari.com’s Microsoft SharePoint based website:
http://www.ferrari.com
See another example of the extended functions that can be deployed with a hosted SharePoint site:
http://www.foundation-it.com
PixelMill SharePoint Products and Services:
http://www.pixelmill.com/sharepoint/
PixelMill does completely custom SharePoint branding and design projects as well as SharePoint Templates; leverage PixelMill, your SharePoint Branding Experts.
PixelMill SharePoint Support Area:
http://www.pixelmill.com/support/al1137.htm
If you have a SharePoint Foundation or SharePoint Server project, and you need help, please contact us for a quote.
To get started call us, toll free, at 866-749-3564 or fill out our Custom work request form.
Paid Training for Microsoft Expression Web and SharePoint:
Lynda.Com - http://www.lynda.com All-you-can learn training…. 30,655 video tutorials with 456 online courses on a huge variety of software. This is a great educational site, and at $25 per month and you can’t beat the price.
The Adobe Path
If you work in the UNIX/Linux hosting or coding environment we recommend that you go with Adobe Dreamweaver CS (Creative Suite), while no longer supported, Dreamweaver CS2, CS3 will work. However, CS4 - CS5.5 are recommended. A big bonus on the Adobe path is that Adobe Photoshop is tightly integrated with Dreamweaver.
Dreamweaver is available for both Mac and Windows operating systems. Recent versions have incorporated support for web technologies such as CSS, JavaScript, and various server-side scripting languages and frameworks including ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Dreamweaver
What is new in Adobe Dreamweaver 5.5?
http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver.html
PixelMill has a Ton of Great Web Templates for Adobe Dreamweaver:
http://www.pixelmill.com/products/sr/pt_6/reset/
Adobe Support Center
http://www.adobe.com/support/
Video:
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/
Adobe Dreamweaver Community Forum:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/dreamweaver
Creative Cow Adobe Dreamweaver Forum:
http://forums.creativecow.net/adobedreamweaver
Free Training for Adobe:
http://www.tutvid.com/tutorials/dreamweaver/index.php
Paid Training for Adobe Dreamweaver and Photoshop:
Lynda.Com - http://www.lynda.com All-you-can learn training…. 30,655 video tutorials with 456 online courses on a huge variety of software. This is a great educational site, and at $25 per month and you can’t beat the price.
A Must Have for All Web Developers - Firebug:
The best CSS Tool you will find and it is a free plug-in for FireFox- You need this:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843
Don’t have FireFox? Get it here:
http://www.mozilla.com
Use FireFox to “Preview in Browser” and you will have fewer problems viewing local webs ( Internet Explorer has problems viewing local content).
Note: Because of the Microsoft security patches you may still need to publish your Web to a Web Server to accurately see your changes.
Hosting:
Websites:
Microsoft editors continue to work best with Microsoft web servers and while you can use Expression Web and Visual Web Editor Express to FTP your files to Apache Web Server on UNIX/Linux. You will not be getting all of the extended functionality available on Windows Server and the Windows IIS Web server. An example of a good Windows Host is Hostway:
http://www.hostway.com. Hostway also does a great job of UNIX/Linux based hosting using Apache Webserver.
Rackspace
If your web project is your livelihood I recommend Rackspace:
http://www.rackspace.com
SharePoint:
Hosting for SharePoint: if you are not hosting it yourself, you will want a hosted SharePoint server, A good example is:
http://www.amp.net
Microsoft Office 365
Another excellent option for hosted SharePoint is Microsoft’s Cloud Computing platform, Office 365.
http://www.office365.microsoft.com
Search Engine Optimization:
Get a subscription… the SEO world can change dramatically on a monthly basis:
http://www.searchenginehelp.com/advantrics88/
PixelMill SEO page:
http://www.pixelmill.com/seo/
Mobile Devices:
How to detect mobile devices:
http://webdesign.about.com/od/mobile/a/detect-mobile-devices.htm
Other educational resources:
Visit W3Schools:
http://www.w3schools.com Take the HTML, and CSS Tutorials
Lynda.Com - http://www.lynda.com All-you-can learn training. 30,655 video tutorials with 456 online courses on a huge variety of software. This is a great educational site, and at $25 per month and you can’t beat the price.
Books:
Sitepoint CSS Book:
The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks & Hacks, 3rd Edition
http://lnk.nu/sitepoint.com/1pof/
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