HTML

• Professional design, authoring, data, and publishing tools to create sophisticated Web sites
• Design tools to generate better code, or expand your code skills
• Enhanced publishing features and options help get your Web pages online more quickly

• Professional design tool to create modern, standards-based sites which deliver superior quality on the Web

Create CSS-based, XHTML 1.0 Transitional-conforming Web sites by default. View larger.

Access ASP.NET controls and their associated properties with the same power as Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. View larger.

Fine-tune raw data presented on a page with tools to sort, filter, and apply condition formatting. View larger.

Design customized views of industry-standard XML data using powerful drag-and-drop tools, and see how your data will look within your CSS site design. View larger.

Create, edit, and deploy Web pages with deep support for the newly released ASP.NET 2.0 standard. View larger.

Standards-based Web Sites
Expression Web makes it easy to create CSS-based, XHTML 1.0 Transitional-conforming Web sites by default and work better across browsers, simplifying deployment and maintenance. Configure flexible schema settings to support all combinations of HTML, XHTML, Strict, Transitional, Frameset and CSS 1.0, 2.0, and 2.1 plus browser-specific schemas. Then validate your site with compatibility and accessibility reporting and against Section 508 and W3C Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

With Expression Web you can also design customized views of industry-standard XML data using powerful drag-and-drop tools, and see how your data will look within your CSS site design. What's more, designers get the flexibility to represent XML data any way they choose. Present data using XSLT, even editing views on live XML data. Fine-tune raw data presented on a page with tools to sort, filter, and apply condition formatting. You can even retrieve and present XML data from live RSS feeds on your site, styled to match your own site's look and feel.

Sophisticated CSS-based Layout and Formatting
Use Expression Web to generate elegant, modern CSS layouts with state-of-the-art surface design tools. You can directly manipulate positioning, sizing, margins and padding; a sophisticated CSS rendering engine inside gives you the confidence to make design decisions on the fly. Try out CSS styles on the page with drag-and-drop style management, and migrate them to a central repository. Meanwhile, typing aids and IntelliSense in the Code View make your process efficient and fast.

Generate elegant, modern CSS layouts with state-of-the-art surface design tools. View larger.

Create, edit, and deploy Web pages with deep support for the newly released ASP.NET 2.0 standard. Capture the power of ASP.NET with easy drag-and-drop controls, and maintain the correct look of your site with the use of server-rendered ASP.NET Master Pages to speed up the design process and allow easy site-wide changes. Access ASP.NET controls and their associated properties with the same power as Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, but rendered within the design surface of Expression Web. You can also preview ASP.NET pages locally, without the need for a full Web server.

Rich Data Presentation
Expression Web makes it possible to build and format views of industry-standard XML data using drag-and drop tools for quick visualization. An XPath Expression Builder allows you to create complex queries, and XSL Transform (XSLT) support gives you the flexibility to present data any way you want. Plus, XML data can be retrieved and presented via live RSS feeds that match your site's formatting.

Designers get the flexibility to represent XML data any way they choose. Present data using XSLT, even editing views on live XML data. Fine-tune raw data presented on a page with tools to sort, filter, and apply condition formatting. Retrieve and present XML data from live RSS feeds on your site, styled to match your own site's look and feel.

Powerful Server Technology
Harness the power of ASP.NET 2.0 to transform your sites into dynamic, interactive Web applications. Inserting and configuring ASP.NET controls is a snap with the controls toolbox, properties grid, and on-control "action menus." Meanwhile, ASP.NET Master Pages make site-wide changes quick and easy. And with the ASP.NET Development Server, you can make design decisions with full reference to page data.

Upgrade Version
This version of Expression Web is made for license holders of any version of Microsoft FrontPage.

• Create sophisticated web sites without programing.
• No need for image editing or paint software - Change the size or properties of any picture right in the work-window. Create shapes, backgrounds. Add shading or transparency.
• Templates - SiteSpinner V2 includes quality templates for you to use to build your site.

With new templates and smart tools ("bots") to help create a wide range of intranet and Internet pages, version 2002 is even simpler and faster to use than its predecessors. Users can draw with PowerPoint tools, drag and drop live content, and create photo galleries with a few mouse clicks. Publishing is incredibly easy. Beginners will love the wizards, and will find Web authoring much easier than expected.

Why do so many people have problems with FrontPage? The main complaint is that the output, which tends to be flabby and difficult to parse, can't be edited by the user and is difficult to run on non-Microsoft servers. This is a problem for those who've gone beyond using wizards and templates to create their pages, but many other users are content with the results. The automatic direction to Microsoft-related services is also somewhat troubling--it would be nice, if unrealistic, for users to have easier access to the wide range of servers and e-commerce providers available.

Still, for Webbies with fairly simple needs and no desire to spend months learning the ins and outs of HTML and XML, FrontPage 2002 is most likely the way to go. --Rob Lightner

Product Description:
Microsoft Front Page 2002 . Now it's easy to add sophisticated technology to your Web site without having to program. Whether you want to better understand your visitors through usage analysis reports, or get the lowdown on your site's performance with enhanced reports, Microsoft FrontPage 2002 has the tools to help your business. Microsoft FrontPage version 2002 provides the best value in its category. It has integrated features for Web site creation, Web site management, instant team Web sites with the SharePoint Team Services team Web solution, e-commerce, and graphics editing built right in. FrontPage is easy to get started with. Built-in templates and wizards allow you to create a Web site in only a matter of minutes, and then customize it to make it your own with your own graphics, photo gallery, backgrounds, image maps, themes, fonts, and formatting. FrontPage grows with you as you learn more and more about web site creation and management. FrontPage allows you to create Web pages in a familiar what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) environment, use Reveal Codes to see what HTML tags are produced while they are still in WYSIWYG mode, and even hand-code in the Notepad-like HTML View. You can even use its e-commerce functionality, forms and database support, and usage analysis features when you are ready for them. You can get started quickly with FrontPage because it looks and works like Microsoft Office. As part of the Microsoft Office family of products, FrontPage shares similar toolbars, menus, task pane, clipboard, and familiar features such as the customizable themes and background spell checking. FrontPage is broadly available and broadly used. Microsoft FrontPage is so popular that you can easily find a wide range of Web sites, books, training classes, Web professionals and users groups to help you learn and use FrontPage. You can also choose from hundreds of Web site hosting companies that support creating and editing Web sites directly agains...

With its intuitive interface (especially if you've already done time with other Microsoft applications), you can soon be creating hyper-linked pages to your heart's content. Formatting, inserting graphics or sounds, and keeping track of all your pages is push-button simple--experiment all you want, and retreat when necessary (some color schemes can induce nausea). The package also allows easy use of ActiveX controls, plug-ins, and Java applets--as well as more traditional scripting features--to snazz up your site for the higher-bandwidth viewer.

The integration between Office software, new with the 2000 edition, means you can easily publish information stored in an Access database or Excel spreadsheet without suffering through the nightmare of cutting, pasting, and reformatting. Whether you want to sell Beanie Babies or find new readers for your poetry, Microsoft FrontPage 2000 will help you present yourself in the best possible light. --Rob Lightner

This is a visual editor, which means you can create and edit a Web page by selecting items such as tables, forms, and images from a tabbed palette. The Properties panel lets you specify details such as borders, styles, and hyperlinks, and you can also use the visual editor for frames and layers. Many designers also like to edit the underlying HTML, and this is where Dreamweaver MX comes into its own. It supports either a pure code view or a split view that lets you click seamlessly between the code and visual editors. A lot of the features previously found in HomeSite, Macromedia's text-based Web editor, are now integrated into Dreamweaver, including pop-up code hints, a snippets panel that lets you keep handy pieces of code for reuse, and a tag chooser that lets you grab the right tag from a list. An O'Reilly tag reference is built in.

Dreamweaver's template support deserves special mention. Templates give you a quick start with a number of predesigned pages. In Dreamweaver MX, they can also be used to lock down areas of the page, so that contributors can create and edit a story without disturbing the design. Templates can be nested so that changes to an underlying template ripple through the pages that use it for powerful site-wide updates.

Macromedia used to market a product called Dreamweaver UltraDev, which allowed for rapid development of Web applications featuring online databases, member login, and other server-side elements. In Dreamweaver MX, this capability is built in. It has also been extended, adding support for ASP.NET and PHP as well as ColdFusion, JavaServer pages, and traditional ASP. Nonspecialists will find themselves able to build rich dynamic pages, while the integrated code editor makes this a capable development product as well. In fact, Dreamweaver MX has also replaced ColdFusion Studio as the primary development tool for ColdFusion MX. It is a uniquely flexible package.

Overall, it's hard to find fault with Dreamweaver MX. It's true that its complexity and professional features make it harder to pick up than some rival products. The abundance of panels and options can be confusing, and a high-resolution screen is required. In addition, the Studio MX products, which include Dreamweaver, are a better value for those who need more than one of the MX series. However, this takes nothing away from the excellence of Dreamweaver as the first-choice tool for professionals. --Tim Anderson

• Professional design tool to create modern, standards-based sites which deliver superior quality on the Web
• Seamlessly integrate Web design and development teams with Expression Web and Visual Studio's superior support for XML, ASP.NET and XHTML
• Build dynamic, interactive pages; built-in support for today's modern Web standards makes it easy to optimize your sites for accessibility and cross-browser compatibility

With new templates and smart tools ("bots") to help create a wide range of intranet and Internet pages, version 2002 is even simpler and faster to use than its predecessors. Users can draw with PowerPoint tools, drag and drop live content, and create photo galleries with a few mouse clicks. Publishing is incredibly easy. Beginners will love the wizards, and will find Web authoring much easier than expected.

Why do so many people have problems with FrontPage? The main complaint is that the output, which tends to be flabby and difficult to parse, can't be edited by the user and is difficult to run on non-Microsoft servers. This is a problem for those who've gone beyond using wizards and templates to create their pages, but many other users are content with the results. The automatic direction to Microsoft-related services is also somewhat troubling--it would be nice, if unrealistic, for users to have easier access to the wide range of servers and e-commerce providers available.

Still, for Webbies with fairly simple needs and no desire to spend months learning the ins and outs of HTML and XML, FrontPage 2002 is most likely the way to go. --Rob Lightner

• An integrated design environment featuring the industry's foremost design tools
• Intuitive file finding, smooth workflow, and common interface and toolset
• Cross-media publishing--create content for both print and the Web

For designers who like to get under the hood, GoLive 5.0 now features simultaneous viewing of HTML source code and a WYSIWYG view of the page itself. Each window is editable, and changes take place immediately in both windows. GoLive also can import native Photoshop, Illustrator, and LiveMotion documents. When you double-click on an element in GoLive, the document is opened in the application that created it. After changes are made in the native application and the document is saved, the file is automatically updated in GoLive.

Two welcome new features are the History palette for going back in time and undoing a set of actions, and the Alignment palette for accurately lining up and distributing rows and columns of elements.

If GoLive has a drawback, it's the number of palettes that sprawl across the screen; a high-resolution monitor or dual-monitor setup goes a long way toward alleviating the crowd factor. Compatibility with Photoshop 6 and Illustrator 9 is problematic, but presumably a patch or some new version of GoLive (version 5.1?) is imminent; they are, after all, part of the same Adobe family.

Clearly, Adobe's GoLive 5.0 has some stiff competition (namely, Macromedia's Dreamweaver), but GoLive also has some virtues of its own. If you're already comfortable with other Adobe applications, GoLive's learning curve should present only a small hurdle. The application is stable and deep, and has enough features to help any site designer build almost any kind of site. --Mike Caputo