Frontpage replacement? - Post ID 177957

User 543159 Photo


Registered User
2 posts

Which of your products will work best as a MS Frontpage replacement? I recently got a new computer, lost my old software, went to buy a new copy of frontpage and stumbled on you guys. Since they haven't made frontpage for years now, I thought that now is the time to try something new, but..... I don't want to build my website from scratch. Rather, I want to pick up where I left off. I have downloaded trials of both your html editor and vsd. Neither seems to be a replacement that allows me to pick up where I left off. For starters, I don't know html and I need wysiwyg , which is your vsd. But, I also need to import my current site, understanding that any new software will reformat the site into its own image. But, nothing seems to work... any suggestions on which product or how to make the two products I have tried already do what I want them to do?
User 629005 Photo


Ambassador
2,174 posts

VSD will NOT import any previous work. It is a great WYSIWYG program though and many here have made some really great sites with it. I'm not familiar with Frontpage (at all) so I can't do a comparison for ya. I don't think it would be as hard as you 'might' think, to start from scratch with VSD.

Alternatively (and again not knowing Frontpage, and hearing that you aren't up on html), IF Frontpage gives you .html files, you COULD import into the HTML Editor and just learn as you go. But that depends on how much time you have to 'tinker', and desire to dive into the inner workings ;)
Living the dream, stocking the cream :D
User 187934 Photo


Senior Advisor
20,181 posts

Alan, Give VSD a try. You have nothing to lose with a fully functional trial version. We've seen a lot of people come to CC with the same concerns about rebuilding an entire site only to be pleasantly surprised how fast and easy it was to put up a few pages almost exactly like what they had in some other editor. I just helped one user that was using WordPress and when I clicked on the test link I thought I had clicked the link to the original WordPress site because it looked so close to the same after using VSD.
Come on over to the CC side great programs and awesome people.
I can't hear what I'm looking at.
It's easy to overlook something you're not looking for.

This is a site I built for my work.(RSD)
http://esmansgreenhouse.com
This is a site I built for use in my job.(HTML Editor)
https://pestlogbook.com
This is my personal site used for testing and as an easy way to share photos.(RLM imported to RSD)
https://ericrohloff.com
User 2287960 Photo


Ambassador
580 posts

From memory Frontpage had 3 views, html, visual and preview. It has not been sold for a number of years. I think your options are learn some html and use the html editor.

If you are not happy with that then VSD.

Either way you are going to have to learn new skills but I suppose that is progress. Even with Frontpage I found that you had to amend the html code to get the best results.

I use the html editor.

Keith
User 543159 Photo


Registered User
2 posts

My website is well over 1000 pages, and maybe even 2000. I can't possibly consider starting over. I have to use a program that will let me import my current site. If I can't find it, I'll have to just buy a copy of frontpage off ebay.
User 38401 Photo


Senior Advisor
10,951 posts

You realize that Front Page will most likely have a lot of depracated code (old and outdated and will eventually not work at all) in it's system? Why not use the HTML Editor and try that way? Would be a lot cheaper than finding some editor that will import them and if your changes aren't extreme it shouldn't be that hard to do.

For that matter, the code that you currently have is probably also very old and deprecated code. Should think about updating that and to be honest, it would probably be easier starting over with Visual Site Designer for those up to 2000 pages than it would be to actually update the code for that many pages.
You already have all the structure setup, just gotta do it is all.
Just some food for thought :)
User 187934 Photo


Senior Advisor
20,181 posts

Not to mention browsers won't render it properly.:)
I can't hear what I'm looking at.
It's easy to overlook something you're not looking for.

This is a site I built for my work.(RSD)
http://esmansgreenhouse.com
This is a site I built for use in my job.(HTML Editor)
https://pestlogbook.com
This is my personal site used for testing and as an easy way to share photos.(RLM imported to RSD)
https://ericrohloff.com
User 122279 Photo


Senior Advisor
14,447 posts
Online Now

Alan, since I'm a coder, I'd say go for the html Editor. You can import the current pages, all 2000 of them. As Jo Ann and Eric said, a lot of the old code will be outdated and not render the pages properly, but leave that for a bit...

On your computer, create a folder 'new', and in your own good time, when you have time, start changing out the old stuff little by little. This is how I did the same thing:

In the 'new' folder I created a style sheet - empty at the beginning. Then I copied the existing index page of the site and in the head section I created a link to the style sheet:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css" type="text/css">

I looked at the index page's code and found the body tag with loads of properties, e.g. like
<BODY background="factilea.jpg" bgcolor="#0000cc" text="#ffffcc" link="#ffcc00" vlink="#669900" alink="#ff3300">
(this is real FP code, from some time around 1997 or so, all tags in upper case)

So, from that body code I made an entry in the css file and clicked Save:

body {
background-image:url('factilea.jpg');
background-color: #0000cc;
color: #ffffcc;
}


...and I deleted the corresponding properties from the html file. Where it says just 'color' is the text colour. This is what remained:
<BODY link="#ffcc00" vlink="#669900" alink="#ff3300">


The links have to be declared independently, so I let them stay for now. Then I went hunting for the next tag to 'reform'. I had a lot of <p> tags, so I made a similar entry in the style sheet and entered the properties for the paragraphs.

And so on, whenever you have time. If you run into difficulties, here is a good website: http://www.w3schools.com/
There is also a library of css tags in the html Editor, look for the 'Code' tab along the left side. And if all else fails, we are quite helpful in this forum :cool:
Ha en riktig god dag!
Inger, Norway

My work in progress:
Components for Site Designer and the HTML Editor: https://mock-up.coffeecup.com


User 2287960 Photo


Ambassador
580 posts

Alan

A link to your site may get someone to suggest another idea.

Buying Frontpage off Ebay will only be a short term solution, just looked at around £100 not cheap for an obsolete product.

Keith
User 476017 Photo


Ambassador
375 posts

Hi Alan
I had the same problem as you a couple of years back. I used Frontpage until it became discontinued. My web site like yours had 100s of pages and I wanted to move away from FP. After looking around I tried CC html editor and found it worked fine.
I had no knowledge of html but decided to learn how to use it. Short term I just converted each page over using CC html editor. In most cases all I had to do was add a doctype to the FP html coding.
I still have a couple of old FP pages which I converted.
Look at
http://www.orrufc.co.uk/Morley%20Festival%202007.htm and view the source.
You will see its in the old FP code.
I think I added the first 3 lines of code and it converted OK. There werre some issues with some special characters like quotes.
Give CC html editor a try on a few pages and see how it converts.
Over a period of time I upgraded each page to meet the latest standards and in the process learnt how to use html/css
Hope this helps. There are plenty of people on this forum who can help you with any issues.
Dave Butler
Yorkshire
England

Old Rishworthians Rugby Union Football club http://www.orrufc.co.uk
Tuxedo Junction Yorkshire Function Band http://www.riley-tuxedojunction.co.uk
The Commons Guest House http://www.thecommons-guesthouse.co.uk
all created with Coffee Cup html editor

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