Upgrading from FP 2000 to 2003

Any suggestions, warnings, advice, etc?

[Buzliteyear]

I just got Microsoft FrontPage 2003 which is replacing FrontPage 2000. I just installed it.

Is there anything you guys can warn me about or some advice to share? Also, I see that I can use CSS. Should I publish my site with this?

Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks.

[dazz]

Yeh im thinking of upgrading too....so Bump!

Also is it worth upgrading!?

[Macro]

I too would be interested in seeing the replies to this.

[MatthewHSE]

How about upgrading from FP 2000 to EditPadPro 5? ;)

To be serious, I have no experience with FP 2000 or 2003. I briefly used FP 2002 (XP). I found it to have more features than some previous version I'd used. But I never did learn how to tweak it to write clean code and to use CSS for formatting, even though those were concepts I understood by that time.

Can you get a demo of FP 2003 anywhere? I know MS sometimes makes 30-day demos of Office products available.

[SEOMike]

Frontpage 2003 adds some features that I wish earlier versions had. My favorite one is the "Split" which allows you to see the page's design and code on one screen. It really helps figure out why something isn't displaying properly. Another feature they have changed and that I really like is the way the website's structure is displayed. They have removed the space hogging sidebar, and moved the site file list to a seperate window on the tabs. The tabs were there in version XP, but have improved a little with 2003. 2003 seems to have a better way to add CSS links. It's a little more efficient and keeps the code more intact. Also, it's got a more intuitive "paste" function, and 9 times out of 10 will keep the formatting of the original text, which my old versions don't seem to do well.

I've only upgraded about 2 weeks ago, and so far I think it's a huge imporvment.

[bill]

I got FP2003 just when it came out, and now working with older versions of FP seems awkward for me. The usability of the interface is greatly improved over FP2K. I can't think of any warnings you might need. I would say that this is a must-have upgrade for any serious FP user.

[DaveLite]

I used FP2000 and it worked great for me. I now use FP03 and wish I had updated when it was first released. If you are familiar with 2000 it won't take you long to figure out 03 and start using the updated features. Make the plunge.
Take some time and figure out the CSS inside FP03. It still would rather use themes.

Good Luck

[edited by: rogerd at 5:32 am (utc) on Aug. 27, 2004]
[edit reason] un-bolded entire post [/edit]

[pageoneresults]

Here's a previous post I made concerning FP 2003...

Latest Features and Benefits of FrontPage 2003

Access cross-browser DHTML animation effects

Accessibility checking

Add e-commerce functionality

Apply customizable themes across the entire site

Browser and resolution reconciliation

Built-in FTP Support

Custom Link Bars

Customize Data views

Design-time layers

Dynamic Web Templates

Enhanced color tools with browser-safe colors

Enhanced drawing tools

Image Tracing

Insert top 10 lists

Interactive buttons

Multiple editor configuration

Page rulers and layout grid

Split view

Note: The page rulers and layout grid are something I've been yearning for since FP1.0! ;)

Not only the above, but there is much more...

FrontPage 2003 Version Comparison [microsoft.com]