Front Page 2003 for Dummies

Rating:
Summary: just what I needed
Review: I delved into HTML several years ago and fooled around with it on my personal website but the tedium of having to code every single whisker of a webpage led me to try FrontPage 2000. I loved it but never had the time to learn it well. It speeded my page production but I wasn't satisfied with the results. I put webpage work aside for a couple of years then recently decided to dive in with the completely worked over FrontPage 2003 and dedicate myself to learning it well.

Dornfest's book was a perfect way to break off the rust while at the same time becoming acquainted with the new capabilities of FP2003. I generally am afraid of the DUMMIES series because the authors can go too far trying to be informal and funny, while neglecting the meat of the subject. A page with a cartoon is a wasted page for me when I want to know something. Dornfest shows welcome restraint, holding off on the jokes for the most part and carefully explaining how FP works in clear prose.

The presentation is patient and I found no glitches where something different happens on the screen from what is described in the book. All the basics are here along with introductions to more advanced topics and a great collection of sites to visit for further learning.

Rating:
Summary: Not very enlightening
Review: This book is quite disjointed. The author introduces topics but, before developing them, tells the reader that she'll explain later how it should be accomplished. This frustrating tactic happens repeatedly thereby making comprehension impossible. I also suspect that the author doesn't fully grasp the underlying theoretical concepts of FrontPage enough to provide much more than a blind how-to guide--never quite answering the 'why'.

Rating:
Summary: Not very enlightening
Review: This book is totally disjointed. The author will introduce a topic but, before developing it, tell the reader that she'll explain later how it (method, procedure, &c) should be accomplished. This infuriating tactic happens repeatedly thereby making it impossible to learn anything. I also suspect that the author does not fully grasp the underlying theoretical concepts of FrontPage (or HTML) enough to provide the reader much more than a blind how-to guide--never quite answering the 'why'.