Rating: 
Summary: definitely a novice's reference only
Review: The good part about FP SBS is that you can not know a thing about webpages and still manage to perform the exercises in this book since it takes you through each keystroke & mouse click. It can be a good tour of the FP product navigation.However, it's a little disappointing for an intermediate user to find that this book uses a black-box approach to understanding how web pages really work. Additionally, the web pages that are being used in the exercises look like something from 1995. I mean, frames & background images in 2002?
Rating: 
Summary: FrontPage 2002's best book to start with
Review: The Step by Step series is colorful, straightforward and friendly. I'll admit, I've had fits with FrontPage 98. I've just never caught on. But, hearing good things about the 2002 edition, I upgraded. Know that the book that comes with the software from Micorsoft is *brief* so I knew I needed more help. I checked out a couple of other FP books but was suspect that their too-technical, no-illustrations content was not what I needed to get up and running. The SbS series is a good hand-holder and gave me the bigger picture perspective. I got my site up and am pleased. I did buy one more book for the more technical issues but I credit this pub for getting me going. As I upgrade to the XP versions, I will continue buying the Step by Step series.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic!
Review: Wow! This series has really improved since the 2000 version! And it is in color! (This series is for the version 2002 programs, which are part of Office XP - which replaces the Office 2000 programs.) I wasn't really planning to buy any of these books this time around until I looked a little more closely at them. They are very nice! So I bought them all! Basically, the Microsoft Press Step by Step series is geared to teach a beginner how to use each application program in step by step lessons. Even though they start from the beginning, these books are also great for intermediate and advanced users. More advanced users can also go to the Microsoft Press "Inside Out" Series, which is more of a comprehensive reference (the Inside Out Series replaces the "Running" Series). This book has several nice features: steps are clearly numbered; figures and screen images are in color; there is a comprehensive quick reference, glossary, and index; and a cd is included for additional study. One of the nicest new features is a section that lists all of the Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS) objectives, and shows the page numbers in the book where the objectives are taught - this is a great help in preparation for the MOUS certification exams. This book contains 12 chapters: Understanding How FrontPage Works; Creating a Web Site to Promote Yourself or Your Company; Presenting Information in Lists and Tables; Enhancing Your Web Site with Graphics; Creating a Web Site from Scratch; Changing Web Page Layout; Enhancing the Capabilities of Your Web Site; Communicating with Your visitors; Creating a Web Site to Support Team Projects; Connecting Your Web Site to a Database; Publishing Your Web Site; and Managing Your Web Site.
Rating: 
Summary: Shameful!
Review: You follow along by rote like a robot with little or no explanation or understanding of what you are doing, and more important why.
Many of the exercises assume you know what to do or leave much to speculate as to what steps to take (this is supposed to be a step by step) and often do not come out as shown or described which is extremely frustrating.
If you need, as you will, to contact their e-mail address for support or a question, forget it. You don't want to wake them up.
What you get is typical of MS's arrogance and couldn't care less.
If you really want to learn FrontPage 2002, there are much better sources.
Louis
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