FrontPage® 2002 Developer's Guide

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Summary: FrontPage 2002 Developer's Guide
Review: Goes beyond basics, easy to follow, excellent javascript examples with all code on CD.

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Summary: Good Front Page book beyond the basics
Review: I have a library of Front Page books, and they each serve a purpose. This one goes beyond the basics. Examples are clear and take you through step by step to learn the lesson or feature. For those new to Sharepoint Team Services, this is a good book to understand what Sharepoint can do, as well as how to customize them. Most users of Sharepoint sites do not understand how Front Page can be used for customization, and this book will kickstart that effort to enhance Sharepoint sites.

Overall, a solid book for people who want to go to the next level with Front Page. It also does a good job of highlighting how improved Front Page 2002 is over FP 2000. For those who think Front Page is not a real development tool, this book describes how improvements over past version make this a real tool, but also highlights some important shortcomings. Very objective information.

Rating:
Summary: Good Front Page book beyond the basics
Review: I have a library of Front Page books, and they each serve a purpose. This one goes beyond the basics. Examples are clear and take you through step by step to learn the lesson or feature. For those new to Sharepoint Team Services, this is a good book to understand what Sharepoint can do, as well as how to customize them. Most users of Sharepoint sites do not understand how Front Page can be used for customization, and this book will kickstart that effort to enhance Sharepoint sites.

Overall, a solid book for people who want to go to the next level with Front Page. It also does a good job of highlighting how improved Front Page 2002 is over FP 2000. For those who think Front Page is not a real development tool, this book describes how improvements over past version make this a real tool, but also highlights some important shortcomings. Very objective information.

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Summary: Not as Good as Last Edition
Review: I'm a big fan of the previous book (FP 2000 Dev. Guide). This book doesn't go much further than old edition, which is disappointing. It would be a great book for beginners except it has an annoying amount of typos in the book's example code and in the code on the included CD-ROM.

Rating:
Summary: Not as Good as Last Edition
Review: I'm a big fan of the previous book (FP 2000 Dev. Guide). This book doesn't go much further than old edition, which is disappointing. It would be a great book for beginners except it has an annoying amount of typos in the book's example code and in the code on the included CD-ROM.

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Summary: A good overview but too long
Review: This is a good overview of a variety of aspects of Frontpage. I couldn't work up the enthusiasm of the other reviewers however. The main weakness is that it drags out the obvious too often for my liking. The book is long enough to include much more technical detail on database integration and ASP (among other topics) for instance. Just a bit too elementary in parts. Instead, the sections on ASP are long on very little at all. The chapter headings read as if the cats pyjamas is to be revealed on the topics. But it doesn't happen. Much of what is in the book could be collapsed into a smaller text without loss of detail.

Frontpage is not a difficult application to get into gear. It's when you have to step outside Frontpage to correct its idiosyncracies that the real work begins. This book won't light up the countryside on these aspects however. You will certainly learn a lot from this book. So if you get it as a present read it. It is an ideal beginner's book in that respect but you will outgro it after one reading I suspect.

For a bit more gravitas, Tiffany Edmond's text is smaller and covers much the same ground more concisely. However, the Inside Out book on Frontpage, puts even this offering in the shade (should do given its size). In the final analysis, any book on Frontpage will require a supplemtary text on scripting and XML. Just factor those costs into your expenditure.

Rating:
Summary: A good overview but too long
Review: This is a good overview of a variety of aspects of Frontpage. I couldn't work up the enthusiasm of the other reviewers however. The main weakness is that it drags out the obvious too often for my liking. The book is long enough to include much more technical detail on database integration and ASP (among other topics) for instance. Just a bit too elementary in parts. Instead, the sections on ASP are long on very little at all. The chapter headings read as if the cats pyjamas is to be revealed on the topics. But it doesn't happen. Much of what is in the book could be collapsed into a smaller text without loss of detail.

Frontpage is not a difficult application to get into gear. It's when you have to step outside Frontpage to correct its idiosyncracies that the real work begins. This book won't light up the countryside on these aspects however. You will certainly learn a lot from this book. So if you get it as a present read it. It is an ideal beginner's book in that respect but you will outgro it after one reading I suspect.

For a bit more gravitas, Tiffany Edmond's text is smaller and covers much the same ground more concisely. However, the Inside Out book on Frontpage, puts even this offering in the shade (should do given its size). In the final analysis, any book on Frontpage will require a supplemtary text on scripting and XML. Just factor those costs into your expenditure.

Rating:
Summary: The SharePoint Info was Enough
Review: This is a great all around reference, but I really enjoyed the sections working with the SharePoint Team Services. We are in the middle of evaluating how to create our new Intranet, and we're going with FrontPage based on the knowledge I got out of this book.

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Summary: Best Front Page Book I've Seen
Review: This is a great book for someone who wants to know how to use the "bells and whistles" of Front Page. It very lightly covers the basic usage and highly concentrates on advanced options and features. I bought it for the mainly for the .asp sections (which are phenomenal), and ended up learning so much about other functions I did not know existed in 2002. The CD samples are excellent too. This book is worth every penny and more.