front page 2003 student edition and publishing to the web

[jimmys]

Hypothetically, if I wanted to purchase Front Page 2003 or Expression Web student editions, would I be prosecuted for publishing to the web if I was creating a website for a friend?

I'm not a teacher but have been asked to help out a friend and create him a website and I don't want to fork out the �300+ for the full version.

Would I be caught?

Hypothetically, of course.

[vehelpfulguy]

Buying it is the issue. Once you have bought it (proved you are a student) nobody will have the slightest idea what you do with it or what web sites you publish.

DONT get Front Page, it is discontinued. If you must get Microsoft get Expression Web.

Better still get Abobe Dreamweaver (who also offer student deals) as this is the de-facto standard product for all professional web development.

If you hope to work in Web development in the furture having skills in Dreamweaver will be a great benefit.

[vehelpfulguy]

Also, pardon me for asking, but have you any skills in web development?

While it is true anyone can create a web site, it takes some skill and talent to create a half decent web site.

Here is an example of a terrbile web site and what can go wrong when someone who has not got any web design skills designs a web site:

http://www.jazzwestmidlands.co.uk/

Not sure how important your friend's web site is but make sure you take plenty of time to design the site and dont just publish the first one you come up with.

[jimmys]

Thanks very much for the info.

The trouble is, I use FP2003 at work (I do a bit of website development/maintenance for our inter/intranet sites) so my experience of FP is greater than that of DW.

Are they similar enough to go from one to the other without too much confusion?

[vehelpfulguy]

If you are used to Front Page then you may be best to go for Expression Web as they are very similar.

Like you, I have done some web development with Front Page for a company and when I installed Expression Web using it was very easy after using Front Page.

[jimmys]

Expression Web it is then.

Much obliged to you for the 'tricky' purchase issue.

One last thing though, would I have to register it online or anything? Will there be any way to trace it back to me once the site is up and running? Having only ever done web work via my company, I've no real idea about doing your own stuff in the big bad world.

I'm not talking about a major criminal undertaking here, I just want to sleep soundly knowing I'm not going to be tipped from my bed at 5am by the long arm of the licensing law!

[vehelpfulguy]

I would not worry. I dont think Microsoft are going to hound you for a product that costs less than �100.

Most Microsoft products DO allow you to register but you can decline. Even if you do register they are not going to know you bought it as a student.

Once you create a site on your PC and publish it there is no way anyone can trace it back to the person who developed it or the product they used.

Expression may put a line at the begining of each page (hidden from users of the web site) saying "Developed with Expression web" or similar but you can even remove that if you want.

[vehelpfulguy]

One way to save you some money. Do you know if your company is registered for Microsoft MSDN software.

MSDN is the Microsoft Developer Network and you pay them so much a year and they send you almost all the products they make.

If your company (or even the computer department) are MSDN registered they will probably already have Expression web and you can ask if you can install a copy of it at home (so you can learn it).

[jimmys]

I'll ask about the Microsoft registration, great tip.

Thanks again for your help - it's put my mind at ease, I can tell you.

Now the work begins!

[vehelpfulguy]

There are loads of books about Expression Web if you want to learn it.

Go into amazon and have a search, here is one as an example

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Expression-W eb-Dummies/dp/0470115092/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UT F8&s=books&qid=1203414966&sr=8-2

[vehelpfulguy]

One more suggestion.

I am not sure of your knowledge of the HTML language or if you have heard of CSS (Cascading Style sheets).

In the past most web sites were designed with HTML only. This was fine for basic web sites but was terrible for laying out the page.

Most people used tables to help lay out the page but these are slow to load and were not designed for page layout.

So a new concept was defined called CSS.

CSS was desiged to help you lay out the page, as opposed to HTML which is just for content.

So if you are going to design this site for your friend then make sure you use HTML AND CSS. That way it will be MUCH easier to maintain and update.

Also CSS allows you to do some lovely looking things which are just not possible with HTML.

Here is one site that uses CSS that looks wonderful. You just could not do this with HTML only.

http://www.chrispackham.co.uk/

[vehelpfulguy]

If you want to see what is possible with CSS go to the site below. This site was designed to show the power of CSS.

When you first go to the site you get the original layout. Down the right is a list of alternative designs (where it says "select a design"). There are more in the archives.

As you select new designs the layout changes dramaticaly, but the thing is that the ONLY thing that is changed is the CSS file that is used.

The HTML text stays EXACTLY the same (you can read it if you dont believe me).

This shows how the HTML is used for content and CSS is used for design and layout.

http://www.csszengarden.com/

[jimmys]

Yeah, that Chris Packham site is fantastic isn't it?

I've really got to get to grips with CSS to be honest. I'm not really sure how to handle them (my web development has been on a pretty basic level). I'm familiar with HTML, but only in a read, not write, kind of way.

I've got a lot of catching up to do and I'll check out those expression web books too. I'm assuming they'll have sections on CSS?

As mainly a web surfer, I HATE nasty looking sites (and that Jazz one you showed me yesterday was one of the worst I've ever seen) so I'm aiming for one that's not too complicated, but looks pretty. CSS is the way to go it seems.

The site I've been asked to help with (I've been asked to do a second for another friend too, but one thing at a time) is only going to be about 4 or 5 pages, with basic details of her business and some photos and contact information etc.

I just need some experience, and I'm hoping doing these basic ones will help me to develop my skills a bit.

[vehelpfulguy]

If you want to start with CSS then this little book would be a good place to start.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creating-Page-HTML-Vis ual-QuickProject/dp/032127847X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3 ?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203417894&sr=8-3

It is called "Creating a web page with HTML" by Elizabeth Castro (but it does use CSS). It is only �8.

It gives you a step by step guide to designing a 2 page web site using HTML and CSS. Anyone can follow it, as she tells you what to do at each step.

It does not use any fancy web design products, all you need is Notepad in Windows. She provides the graphics on her web site.

http://www.cookwood.com/

The book will only take you about 3 or 4 hours to go through, but at the end of it you will have a pretty good basic understanding of CSS.

[vehelpfulguy]

>I'm assuming they'll have sections on CSS?

While CSS has been around for a while it could only take off once support had been added to the browsers.

FrontPage only had basic support for CSS. FrontPage was also very bad at following web standards and Microsoft would add all sorts of HTML which only their browser supported.

With the move to much more standards in HTML and CSS then Microsoft realised that they had to follow the HTML and CSS standards with Expressoin web.

If you go to the Expression web site they push very strongly that Expression is standards based.

So there is good support for CSS in Expression web, and yes the Expression books will cover CSS.

http://www.microsoft.com/Expression/products/o verview.aspx?key=web

[vehelpfulguy]

One final thing then I will shut up.

If you want a really good book on HTML and CSS then get this one (again from Elizabeth Castro).

"HTML, XHTML, and CSS, Sixth Edition: Visual QuickStart Guide" by Elizabeth Castro.

She has a lovery writing style and introduces each concept very well. She also has example of all the syntax so you can use it as a HTML and CSS reference book

You can read more about it on her web site:

http://www.cookwood.com/html6ed/

(and no I am not on commission for each book she sells)

[jimmys]

Ha Ha, you had me wondering there!

Listen, you've been a massive help in getting me started and I'll definitely have to buy those books you linked to. I was going to get the 'Expression Web for Dummies' but now I've got some more to devour. Excellent stuff.

The Zen site is excellent too.

Hope you don't mind if I keep coming back to ask you questions along the way? It may save me a lot of mistakes and time!

Thanks again,

Jim