Difference Between Microsoft Frontpage And Macromedia Dreamweaver

Have you ever wondering what the difference between Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver is?

Throughout the earlier days of Web Authoring, websites and webpages became to get more complex. With that being said, it is too difficult to build suitable webpages using normal word editors because of the use of so many images. Because of this, many companies out there actually created their own Web Building programs to make things much easier for users building websites. The most popular softwares as you may already be aware of are Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. In the web design world, there are various different types of Web Developers. Ones who build a website from scratch, ones who use some type of PHP application like Wordress or Joomla, or ones who use a Web Builders. There are various Web Builders out there, but we’re going to be talking about the difference between Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver since they’re the most popular Web Builders out there. There are many debates as to the advantages or disadvantages between these softwares and which you’d like to choose.

Microsoft Frontpage

The reasoning behind creating the web editor Microsoft FrontPage is to reduce the difficulties of creating websites. The birthday of this software created by Vermeer Technologies was in 1994. The software was called “WYSIWYG” which means “What You See Is What You Get” which has became a very popular term in this day and age. In around 1995 Microsoft had bought the software and changed it’s name to Microsoft FrontPage. Since then, Microsoft has made numerous updates to the software which has made a big difference between the original software. Version 1.1, version 2, express 2.0 and so on until Microsoft FrontPage 2003. However in the most recent few year Microsoft stopped offering and supporting Frontpage and is now offering other programs called Microsoft Sharepoint and Microsoft Expressions Web.

When finding the difference between Microsoft Frontpage and it’s competitor Macromedia Dreamweaver, there are a few advantages to using Microsoft Frontpage. One advantage / difference is that Microsoft Frontpage has the same interface as Microsoft Word. For that reason people who are familiar or used to Microsoft Word can feel more comfortable about using it. The software is also so extremely easy to use that even a child could create a website. There are also amazing themes provided within Microsoft Publisher which allows you to create a very nice and useful websites. It helps that there are a lot of web buttons, banners, and images in this software.

On the other hand, there are disadvantages as well. Firstly, when the software publishes your webpages, it usually inserts a lot of redundant coding into the source of the page. This redundant coding wont typically cause any issues with viewing your site in Internet Explorer, but can sometimes cause some issues when accessing the site using other Web Browsers like Firefox or Google Chrome. Secondly, you need to have Frontpage Extensions installed to the web server in order for Microsoft Frontpage to be able to publish your website and for your website to function properly.

Macromedia Dreamweaver

Macromedia Dreamweaver is one of the best, if not the best Web Builder out there. Macromedia Corp, which deals with other softwares like Flash and Fireworks software, entered the world of web development by providing Macromedia Dreamweaver in 1996. They also offered the “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) just like Microsoft Frontpage. Since Macromedia Dreamweaver became the most important seller of the company, they made this their priority and made a number of updates for this software: Dreamweaver 2.0, Dreamweaver 3.0 until Dreamweaver CS3. In fact, Adobe Corp bought Macromedia Corp in 2006, so they became one company last year, and their software is now usually referred to as Adobe Dreamweaver.

There are more advantages with Macromedia Dreamweaver. Firstly, the software offers built-in support for animations like flash. Additionally there are some awesome flash buttons that are offered with Macromedia Dreamweaver. Secondly, you have an extremely large variety when it comes to web templates. Thirdly, the software supports multiple different programming languages which really gives Dreamweaver an Advantage in this whole “difference between Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage” debate. With the ability to support multiple priogramming languages, you can create your site with Active Server Pages (ASP), Extensible HyperText markup Language (XHTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), as well as the standard HTML and much more.

In contrast, there are always disadvantages. One difference is that Macromedia Dreamweaver is a lot more difficult to use than Microsoft Frontpage. Some consider Frontpage to be an easier program to use, but not having as much capabilities as Dreamweaver. But it’s understandable as with complexity and complication comes more features. Another disadvantage of Macromedia Dreamweaver is that it’s more expensive than Microsoft Frontpage.

Summary

To summarize, there are a lot of differences between the two softwares. Each one has many advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of Microsoft FrontPage focus on the easiness of using the software, and the disadvantages focus on the programming on the published site and reliance on the web server for Frontpage Extensions. The advantages of Macromedia Dreamweaver focus on how this software being suitable for the more advanced and serious Web Developers, but having the disadvantages of being more difficult to use and understand as well as being more expensive. I hope this article on finding the difference between these two great softwares help. Either way you’ve made a good choice with whichever software you pick. I would recommend trying them both simply to get absorb the experience.

Source : http://www.techescape.net/2011/01/06/difference-between-microsoft-frontpage-and-macromedia-dreamweaver/