Editorial Review
Convergence seems to be the watchword for the Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Web authoring system. Every new edition becomes a bit more like the other components of the Office suite, while also increasingly tying in to related Microsoft products and services. This is vaguely threatening to users who want greater freedom to edit HTML and other code directly or who want to call all the shots on their sites' designs, but for most users the expediency of FrontPage makes these sacrifices worthwhile or even unnoticeable.
With new templates and smart tools ("bots") to help create a wide range of intranet and Internet pages, version 2002 is even simpler and faster to use than its predecessors. Users can draw with PowerPoint tools, drag and drop live content, and create photo galleries with a few mouse clicks. Publishing is incredibly easy. Beginners will love the wizards, and will find Web authoring much easier than expected.
Why do so many people have problems with FrontPage? The main complaint is that the output, which tends to be flabby and difficult to parse, can't be edited by the user and is difficult to run on non-Microsoft servers. This is a problem for those who've gone beyond using wizards and templates to create their pages, but many other users are content with the results. The automatic direction to Microsoft-related services is also somewhat troubling--it would be nice, if unrealistic, for users to have easier access to the wide range of servers and e-commerce providers available.
Still, for Webbies with fairly simple needs and no desire to spend months learning the ins and outs of HTML and XML, FrontPage 2002 is most likely the way to go. --Rob Lightner
Cached date: AWS Called=true
Customer Reviews
This software does not work 
2004-02-23
Quite simply this software does not work, and I've been using other versions of FrontPage since it first came out--check out the Microsoft web site--they have loads of 'fixes' for this software. None of the web component functions work, and neither does shared borders. I can't imagine that they would continue to sell this.
Flabby non-standards compliant code 2003-10-17
If you want to produce standards compliant code that will work with multile servers and browsers then stare clear of FrontPage. Try Homesite or if you have the money DreamWeaver.
Professionals Agree: Frontpage Sucks 2003-10-08
If you mention Microsoft FrontPage to any serious web developer, you will immediately hear them go off about how awful the program is. I've been making web sites for 7 years and I havent yet met a developer who doesnt hate Frontpage. And this is why:
Microsoft wants to own as much of the computing world as possible. To this end, they're repackaging altered versions of standard programming languages that only work with other Microsoft products.
In short, if you build your site with FrontPage, the site will always be a FrontPage web site. It will be unreadable to any developer because it generates the most atrocious code you've ever seen. What could be simply done with one line of text is converted to 10 lines of convoluted code that only Microsoft products can read. And what if you want to integrate non-Microsoft elements like third-party ecommerce, dynamic data-driven pages, and so on? Forget it. Throw out your web site and start over.
Contrast this to Dreamweaver, which writes clean code that integrates easily with any ecommerce or web development languages, and it's a night or day difference. You can edit HTML directly, or insert ColdFusion, PHP, Javascript, and so on.
And beyond that, FrontPage sites look terrible. You can spot them almost instantly.
Buy Dreamweaver, and you wont regret it.
Frontpage: Beginners Luck 
2003-10-07
As a first time web creator, FRONTPAGE 2002 helped me get my website up and running very quickly. Having used other Microsoft products at home and at the office (i.e. Word, Excel), most of the buttons and commands were very familiar to me, and will probably be for anyone who buys it.
FRONTPAGE won't teach you concepts of web design or help you design a page that will translate into all the different screen resolutions and browsers out there - learning that, for me, came later. I had to simply get my web page UP.
I was a BEGINNER at web design, and shelling out $400 for DREAMWEAVER didn't seem practical (or affordable). I must admit that having learned a lot about web pages, I'm thinking about DREAMWEAVER now!
FRONTPAGE allowed me to realize my ideas quickly and easily. The WYSIWYG interface ("What You See Is What You Get") is invaluable to people like me who hardly knew any HTML tags, and didn't understand the difference between Netscape or Internet Explorer.
I pubish my web using yahoo as a host, and the interface between the server and FRONTPAGE is very easy. I click "publish" and the files load. Very simple.
I really don't have a lot of complaints about FRONTPAGE. Now that I've become more functional as a webmaster, I am starting to understand HTML code and scripts - sometimes I don't even use the WYSIWYG screen, I click on the HTML screen and work "behind the scenes".
I reccommend FRONTPAGE for any beginners out there. It's an intuitive, easy to use program that doesn't cost an arm and a leg to get into.
Good luck, future webmasters!
Not much of an "Upgrade." 
2003-09-12
Frontpage is OK in general, a bit hard to get used to. This version seems to have a few more web-bots, but I mostly felt obligated to buy it because my ISP doesn't support the Frontpage 2000 Server Extensions. FP still creates pages bloated with useless code and fails to really automate development of some of the hottest technologies in use today, e.g. XML.
Frontpage is a great help! 
2007-10-06
After learning some HTML on my own, and struggling to set up my first Web page, I came to appreciate FrontPage 98. Later, I upgraded to FrontPage 2002. Microsoft had a winner in this affordable, easy-to-use Web page design tool.
I use it exlusively to do all of my Web site design these days. It has a few quirks, and is not always as intuitive as I think that it should be, but, hey--it sure beats doing markup manually!
I like it!
The best Web site creating/management tool ever yet! (after FrontPage 2003, at least) 2007-02-09
Microsoft Office FrontPage 2002 delivers on its title's promise -- it is a real solution for creating and managing Web sites. Although I began using FrontPage only from this version, and in 2007 -- when Expression Web and SharePoint Designer have already "hit the road" -- is still is a great program. First and formost, you don't have to perform the tedious problem of coding HTML (HyperText Markup Language) -- instead you can enter what you want the browser to display, like in Microsoft Word. Then, you can easily add hit counters and other Web components. As a "special edition", my copy included some bCentral eCommerce Web components, that make managing a business Web site easy as pie. Therefore, I doubt the popular belief that you can't manage a business Web site with FrontPage. Next, adding scripts and other Office documents is easy -- you don't have "call" the script from the server -- actually, you don't even need a server to do this at all! Instead, you can add or edit scripts in the HTML view, in Microsoft Script Editior, or in Visual Basic Editor. Finally, publishing Web sites is easy with FrontPage -- you don't have to publish everything, but instead, you can simply choose what you want to publish. I probably will be upgrading to neither Expression Web nor SharePoint Designer. But I certainly will upgrade to Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003 sooner or later. Microsoft says that Expression Web is for professionals, and SharePoint Designer is for businesses, and that FrontPage is good for neither of these. But as I found out, FrontPage is good for both.
Better off with ground meat... literally... 2005-05-02
I started off with FrontPage 97... and gradually worked up to FrontPage 2002. I used to think FrontPage was a godsend, boy was I wrong. Things only work if using MS Internet Explorer for a browser, or just plain doesn't work if your ISP doesn't support it's extensions.
I now use Macromedia Dreamweaver. However, between using FrontPage and being able to afford Dreamweaver, I used a nice product by some folks with a funny name. A product named "HotDog Pro" made by Sausage Software! Funny tho it may be, their software is nothing to laugh at! It is a GREAT product, and costs A LOT LESS than MS FrontPage!
http://www.sausage.com/products.html
Front Page put me in the web business 2004-07-31
I read some of these reviews and I must say that 2002 is so deep I think I feel into a hole. As far as the software being difficult, I spent considerable time in the library with some great books. I also bought some books, visual being the best and worked with the software. I took my first order for a web site while I was still learning and let me tell you forms just beat the living hell out of me. What I did was to look at some of the preformed pages of front page and looked at the html andlearned how to use tables with forms and learned even more.
I use front page every day with my ebay items and it is a very professional presentation.
What a wonderful powerful program. I literally have no problem with this program. I don't use the microsoft templates anymore as I make my own using microsoft photodraw v2.
Someday I guess, as I get better I will take some courses in dreamweaver, which I understand is difficult. But Microsoft Front Page 2002 was a piece of software that I was able to challanage myself. Truthfully it is maybe 100 hours of learning and practice, but it is well worth it.
Good job Microsoft, hey, did I say that? In the end if you buy this and think it will be an easy learn, forget it. It is web design. Difficulty is moderate, but you must focus and practice to learn this software.
Take command and get and learn front page, find a good host and boom you are in with a professional website for your business.
This software does not work 2004-02-23
Quite simply this software does not work, and I've been using other versions of FrontPage since it first came out--check out the Microsoft web site--they have loads of 'fixes' for this software. None of the web component functions work, and neither does shared borders. I can't imagine that they would continue to sell this.
