Technology Review: Microsoft® FrontPage® (2004)

Introduction want to teach online, but I don't know HTL... HLTM...whatever that is. The quote is a common reaction from many instructors thinking about teaching online. Lack of knowledge regarding Web design is often the focus of my initial conversation with new online faculty. Recently, I sent an informal email request to my counterparts at the 28 Michigan community colleges asking for feedback about what software faculty members use to compose Web pages in HTML for online courses. Most of the 15 responses stated that Microsoft® FrontPage® is used by their colleges. Since many colleges have implemented Microsoft Office Suites as the preferred software to maintain across campus, it is logical that FrontPage would be the supported HTML editor if only for convenience. The product FrontPage® can be obtained as a stand-alone software package or currently as part of the suite called Microsoft Office XP Developer Edition. It is classified as an HTML editor, software used to write the language needed for Web pages; however, the user is shielded from the details of the HTML code. The software provides a white page labeled as Normal for composing the document. As text is typed, formatting applied, and pictures inserted, FrontPage writes the code needed for the Web on another page called HTML. Some of the code is not too scary. For example, to display the word 'scary' in the previous sentence in bold type, HTML must surround the word. The code would look like this: ...not too scary . Think of the childhood game of tag. When you are it, your turn does not end until you tag someone else. With HTML, the first tag ( ) begins the term and it does not end until the other tag ( ) appears. While the tag relationship is consistent, definition of the tags for advanced formatting is more complicated. FrontPage software, created for Web site development and maintenance, has many tools to help design and troubleshoot relationships between pages in a Web site. The files can then be directly published to a Web server, a task that goes beyond the scope of materials written for most online courses. For purposes of this review, the software is simply used to create document pages. The file is then uploaded into a course management system, such as Blackboard or Educator, which manages how to communicate the HTML to the Web for proper display.1 Using FrontPage® Because FrontPage is a Microsoft product and provides the user with a blank white page, basic activities such as creating a text page with headings in different colors or inserting clipart images can be learned fairly quickly. The learning curve is increased, though, when the user must untrain from usual practice and then train in the new software. The most typical instance is a Microsoft Word user converting to Microsoft FrontPage. Faculty members are inclined to use Word documents because materials may already exist or because they know how to use Word. If a Word file is uploaded into the online classroom, the student must also have the software application to open the document, the file takes longer to load, and the aesthetics of the displayed page are not as appealing as a regular Web page. If the feature in Word to 'Save As WebPage' is used, excessive HTML code is written which eventually creates performance problems. For example, a 6-word sentence written in FrontPage creates HTML code with 11 lines. In a Word document saved as a Web page, the same sentence creates 82 lines of HTML code. For an instructor to use FrontPage successfully, an old paradigm must be broken. In simple terms, Microsoft Word writes manuscripts, so the settings in the software provide a professional looking manuscript, i. …