Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Inside Out

From time to time, Microsoft Press really delivers the goods, beating off the sometimes better-written and more objective competition from publishers not quite so close to the product.

Microsoft FrontPage 2002 Inside Out is one such example. It comprises 1,200 pages of well-structured, well-written reference material that's enhanced by one of the most navigable and readable layouts I've come across recently.

The book is aimed at the existing FrontPage user upgrading to Office XP tools, so instead of explanations of what FrontPage is and what it does, you get straight into the good stuff - a thorough overview of features and functions combined with in-depth reference, tips, tricks, troubleshooters and advanced tutorials. Also, with this being FrontPage 2002, there's excellent coverage of things such as creating a collaborative Web workspace using SharePoint team services, using the Photo Gallery service to create thumbnail galleries and creating a link bar with the Custom Links component feature.

The best bit, however, is the attached CD-ROM. Yes, I know, you usually throw them away after a cursory browse through the directories looking for something interesting that shouldn't really be there, but this one is different. Choose between the HTML-based e-book or traditional PDF formats and then enjoy an extra 300 pages of book content on top of the already capacious 1,200 from the main book, which are also included in digital format on the CD.

Additional subjects include discussion sites and self-registration, processing databases with ASP, working directly with HTML, script code and Visual Basic for applications, a toolbar reference, appendices covering ASP and ActiveX Objects, even a good guide to configuring ODBC (open database connectivity) data sources. Did I mention the VBA code snippets, Microsoft Office Visual Keyboard (for multiple-language input from an on-screen keyboard) or the HTML Tool Kit that enables tag modification directly in the FrontPage page view?

The icing on the cake has to be the sample pages section containing everything that's mentioned in the book, including associated files, Microsoft Access databases, FP macros, full source code and custom components to use in your own sites.

Author: Davey Winder