Pushing ahead with its hastily put together Internet strategy, Microsoft Corp has unveiled FrontPage 1.1, its client-server Web site authoring and management tool. FrontPage, inherited from Microsoft’s acquisition of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based V ermeer Technologies Inc in January (CI No 2,831), is pitched at would-be Web site authors with no programming skills. According to Oliver Roll, desktop applications manager, FrontPage fits into the Microsoft Internet strategy which will address four areas: information access, with tools like Internet Explorer; information management, with Microsoft BackOffice; Web authoring, with FrontPage and Office in the text-based area, Internet Studio for high-end Web publishing and Jakarta, the Java deve lopment kit. Visual Basic and Visual C are also included; and security in which the company worked with other organizations such as Visa International Inc in developing the Secure Electronic Transactions specification, SET (CI No 2,843). FrontPage 1 .1, Roll said, has been redesigned to be integrated into the Microsoft Office suite, sharing such features as the spell checker and the multiple-level undo facility, enabling the last 30 actions to be altered. The Web site, pages and Web-bound documents can be created or edited in Microsoft Word 95, Excel 95 or PowerPoint on the desktop – either by an individual, or in collaboration with others across the corporate network or Internet – tested on the desktop and then, using FrontPage’s ‘CopyWeb’ function, be transferred on to the Web. A two-tier graphical view of the Web site being developed is provided by a Web site manager component called FrontPage Explorer. ActiveX Controls technology is included in FrontPage 1.1, enabling authors to embed graphics and animated sequences generated in Powerpoint, for example, straight into Hypertext Mark-up Language pages. In addition, FrontPage has Mark-up Language frame support through special software modules called wizards, one of which can deliver existing frames or create a customized frame grid if required, and smart objects called Webots that initiate text searches and construct threaded discussion groups and surveys without the need to write Common Gateway Interface scripts. Front Page also has the capability of monitoring and updating all hyperlinks between Web pages or documents whenever they are moved, renamed or edited. It runs on 32-bit processors and is available for Windows NT and Windows95 clients. FrontPage 1.1 is priced at $149 with a possible rebate of $49 for Microsoft Office users.
