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FrontPage with Free Websites

FrontPage Support or Not?

We do not "officially" support FrontPage on free accounts. There are no FrontPage Extensions available on free website accounts. You can use FrontPage without extensions. FrontPage does come with the ability to upload via standard FTP -- which works fine. Full FrontPage support is only available on our Domain services (except Almost Free Website).

What features are not supported?

Any feature that requires FrontPage Extension is not supported. Usually, FrontPage will complain when attempting to publish pages requiring the extensions on non-FrontPage sites. However, we can specify certain features that are known to not work:

• Any Web-bots or HTML Components
• Any feature that allows connecting to a database
• Site Search
• Discussion Boards
• Active Server Pages (ASP)

The above list is not complete. There are other features that do not work without the FrontPage Extensions. As newer versions of FrontPage appear, more features may or may not work accordingly.

So, what DOES work?

The vast majority of the features do work because they are mostly based on standard HTML, JavaScript, or other client-side technologies. Most sites don't need to use anything beyond HTML and client-side scripts.

Benefits of FrontPage

Some people prefer to use FrontPage for various reasons.

• It comes with some versions MS Office, software already paid for.
• Ease of use: if you know how to use MS Word and other word processors, you're well on your way.
• Strong overall website "management" features.
• Familiar software: they already own it and use it on other websites.
• Support: Many people use it and there are many websites and online tutorials available.
• There are many "advanced" features that are presented in a user-friendly fashion. Most tasks don't require a Master's Degree in website development to use.

Problems of FrontPage

Not all software is perfect. FrontPage has its issues too. Most are personal preferences and should be taken accordingly.

• Bloated Website Projects: Requires two or three times the space of the website project (It keeps duplicate or cached copies of everything) -- becomes a real issue when publishing large audio or video files.
• Bloaded HTML or Non-standard practices: reading HTML after FrontPage has written it can be a task -- especially if you plan to do custom editing at the code level.
• Many of the same reasons others would call strenghts.
• Some folks just want to do everything at the raw code level.
• Limited features or abilities: Some features or techniques require custom coding.
• Standards Compliance: FrontPage has been known to write code that works well with Internet Explorer but not for other browsers.
• Those Themes: Most people can spot a FrontPage web quickly these days, since everyone likes using the handful of default themes supplied.

Which ChurchServe services do support FrontPage Extensions?

Any hosting service except the Free Website and Almost Free Websites. Any domain and subdomain service can have FrontPage enabled or disabled. Please consider our paid hosting services if you require FrontPage Extensions.

How can I use FrontPage to publish to my Free Website?

We have written a tutorial using Microsoft FrontPage 2003 for publishing (using standard FTP) to a Free Website (or Almost Free Website). We also have a page for information about previous versions.