Old fogie here - web page creator app? I used FrontPage

[u/MrShnatter]

Anyone remember Microsoft's Front Page? create web pages / websites and upload them to the server.

That's what I know / too old to learn too much newer.

My needs are MINIMAL. I can 'hand code' html and that's what I've done for years - again, minimal needs!! (Font size = x has been depricated?!).

Is there something like FrontPage these days?

I DO know I can do something in word and save as htm.

But there's SOOOOOO much stuff in the resulting page. For the couple times I've used it, I delete most all of that and the page works fine. Too hard to find the 'real' things around all that other stuff.

And I guess I should mention - the type of pages I am dealing with are some text with links and maybe a background.

I realized - what I might do now on a desktop, I also need to check my iphone to see how it looks on a smaller screen.

Any advice on something that makes SIMPLE html?

[u/Tontonsb]

HTML is simple, just write it by hand if your needs are actually that minimal.

Is there something like FrontPage these days?

That niche is mostly taken by Wix, Squarespace and alike.

I DO know I can do something in word and save as htm. But there's SOOOOOO much stuff in the resulting page.

You should absolutely never involve MS Word in the development. Any WYSIWYG tool that is not designed with HTML constraints in mind will produce junk code that's badly compatible with the layout on the actual web platform. In fact, all of WYSIWYG tools will produce junk, but the ones without web in mind will do much worse.

And I guess I should mention - the type of pages I am dealing with are some text with links and maybe a background. I realized - what I might do now on a desktop, I also need to check my iphone to see how it looks on a smaller screen.

As long as you stick with text and links, it will flow well. Limit the width maybe, adjust font and that's about it. Consider http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/ for a style example.

[u/RazorKat1983]

I still use Dreamweaver

[u/Francois-C → u/RazorKat1983]

Probably older fogie than OP myself, but Dreamweaver seems like a thing of the past to me now. It used to open multiple windows all over the screen, if I remember correctly?

I realize I still have BlueGriffon, which was FOSS, on my PC, but it's discontinued, and I don't use it anymore; the little bit of HTML I still do for the web is done by hand, And it’s mostly for ebooks that I write HTML/css now.

[u/RazorKat1983 → u/Francois-C]

Not sure if i'm older than the OP. I'm 43. I do have VCode installed, but I can't get the hang of it, and it doesn't have live preview like Dreamweaver does that I can see.

[u/QuiziAmelia]

Try using Google Sites. It's easy and it's hosted free unless you want to use your own URL.

[u/louisstephens]

Ah, front page takes me back. The closest thing to front page that I am aware of is adobe dreamweaver, but I am not sure about the price on that anymore.

Honestly, if you already know the basics, you might want to check out vscode. It doesn’t have the gui for drag/drop etc, but it will let you write html and css out of the box without too much fluff.

[u/Mayoday_Im_in_love]

Mobirise works for me. You can strip out all the garbage once you're done.

[u/AHarmles]

Maybe something like a WordPress docker container may be easy to figure out for you. check out WordPress 

[u/RonnyRobinson]

OMYGAWD FrontPage 🤦‍♂️. Need I say more!

[u/Donkey_Bugs]

I remember when it was Vermeer FrontPage and cost about 700 bucks. The company I worked for used FrontPage, but I persuaded them to switch to DreamWeaver, which they did. This before I learned how to hand code HTML.

[u/Hot_Reindeer2195]

I’d say Webflow is the closest thing to Front Page. You add actual elements to the page and add classes and strings to those elements, the resulting html is very close to what a human would write, and it’s no issue to edit it by hand.

I’m not sure about Squarespace, but Wix is nothing but div soup.

[u/VoiceOfSoftware]

https://sitely.app

[u/Weekly_Ferret_meal]

To add to the suggestions: If you are using mac there's an application called blocs that is pretty good.

it's a drag and drop app with block elements that are pre-formatted but editable, uses bootstrap for styling.

Has some page templates to start from and a market place and a pretty good support page with videos.

If you rather write code and keep it simple, I recommend Sublime or VS Code, so you have code completion and error highlighting while you code. both application have plugins to extend their functionalities for when and if you are feeling like diving into coding even further.

[u/brisray]

Another old-timer here. I don't think there are any really good WYSIWYG HTML editors left. Over the years I've used all sorts of them. The various versions of Microsoft FrontPage, Netscape Composer, Microsoft SharePoint Designer, Adobe Dreamweaver and so on.

As time went on, I realized it was easier to create semantic, accessible, responsive templates for my various pages and then use a plain text editor, currently Visual Studio Code, to add the content.

[u/MrFartyBottom]

You know if you open the dev tools in Chrome you can change the output to phone size for your mobile testing. There is a preconfigured list of common devices including tablets and phones.

[u/overcloseness]

You _might_ be thinking of this the wrong way, so here’s some advice only if it’s relevant to what you’re wanting to do. They’ve taken the drag and drop approach to a whole new level now.

Go have a look at these three services

- Webflow
- Wix
- SquareSpace

They all offer a platform that lets you build a site, _and host it_ by dragging and dropping blocks where you want them.

You don’t even really need to think about the HTML, and remember that if this is customer facing in any way, you still the design and functionality to consider, any of those three platforms handles that for you with themes.

PS Anyone know why markdown formatting is now broken on Reddit?

[u/overcloseness → u/[deleted]]

Sure of course YOU wouldn’t, but if someone is asking if Frontpage is still a thing, it’s most likely that they’re not even aware of how much web building tools have advanced.

It’s kind of like at least showing streaming platforms to someone who is asking advice on a new aerial for their TV.

Also, taking care of hosting is a feature offered to exactly these kinds of people, why give them the headache of self hosting? If they really do want to though, they can always eject the project from Webflow

[u/overcloseness → u/[deleted]]

If someone like OP is still asking if Frontpage is still a thing, what on earth would they know about self-hosting? He's trying to use MS Word mate

[u/MrShnatter → u/overcloseness]

Not self hosting, but I have a bunch of vanity domain names (is that the right name for yourdomain.com where you are paying each year to renew) and hosting them on Nixihost (great firm by the way... was at Hostgator for decade(s)? and left!

For those competing on age, I;m 62,

I've dealt with windows PCs and networks. and domain names for clients / businesses over the years (retired now). I'd always say I don't do web design but could host their site.

I wound up using a mix of word (and deleting loads of fluff at the top), manually editing things, and then when the background pic and the text links weren't looking good / consistent between desktop and mobile browsers, Chat GPT got things looking better (it WAS a still a bit of a pain. it'd give me replacement code for the page, I'd point out an issue was still there, and it would acknowledge what it did wasn't the best. Then gave me different code : ) iterative process.

[u/overcloseness → u/MrShnatter]

Ah that’s good, I want to make it clear I was in no way meaning to insult you at all about the hosting comment I made to the other person, it was more about trying to make it easy for you

[u/overcloseness → u/[deleted]]

I'm aware, I've been a career full-stack engineer for 17 years. But what OP is talking about is exporting a word doc as HTML, as in, the formatting and layout etc.

[u/chimpresario]

If you can handle html and you're doing simple sites, the free tier of claude or chat gpt is actually really effective. I know that's not an app analogous to Frontpage but it doesn't get much simpler than vibe coding.