Microsoft offered both Windows and Unix-based versions of FPSE. Both sets of extensions needed to be installed on the target web server for its content and publishing features to work. The extension set was significantly enhanced for Microsoft inclusion of FrontPage into the Microsoft Office line-up with Office 97 and subsequently renamed FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE). Bundled on CD with the NT 4.0 Server release, Front.1 would run under NT 4.0 (Server or Workstation) or Windows 95, and was aimed at providing server administrators with a tool to deliver rich web and internet content in a package as easy to use as Microsoft Word.įrontPage used to require a set of server-side plugins originally known as IIS Extensions.
Vermeer was acquired by Microsoft in 1996 specifically so that Microsoft could add FrontPage to its product line-up.Īs a WYSIWYG editor, FrontPage is designed to hide the details of pages' HTML code from the user, making it possible for novices to easily create web pages and sites.įrontPage's initial outing under the Microsoft name came in 1996 with the release of Windows NT 4.0 Server and its constituent web server Internet Information Services 2.0. Microsoft FrontPage has since been replaced by Microsoft Expression Web and Sharepoint Designer, which were released in December 2006įrontPage was initially created by the Cambridge, Massachusetts company Vermeer Technologies Incorporated, evidence of which can be easily spotted in filenames and directories prefixed _vti_ in web sites created using FrontPage. A Macintosh version was also released in 1998. It was branded as part of the Microsoft Office suite from 1997 to 2003. It is a WYSIWYG HTML editor and web site administration tool from Microsoft for the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. Later, after HTML appeared, Word supported an HTML derivative as an additional full-fidelity roundtrip format similar to RTF, with the additional capability that the file could be viewed in a web browser.
Rich Text Format (RTF), an early effort to create a format for interchanging formatted text between applications, is an optional format for Word that retains most formatting and all content of the original document. The document formats of the various versions change in subtle and not so subtle ways formatting created in newer versions does not always survive when viewed in older versions of the program, nearly always because that capability does not exist in the previous version. Opening a Word Document file in a version of Word other than the one with which it was created can cause incorrect display of the document. Another XML-based, public file format supported by Word 2003 is Wordprocessing XML.
It's been approved as an international standard by ISO (ISO/IEC 29500), but the approval is under review following objections by ISO members South Africa, Brazil, India and Venezuela. Public documentation of the default file format is a first for Word, and makes it considerably easier, though not trivial, for competitors to interoperate. It is, however, publicly documented as Ecma standard 376.
This format does not conform fully to standard XML. Microsoft has moved towards an XML-based file format for their office applications with Office 2007: Microsoft Office Open XML. Microsoft has published specifications for the Word 97-2007 Binary File Format and the Office Open XML format.
It also supports (for output only) PDF and XPS format. Word 2007 uses Microsoft Office Open XML as its default format, but retains the older binary format for compatibility reasons. This offers the ease of use of a word processor, similar to a WYSIWYG product (see below), but has some of the same end product limitations.īrief History of Microsoft Office Open XML While word processors are not ostensibly HTML editors, many of the major products are capable of exporting document layouts in HTML format. The Difference between MS WORD HTML And MS FRONTPAGE HTML