FrontPage Editor provides a good graphical composition environment for HTMl. A big addition to the capabilities of FrontPage 1.1 is the ability to edit raw HTMl code for fine-tuning pages or using nonstandard tags. However, the HTMl editor is not as good as stand-alone HTMl editors such as Anawave Software, Inc.'s HotDog Professional and Nick Bradbury's HomeSite. In addition, you can build VBScript and JavaScript routines within the editor, and import ActiveX Controls and Java applets built elsewhere. If you like busy pages, you can now include background sounds and marquees, which are horizontally scrolling messages.

If you are concerned about security, FrontPage Editor now supports Secure Sockets layer. The program comes with a suite of templates for different kinds of pages.

FrontPage Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Ex-plorer or Windows Explorer) uses a familiar two-pane view to manage all the files for FrontPage Web, which is essentially a single Web site. Explorer can view a site either as a series of pages, or in a more graphical view that shows the hierarchy of hyperlinks for the site. FrontPage Explorer provides wizards for building various kinds of Web sites - from button-down corporate to customer support to group project applications.

Wizards collect information about each page for a given kind of site and then generate HTMl code complete with your choice of graphical appearance. The look of the pages is slick but simple; you are not getting the kind of look you would pay a Web site designer for, but you also do not have to be embarrassed to give your associates your URL.

FrontPage Explorer makes managing pages and sites much simpler than doing so manually. Site construction wizards generate a to-do list of pages that need to be written, based on the type of site you specify. For example, the to-do list for a site with a corporate look would prompt you to create a home page, a client page, a what's new page and so on. You can add other tasks to the list and remove them as you complete them.

Microsoft gives you tools to provide a consistent look for your site. A style page can be used to set elements, such as background and link colors, for all pages. A logo page lets you specify a header. And a navigation bar page lets you insert a horizontal bar of pointers to other pages in your site.

How does FrontPage incorporate these pages? Through WebBots, which are automated routines that run in conjunction with IIS (or server extensions for other Web servers) to automate tasks that might otherwise require a Common Gateway Interface file. There are also WebBots to search a Web site's text, time-stamp the last date a page is saved, insert comments for the page's creator and other operations.

But WebBots work only on servers that are also running FrontPage Server Extensions. This is the hook to lock you into Microsoft's product. Should you use these WebBots? If you have control of your own Web server, sure. They require no special code on the browser side. But if you depend on an Internet service provider to host your site, you may want to steer clear lest a future upgrade cause your pages to break. Of course, if FrontPage Server Extensions become as de facto a standard as Microsoft's Word format, the preceding becomes null and void. Installation is relatively simple. You can choose which components of the product you need; you can leave out the Personal Web Server if you already have a Web server running, for example.

The product comes with a 235-page Getting Started manual that provides information about most of the product's features in a concise format.