Upgrading to FrontPage 2000

Upgrading from Previous Versions of the FrontPage Client

Microsoft FrontPage 2000 saves files in the same file format as every previous version of FrontPage — namely, HTML. You can open your existing FrontPage files in FrontPage 2000 without having to convert them. The key difference between versions is the different feature sets. Features added to a Web page in FrontPage 2000 do not work in previous versions that do not include that feature.

You can use FrontPage 2000 to open a web created with FrontPage 98 or FrontPage 97 and edit any of its features. Each version of FrontPage includes and supports nearly all of the features that are in previous versions.

The features in previous versions that FrontPage 2000 does not support are:

• Internet Database Connectivity (FrontPage 97 and FrontPage 98)
• Channel Definition File (FrontPage 98 only)
• Microsoft Personal Web Server

  FrontPage 2000 does not include Personal Web Server; however, if Personal Web Server is installed on your computer, it is updated to the latest version of Personal Web Server when you install FrontPage 2000.

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Settings that migrate to FrontPage 2000

When FrontPage 2000 opens a file created in FrontPage 97 or FrontPage 98, it preserves any special settings or customized components that were saved with that file in its original version. The following components from FrontPage 97 and FrontPage 98 files migrate to FrontPage 2000:

• Customized themes (FrontPage 98 only)
• Customized templates
• Customized menus
• List of the most recently used Web sites (added to Web folders)

In addition, any program that uses FrontPage 97 or FrontPage 98 Automation interfaces works with FrontPage 2000.

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Working with webs created in previous versions

You can use FrontPage 2000 to edit and publish to webs created with FrontPage 97 or FrontPage 98. For example, if you create a Web page in FrontPage 2000, you can publish it to a FrontPage 98 – based web. However, new FrontPage 2000 features do not work on FrontPage 98 – based or FrontPage 97 – based webs. You can also update a web created in a previous version by opening, editing, and then saving it in FrontPage 2000.

Note   When you update a Web server to FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions, any FrontPage 97 – based or FrontPage 98 – based webs on the server are automatically upgraded to FrontPage 2000 – based webs. The upgraded webs support all the new functionality in the FrontPage 2000 client.

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Opening FrontPage 2000 – based webs in previous versions

Although you can use FrontPage 98 or FrontPage 97 to open a web created in FrontPage 2000, you can work with only those features that the two versions have in common.

For example, a FrontPage 2000 – based web can consist of several levels of subwebs. FrontPage 98 — which supports only one level of subweb — can open only the first subweb level below the root web. If you open a multilevel FrontPage 2000 – based web in FrontPage 98 or FrontPage 97, you cannot open subwebs that are two or more levels below the root web.