I wrote a brief piece about FrontPage 2003 and Windows 7, about how FrontPage files will not keep the association with the parent program. Well, ICQ doesn’t allow me to sign in either, but ICQ will release a version which will work, but Microsoft have no intention of ever releasing a new version of FrontPage.

FrontPage, as some will know, has been replaced by Expression Web which is very much an experts application. I have tried to get my head around it but I simply can’t. Compared to FP, it is way too complex. At the next release of Windows, will FrontPage 2003 work at all? What will become of my website as it is now?

It has worried me enough that I went surfing today for a possible alternative. Did I find anything? Yes, but what I found was either beyond my price range and ability or it was a piece of badly written junk.

Pre XP, my primary word processor was WordPerfect 7, probably the best word processor version ever. Unfortunately, more than a few functions didn’t fare well in XP, but al least there was a newer version made available, and an alternative from Microsoft that was no more difficult to use.

I know that no new OS is going to appear for two or three years, but I will be that much older and less able to learn than I can now. What will become of my web presence? My web site isn’t brilliant, but it is all my own work (with help from FP of course), it says ‘I am here’, and it didn’t cost me much to do it. In actual fact, I found it quite rewarding, and I learned a little about robots files, sitemaps, and how to create a graphical link to another location along the way.

Maybe Microsoft will release Expression Web Lite (FrontPage 20**) or sell FP to somebody such that it can continue to be used by people like me. It’s a nice thought..