Microsoft FrontPage

What works

 - WYSIWYG Editing.
 - Code editing
 - Property dialogs
 - Drag-and-drop, tested inside FP and from Konqueror file manager (Trinity Desktop Environment 3.5.13.2, Debian Wheezy).
 - Table, fonts, formatting, common editing.

What does not

- Installing from EXE (at least from Office pro 2003) - must be installed from MSI. Look in comments for a full installation instruction as it won't easily work out-of-the-box.
- In some rare cases (true reason not discovered) upper tab bar may not be shown but it'll work, it'll be clickable, it'll work with ctrl-tab - it will just be completely gray.
 - It's not stable after installation, becomes OK after some library manipulations (look in comments).

Workarounds

What was not tested

 - SharePoint connectivity
 - Direct network operation
 - .NET Support
 - Alternative data entry
 - VBA
 - Rare graphic file filters
 - Downloader, handwriting support

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

Warning: Wine 1.4 from Debian causes window refresh problems. Use v.1.6. 1. Starting from empty prefix. 2. By running winecfg, install Gecko, .net/Mono is not needed 3. In command line, go to mounted installtion CD and use MSI, not exe. In Office 2003 Pro it's: wine msiexec /i fp11.msi If you use EXE it may crash right after starting. 4. Custom installation. 5. Select components needed, use only "Install" or "Don't install" settings to prevent installer popping up while using FP. In my setup I've removed some unneeded components such as .NET support, alternative data entry, some graphic file filters, VBA, assistants, shortcuts, web components, SOAP, downloader and handwriting supoprt. Most entries in "Office tools" may be safely turned off. Remember to select PNG support, it comes not selected by default. 6. Run winecfg, then override two libraries by entering their names in Libraries tab: gdiplus.dll (native, builtin) and riched20.dll (native, builtin) - use "Prefer native" option. FP's setup installs these libraries so it's not needed to install them using winetricks. If you won't do it, FP will crash on source editing, where Richedit is used. Now FrontPage should be barely usable, but it's not stable. Preview works using builtin Gecko engine and Wine IE. It's needed to introduce some more libraries, preferably using Winetricks. Use these commands to install them: winetricks corefonts - installs MS fonts. I think FP may run without this but it'll help to view pages as in Windows. winetricks comctl32 - In Wine 1.6 some sheet functions are still not implemented, so it's needed to override them. If not, values will be checked again and again, making e.g. "Please enter an integer" messages when entering page properties dialog or "invalid argument" during opening/closing pages. WARNING: This component may in rare cases make upper tabs gray out. They'll still work, they'll be clickable, they'll react to ctrl-tab, but they just won't be visible. If any other problems encountered, "winetricks vb6run" may be tried. Happy webpage editing. MCbx

Installation procedures:

Install winetricks : gecko riched20 riched30 vb6run allfonts msxml3

THEN install frontpage.

Start up procedure When starting Frontpage,a brief pop up states "Setting Up Frontpage 2003". After this closes, there is a dialog box that needs to be clicked "OK" but it is hidden behind the Frontpage Splash. Pressing ENTER will close the dialog box and start frontpage.