December 16, 1999

Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition includes two technologies that help you and your organization with online publishing and collaboration:

• Microsoft FrontPage® 2000 Server Extensions
• Microsoft Office 2000 Server Extensions

Office Server Extensions is built on FrontPage Server Extensions and includes all of that functionality. So what is the difference? Why support one or the other of these products? The answer depends on what you want users to be able to do — and what you, as an administrator, need to support.

If you are using the Microsoft Windows NT® or Microsoft Windows® 2000 operating system, and you want easy Web publishing, Web management, and Web collaboration, use Office Server Extensions.

If you want only Web publishing and management features, or if you use UNIX, install FrontPage Server Extensions.

Feature comparison

FrontPage Server Extensions gives you extended publishing, security, and management features for your Web site. If you are interested primarily in publishing a Web site and coordinating with multiple authors, FrontPage Server Extensions can make your life a lot easier.

FrontPage Server Extensions features

FrontPage Server Extensions allows users to do the following:

• Create content directly on a Web server.
• Create or edit content on a FrontPage-extended web at the same time as other users.
• Add sophisticated technology without extensive programming knowledge.

  For example, use the Component command on the Insert menu to add hit counters or search forms.

• Save directly to Web servers from Office 2000 applications.

  No file conversion is necessary.

Office Server Extensions features

Office Server Extensions allows collaboration in a workgroup environment. If you want to help users work together on documents and get workgroup tasks done, Office Server Extensions is the better choice. In addition to FrontPage Server Extensions features, Office Server Extensions allows users to do the following:

• Create threaded discussions in HTML files and in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint® documents.
• Subscribe to be notified when changes are made to documents or folders on a Web site.
• Browse and search Web content either by text or document properties (such as author name or keyword).

Technical differences

What about installing and supporting FrontPage Server Extensions and Office Server Extensions? There are three main differences:

1. Operating system requirements
2. Installation requirements
3. Administration tools

Operating system requirements

FrontPage Server Extensions works on the Windows NT, Windows 2000, and UNIX operating systems. However, Office Server Extensions are available only for Windows NT and Windows 2000.

If you are using UNIX on your Web servers, you must install FrontPage Server Extensions. If you are using Windows NT or Windows 2000, however, you can move up to Office Server Extensions.

Installation requirements

If you are using Windows NT or Windows 2000, you can install Office Server Extensions with Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition and get all of the functionality you need.

If you are using UNIX, you can install the Microsoft FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions SR1.2: Downloads for UNIX-Based Servers download from the MSDN Library.

Keep in mind that the collaboration features in Office Server Extensions require some additional components:

• A database to store data for the Web Discussions feature

  You can use either Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) or SQL Server version 6.5 or 7.0. If there is no SQL Server database available locally or remotely, then MSDE is installed by default.

• An SMTP mail server to supply the e-mail notifications for the Web Subscription feature

Administration tools

You can use FrontPage Server Extensions administration tools to administer FrontPage Server Extensions features, whether or not you have Office Server Extensions installed.

If you install Office Server Extensions, you can also use the OSE Administration Home Page to administer the collaboration features.

Related links

For more information about FrontPage 2000 Server Extensions, see the FrontPage server extensions frequently asked questions (FAQ) on the Office Update Web site.

For more information about administering Office 2000 Server Extensions, see Installing Office Server Extensions in the Office 2000 Resource Kit.