FrontPage, Dreamweaver and Web Folders: The Tools Behind Kirksville’s Early Web

Before a browser-based CMS became the normal way to update a website, publishing often meant managing files directly.

Truman’s surviving ITS documentation preserves several versions of that workflow.

The tools include Microsoft FrontPage, multiple generations of Dreamweaver, WebDAV and Windows Web Folders.

The common idea was local files plus remote space

The individual tools differed, but the model was similar:

1. create or edit files locally;
2. authenticate to the University Web server;
3. transfer or edit files in a remote directory;
4. make the changed files immediately public.

That is a very different mental model from editing a page inside WordPress, Squarespace or another modern CMS.

FrontPage had server-specific support

Truman’s Web-services archive includes documentation for FrontPage and group Web accounts.

A surviving Dreamweaver 4 instruction explains that group accounts were configured by default for FrontPage.

That means the server itself could be prepared for one publishing tool and require changes before another editor could connect properly.

Dreamweaver introduced a local/remote site model

The Dreamweaver 4 instructions describe:

• a local root folder;
• remote WebDAV information;
• authenticated connection to University Web space.

Once connected, a user could open, edit, create, delete or paste files.

The important part is not the software brand.

It is the publishing architecture:

local working copy + remote public site

WebDAV became a shared connection method

Truman documentation also preserves WebDAV instructions.

WebDAV allowed compatible software to treat Web storage more like a remotely editable file system.

Dreamweaver could use it.

Other operating-system tools could also use it.

That reduced dependence on one proprietary Web editor.

Windows Web Folders made remote space feel local

The Windows Web Folders documentation says users could connect to assigned Web space and work with it through a My Computer-like interface.

The user could:

• copy files;
• paste files;
• create files;
• delete files;
• edit files.

Changes became visible on the Internet.

That is essentially direct filesystem-style Web publishing.

Several tools coexisted

Truman ITS preserved documentation for:

• FrontPage;
• Dreamweaver 4;
• later Dreamweaver versions;
• Adobe GoLive;
• Web Folders;
• WebDAV.

The surviving pages prove the University documented multiple publishing methods.

They do not prove that all of them were equally popular or used during exactly the same years.

Do not invent a neat sequence

It is tempting to write:

FrontPage → Dreamweaver → Web Folders → modern CMS

The evidence does not support such a clean ladder.

Different tools could overlap.

Different account types could use different server settings.

Old support documents could also remain online after software stopped being common.

What these pages reveal

The archived instructions show a Web environment where publishing required understanding:

• files;
• folders;
• permissions;
• server paths;
• local versus remote copies;
• authentication.

That technical friction shaped the early Web.

The user was not merely writing content.

The user was maintaining part of a server-visible filesystem.

For the personal-site version of the workflow, see www2.truman.edu: When Kirksville Students and Faculty Got Personal Web Space.

The modern CMS hides most of this machinery.

Truman’s old help pages preserve the machinery itself.