"Out of curiosity, what's wrong with the Message box for composing replies?"
I just find the TinyMCE (the "message box" editor) applet clunky and annoying. In most cases it takes several iterations to get the formatting to look "just right". For the way I work, Frontpage allows for a faster/smoother workflow. With FP, I've managed to autopilot much of what I do.
"What do you gain by switching to an entirely different application, writing out your post, copying, switching back again, and pasting?
That's not the way things work here. I've created several scripts/macros that handle formatting, data import/export, and several other functions. When I'm done composing a post, I have a "shoot" button that manages all the copy, paste, and related functions. So there's none of the convoluted machinations that you presume.
I originally started using FP this way when I was responsible for managing several Community Server based forums, which have god awful response times. Since that time I've found it the quickest/easiest way to deal with most boards/blogs, while maintaining a consistent look.
"But it was a long time ago. All I remember is the pain. But, then again, I was trying to use it to make websites, not creating a post that can be done easily enough in the message dialogue box".
Recent versions are far less of a pain, and actually do reasonably well for creating W3C compliant XML, HTML/XHTML, and CSS.
As to using the "message dialogue box", see my above post.
"It only goes up to seven".
I thought it went to 11?
This thread has gone downhill in terms of quality over the last few posts.
Please amend.
:-Y
This is the sort of thing I like learning about. :D
There must some sort of graph that can be drawn.
There is. It looks like a bell. :Y
HTH.