General Questions about Publisher

[bdickert]

Can you please answer a question for me - actually several questions - give
it your best shot -



There is this new product VB Express found at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vwd/ vb express - will this work in
conjunction with Publisher/FrontPage? We want to build some SQL creativity
into some of our FrontPage or Publisher Websites for our customer base -


I am not a heavy web developer - but I took my first shot with
http://www.saseasboosters.org - all of this was done in Publisher - now I
want to add a page for registration from home and if you go to this website -
which is my test website - http://www.foundsyswebtest.com/ if you click on
Meetings, Bylaws, Forms, Documents - then scroll to the bottom you have
online registration - one problem I found out that in Publisher you can't
control where the cursor goes after you copy and paste a field and change the
properties, etc.

I want to do is import this into FrontPage so I have more capabilities with
the software - eventually getting into build SQL, VB.NET or VB2005 and
ASP.NET.

Another issue is with Publisher, Microsoft always has some great ideas, but
they need to build examples on how to do certain things with their forms -
for instance they have a store front template in Publisher, but it won't
calculate or there isn't away to perform qty. * price = total price. It is
very frustrating - if you don't have an answer, you could forward my request
on to somebody or provide me with a contact.


Bob
5136779272

 

[DavidF]

To answer your question about your Form fields tab order...from David
Bartosik:

"By default Publisher sets the tab order in the order in which the controls
are added to the page. The Arrange (front/back) feature can be used to set
an explicit tab order in a form. This is done by selecting each control in
the order you want the tab order to follow, and setting it to "bring to
front". In v2003 you can right click the control and select Order, Bring to
front. In v2002 you can use Alt + F6. Or just use the Arrange menu."

As per the rest, you need to remember that Publisher is a DTP with SOME web
building capability. It is intended for small static websites. It sounds
like you have some pretty ambitious plans for dynamic features in your
sites, so I would suggest switching over to FrontPage now, before you invest
much more time in Publisher. You won't be limited in FrontPage, and you will
probably find that trying to import Publisher HTML into FrontPage
unsatisfactory, and would have to start over anyway.

Just my 2 cents worth...

DavidF

 

[bdickert]

David, Thank you - however it doesn't make sense to call it Bring to
Front/Back etc. Could you cover what each one means - it seems like it is
moving the item up - now that this was accomplished would you know how to
import this site into FrontPage - every time I do this it doesn't copy
everything over - it leaves a lot of stuff behind -
Thanks again.
Bob

 

[bdickert]

Once the form has the data - in Publisher can you send it to a printer style
format for the end user to save or print for your records -
Bob

 

[DavidF]

Ok, let's try again. Here is the link to your form page:
http://www.foundsyswebtest.com/index_files/SportRegForm.htm

If you click in the field beside 'Player's Last Name', and then Tab, it goes
to the field beside "Player's First Name', and then to address, etc. in a
nice logical progression...in the order in which the form controls were
added to the page. Now, if you are in the 'School' field, and tab, it takes
you to 'Player's home phone number' field, but perhaps you would prefer it
went to 'Sport Selection" next and then the home phone and other phone
fields, in that order. To accomplish that, select the first field (just
click in the field) that you want filled in, say last name, right click >
Order > Bring to Front. Then select the next field you want, and right click

Order > Bring to Front. Continue this process with every field in your

form, in the order you want to Tab. Then do a web page preview, fill in the
last name field and Tab, etc., and you should see the progression as you
specified by the 'bring to front' process. Note that this does not work if
you have the fields grouped with the text boxes, so ungroup them before you
reorder them.

Importing into FrontPage? As I said, you won't be happy with the results.
Publisher HTML code is entirely different than FrontPage code, and most who
have tried to import it, have had the same experience you did. It is easier
to just start over. You might be able to copy and paste some of the design
elements from Publisher to FrontPage, but this is one of the reasons why I
suggested that you move over to FrontPage now.

The output from the form will be emailed to you once it is published,
assuming that your host has FPSE and you published using HTTP. You do not
have more control than that. Here is a FAQ page that has a number of
questions about forms that might be helpful if you decide to pursue this:
http://www.publishermvps.com/WebDesign/FAQ/tabid/30/Default.aspx

Hope this was more clear.

DavidF

 

[bdickert]

My form is working - I just don't like the Microsoft lingo - bring to the
front send to the back etc. Thanks again - you have been most helpful.

 

[DavidF]

Glad its working for you. The reason the 'lingo' sounds so weird, is that
this is actually a undocumented way or reordering forms. This work-around
was originally suggested by a user that posted the solution to the Publisher
web newsgroup, when at the time, the only documented way of reordering a
form was to recreate it, one field at a time, in the corrected order. The
'lingo' probably would make more sense to you if you used these alignment
tools when layering and aligning design elements on a print document, which
is where they are most used, and where the 'lingo' makes more sense.

DavidF

 

[Mike Koewler]

Sarah,

I don't know what to make of this. It was a dream I had last night. I
was in a room and everyone there was being very nice, except for this
one person dressed as a witch. She was spitting at everyone and
everything. For reason's unknown, in my dream, I told everyone not to
worry, her name was Sarah and she always acted like this.

Keep in mind, I know you and have corresponded with you outside of NGs.
You are a nice person - why present this persona that depicts you as a
witch that spits venom?

BTW, in my dreams, the witch had a big nose and used filthy language. No
one liked her or respected her opinion.

Mike

 

[bdickert]

Now since this is working - is there away to make sure the registration
screen can be set as a character or numeric data field only and have specific
ranges like between grades 3-8, etc.? Or does this mean I have to move to
something more advanced?
Bob