is Publisher a good choice for dependable website development?

[Texas Chuck]

I am taking a bunch of static on another user-group for using Publisher to
develop my website. I found it easy to WYSIWYG a very nice site out there, my
first, which does, so far, all that our retirement community needs.
This other group has some web-gurus who are very good at what they do, and
I do understand that it would be preferable to have a Ferrari-type website,
when Publisher may be putting an overloaded-Volkswagen-bus type website out
there, if you get my analogy.
I'm sure, however, that I got the website up-and-running in far less time
than it would take me to learn one of these newfangled languages. Not to
mention potential expense: I'm working on a shoestring budget.
So my question is: is Publisher to be trusted to give us adequate,
dependable service, or should we invest the time to get into the speedy, more
efficient options available out there?
-Chuck

 

[DavidF]

Hey Texas,

I am not surprised you are getting static. Even some of the Publisher MVPs
will tell you that Publisher is not the right tool to produce a website. It
is true that no serious, professional would use Publisher a DTP to produce a
website. However it can be the right tool for a simple, static website, and
if you are happy with your site, then that is all that really matters.
Another regular poster in the main Publisher newsgroup will argue that you
should spend $400 and buy Dreamweaver to build your site, but IMHO that is
overkill for what you seem to want and need in a site. FrontPage is also a
better web tool, but once again might not be worth the time and money for
what you want.

If you are using Pub 2003, then you will find some code bloat and a lot of
limitations in what you can do, but you can mitigate and work around many of
those. Be sure to deselect the "Rely on VML.." and "Allow PNG..." under
options to keep your file size down. Also either size and optimize your
images for the web with a third party image editing app before you embed
them, or use the "compress images" function in Pub 2003 before you publish
your site. These steps will at least minimize the code bloat and maximize
the speed your pages load.

And if you are using Pub 2000...then stick with it. It is the best version
for web building.

DavidF

 

[Texas Chuck]

David-
Thanks so much for the prompt reply and the depth of your response.
I will check those settings right away. And too bad I'm up to Pub 2003
already, but I'll live with it.............
-Chuck

 

[Kieth Sutfin]

Hi Texas

You know Chuck, I have been using publisher since Pub 97 came out and have
produced many websites since that time. I will be the first to agree that
they are not as streamlined as some sites, but - they are aren't bad
considering my gross lack of html knowledge.

Unfortunately, I have just removed a site that was 52 pages long that had
animations, music, downloadable pdf forms, etc. and was viewed by thousands
of people travelling to my city from all over the world. Not one complaint
about the way it looked or the lack of "polish". Just plain information
that looked reasonable, gave accurate information and did what many other
sites did not do.

There are many sites referred to in this forum that were done in publisher
and they all look good. K I S S is the optimum task and publisher does just
that. Great WYSIWYG program for those of us who don't want to learn a new
program.

We are not all professionals, so why build a "cake from scratch" when you
can just open a package and add water? Results are pretty close to the
same and it takes a lot less time.

If you want to see some of my stuff, gimme an e-mail or PM and I'll send you
a few url's

Kieth

 

[Don Schmidt]

Be they be good or bad, here are a couple of sites built with Publisher
2000.

www.vanusa.org

http://www.iinet.com/~k1294lodge/

 

[Chris]

I think my page is a good example too: www.advancedaudioinc.com

I got to this point with a lot of help from the forums. I now use FrontPage
but I think Publisher is a great resource for people just starting out. It
is possible to get good results and in not too much time.

 

[Kieth Sutfin]

A few more for you to look at as well... all publisher 2000
www.tourkelowna.com

www.westsidedaze.com

www.dtectinspections.com

 

[BeamGuy]

Hello Don,

Your webpage looks great - but I seem to have a PC that does not appreciate webpages produced
by Publisher. I just started another thread asking what I did wrong with my website - but yours seems to have a similar problem
viewed on my laptop. I have posted what your website looks like here:

http://www.ponkapoagcamp.org/results.jpg

Thanks,
Mike