is publisher right for me?

[DS]

I recently began to develop a concept for an intranet at my office. This
site would be used in lieu of a 3-ring binder which seems to be the
preferred method of storing information on standards, typical info
etc.around here. I've been pleasantly surprised with how effective
publisher is and how easy it was to learn. Within a few hours I had several
pages up and running. Now I'm about to present it to the boss but am
wondering what the next step would be. So far I've been placing everything
in a special folder on our server. I've realized however that if this thing
gets started, we'll have to choose a place for it to live permanently since
moving the files breaks all the links. Is there a better alternative to
this? Would FrontPage allow me to migrate files to different locations and
update all the links? I can see a day where the IT folks will want to
rearrange the whole server so that would really mess things up. This is my
first attempt at web publishing so I hope that isn't a ridiculous question.

I also see that using forms and submitting info via the website is somewhat
problematic and all the troubleshooting answers have to do with my ISP using
FP server extensions; how does that work on an intranet set up on my
server?

Ultimately, the goal of this site is to have my coworkers be able to add
their own content, or at leaset be able to forward content to be included.
Since we all have publisher on our computers, that would be an efficient use
of resources. Please let me know if you think this is the best solution for
us (me) or if another program would be better. Thanks for reading all of
this!

Daniel

 

[David Bartosik [MSFT MVP]]

I recently began to develop a concept for an intranet at my office. This
site would be used in lieu of a 3-ring binder which seems to be the
preferred method of storing information on standards, typical info
etc.around here. I've been pleasantly surprised with how effective
publisher is and how easy it was to learn. Within a few hours I had
several
pages up and running. Now I'm about to present it to the boss but am
wondering what the next step would be. So far I've been placing
everything
in a special folder on our server. I've realized however that if this
thing
gets started, we'll have to choose a place for it to live permanently
since
moving the files breaks all the links. Is there a better alternative to
this?

Unless you've followed a poor practice all the links Publisher writes are
relative to one another. I would require a lot more details to try and
determine why you are breaking your links. You might look over the FAQ -
http://www.publishermvps.com/Default.aspx?tabid=30 - for some of the most
common user mistakes.


Would FrontPage allow me to migrate files to different locations and

update all the links? I can see a day where the IT folks will want to
rearrange the whole server so that would really mess things up. This is
my
first attempt at web publishing so I hope that isn't a ridiculous
question.

FP gives you complete and full flexibilty and control since it is a web
design tool and site management tool whereas Publisher is neither. Link
management would be more your responsibilty but FP does have link tools.

I also see that using forms and submitting info via the website is
somewhat
problematic and all the troubleshooting answers have to do with my ISP
using
FP server extensions; how does that work on an intranet set up on my
server?

It's not really problematic, it's just that the average Pub customer has
absolutly no understanding of client server technology. To answer your
question, simple, you install FPSE on your server.

Ultimately, the goal of this site is to have my coworkers be able to add
their own content, or at leaset be able to forward content to be included.

If they add their own you'd probably want each of them to have their own Pub
file and maintian and publish the pages of their Pub file. If you are
looking for a real collaberation site then you should look into Microsoft
Sharepoint or a portal/community site. The latter you can obtain free
starter sites at www.asp.net

Since we all have publisher on our computers, that would be an efficient
use
of resources. Please let me know if you think this is the best solution
for
us (me) or if another program would be better. Thanks for reading all of
this!

Depends on what it's for. Make sure there's a legitimate purpose and think
it thru and then apply the proper tool for the task.

David Bartosik - [MSFT MVP]
www.publishermvps.com
www.davidbartosik.com