linking pages question

[mary]

hi,

using publisher 2003.

i had a site that linked beautifully between its pages---thanks to these
discussion posts---but their urls wouldn't have made sense to general site
users, ie. domain/page1232/html instead of something like domain/home/html.

so i tried to change the urls of the pages by going into "insert" then to
"navigation bar", ..."modify link", where i clicked on "existing file or web
page" and then typed into "Address:" a new random address, such as
domain/home/html.

but now none of the site comes up on the web.

so, my question: how does one properly make the urls more user-friendly, ie.
....address/home/... instead of address/page21234/...? or if i can't from
where i am at the moment, can i get the numbers all back and working without
having to start a new document and pasting into it.

thank you for any help,
~mary

 

[DavidF]

Mary,

First of, always make a back up copy of your Publisher file before you
undertake major redesigns. Obviously, it would be nice to go back to your
original file before you messed with the navbar, but it can be repaired and
modified as you wanted.

First of all go to Tools > Web Page Options. Type in the page title your
prefer, or just use what is already there. Make sure the "Add hyperlink to
new..." is ticked. Then under Publish to the Web, this is where you can name
your *.*htm files in a more descriptive way. I would not change the home
page, as browsers will automatically look for index.htm, but changing the
other pages should be fine. If you have a "Contact Us" page, you can name
the page contactus.htm or ContactUs.htm or Contact.htm...whatever you want.
Just remember that some servers are case sensitive, and it is usually wise
to use all lower case so you don't mess up later. Also, never include a
space in the file name. If you must, you could use an underscore or a
hyphen. You should be able to do a web page preview and mouse over the link,
and the file name should show in the status bar...that is assuming the
navbar is working correctly.

If after making the above changes, your navbar is messed up, you might be
able to repair it, but you do this through the navbar wizard, not using the
insert function. First go to the second page in your Publisher document.
Click once on the navbar to select it, and then on the wand that appears
below it. That should open a navbar options section to the left of your
document. Under "Change navigation bar" click on the Add, remove, and
reorder links... The Navigation Bar Properties will come up. As you probably
messed up the navbar buttons, you should probably remove all but your home
page. Then click add link, select the page you want to add to the navbar,
and type in the Text to display, and click ok. Do this for each page, and
you should have a new, functioning navbar that also displays the more
descriptive name.

DavidF

 

[mary]

David,

using publisher 2003.

Thank you very much for your help. I did the steps suggested below except I
changed the index.htm to home.htm without thinking and now the page is
missing from the index folder when i save the document. I've tried to rename
it back to index, using tools>web page option but without any changes---my
first page/home page is still missing/not being saved in the index. when i
upload the site the other pages all work and are linked together.

Is there a way of undoing it or making the page conect to the site again as
"index.htm"?

Thank you for any help.
~mary

 

[DavidF]

When you Publish to the Web, and the Save In dialog comes up, choose
"index.htm" under file name. The resulting output should be an "index.htm"
file and a "index_files" folder containing your other pages and graphics.
You upload both.

If you are having a hard time visualizing what exactly is produced each time
you Publish to the Web, then create a folder on your hard drive somewhere
you can find it, and when you get to the Save In dialog, choose that folder.
Then open the folder and confirm the contents...an index.htm file and a
subfolder called index_files.

DavidF

 

[DavidF]

And by the way, you are using Publish to the Web, and not a File > Save As a
web page, right? You do not want to do the second!

DavidF