MS Publisher and website problems

[Scott]

I have a website I put together for a local festival using MS Pub 2003. Used
a prior version last year on my computer at work Pub2000 (never had a
problem). In checking prior to using FTP, the site worked fine (all
hyperlinks etc worked fine). In posted to FTP and host, it just will not
work. Continually get the same message the IE has to close. In checking this
on another computer the same thing. The IE suggested that I disable the
add-on's until the problem is solved. Ended up disabling all the add-on's
(about 12). No change.

In transferring to FTP I use the Pub "Publish to Web", key FTP site address
etc, it shows the transfer. In posting to the host, I key the files from the
"My Network Places" and clicking on "index" where the files are listed. I
omitted the "wmz" files thinking that was causing the problem. Inreading the
other blogs I saw this wasn't a problem and went back and keyed those in as
well. Still the same thing. This site is about 17 pages.

I found one problem was the firewall and disabled that and was at least able
to post to the FTP site. (Using Earthlink and subsequent add-on's).
I went so far as to create a simple 1 page site from the templates provided
but still the same thing, same error message. Is there a simple fix here,
I've spent obscenely too many hours on this. Ironically, this site is no
bigger than what I did last year on Pub 2000. Am I overlooking something?

The site is "www.celebratemidlandmagic.com". Any help or suggestions will
really be appreciated!

 

[DavidF]

Scott,

I am sorry to say, that you are one of those "special" few people that have
encountered this problem using Pub 2003. Unfortunately, no one has been able
to come up with an explanation as to why it happens, or how to fix it. The
resident MVP escalated the issue to Microsoft, but never got an answer back
to my knowledge.

If it is ok with you, I would like to submit this problem to the Pub 2007
beta team, and see if they can find a solution, as I believe that the coding
engine in Pub 2007 is pretty much unchanged from Pub 2003, and they might
want to fix this bug prior to releasing 2007. If that is ok with you, post
back and let me know, and leave the site up for a while, so they can see
what the problem is.

DavidF

 

[Scott]

Thank you for your note. Although I've never considered myself to be an
expert, I have been quite comfortable with Pub and have really been bashing
my head as to why this doesn't work. The site, I thought, looked great and
it is really frustrating not being able to post it.

I don't have a problem delaying this, however this is for a local town
festival (with vendor app forms et al) and I am getting friendly "reminders"
that I don't have the site up and running yet. Based on what I had done in
the past, I didn't foresee any problems and promised to have this running by
08/01. Any idea of how long you would like for this to stay up? I could
probably stall them if I had an idea (I could fake a stroke or something).

Right now, I am trying to quickly put together an alternate webpage via the
webhost, at least get the app forms up anyway.

Thank you for your help. Look forward to your reply

 

[John G]

Hey! Firefox wins again.
Firefox does not crash but IE for which Publisher is Sooo good crashes.
Long live the free world.

 

[DavidF]

Scott,

While I would like to find an solution to this problem for the good of all,
I think that you getting the site up and running is what is most important
under the circumstances. So...let's try a few things to see if we can't
figure it out.

First of all make a copy of your original Publisher file. I may ask that you
send that to me instead of leaving the site up, and I can test it myself or
send it to MS. How big is your file?

When you say you have been using Publisher and didn't foresee any problems
getting this site built and produced, does that mean that you have
successfully produced a website with Publisher before this one?

Here are some things to do that might help. I would suggest that as you take
these steps, then Publish to the Web, to a folder on your hard drive,
perhaps your desktop, where you can find the files easily. Then open IE and
browse to the *.*htm files and open them to test.

First of all make sure you are using the Publish to the Web, instead of File

Save As a web page to produce your HTML files. Then Publish to the Web to

your test folder on your hard drive, open IE, File, Open and browse to the
index.htm file and see if it crashes IE. Yes or No?

Go to Tools > Options > Web tab and untick "Rely on VML..." and "Allow
PNG..." and test your output.

Then run the design checker under Tools and see if that spots any issues and
if you "fix" anything, test your output again.

Then try switching the default Encoding from what ever it is to Unicode
(UTF8), Western European (ISO), and Western European (Windows), and test
your output each time.

Hopefully one of those steps will make a difference, and then you should
plan on either reducing and optimizing your images with a third party image
editing program before you insert them, and/or compressing the images.
Reference: "Compress graphics file sizes to create smaller Publisher Web
pages":
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011266301033.aspx

I am not a big fan installing all Microsoft updates and patches, because
while they seem to fix some things, they sometimes break other things.
However, have you been keeping current? I am also not so convinced that this
will help as the examples of this I have encountered in the past has
occurred both prior to installing SP2, and after, and on several computers.
Anyway, when I followed the "error report" generated and more information
given, I was directed to this page at MS:
http://oca.microsoft.com/en/response.aspx?SGD=169e436e-8a69-4b0e-9dd9-8bc4e34b6b3f&SID=1476
It didn't provide me with any insight, but perhaps it will you...

Post back your results and answers to my questions above, and hopefully
something will have helped. In the meantime, I will try to get more help
from MS and try to think of other possible solutions. And if David Bartosik,
Don, Rob, Chuck, John, Mary or anyone else that might be reading this thread
has any suggestions, please jump in. And speaking of Chuck, he posted a link
to a free website building program recently, that you might consider using
to rebuild your site if you don't have FrontPage or some other program and
we can't find a solution to your problem. And speaking of that, do you have
access to a copy of Publisher 2000? I haven't read where anyone using Pub
2000 has had this problem, and you can install it along with 2003 in a
separate folder, and run both. Anyway here is the link to the program Chuck
suggested:
http://www.nvu.com/index.php

Gotta go...hope that something I suggested here will fix the problem...

DavidF

 

[DavidF]

John,

I didn't think you would be reading this group, but I am glad you posted.
And you are partially correct...FireFox does load the home page, but the
links are broken. Still it is helpful to see what the poster is trying to
do. If you have any suggestions, please jump in. Thanks.

DavidF

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

I'd suspect, since the site is rendering in Quirks Mode, that the doc type
is incorrect.



|I have a website I put together for a local festival using MS Pub 2003.
Used
| a prior version last year on my computer at work Pub2000 (never had a
| problem). In checking prior to using FTP, the site worked fine (all
| hyperlinks etc worked fine). In posted to FTP and host, it just will not
| work. Continually get the same message the IE has to close. In checking
this
| on another computer the same thing. The IE suggested that I disable the
| add-on's until the problem is solved. Ended up disabling all the add-on's
| (about 12). No change.
|
| In transferring to FTP I use the Pub "Publish to Web", key FTP site
address
| etc, it shows the transfer. In posting to the host, I key the files from
the
| "My Network Places" and clicking on "index" where the files are listed. I
| omitted the "wmz" files thinking that was causing the problem. Inreading
the
| other blogs I saw this wasn't a problem and went back and keyed those in
as
| well. Still the same thing. This site is about 17 pages.
|
| I found one problem was the firewall and disabled that and was at least
able
| to post to the FTP site. (Using Earthlink and subsequent add-on's).
| I went so far as to create a simple 1 page site from the templates
provided
| but still the same thing, same error message. Is there a simple fix here,
| I've spent obscenely too many hours on this. Ironically, this site is no
| bigger than what I did last year on Pub 2000. Am I overlooking something?
|
| The site is "www.celebratemidlandmagic.com". Any help or suggestions will
| really be appreciated!

 

[DavidF]

Scott,

I think that if some of the steps that I suggested before don't work, that
your best bet is to simply reproduce the site with Pub 2000. Personally I
like it better for web building for a number of reasons. Just do a custom
install in a separate folder, and you should be able to run both 2000 and
2003 together.

I did get some more information since I last posted, and I wouldn't hold out
hope for a fix for Pub 2003. It would appear that all of Microsoft's efforts
are being devoted to Publisher 2007, which is supposed to be released late
this year or early next.

I am still interested in attempting to solve this problem. Let me know how
big your file is, and I may ask you to email it to me if you are open to
that. I would like to test it with both 2003 and 2007. I also heard today
that the issue might have something to do with what kind of server is used.
Is your site hosted by a windows server or an apache (unix) server?

DavidF

 

[Scott]

David,
You've been real helpful and I thank you for that. I am late getting in
this evening and think I need an early bedtime for a change. This web
problem has not just encouraged more hair loss but sleep deprevation as well.
All that said, I've read your prior posts and am going to look into that.
Couple of quick notes:

I don't have a problem sending you the file if that will help. The size as
listed from the MS Pub file listing is 3.9mb. There are a number of pictures
listed at the request of the group I am doing this for which contributed to
the size. In keying this to the FTP host, there are 170 files. I may need
some assistance in trying to email this as an attachment (had a problem
sending this to my computer at work when I was putting this together
originally).

Quick answers to your questions:
I have copies saved. I have successfully launched a site prior (again using
Pub 2000), Last year updating as often as every other day as we got closer to
the festival date....no problems at all. Purchased 2003 in mid spring right
after I purchased a new PC for home. I have used the Publish to the Web tab,
FTP site, then opening the FTP via "My Network Places", pulling from the
index and then click on each file. I have not done a design checker on 2003,
did not see the tab however did that frequently on 2000 (easier found...for
me anyway). Web Host is Network Solutions and using their FTP Manager to
upload. Purchased FrontPage 2000 couple of years back but found it
cumbersome to figure out....Publisher was so much easier for me.

I have reworked a website through the webhost system (Network Solutions)
that I hope to get posted tomorrow so that will take the pressure off of me
at least for the moment however I would like to learn what I can do to fix
the problem. The suggestion to redo this on the Pub 2000 isn't out of the
question. The problem there is that program came with the computer and all I
have is the MS Small Business backup disc to load. (Will I be able to load
that on my home PC even though I own both units? I was told no when I
purchased 2003 at the first part of the year.)

The interesting thing from what I have learned in the past couple of days
about Pub 2000 and 2003 is that when I would put together something at work
and publish it, it worked (using 2000), when I put together something here at
home (2003), it would not. It was more convenient for me to work from home as
I had everything here, including time to some extent, to do that. All my
recent upgrades and redos have been done at home on 2003, all failing to work
properly since first of May. The upgrades I did with 2000 were mere date
changes and such to keep the site "fresh". Using a simple web template from
2003 with 1, 2 or 3 pages would not (did this trying a mere process of
elimination).

I will certainly try the suggestions you have made and will post back asap.
thanks again!!
Scott

 

[DavidF]

Network Solutions offers both Windows and Unix platforms for hosting your
site. Which did you choose?

Did you start with a Pub 2000 template or a Pub 2003 template? Did you open
your original Pub 2000 file for your old website, in 2003 to produce your
new site?

I would like to test your Pub file. I don't need the HTML files, just the
single *.*pub file. Send it through http://www.yousendit.com/ , to
"dahveedf" via the gmail dot com route. Hopefully you can figure out the
address...I get too much spam already. To confirm the address, email me
directly without the file.

Good luck in your testing.

DavidF

 

[John G]

David,
I read this group and MsPP all the time.
I have learnt quite a lot, mostly from you in this group.

I am not an MS (Microsoft) hater, without MS the computer industry would
still be struggeling with command line operations that Joe Average would
never want to come to grips with.

It is never the less nice to see some choice being offered by such as
Firefox.
And I could not resist saying FF seemed to handle this particular
problem better then IE.

I use (not heavily) Pub 2003 and FTP without a problem so I must read
up and see why I should not use FTP. Can you repeat the reference
please.

Keep up the good work, I do not know where you get the time to reply so
often.

 

[DavidF]

John,

Thanks for your comments. I didn't think you were a MS hater, as much as
"disliked" the idea of using Publisher to produce websites...that was why I
was surprised.

I also am glad for FireFox and choices, which will hopefully get MS to be a
bit more responsive. I would especially like to see Publisher improved to
work better in FireFox and other browsers, but am not holding my breath.
After all, it is a DTP, and with many resources going to develop the
FrontPage replacements, there aren't many resources left for Publisher. My
computer guru uses FireFox exclusively, and is constantly pushing me to do
so. However, to help out in this newsgroup, I need to use IE primarily.

The primary reason for not using FTP is if you are using a Publisher
generated form on a web page. FTP uploading protocol will break the FPSE,
which are required for the form to work. The other reason might be that the
user might be less likely to forget to upload all the HTML files if they use
the HTTP protocol. Reference: "How to publish a Publisher web in HTTP":
http://msmvps.com/blogs/dbartosik/articles/80557.aspx
and: "Publisher web publication forms 101":
http://msmvps.com/blogs/dbartosik/archive/2006/01/07/80564.aspx

As to time...I don't sleep much <grin>. I started out just learning from
David Bartosik and then filling in for him when he was busy. It has started
taking a lot of time, but having all his content available for reference
helps a lot. I also guess I feel that if I am going to take the time to
answer someone, that I should be thorough, which of course takes time.

Anyway, I appreciate your comments, and as I said, please feel free to jump
in and help <grin>.

DavidF

 

[Scott]

I used the Unix platform. NS strongly suggested on the site to use that
instead of the Windows platform. Last year's site was done the same way.

I started this year with the Pub 03 template. To update the site, I used my
work computer (Pub 2000) and quickly changed the dates and just a page saying
an updated site would be posted soon. That one worked.

I started a new page on 03 which I tried to post from my home computer which
didn't work. I noticed the steps I was accustomed to were different. I
emailed myself a copy to my work computer and attempted to post it via Pub
2000. That one failed too. I figured with the size of the file(s) something
was screwed up, so I made a disc copy which I then loaded on my work
computer. That one also failed.

I then went back to my home computer and tried again, relearning the steps.
Failed again. Figuring I had done something wrong, I started over from
scratch again. Tried 3 different versions...all failed. The site had a
number of digital pictures the group wanted to see posted and I figured maybe
that had something to do with it,so I did yet another site from a Pub 03
template, just one page, no pics. That one posted for a short while when I
viewed the site from my home PC. I figured I was on to something.

I went to another computer at a neighbor(a Mac) to view the page from the
'net'. It failed to load. I went back to my PC, 'net', and same as before,
an error in Explorer. I ended up posting maybe 3-4 different versions from
Pub 03 templates from 1-3 pages, various alternatives....all failed.

Wrote to NS but did not get any response. Found the MS Blog and saw
similiar situations which brings me to where we are now.

I have since used the NS Webcafe to post an abbreviated version to at least
get the app forms available to the public until hopefully I can get something
worked out on this. Think my best avenue is to rewrite it in the Pub 2000 I
have at work as you suggested. (only problem I have there is my harddrive
crashed at the 1st of July. Have it replaced but lost all my archives from
the past 4 years with the pics, forms, logos etc I had to go by...another
story for another day). I've just got to find the time at work to do it.

I am going to send you the copy as requested. Thanks again for your
assistance.

Scott

 

[Scott]

Sent the Publisher file as you reqeusted. Trust I did this right and you have
received it.

Scott

 

[DavidF]

Scott,

Thanks, I did get your Publisher file ok, and using Pub 2003 to produce the
HTML, I uploaded it to a test site using FTP. Unfortunately, I was not able
to reproduce your issue...it works just fine. Under tools > options > Web
Tab I unticked "Enable incremental...", "Rely on VML...", and "Allow
PNG...", and had Encoding set to Western European (ISO). You might compare
your settings.

Perhaps the good news is that I uploaded to a Windows server, not a Unix. I
certainly don't understand the why for of all this, but was told that it
might have something to do with the hosting platform. In my layman's mind I
can't understand why this should be an issue, but perhaps it has to do with
the use of VML and the current coding engine. Who knows... I guess if you
want to pursue this, you will need to ask NS if there is some reason why
your site works on a Windows server but not their Unix server. Perhaps there
is some permissions issue or setting on their end that could make the
difference. And of course you could consider asking them to move it to a
Windows server. If you do move it, and it works, please post back.

Alternatively, as I suggested before, just go back to Pub 2000 for your web
building if you have that option.

If you do try Pub 2003 again, I would suggest that you compress the images
before you upload. I didn't and the images were very slow loading.
Reference: "Compress graphics file sizes to create smaller Publisher Web
pages":
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011266301033.aspx

I will keep your file and test it with Pub 2007, and perhaps different
settings, but I am not sure I have more to offer at this point. Thanks for
sending the file...

DavidF

 

[DavidF]

By the way, if you do go back to Pub 2000 you will need to change your
layout a bit. When you overlap images and text boxes in Pub 2000, you
generally end up with those elements combined into one lower quality GIF
image.

DavidF