Problem loading Pub 2003 website

[JennyJ]

I hope someone can help with this. I have tried everything I can think of and
looked for answers on the board to no avail. I am trying to load my website
onto godaddy and only get the first page and now images. The images are
uploaded to godaddy. My nav links are working. When I do a preview in
publisher everything works fine and I can't figure it out. I had a one page
loaded a couple weeks ago, got feedback that I should make it multi-page so I
changed it and now can't get it loaded. The other feedback I got on the
single page site was that it wasn't visible in firefox. I'm not a techy and
don't understand much of the language. Can someone help me in a simple to
understand language, please. I' have spent hours and hours and am really fed
up!

 

[Spike]

Jenny

What is the URL?

Spike

 

[JennyJ]

picturethepotential.com - guess I should have mentioned that huh?

 

[DavidF]

Relax...you have the hard part done...you have the content the way you want
it. Now you just need to produce your web files correctly and make sure to
upload all of them.

Unless you change the default settings in Pub 2003 when you produce your web
files Publisher will produce a home page and an 'organizing support folder'
that contains all your other pages and the supporting pictures and graphics.
And once again unless you change the default, you will get an 'index.htm'
file (your home page) and an 'index_files' folder...the organizing/support
folder. You must upload both the home page and the support folder to the web
host, and you have not uploaded the support folder. That is why you have no
images on your home page and cannot get to the other pages of your site.

You have further complicated matters by at some point naming your home page
'PT Potential.htm' instead of using the default of 'index.htm'. This
resulted in all your links in your navbar looking for the other pages in a
subfolder called 'PT%20Potential_files'. (The %20 is because you used a
space in the file name...never use spaces in a file name.) You can observe
this by mouseing over the links and looking at the status bar. And if you
follow these links you get 'page not found', because you did not upload the
"PT Potential_files' folder to your host.

To fix these issues you need to republish and upload new web files, but
first go to the first page of your publication and go to Tools > Web page
options and under 'Publish to the web', leave the field beside 'File Name:'
blank. You do not want to call your home page 'PT Potential'. Then go to
Tools > Options > Web tab and uncheck 'Rely on VML for faster graphics
downloading'. This will fix the major reason your page is not rendering in
FireFox.

Now you are ready to produce new web files so go to File > Publish to the
Web to produce your web files. Do not go to File > Save As > Web page in Pub
2003! When you Publish to the web under File name choose 'index' as the
default for your home page, not 'PT Potential'. You will get a new index.htm
file and an index_files folder. Upload both to your web host, and your site
should work. Upload the 'index_files' folder intact with the files within
it. Be sure to overwrite or manually delete the old Publisher .htm files on
your host. There may be an old 'index.htm' file, an old 'index_files' folder
and/or a 'PT Potential.htm' file and/or a 'PT Potential_files'
folder...delete those.

You will probably still have a couple formatting issues with FireFox but the
main pages should load. You should download and install FF and test each
page yourself. Once you get your pages to render correctly in both IE and FF
then your site should also render correctly in Safari, Opera and Chrome. So
test your pages and when you find other issues, post back with the specifics
and we will help you tweak your layout or formatting so your pages enjoy
good cross browser compatibility. It is not that hard to get Publisher pages
to be cross browser compatible, but concentrate on the main publishing
issues right now.

It is hard to tell at this point but I would guess that you should also plan
on compressing the pictures in your site so your pages load more quickly and
the images will also look good in FF.

Reference: Compress graphics file sizes to create smaller Publisher Web
pages (2003):
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/HA011266301033.aspx

Reference: Compress Pictures dialog box (2007):
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA100363901033.aspx?pid=CL100605171033

And finally, eventually when you have your site working much as you want,
you will need to 'ungroup' your navbars in order for them to render
correctly in IE8. You can read other posts about this issue, or post back
for more information, but for now just uncheck the 'rely on vml..' option,
compress your graphics and republish your new pages and get that working
before you start tweaking the formatting. You are almost there...

DavidF

 

[JennyJ]

Thanks for all your input David. I did everything you suggested, I got with
godaddy help and did a few more things. I'm getting closer all the time. Mt
pictures still won't load, although one of the before pictures on the gallery
page loaded for some reason and we can't figure out why. The help person at
godaddy downloaded frontpage extensions for me but so far that doesn't seem
to be helping. Maybe not ready yet - he said give it some time. Do you think
that's why the pictures don't show up? Or have any other ideas.?

 

[JennyJ]

Also I downloaded firefox and it still doesn't show up there at all.

 

[DavidF]

One thing you did not do that will make a difference is when you are ready
to produce your web files go to File > Publish to the Web... You are still
doing a File > Save As a Web page. Produce a new index.htm file and a new
index_files folder and upload both. Be sure to upload the index_files folder
intact with all the files within it.

And once again, go to Tools > Options > Web tab and confirm that you do not
have "rely on vml...' checked.

Did you compress your images?

You might also run Design Checker under Tools to see what errors that spots.

Do those two things and answer the one question and post back with your
results.

DavidF

 

[JennyJ]

Thanks so much David. I really thought I had done all that. I kept at it
tonight and mostly have everything up. I checked it in Firefox and IE and
there seem to be a few link problems and small glitches, but I think I will
sleep on it and try agin tomorrow. Jenny

 

[DavidF]

JennyJ,

Good job thus far. I see that the site is working in IE7...images and all,
and also is loading ok in FF, but as you said there are a few things that
still need to be tweaked.

One of the things you will need to do is to 'ungroup' everything on your
pages before you publish your web files. When you group design elements
together, then in FireFox those elements will be rendered as a combined
image and usually a low resolution image. If you group a text box with a
hyperlink with another text box or image, then all the text will be
converted to an image, and the hyperlink will be killed.

Work through your pages and ungroup the design elements and you will
probably find that in most cases your links will now function correctly in
FF. Save the changes.

You will also need to ungroup the wizard built navbars eventually too. Right
now you will notice in FF that your bottom navbar links do not work
correctly....once again converted to an image. If you view your site in IE8
then the navbars will not render at all...in fact no grouped items will
render in IE8.

So prior to producing new web files and uploading, make a copy of your
publication by doing a 'File > Save
As' and in this copy go to each page > Edit > Select All > Arrange >
Ungroup. This will ungroup the Publisher built navbars and disconnect them
from the wizard, and the navbars will render correctly in IE8. Then 'Publish
to the Web' from this copy of your publication.

When you want to make further changes in your web, go back to the original
Publisher file, make the corrections there, save your changes, and again
make a copy, ungroup the navbars and produce new web files for uploading.
The advantage of this workflow is that you will not have to rebuild the
navbar if you choose to add a page to the navbar. Once you get to the place
where you don't anticipate needing to add a page to your website, you can
permanently ungroup the navbars and skip the step of saving a copy.

After ungrouping the design elements if you find other issues that still
don't work correctly in both IE and FF, post back with the particulars and
we well help you with those.

DavidF