Publisher 2003 as Content Management System

[EdB]

We would like to use Pub2003 as a lightweight tool to manage content on a
primarily static website. Most pages will be completely static, a few will
have periodic updates (FAQs, events, news, etc.), and one page will provide
a logic for an extranet. The extranet will be developed in .NET and none of
those pages (except the login page) would be managed by Publisher. It is
possible we will want to add functionality not supported by Publisher
natively, e.g., mouseovers.

Questions:

1) In your opinion, is Publisher the right tool for this? If not, what
would be better?
2) What are the problems, issues and considerations we should know about
going in?
3) What is the best way to apply a custom design template to the Publisher
part of the site in a way that it is easily carried over to the extranet
part?

Thanks

Ed

 

[David Bartosik - MS MVP]

I'm assuming from the context that the main piece will be asp.net.

1) In your opinion, is Publisher the right tool for this? If not, what
would be better?
FrontPage

2) What are the problems, issues and considerations we should know about
going in?

Publisher's target market - a small business looking to put a small web up.
It's limitations will prove troublesome for a large project as yours.

3) What is the best way to apply a custom design template to the Publisher
part of the site in a way that it is easily carried over to the extranet
part?

Publisher doesn't work that way. You want a design template than use
FrontPage.

Publisher code does not "carry over" well.