Publisher and Expressions

[CWWJ]

My company is changing hosts and they have an independent IT person (who does
other work for them) who is going to re-publish the site I designed in
Publisher to the new host. He says he is going to download the site from the
present host and import it into Expressions, where he will center all the
pages and then re-publish to the new host. I was unaware that this could be
done. Is he right? I'd love to have a quick answer, since my company wants
to do this right away.

 

[CWWJ]

Thanks, David, as always. I did not think this could be done, but I had a
brief chat with their IT guy this morning and he said it could be done and he
knew how. He said he had attended an Expression meeting of some sort and was
told that the newer version of that software would convert Publisher files.
I thought it sounded like pie in the sky. Thanks again.

 

[DavidF]

No. Publisher code is too different. It would be better for the guy to
rebuild it in Web Expression from scratch.

FWIW, a method has been worked out to center Publisher web pages and is
posted fairly regularly. If you are interested, say so and someone will be
along to paste the boilerplate instructions.

DavidF

 

[DavidF]

Hey, let him try it...who knows, it could work.

DavidF

 

[CWWJ]

I have posted on the Expression Web site to see. Thanks again. As to the
centering issue, I re-designed my site last year to give the appearance of
centering. Here is the URL: www.burdin-adr.com. See what you think.

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

Nope.
Expression will barf all over Publishers html.


--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

 

[DavidF]

Actually I looked at your site the last time you posted, and thought you had
made a lot of improvements in the new design. I think the simulated
centering works pretty well, as it at least leaves an offset to the left of
the content. However, now of course if you did try to center the pages it
would look strange and certainly would not be centered. I think it works
pretty well the way it is for now.

FWIW I am also doing some more work and research about the 96 dpi vs.120 dpi
issue, and may have some additional information about that in the future. If
you want me to notify you, please post a munged up email address so I can
contact you.

DavidF

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

that is to say you'll be able to open it but it will most likely not be
practical to fix Pubs html.

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

 

[CWWJ]

Sorry I've been so long getting back to you. I've had other more serious
things going on. My company decided to let their IT freelancer who is
designing their scheduling software try to download the site using Expression
Web and republishing to the new ISP (never mind why, it's a complicated
"people" issue and my boss is a computer illiterate). That was almost a week
ago and he has done nothing yet (nor can he, according to the expert opinion
posted here and on the Expression Web community site).

As for the centering issue, I am content to leave things the way they are --
it is certainly a lot better than everything jammed over to the left margin
and an acre of padding on the right.

One final question: my site is uploaded using http protocol because there
was an issue of forms not working when FTP is used. Is that still a problem?
The new host said files must be uploaded via FTP (but then, that's what the
other host said, and it just wasn't true).

I am no longer concerned about 96dpi vs. 120dpi with Firefox.. We get zero
complaints from our client base about this, since 96dpi is the default
setting on new computers. Our site works perfectly in Firefox.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[DavidF]

No problem.

I am not surprised the IT guy has taken a week...or more. I just don't think
he is going to have much luck importing the Publisher html code and
converting it in Web Expression. But then again, it would be great if he
figures out a good and easy way of doing this, as there are Publisher web
people that would like to migrate to Web Expression and would prefer to not
have to rebuild their sites. Keep me posted if you will.

As per your question about FTP and HTTP uploading. Publisher HTTP uploading
protocol is dependent upon FrontPage Server Extensions. If your new host
does not offer FPSE, then you will not be able to use HTTP uploading
protocol. Furthermore if and when you switch to Vista you are going to have
some challenges learning how to use HTTP protocol. MSFT changed things. Also
it is my understanding that Web Expression does not use HTTP uploading, but
I could be wrong. Your forms are also currently dependent upon FPSE to work
correctly. However, they can be reconfigured to use a different server side
program as a form handler. You would change that in the 'Submit' button. You
would right click the 'Submit' button > 'Format Form Properties' which opens
a 'Command Button Properties' dialog. Click the 'Form Properties' button
which opens the 'Form Properties' dialog, and it is there that you opt to
use a forms program from your ISP rather than FPSE. Reference this article
for a better explanation: Publisher web publication forms 101:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/dbartosik/archive/2006/11/28/publisher-web-publication-forms-101.aspx
If you do use a different forms program supplied by your ISP, then you can
use FTP uploading. Otherwise FTP uploading tends to corrupt FPSE. You will
have to discuss this with the IT person. It could be a good time to move
away from HTTP uploading and FPSE in general.

FWIW your pages and your forms look the same in IE8 RTW as they do in IE7.
Furthermore, even when viewed at 120 dpi, it *appears* that they are simply
scaled up to 125% of normal size with everything proportional. Zooming down
to 100% renders your pages as you see them at 96 dpi. I need to do a bit
more testing before I will swear by that. With this said, you might use this
opportunity to address the problems you have when your forms are viewed in
FF at 120 dpi. If your new ISP does provide a different forms program, you
could have the IT guy rebuild and code your form to work with the new forms
program, and then you could just copy that code and insert it into your page
using the insert html code fragment tool, and use that form instead of the
one you built within Publisher. And for that matter, unless you are really
invested in being in charge of the website, you might use this opportunity
to just turn the whole thing over to the IT person and let them rebuild it
in Web Expression. Just some things to think about...

DavidF

 

[CWWJ]

Thanks for the info regarding FPSE. I will change that forms setting if the
new ISP does not support FPSE. I may have left the wrong impression: the IT
guy has no interest in rebuilding the site or any part of it. He simply
thinks he's using Expression as a means of downloading the site so that he
can simply turn around and republish it with no changes whatever. He can't
or he would have by now. I