publishing to web using Office Publisher 2003

[Bethesda Rose]

I created a website using a template in Publisher 2003 and "published it to
web"

The Website looks exactly as envisioned in mozilla firefox but the links to
other pages of the Website disappear in IE8. I've set to compatibility view
for all websites in IE8.

I was advised by my webhoster to use the W3C validator service
http://validator.w3.org/ to verify that I have valid HTML in my site. When I
do this, the Publisher-generated webfiles show hundreds of errors.

I ran the design check in Publisher 2003 and the only problem it detected
was the need to add alternative text to all my photos/graphics -- which I
fixed. Am I missing an important step or update that needs to be installed
with Publisher (2003) to get it to "publish" clean (i.e. error-free and
viewable) files?

 

[Spike]

Start with:

Create a web site with nav bars etc.
Saved web site as "My web site.pub"
With the pub page open
Ctrl a (selects all)

Arrange > Ungroup

This insures that all groups are ungrouped
This must be done on ALL pages individually
Re-Saved using Save As "My web site NBUG.pub"
I take the step to "Save As" so that when I shut down publisher and I get a
prompt to save my changes I do NOT overwrite the master file "My web
site.pub" accidentally.
Publish to the web
FTP to the server
Web site works using IE 8

If a change, update is required or a page is added
Open with "My web site.pub"
Make changes
Follow the above suggestions
BTW NBUG = "Nav Bars Un Grouped"


Spike

 

[Bethesda Rose]

This totally worked! I also saw the stream from May 2009 with the same issues
so sorry for the redundant posting. Thank you so much for taking the time to
reanswer the question. I REALLY appreciate it!

 

[DavidF]

A longer answer:

IE8 is designed to render webpages in a more 'standards code compliant' mode
than any previous version. In general, many websites built by many different
programs including Publisher do not produce 'standards compliant code' and
have 'compatibility' issues in IE8. This also means that neither Publisher
code or millions of websites will 'validate' without error at
http://validator.w3.org/. Even so, you can still build webs with Publisher
that will have good cross browser compatibility.

If you care to read more about the details about IE8 compatibility here are
two articles:

Reference: Release Notes for Internet Explorer 8: Compatibility issues with
websites:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/dd441788.aspx

Reference: MSDN IEBlog:Just The Facts: Recap of Compatibility View:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/02/16/just-the-facts-recap-of-compatibility-view.aspx

Unfortunately this is the price of progress, but luckily the only
compatibility issues with Publisher 2003 and 2007 and IE8 RTW reported thus
far are problems associated with 'grouping'. Any design elements that are
'grouped' together, which includes the Publisher wizard built navbars, do
not render when you view the web page in IE8. The fix in general is to
ungroup the elements. There have been no problems reported with Publisher
2000 webs that are produced at the IE3+ settings.

There is both a manual fix to these issues and a Service Patch that has been
issued to fix it for Pub 2007.

Reference: Navigation bars and other content is missing from Publisher HTML
output in Internet Explorer 8: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969705

A manual method of fixing this grouping issue:

Prior to uploading your pages find all text boxes and other design elements
that are grouped together and ungroup. You can save those changes to your
publication. Then 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 navbar and disconnect it from
the wizard, and the navbars will render correctly in IE8. '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. If you do not need to add a page, you can leave
the navbar ungrouped and skip the step of saving a copy.

This is also fixed with the Office 2007 SP2: Reference: Description of 2007
Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2) and of Microsoft Office Language
Pack 2007 SP2: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=953195

The usual caveat also applies. While I would never recommend to anyone that
they not install any security or service patch, when you install service
patches there can be unintended consequences. You might fix one thing only
to break something else. While I have not had any problems on a test
computer there have been other people who have posted about problems opening
existing Publisher files after installing the Office 2007 SP2.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=953195 lists some of the other known
issues along with some of the things this patch fixes in Office 2007
applications.

If you do have problems after installing SP2: Microsoft Service Pack
Uninstall Tool for the 2007 Microsoft Office suite:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954914/en-us

If it were me, I would probably ungroup the navbars manually rather than
install the SP2 for the short term, and wait until MSFT debugs the Office
2007 SP2, rather than risk not being able to open pre-existing Publisher
files. But to each their own...

The fix for the SP2 bug was due today, but as of this writing I have not
heard of it being available. Stay tuned.

DavidF

 

[Bethesda Rose]

Thanks for the additional details -- very helpful! rose

 

[kevhatch]

Hi,
Apologies for hijacking this thread.
I have a website, www.takingthelongwayhome.co.uk (currently 36 pages, using
Publisher 2003) which was working perfectly fine with IE7 and Mozilla. Now
when I view it with IE8, my navigation bar links on the left of all pages
don't show. I have tried the compatability button with no change. I have also
read the previous replies and it sounds all too technical for my limited
experience, and, with the site growing (recording our 3 year round the world
trip) and the access and time issues associated with the trip, it sounds like
a lot of work.
Am I just going to have to suffer this and alienate I E users by recomending
viewing the site with Mozilla, or is there a fix on the way from MSoft??
Thanks
Kev Hatchett

 

[DavidF]

Kev,

Don't let my verbose answer overwhelm you. I provided all that extra
material for those people that want to understand the issue more completely,
but you can keep it simple.

It appears to me after viewing your website that the way you have it
organized you will not be adding any sections to the main navbar menu in the
near future. But it also appears that you are adding content regularly
within those sections. If I were you, I would just go ahead and ungroup
those navbars on each page one time and be done with it. Just go to each
page, File > Select All, then Arrange > Ungroup and save your changes.
Publish and upload new web files to your server, and this will fix the
problem with IE8. It really is that simple. If at sometime in the future you
want to add a section to your navbar, you can always rebuild it, and that
won't take that long.

DavidF

 

[kevhatch]

Hi David,
Thanks for the help. I have ungrouped each page as suggested and will upload
as soon as I get a strong enough connection. I am still running IE7 so will
have to wait till I get an internet cafe running IE8 but I have no doubts
about it working. You guys have helped me in the past with your expertise and
I am greatful for that.
Kev

 

[DavidF]

Kev,

You are welcome. Let us know when you have the new web files posted and we
can test it for you. Like you, I am in no hurry to move to IE8 on my
production machine given the criticism I have read about it. Never the less
we do have to account for others using it, and thus need to adjust our
Publisher webs accordingly.

Enjoy your adventure...I am envious. ;-)

DavidF

 

[kevhatch]

Hi David,
I have managed to update my website and all still looks ok on IE7. It would
be good of you if you could have a quick check for me on IE8.
Many thanks again for your assistance.
Kev

 

[DavidF]

Kev,

It looked ok to me in IE8...the navbars are rendering and the links are
live.

And by the way, if you are not optimizing your images before inserting them
via a third party image editor, then you should probably plan on compressing
the images before you try to upload your files. The compression will reduce
file size significantly and improve the quality of some images in FireFox.

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

DavidF

 

[John G.]

The top 2 links in Latest News do not work in Fire fox or IE 7 or 8.

John G.

 

[kevhatch]

Thanks for that David. I will look at compressing before I upload, I am using
Picassa 3 for all my pics and thought that that did all the compressing.

John,
Thanks for the info but which links do not work on "Latest News"? i have
just had a look on my laptop (IE 7) and all the links seem to be working.
Cheers
Kev

 

[John G.]

In the red box on the right the top 2 items do not show as links on any
computer (3) I have tried and on IE 7,8 or Firefox. That is New Pictures in
South Africa 3 Gallery and 06/04/2009 New Improved Picture Galleries.
Hope someone else can comment.

John G.

 

[kevhatch]

Thanks for that John,
That is all my fault, I haven't hyperlinked a couple of things in the red
box purposefully, maybe I should be more consistent on that front and either
hyperlink all or none.
But thanks for picking it up.
Kev