Few to no people are experienced at building websites when they choose to
use Publisher, so don't feel like the lone ranger. I was where you were when
I started, and sometimes I had to read things over and over again before I
understood it. Sometimes I had to set it aside and come back to
it...sometimes I never did understand it.
The basic parts of that article that you need to know is you need to upload
your pdf files to your website, and write the link to where you upload them.
Most of us find that having a separate folder for downloads on our website
is best, but you can upload them anywhere you want. If you are using FTP
uploading, then log on to your website and create a new folder called
"downloads". This folder will be at the same directory level as the
index.htm file and the index_files folder that Publisher produces. If you
aren't using FTP then log into your webhost and go to the control panel they
provide. You should find some form of file management tool that will allow
you to create the subfolder.
Then upload the pdf files you want available for download to that folder. Do
not use any spaces or special characters in your file name. In fact you
should probably use all lower case to keep things straight. So say that you
upload a pdf file for the April 2007 general meeting...it might be called
genmeet2-27-97.pdf or genmeet-april.pdf...whatever. Then assuming that you
upload that file to the downloads folder you would write the hyperlink to
that file this way:
http://www.adamsptsa.org/downloads/genmeet2-27-97.pdf
This will tell the browser to go to your site and look in the downloads
folder for the genmeet2-27-97.pdf file. And as the articles suggests, if the
viewer has the Acrobat reader plug-in installed then the file will download
and open in IE.
Its really not that hard once you think about it. You wrote your hyperlinks
to where the pdf files were on your hard drive, which makes it just a tad
difficult for someone viewing your website to access...you know? ;-)
As to FireFox, that is another popular browser that is second in use behind
Internet Explorer. When you design a website you need to design your pages
so that they load in as many browsers as possible, and FF and IE work
differently. Eventually, if you want to be serious about making your site as
viewable as possible, you will download and install the free FF, and then
preview your webpages in it to make sure they look ok.
In the short term you should concentrate on your pdf files and do several
other things. First go to Tools > Options > Web tab and uncheck "Rely on
VML..." and "Allow PNG....". You should also compress your images:
Reference: Compress graphics file sizes to create smaller Publisher Web
pages:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/HA011266301033.aspx
Rewrite the links to your pdf files, and then upload fresh html files to
your host.
Have fun...DavidF
