Unable to return to home page

[Kirsten Z]

I have been looking here for two days to find an answer to my question, but I
don't seem to find it, so here goes...

I am using Publisher 2003 to create a website: www.kravmagaor.com. I used
design checker and resolved any problems that were caught by the program.
When i preview the site, it all works fine and I can navigate back to the
home page just fine.

So I "published to the web" and saved the file as "krav maga oregon" on my
desktop. I then used WS_FTP to upload the file to my website at
Hostmysite.com sucessfully. From the FTP server I changed my "home page" to
"index.htm".

Now for the issue... I then go online to check the site and all looks great
(except slow to load graphics) that is until I try to navigate back to the
home page. I can tell in the URL that it is looking for
"http://www.kravmagaor.com/krav maga oregon.htm" which is not the name of
my home page "index.htm"...

I tried to change the names of the files, deleted and changed the navigation
bars...I have no clue what I am doing and how to fix this error? If anyone
has some help to offer, it would be greatly appreciated... also, I was
thinking about purchasing Frontpage or another web design software program..
any recommendations?

 

[DavidF]

I can see two basic mistakes that are easily fixed. One...do not put any
spaces in file names. It isn't even good practice to do it with folder names
when it comes to web files and folders. The second mistake, and most
importantly, when you Publish to the Web, save the file as "index.htm", not
"krav maga oregon.htm", and then rename it index.htm. When you save as
"index.htm" this will create a home page called "index.htm" and the
supporting folder will be called "index_files". So Publish to the Web and
this time create the correctly named file and folder, upload them, and while
you are there, delete the "krav maga oregon.htm" file and the ""krav maga
oregon_files" folder.

Also before you republish, be sure to go to Tools > Options > Web tab and
uncheck "rely on vml..." and "allow png..." and "...incremental uploads...".

Then compress your graphics. Reference: Compress graphics file sizes to
create smaller Publisher Web pages (2003):
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/HA011266301033.aspx
and you will be ready to republish your web files.

DavidF

 

[John G]

And this sight totally does NOT work in Firefox.
As David often advises, many people use Firefox and it is a good idea to
download it and test your sight with it as well as IE.
John G.

I can see two basic mistakes that are easily fixed. One...do not put any
spaces in file names. It isn't even good practice to do it with folder
names when it comes to web files and folders. The second mistake, and most
importantly, when you Publish to the Web, save the file as "index.htm", not
"krav maga oregon.htm", and then rename it index.htm. When you save as
"index.htm" this will create a home page called "index.htm" and the
supporting folder will be called "index_files". So Publish to the Web and
this time create the correctly named file and folder, upload them, and
while you are there, delete the "krav maga oregon.htm" file and the ""krav
maga oregon_files" folder.

Also before you republish, be sure to go to Tools > Options > Web tab and
uncheck "rely on vml..." and "allow png..." and "...incremental
uploads...".

Then compress your graphics. Reference: Compress graphics file sizes to
create smaller Publisher Web pages (2003):
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/publisher/HA011266301033.aspx
and you will be ready to republish your web files.

DavidF

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

he's probably using a Master Page



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

And this sight totally does NOT work in Firefox.
As David often advises, many people use Firefox and it is a good idea to
download it and test your sight with it as well as IE.
John G.

 

[John G]

Spell check doesn't know the difference between sight and site.

John G

And this sight totally does NOT work in Firefox.
As David often advises, many people use Firefox and it is a good idea to
download it and test your sight with it as well as IE.
John G.

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

big deal we know what you meant


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

 

[Kirsten Z]

Wow!!! Thank you for all of your help. I believe that it is fixed, not sure
about the firefox. I will have to reinstall that and see how it looks, so if
its not fixed, I will be back.

I can't say enough how I greatly appreciate the fast responsed, wonderful
informatiion and user friendly explanations from everyone.

Many Many Thanks,

 

[Rob Giordano \(Crash\)]

You're welcome.

Sorry to say none of your links are clickable in both IE and FF.

Are you using a Master Page?



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

 

[Kirsten Z]

Uh oh... I jinxed myself...

Well it was working on my IE and my husbands IE... I just checked it using
FF and the home page shows, but none of the links work. I noticed the
publisher has a master page (have no idea how it came about) but I read about
the problems it causes and I disabled it (or thought I had). When I tried to
delete it, it gave me a warning so I left it.

How do I get rid of it so FF users can view my site?

 

[Kirsten Z]

Also, I would greatly appreciate any feedback on the general theme, style and
layout of the website. I am still working on content and I am behind
schedule given all of my snafu's... I think it looks a little
"home-made" and would like to avoid that as much as possible but I am not
sure what is making it look that way...

 

[DavidF]

Kirsten,

You have made good progress, and the file naming is correct now. In most
cases the pages do view ok in both IE and FF, but you still have a few
issues.

Rob is correct that you should not use a Master Page in a Publisher web
publication, but I don't think that is your issue. Your primary cross
browser issues were fixed when you unchecked "rely on VML...", but you still
have some links that are not working and your navigation plan needs to be
tweaked.

Assuming that you do have FF installed now, if you view your home page:
http://www.kravmagaor.com/index.htm you will see that the main side navbar
links don't work. And yet when you view your FAQs page:
http://www.kravmagaor.com/index_files/Page1081.htm the side navbar links do
work. The question then is what did you do different on the home page? I
suspect that you have grouped the side navbar with another design element.
Select the side navbar on your home page in your Publisher file, and look to
see what you have it grouped with...and ungroup it. I suspect it is with the
text box that contains your phone number. Ungroup whatever design
element...the text box, if that is what is grouped, from your side navbar
and test the home page in FF. If grouping is not the issue, then study the
FAQs page and compare it to your home page...what did you do different?

You do not have to republish your site to test it in FF. When you Publish to
the Web, you direct your index.htm file and the index_files folder to your
computer in preparation of FTPing them to your host. Find the index.htm file
on your computer and right click the file, open with, FF. And of course you
can check the pages in IE by doing a web page preview directly from
Publisher assuming that you have IE set as your default browser.

If you have not grouped the side navbar on your home page with another
design element on the page, or you find what you did different on the FAQs
page, then I would suspect that you have corrupted your navbar. I say this
because if you look at your About page:
http://www.kravmagaor.com/index_files/Page360.htm you will notice that you
are missing some of the navbar buttons in the side navbar. The navbar on
this page at least needs to be repaired, and suggests that perhaps that is
the reason the navbar is not working on your home page. So first of all,
check to see if the navbar on the home page is grouped with another design
element, and if ungrouping it fixes it. Let me know the results and then I
will have a better idea of whether we can try to rebuild the navbar on the
About page, or whether you will need to rebuild the whole navbar.

You also have switched to a different navbar on the Programs page:
http://www.kravmagaor.com/index_files/Page419.htm
which could be contributing to the problem. If you follow those links from
your program page to the three subpages, or daughter pages, about the three
programs, the links on those subpages do not work either. Check to see if
grouping is the reason for this. Once you figure out what is killing the
links in the side navbar on some of the pages on your site, then we can also
discuss whether you should be using a different wizard built navbar or the
main site navbar...but one thing at a time.

Don't be overwhelmed with all this. Once your get the navigation structure
figured out and fixed, you will be able to get on with building the rest of
your site.

DavidF

 

[DavidF]

Good guess, but when you see all the text bunched up on the left hand side
like that in FF, it usually is because of the VML. If you uncheck that
option under tools > options > web tab, that fixes the majority of problems
with the page rendering correctly in FF. MSFT removed that option in 2007,
which was a move in the right direction at least.

If the user puts the navbar or any images on a Master page, that usually
results in those elements not being visible when viewed in FF, or in some
cases causes other errors.

DavidF

 

[Kirsten Z]

Well I was unable to locate the difference between the FAQ and Home pages.
The navigation bar is not grouped to anything. I wanted to use different
navigation bars on some of the pages for the purposes of a cleaner looking
page and simplification of browsing. However it looks like it is buggering
up my webpage and I will have to delete the navigation bars and start over.
I have not checked FF yet... I will do that next.

I don't have any problem using the nav bars in IE so I am not sure why there
is a difference between what I see and what you see viewing the pages in
IE... I just used the wizard in publisher to design the navigation bars. Is
there a better way to do it?

Now I see why I should pay somebody else to do this.. lol.

 

[DavidF]

Let me take a step back. All your links work fine in IE. The problem is in
viewing the pages in FireFox. That is where I am seeing links that are not
working. If you view your home page in FF, and mouseover the main side
navbar, you will notice that none of the links work. Just look at the bottom
of the browser at the status bar as you mouseover the links. Now go to the
FAQs page, and when you mouseover the side navbar, the links are
active...once again look at the status bar as you mouseover the links.

Publisher produces code that is "optimized" for IE, and effectively another
set of code for all other browsers. That is why the links work ok in IE but
not in FF. It is also the reason that your pages didn't render correctly in
FF until you unchecked the VML option. The goal should be to build your site
such that it has good cross browser compatibility. If you get your pages to
render and function correctly in both IE and FF, then those pages will work
pretty much with any browser. You may feel that this is not worth the
effort, but more and more people are using FF and alternatives to IE, and
you want your site to work no matter what the viewer is using...or at least
that should be the goal.

Now as to the question of why the navbar doesn't work on the home page and
does work on the FAQs page (in Firefox), it is hard to help you trouble
shoot it, if it isn't grouped with some other design element. If you have
the text box that contains the phone number and the website behind, or
overlapping the navbar, you might try to select it, and go to the Arrange
menu and Order and send to the back, select the navbar and bring to the
front...and see if perchance that helps. If it doesn't then make the text
box with the phone number just big enough for the numbers, and don't let it
overlap the navbar. In fact, before you do that just drag that text box off
into the scratch area temporarily (that gray area of each side of your work
area), Publish to the web and test the home page in FF, and see if that text
box has anything to do with the navbar at all. I think that it is worth your
time to try to figure this out, because I think that this is the only main
left side navbar that does not work in FF, and there is something you have
done special on that page that is killing the links. Fix it, and you won't
have to rebuild the navbar on every page. So try those two possible fixes
before you do resort to rebuilding the whole navbar with the wizard.

I would also take a moment here to remind you that you should make a backup
copy of your Pub file each time you start making major changes to the
pages...especially to the navigation system. That way you can always go back
if you mess up something.

To save some time, and in trying not to overload you, please focus on the
navbar on the home page, and then I will address the rest of issues about
using shortened menus etc. We can do that at the same time as talking about
how to rebuild the navbar bars as necessary.

Oh and one other thing...tell people where the training center is...what
city....Oregon is a big state!

DavidF

 

[Deano]

Sorry to interupt but your navigation bar hyperlinks also appear to be
offset. I have to navigate my mouse to the left of the text on the index page
to pick up the hyperlink.

 

[DavidF]

Good catch, and glad you joined in! I went back to the index/home page and
after several tries managed to find an active link spot all the way to the
left exactly over the line/border around the navbar. That leaves me thinking
that the text box may indeed be overlapping the navbar. In which case the
"send to the back" solution may work...or reducing the size of the text box
so it does not overlap the navbar at all, might be the solution. If nothing
else, it at least gives Kirsten another clue as to what is going on. Thanks
Deano!

DavidF

 

[Kirsten Z]

OK guys... I think its fixed in both FF and IE, if you can confirm that. I
can't take any credit for it however. Sean from Hostmysite.com was reading
this thread (thanks Sean) and fixed it for me. Just went back in and made
sure the nav bar was infront of everything to ensure no issues with that part
of it.

So as you can imagine, I thank goodness for you guys AND Hostmysite.com... I
just can't say enough good stuff about them, from their online live chat
help, to the above and beyond service I just got from Sean!

OK, now enough "props"... what else is broken and needs help on my little
site?

 

[DavidF]

You really need to install FF and test your site as you build it, and before
you upload it. FF is a relatively small download and when you install it,
just opt out of making it your default browser.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/
Then when you want to test your site, Publish to the Web and direct your web
files to your hard drive where you can find them. Go to the index.htm file
and the other .htm files in the index_files folder, right click, open with
FF.

One issue that you can fix now or later is the bottom navbar. For some
reason when you produce your navbars with the Publisher wizard, the bottom
navbar never works in FF. The fix is to select the bottom navbar, go to
Arrange > Ungroup. But when you do this it will ungroup the bottom navbar
from the navbar wizard. So if you add a page to your site, you can
automatically add the link button to the side navbar, but you will have to
add the link manually to the bottom navbar...they will no longer sync. I
would wait until you have your site mostly built and you know that you won't
be adding any more pages.

Good luck.

DavidF