Hi Steve,
I just checked a few minutes ago and it looks like you are making progress.
That image I referenced before is now just 6.25 kb...sure loads a whole lot
faster.
Now as per the links and the "rely on vml..." . Definitely leave that option
unchecked as it is essential for a Pub 2003 web to render in FireFox and
thus other non-IE browsers.
As to why the links don't work, currently it appears that your links are
being converted to an image, which will kill them. Also much of the rest of
your page is also being converted to images including the main text on the
home page. Now there are a number of reasons for this happening, but it is
hard to tell for sure which is the reason for your situation, so I will just
go through the list of the most common reasons.
First of all, to help you identify those things that are being converted to
an image, the easiest way is when you Publish to the Web and produce your
index.htm file and your index_files folder, direct those files to a folder
on your hard drive somewhere you can easily find them. I suggest the desktop
for now. Now go to the index_files folder and open it, and switch to
thumbnail view (view > thumbnails). Now you can scan the files in that
folder to find where text and your links have been converted to an image.
Look first for the main text box on your home page and the navbar links.
I am guessing that there are one of two reasons your navbar has been
converted to an image, along with the text in the main section of your home
page. The first one is easy to test. Go to your home page in your Pub
publication and Edit > Select All and then to Arrange > Ungroup. When you
group different design elements together it is handy for moving them all
around while you are laying out your page, but if you leave them grouped
together and publish your web files Publisher will make a combined image of
the different design elements. Note that this also fixes a problem with
Publisher wizard built navbars rendering in IE8, too. So after ungrouping
everything on every page of your publication, publish new web files to your
desktop, and go back and look at the thumbnails again.
If there are any left, and there are likely to be, then the next step to
take has to do with the way Publisher 2003 deals with fill color in text
boxes. In most cases if you use a fill color, once again a text box will be
converted to an image. Now, even if there are no links in that text box and
the text box looks sorta ok in FF, you should still fix this. The reason
being that you want the search engines to be able to be able to read that
text when they index your site, plus there is always the possibility that
someone a sight disability using a text reader will want to view...read your
site.
So assuming that your main text box is being converted to an image because
of the fill, you have two options. You can remove the fill, or if you want
to keep the look you have then here is a workaround. The first step is to
remove the fill from the text box. Now go to Arrange > Snap > and make sure
that at least the 'To Objects' option is checked. This will make the next
step easier.
Go to Insert > Text box and then put the cross hairs on the upper left
corner of the main text box where you just removed the fill color. Left
click on that corner and holding the left mouse button down, drag a new text
box down to the lower right corner of the original text box. The Snap to
feature should make it easy to make a new text box exactly the same size as
the original text box. If you let up on the left mouse button then don't
worry about it. Just position the new text box over the original ones and
drag the sides until they snap to the sides of the original text box. Now
fill that new text box with the original color > Arrange > Order > Send to
Back. You just put the color filled text box behind your original text box
that still has the text but no color, and it should look exactly as it did
before...you have layered the text boxes. But now when you publish new
webfiles the text will not be converted to an image and existing links will
be preserved.
At this point let me give you another couple tips. You can test your pages
in FireFox without uploading them. Once you publish to the web and direct
the files to your desktop, then find the index.htm file or the other .htm
files in the index_files folder, right click, open with FF. This will allow
you to preview the pages before you upload them. Now, the second tip...try
this before you rebuild the text box as per my instructions above. Once you
open your page in FF, try to left click and drag to select some of the
text...if you can't, then it is an image. Between this technique and looking
for the thumbnails you should be able to identify every place in your
publication where the text has been converted to an image.
Ok, the next step. I believe that the main text box and your navbar is
probably being converted to images either because of grouping or using fill
color, but there is at least one other thing that Publisher can choke on.
Sometimes borders can convert design elements into images. I haven't found a
fool proof rule for this but it seems that the fancier the border, the more
likely it is to happen. So, as a rule if you have ungrouped, adjusted for
the fill color issue, and if the design element is still being converted to
an image, then either remove the border or change it to a simple thin
border. Test as you go to see what works.
I bring this border issue up because though I doubt that it is affecting
your text boxes I think it might be affecting the quality of the images you
see on your home page in FF. Generally after you compress your images,
Publisher will use the same image for both IE and FF, but in your case I am
seeing that FF is loading a low quality gif file copy of your images. Now, I
could be wrong as you have been switching different versions of your web
files. But if you look at them and they seem a bit fuzzy and lower quality
than the version in IE, then try either dropping the borders entirely or
going with a simple thin black border and test the results. Now add the
color back into the border and test again. And if things are still working
well, you can increase the thickness of the border until it pleases your eye
and does not result in the image being converted into the low quality gif
file. You can also spot the duplicate gif files using thumbnail view in the
index_files folder...
Ok, I have written enough for now. I realize that I wrote a lot of detail
but it is not as difficult as it might appear on face value and I wanted you
to understand not only the 'fix' but also the 'why', and with that knowledge
you should be able to troubleshoot any remaining cross browser issue you
might have with your site. It boils down to ungroup, not use fill colors or
layer fill color design elements, and check for how the borders impact your
pages. Oh and don't use a Master page, but in your case I don't think you
are.
Of course if you run across something that still isn't working correctly,
then post back with a link to the specific page and specifics about the
issue and I will help you work out a solution for that. In fact, do post
back and let me know how it worked out.
DavidF
