Re: Is Publisher 2003 an effective way of creating and managing a

Word, Publisher, Excel, PowerPoint were never designed to design websites
with although all will output a proprietary html (of sorts), not sure why
they did this imo it wasn't a good idea.



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






"Doug" <Doug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CCD0E4D5-274D-436F-84F6-EB9B8502F333@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks for your thoughts, David. Yes, I realized that Word was "pushing
the
envelope" regarding HTML coding -- the resulting pages are generally so
complex that I don't even attempt to manually tweak the coding. But they
worked, for years -- until Firefox came along. I hadn't even bothered to
install Firefox, until someone mentioned that the links on one of my sites
weren't working. It was then that I discovered massive incompatibilities,
incompatibilities which seem to have no solution.

I'm guessing that Microsoft specifically designed IE to be able to handle
code from its products. And now that Firefox has come along, Microsoft is
probably reluctant to make changes to accommodate this upstart
competition.
Understandable from their point of view, but from my point of view it's a
repeat of the disastrous Netscape/IE showdown, where the big losers were
the
Web designers of the world, who were expected to design separate sites for
Netscape and IE users.

I'm sure eventually Microsoft will get the message -- that Firefox isn't
going to go away. But for now, it seems that they're perhaps still hoping
it
will... ;-)

Doug

"DavidF" wrote:

Doug,

David Bartosik has not been active in this group for more than two years,
so
you will not be getting a response from him.

I don't disagree with much of what David says. He is a true expert and I
am
just a lay person that has chosen to use Publisher to build my site, and
have worked out most of the problems associated with cross browser
compatibility. I haven't used Word to build a site, but your comment
about
"...Word can do layout tricks that I can't do on any other
program -- stuff that Front Page can't even dream of..." is probably the
key
to your frustration. Word and Publisher are primarily programs for print
publications, and FrontPage for web publications. The simple fact is that
there "layout tricks" in a print publication that simply will not convert
to
html...there is no html equivalent. Print and web media are two different
things, and require two different mindsets and design approaches. With
Publisher at least, if you design your pages correctly keeping in mind
what
is possible and what is not possible in html, then you can build a site
with
good cross browser compatibility. You can look for an alternative to Word
or
Publisher, but ultimately it will probably not matter what program you
use
to build your site, you will still need to change your design and layout
in
order to convert it into html that is cross browser compatible.

This is not to say that you shouldn't move to Expression Web or some
other
program specifically designed for web building. It all depends on the
goals
and the scope of what you are trying to do with your site. But even if
you
do move to a different program, you will still have to work within the
limits of what you can and cannot do in html.

DavidF

"Doug" <Doug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:BD163646-BBB5-4065-9F93-56CBEB63B8CC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
So true, David. I just spent x hours trying to salvage my web pages
created
in Word after discovering that they don't display properly in Firefox.
After
reading your post, I'm finally giving up. In my experience, both Word
and
Publisher are endlessly frustrating for creating web pages (even before
this
Firefox fiasco). But the cross-platform incompatibility is the final
straw.

It's sad, because Word can do layout tricks that I can't do on any
other
program -- stuff that Front Page can't even dream of. I just tried Word
2007,
hoping that they'd worked out the bugs, but apparently MS has no
intention
of
ever making this into a reliable crossplatform web design program.

Forgive me, but I *am* assuming that this is Microsoft's failing,
because
it
seems very unlikely that Firefox would make non-compliant software.
They
have
no incentive to. Microsoft does.

So now I have to go find a new program and try to import all my
Word-authored web sites into it. And then try to duplicate what I did
in
Word...

As David said, plan ahead. And I'd add, plan on using something other
that
MS products.

Signed, one very regretful, and thoroughly disgusted ex-Word user,
Doug


"David Bartosik [MSFT MVP]" wrote:

Publisher is a desktop publishing tool that can save to html.
Publisher
does
come with web page wizards. It is important to be clear on the fact
that
Publisher is a DTP tool only with web page output ability, Word also
has
web
page functionality and can be used for a simple site, and also Excel
and
PowerPoint provide html output. While all the above mentioned tools
can
create a web page they are not web design nor html editors nor web
site
management tools. They do not allow for full support of all browsers,
nor
support the wide range of design techniques. That is where FrontPage
fits
into the Office Suite. FrontPage is the web site design tool.

With these facts clear you should be able to make an informed
decision.
Don't use Publisher if the possibility exists that it's limitations
will
be
an issue for you. If you still can't make a decision then I recommend
you
make a sample web page with Publisher ( and even Word as well ) to
find
if
you are comfortable with the results or not, and if you will be
long-term.
Long term planning is important because if you have big plans for your
site
then you don't want limitations.

David Bartosik - [MSFT MVP]
www.publishermvps.com
www.davidbartosik.com

"RKamm" <RKamm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:07BD49C8-30D4-439F-8772-00FF84F970BC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
What additional does FrontPage offer? Is it necessary for relatively
simple
web pages or will Publisher work ?







.

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