How do I paste a code snippet into the HTML Code Fragment dialog? By using the keyboard - Ctrl key + V key
How do I view and/or modify the HTML source code? No. Publisher is not an html editor nor is it a web design tool. More importantly there is no code for you to see nor edit. It simply doesn't exist. The html source is not created until Publisher writes it, which is when it generates the web site when you save the web publication as a web site.
How do I password protect my page(s)? This is a server side function outside the scope of Publisher. Speak to your web host about what options they support for permission based access. More advanced functionality such as an actual login/logout page requires web programming (not to be confused with web design) and typically a server side database with user data. That is beyond the scope of Publisher, take a look at http://www.asp.net instead.
How come I only got the first page when I saved the web publication as a web site? Publisher generated web pages for all the pages of your publication. You are just not being observant. Look again and you'll find a folder that has the same name as the home page file name. Look inside that folder. The home page web file and the matching folder are what compose the web site.
How do I use frames. You don't. Not with Publisher.
How do I make a drop down or fly out menu? This is a dynamic effect created by scripting. Publisher has zero scripting support and provides for zero dynamic effects. It is designed for static web pages and static text. You can however acquire a 3rd party menu and use Publishers HTML Code Fragment dialog to implement it.
How do I get a hit counter? See answer in previous sentence.
How come my text on the web page is not a accurate reproduction of the text box in the web publication? This is most typically due to the use of any type of Paragraph formatting to the text in the text box. Such formatting is for a print publication, and not a web publication where the results will be unpredictable. So do not apply things like - tabs, indents, line-spacing. Font face and font size are to be the only formatting applied to text in a web publication.
How come when I wrap text to an image the web page displays the text over the image? As of Publisher version 2002, wrapping text to an image in a web publication is not supported.
How do I get my Publisher web pages to display correctly in all browsers? Basically you don't. Publisher is designed to exploit the technologies of the Internet Explorer browser. Support in a non Windows IE browser is limited at best. It is a limitation of using Publisher for a web site.
A Publisher web publication form is comprised of form controls (fields, checkboxes) and a submit control.
A form requires server side processing. Your web host is the server. The web site visitors PC is the client. When a submit control on a form is clicked that tells the client browser to send the form control data to the server, the server then processes the data it received and responds back to the client. Publisher uses FrontPage technology (webbots) on the server to perform this (that's why you can't "preview" a form). A functional form requires - A) FrontPage Server Extensions (FPSE) installed on the web server (order from your web host) and B) your site must be published in the HTTP protocol, and C) the form properties must be properly configured on the Submit button control.
To use a Publisher form you must do two things:
use a FPSE enabled web host account
publish the Publisher web using HTTP
You can confirm that FPSE was successfully installed and are functional by browsing to the page "_vti_inf.html" at the root of your domain. For example - http://www.mydomainname.com/_vti_inf.html . If the FrontPage configuration page loads then that is your confirmation page. A "page cannot be found" or other such server error would indicate that FPSE needs to be installed or reinstalled by the host.
The extensions require HTTP file uploads to be functional, therefore if you need support for forms your site must be published via HTTP. Do not use FTP for publishing if you have FrontPage Server Extensions installed on your domain. See the HTTP publishing article.
After the form is submitted the page is redirected to a confirmation page. You cannot change that function nor change the confirmation page. That is not available in Publisher. FPSE processes the form submission and then dynamically generates a confirmation page listing the form controls it received. You can opt to not use FPSE for your form processing in which case your program may provide for a level of customization not available with Publisher and FPSE. If your host provides and supports a form program and you have the technical know how to program it (or your host assists you). In the form properties dialog for your form simply select the option to use "an ISP Program" and then input the server path and name of the form program.
The form controls have no validation functionality (you cannot require a field).
By default Publisher sets the tab order of the form controls (fields) in the order in which the controls are added to the page. The Arrange (front/back) feature can be used to set an explicit tab order in a form. This is done by selecting each control in the order you want the tab order to follow, and setting it to "bring to front". In v2003 you can right click the control and select Order, Bring to front. In v2002 you can use Alt + F6. Or just use the Arrange menu.
As an MVP for Publisher over some 5 years, it has never ceased to surprise me how many times I’ve read this question – “I lost my pub file (insert long story here), how do I get my web site back from the html files on the server?”
It’s obvious that a lesson in common sense (computing) is needed. So I’ll get on my soapbox before I delve into answering the particular question.
First, the maxim. “If the file is important to you, have more than one copy.”
Simple, seems common sense to me. After all, think of all the various things that are important to you. I bet you have some sort of protection for them.
Me personally, in all my years of computing I’ve lost 3 hard drives. Where they just go kaput. I’ve misplaced, deleted, or otherwise lost, a file I was working on more times then I know. Yet I’ve never “lost” a file. The worst case scenario is redoing some recent work in an older version of the file in question.
“If the file is important to you, have more than one copy.”
My computing workflow goes like this…
If the file is very important, I make a copy of it before I begin modifications to it. You can do this in various ways. What I do is open Windows Explorer and right click the file and select copy, then in the folder I want the copy of the file I right click and select paste. Sometimes I leave the file name as is, other times I may append the filename. For example – myprojectname_bku010106.pub . Where that would be the date I saved the file off before making a change to the original copy. Other times I may describe the change I’m going to make to the original copy – mycustomerfile_before I whacked half of it out.pub. But that’s how I do it, like I said there are different ways, like opening the file and then going to File, Save as, and simply saving off a copy that way. Though the difference in that is you’ll open up the copy version of the file, ready for editing. Where I prefer to use the copy version of the file as a “snapshot” of the file as of that moment and then go edit the original version of the file.
Doing this copying methodology serves three purposes, it provides an easy fallback if the changes I make turn out to be a big mistake (it’s usually easier to go back to the copy and start over then to back out significant changes to an original), it provides fallbacks if the original should become corrupted, it provides fallback files that I can burn off to CD and/or copy to a secondary hard disk. I use both additional hard drives and CD’s to archive files. I routinely copy them to another hard drive and then I occasionally do a larger backup to CD or DVD media. That way in a hard drive failure scenario my most recent files are recoverable from the separate hard drive, and older files are available on media.
If you need to, write “If the file is important to you, have more than one copy” on a post-it and affix it to your monitor.
As for implementing common sense computing in managing your Publisher web publication file I recommend the following…
First, decide what “minor change” and “significant change” mean to you.
Before making a significant modification to your web publication file make a copy of it as I covered above.
At the very least make a copy at random times. You’ll want to guard against file corruption of the web publication file.
Make your changes, publish the site, test it. Repeat if necessary.
Now once you have the site files, those html and image files, remember that those files are not important. Not at all. Why? Because the site is fully contained in the Publisher file. At any time you can publish again and replace those files. It is the .pub file, that web publication, that is important. Vital even. The irony is that your web host is backing up your site files every single day. Something you probably assume and take for granted because – it’s only common sense. Am I right ;-)
So take advantage of that. When you are done with your pub file, copy it to your web host account. These days the standard web host provider offers more disk space on their account offerings then you could ever fill up. (if you’re using some freebie then perhaps not) So take advantage of that. Most web host have a file manager tool that you can quickly upload the file. Or you can use an http web folder or an ftp tool. Whatever works for you. Start by creating a new folder on your account, call it what you like, perhaps “bkup”. That host file manager is perfect for creating a new folder. Then use that folder to copy the pub file to for its safe keeping.
Of course once you do that the file is accessible by simply browsing to its URL, for example – www.mysite.com/mypubfile/mysite.pub
The likelihood of anybody ever knowing that address without you telling them is pretty much zero, and even if someone downloaded it, what purpose would it serve. But, if this is of concern to you then just simply restrict access to that folder. Most web hosts have a control panel that allows you to set and modify access permissions to the files and folders on the server for your account. Speak to your host support if you need assistance in removing anonymous access to your folder. Once done the result is that when addressing that folder you are required to explicitly enter login credentials.
Hopefully by this point you have been energized with common sense computing skills and you know you will never lose your Publisher wed publication and your web site, due to hard disk failure, file corruption, or other disaster. But, what if this common sense hits you to late. What if you’re the dude going “can I get my pub file back from the html files on the server?”
First, kick yourself repeatedly.
Next, accept the answer. Which is, No. But sorta Yes. Well No is the short answer. Yes is the long answer. Which do you prefer?
I thought so.
No, you can’t download all the site files, not just html files mind you, you need the image files too, and have them magically morph into a Publisher web publication .pub file.
But, if you have version 2002 or version 2003, and you are willing to suck it up and apply yourself, then you can recreate the web publication file. So ask yourself, how important to you is it? ;-)
As of version 2002, Publisher will open a htm/html file. Which actually, technically, isn’t very useful since Publisher is not an html editor, nor a web design tool (i.e. FrontPage). However it’s handy in this situation. The kicker is, it’s only going to open one at a time.
Now is when your skills with the Ctrl + C (copy) and Ctrl + V (paste) keys comes into play.
How this works is that you open the index.htm (home page) file in Publisher (2002 or later) and then go to File, Save as, and save it as a .pub file. That gives you the new web publication file.
Insert new blank pages into the publication for how ever many web pages you have. Then there next to your publication you use a second instance of Publisher to open the next htm file. You copy everything on the page (either group, copy, or select all, or lasso, copy – whatever method you prefer) and you go over to the appropriate page in the new publication file and you do a paste. There you go. You repeat for each web page.
When you finally finish and have that recreated .pub file, then you will fully appreciate the time I took to write all this. At least I hope so ;-)
Publisher does not support setting a hyperlink with out the standard hyperlink underlining.
However it only takes a small snippet of CSS code to accomplish this on a web page.
You can drop an HTML code fragment (Insert menu) anywhere on the page and in the code fragment dialog just paste the following code:
<style>
a{text-decoration:none;}
</style>
That's it. I recommend sticking the code fragment up in the top right corner of the page and size it really small so it's unobtrusive. It's placement and size is not relevant to the layout of the web page.
In the publisher web publication the hyperlinked text will still display the underlining. The html file you get once you save as a web site will not display the underlining (assuming you copied the code correctly).
Oh but what if you want the underlining to return when the mouse cursor hovers over the link (known as mouse over).
That's easy, simply add this line into the CSS style...
a:hover {text-decoration: underline;}
You can also use this if you want the link to change colors on the mouse over:
a:hover {color: #ffffff;}
This example sets it to white. Use a color picker utility to locate the code for your desired color.
This CSS code is specific to the page it is on so it effects all links on the page, and it must be inserted on each individual page where you desire this over-ride of the hyperlink appearance.
When you open a web publication in Publisher version 2003 you will not find all the fonts installed on your system. Where did all the fonts go?
One of the most important things to remember when designing a web page is that you should only use the standardized "web safe" fonts. If you use a font other than one of the 8 web safe fonts, then your site visitor may view your content in a font their browser substitutes. That result can be unpredictable. To avoid that design 'mistake' the web publication only allows the appropriate fonts.
The 8 web safe fonts are: Arial, Comic Sans, Courier, Georgia, Impact, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, Verdana.
Publisher 2003 has not removed your other fonts, it is simply hiding them in a web publication in order to help you design as a Web Professional would.
This hiding of the fonts is optional, it is simply turned on by default.
If you opt to ignore this web safe design you can disengage the safe font setting. While in a web publication go to Format menu, Font, and deselect the "show only web font" option.
Afterwards all fonts on the system will be available to your web publication.