About Dawn Douglas Expertise I can answer most questions about Microsoft Publisher.
Experience I have been using Microsoft Publisher for 11 years. I started with Adobe InDesign and Pagemaker. I like Microsoft Publisher for it's ease of use.
Education/Credentials I am self taught in Microsoft Publisher. I learned by doing.
Question QUESTION: I have MS Publisher 2007 running on Vista. I would like to convert a .pub file to full html but Pub '07 just creates a .gif file, so-called "filtered html". I understand Pub '03 creates html. Does it work on Vista? Can I install both Pub '03 and '07 at the same time? If I have paid for '07 can I get '03 for free? Or is there some other program I can use to do the conversion? Thanks.
ANSWER: Hi Mark,
Wow lots of questions. Let me take them one at a time.
The only type of .pub files that will save as html documents are the individual web pages you save. Those webpage html files are not created until you select publish to web. Then all your pages are created, including your index page, and any other webpage etc... are organized in a folder. While it is still a working document, it will be a .pub file. This is the same process whether it's 2003 or 2007 version of publisher. It doesn't prepare your html files until you're ready to publish to the web. Once you select the option the folder is automatically created and all the images etc... are saved in their appropriate folders for upload to your host server.
Publisher creates filtered html regardless of the operating system. The filtered html allows publisher to be a decent WYSIWYG web authoring tool. You can insert html code into your created document using the Web tool bar and selecting the html code fragment tool. You can view the entire html source file by loading it into any browser and using the view source option. Once you have the view source, you can copy the entire html file into any html editor (notepad is a easy free editor) and make minor changes. Just keep in mind that it is filtered html, not html 4.0 standard so there will be a ton of additional coding that you may not recognize. Filtered html is impossible to truly validate so you will have to wing it.
Yes you can run both publisher 2003 and 2007 on the same system, just install them in their own separate folders. You can even run use the compatibility function to run them on the XP platform if you like.
If you paid for 2007, you cannot get 2003 free. Sorry, that's not how it works. You don't need a separate program to convert, 2007 is backwards compatible. You can open a 2003 file in a 2007. You can open an Office Publisher 2007 file in Publisher 2003 or Publisher 2002, but certain features are not supported. If you reopen the same file in Office Publisher 2007, the features that were not supported in earlier versions of Publisher will be available again.
Hope that helps.
Very Respectfully,
Dawn
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QUESTION: Thanks for the quick answer. I am still confused by something, though. I looked at the source for the filtered html produced by Pub '07. I don't really know html but I can see the lines of the text for the page. Near the bottom there is reference to a gif file which contains the whole image of the page including text. In normal view of the page in Nvu all I seem to have access to is the gif. I cannot edit the text. All I can think is that the gif is overlaying the page that was written with the actual text in the source code. Is that likely to be correct? Might there be an easy way to get rid of the gif and leave the rest behind? I tried deleting the gif in the normal view but then I get nothing. Thanks again.
ANSWER: Hi Mark,
Microsoft Publisher is a tricky beast. It doesn't use HTML it uses VML (which I call filtered HTML but that's really a misnomer). VML means "Vector Mark Up Language." Microsoft's intent is that VML will be the industry standard for creating web images. With VML you can edit and position images upload them to the web without the hassle of weighing your webpage down with graphics. It's a good concept, but VML creates some unique problems. First it has no cross-browser compliance. Thus, if you create a website in Publisher 2002 or above, it will only render correctly in a Microsoft based browser like IE. It will look horrible and will not render correctly in browsers like Safari and Firefox.
When you tried to delete the GIF file, you were actually deleting a vector graphic that has nothing to do with the individual webpages. The problem is at the top of the file. Microsoft Publisher doesn't use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)It uses and combination of VML and XML to render information. Even though the coding looks similar to HTML, it's not.
If you're doing serious webdesign Microsoft Publisher is not the way to go. You would do better with Frontpage if you want to use something in the Microsoft Office family. Frontpage supports CSS and uses HTML 4.01.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you.
Very Respectfully,
Dawn
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QUESTION: Thanks again for your speedy response. I don't know if you can be of any further help but here is my basic problem. I am trying to add and edit information to my church website. Some of this material comes from the church newsletter which is done in Publisher. If I just use the regular Convert to Html and Publish to Web in Publisher and then upload it with Nvu the format is not consistent. Also, I cannot edit the text in Nvu. This is particularly a problem with the calendar which I would like to update on a regular basis without reconverting the whole thing each time. I don't know if Frontpage, Expression Web, SharePoint Designer, DreamWeaver or anything else could help me with any of this. I'd rather not invest in anymore software if it's not going to solve these issues. Any suggestions?
Thanks so much,
Mark
Answer Hi Mark,
If you can give me a little information maybe I can help you. I designed my churches website in Dreamweaver, but I use some 3rd Party software from a company called Coffeecup to do the calendars and some flash elements. Perhaps we can do some modifications to your site that will allow you to use another a free editor to make changes.
Can you give me the web address of your site so I can get a better understanding of what it is you're trying to edit and I can see the source files to see if anything can be done? Also who is your site host?
When I see your site, I will be better able to answer your questions.
