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You've created an eye-catching, informative print newsletter in Publisher for your business. Wouldn’t it be great if you could use the same publication layout and information to share on the Internet? Publisher makes it possible for you to convert a print newsletter to a Web publication by actually creating a Web site from the print newsletter you created. You will need to do some touch up work after the conversion, but the efficiency you’ve gained with multiple uses of the same information is worth any additional time spent. By e-mailing a link to a Web newsletter in addition to mailing out printed copies, you can save mailing costs and reach a wider audience.

Print newsletter created using a newsletter design from Publisher
Web site created by automatically converting a Publisher newsletter design

Before you begin

After you convert your print publication to a Web publication, the editing options available to you will change. For example, if you used a Newsletter Wizard to create your print newsletter, you no longer have access to the editing options available specifically for the newsletter publication type.

You might want to make some changes to your print newsletter to make it easier to read in a Web browser. Any of the following modifications can be made before you convert your print newsletter to a Web publication:

• If the complete text of an article is not all located on one page, consider moving the article to a single page for easier reading. Or, after you have converted the publication, you can use hyperlinks to connect one article section to another section.
• If the last page of your newsletter contains placeholder text for a customer mailing address and company contact information, you might want to delete the page, change the information, or move the contact information to other pages since you don't need a page for traditional print mailing information in a Web publication.
• One column is more easily read on the Web than multiple columns, so consider changing a multi-column newsletter to a one-column Web publication under Columns on the Page Content task pane.

   Note   You must change the column selection for each page of the publication.

• A print newsletter has print-specific design features that aren’t required for the Web. Page numbers in the table of contents and on each page of the publication, and customer mailing information are examples of print-specific items you might want to remove.

Converting a print newsletter to a Web site

After you've considered what changes you might want to make to the print publication, you can proceed with the actual modifications and conversion.

To create a Web publication from a print newsletter

1. Start Publisher. In the New Publication task pane, under New, click From existing publication.
2. Find the document you want to convert to the Web, click the file name, and then click Create New.

   Make any changes to the content or layout of the newsletter, such as moving a multi-page article to a single page, changing a multi-column layout to a one-column publication, removing a customer mailing address area, or removing print-specific design features.

3. On the File menu, click Convert to Web Publication.
4. Under Save Your Current Print Publication, do one of the following:
   • To save the modified version of your print newsletter before converting, click Yes.

     When you click Finish at the end of the wizard, you can save your modified publication with a new file name. If you choose to use the same file name you used for your original publication, you will overwrite the original publication.

   • To convert the newsletter without saving the modified version of your print newsletter, click No.
5. Click Next.
6. Under Add a Navigation Bar, do one of the following:
   • If you want to add a navigation bar to your converted Web publication, click Yes.
   • If you do not want to add a navigation bar to your converted Web publication, click No.

    Note   Without navigation bars, visitors to your Web site have no way to access other pages of the Web publication. However, you can add a navigation bar after you have converted your newsletter.

7. Click Finish.

8. If you chose to save the modified version of your print newsletter in Step 4, the Save As dialog box will provide a new file name for the modified version of your print newsletter. Save the modified print publication with the suggested file name or provide a descriptive file name, such as January2004Modified.pub by changing the name in the File name box.

    Note   By using a different file name than the original print publication, you'll ensure your original print newsletter publication remains unchanged.

9. In the converted Web publication, make any formatting changes that you want (for example, position the navigation bars), and then save your new Web publication by typing a descriptive file name, such as January2004Web.pub.

Adjusting the navigation bar

If you added a navigation bar when you converted your publication, you might want to adjust the position of the navigation bar so it's in a consistent location on each page. The top margin of each page is a good location, especially if you make the navigation bar horizontal to better fit the space.

To add a new navigation bar

If you chose not to add a navigation bar while you were converting your newsletter, you can add a navigation bar using this procedure.

1. On the Insert menu, point to Navigation Bar, and then click New.
2. In the Design Gallery dialog box, on the Objects by Category tab, click the navigation bar design that you want.
3. Click Insert Object.
4. In the Create New Navigation Bar dialog box, type a name for the navigation bar in the Name box.
5. Under Insert Options, do one of the following:
   • To insert the navigation bar on each of the existing pages of your publication, click Insert on every page.
   • To insert the navigation bar on only the current page, click Insert on this page only.
6. Under Automatic update, do one of the following:
   • To update the navigation bar with links to all of the existing pages in the publication that are set to be linked to new navigation bars, select the check box Update this navigation bar with links to existing pages in this publication, and then click OK.
   • To specify which pages should be linked on the navigation bar, clear the check box Update this navigation bar with links to existing pages in this publication, and then specify which pages you want to link in the Navigation Bar Properties dialog box.

     How?

     1. In the Navigation Bar Properties dialog box, click Add Link.
     2. In the Add Link dialog box, under Link to, click Place in this document.
     3. Under Select a place in this document, click the page that you want to link to the navigation bar.
     4. In the Text to display box, type the text that you want to appear on the navigation bar, and then click OK.
     5. In the Navigation Bar Properties dialog box, click OK.

   Microsoft Publisher adds links to the navigation bar for all of the pages that are set to be linked to new navigation bars.

To change the orientation of the navigation bar

You can make the buttons or links in a navigation bar display in either a vertical column or a horizontal row.

1. Select the navigation bar that you want to change.
2. On the Format menu, click Navigation Bar Properties, and then click the Style tab.
3. Under Orientation and alignment, do one of the following:
   • To select a vertical navigation bar, click Vertical (column of hyperlinks).
   • To select a horizontal navigation bar, click Horizontal (row of hyperlinks).
4. Select the navigation bar and position it where you want on each page.

To change the text on the navigation bar

1. Select the navigation bar on any page.
2. On the Format menu, click Navigation Bar Properties.
3. On the General tab, click the page title text you want to change, and then click Modify Link.
4. In the Modify Link dialog box, type the new title text in the Text to display box, and then click OK twice.

   The text will change on the navigation bar on every page.

If your print newsletter had a table of contents with all of the articles and their page numbers, you can update the table of contents for the Web with links to the articles. Delete the page numbers and use the article titles to insert hyperlinks to the article pages.

To create a hyperlink

1. Select the article title in your table of contents.
2. On the Insert menu, click Hyperlink.
3. Under Link to, click Place in This Document.
4. Under Select a place in this document, click the page to which you want the link to navigate, and then click OK.

Making other adjustments for the Web

Print formatting features that do not display well in Web browsers are not available in Web mode. After Publisher converts your print publication to a Web publication, you'll need to make some additional adjustments to the formatting of the publication to make it ready for Web display.

• After conversion, text no longer automatically wraps around picture frames. If a picture frame is on top of a text frame, the text is hidden. You can either move or resize the text frame, or move the picture frame so there is no overlap.
• There is generally more space between text frames and the edges of the publication than is needed on a Web site. You can adjust any of the text or picture frames to better fill the empty space.
• Font schemes available for Web publications differ from those available for print publications. The fonts that were used in your print newsletter are not converted automatically to fonts that are better for the Web. It’s a good idea to change all the fonts in the converted newsletter to Web fonts to make them easier to read on the Web.

  To select a Web font scheme

  1. Select some text in your publication.
  2. On the Format menu, click Font .
  3. In the Font dialog box, under General, make sure the Show only Web fonts check box is selected.
  4. On the Format menu, click Font Schemes.
  5. Choose one of the fonts in the list under Apply a font scheme.

     The font scheme for the entire publication is converted to fonts that are appropriate for Web viewing.

• You'll notice after you have converted a print publication to a Web publication that the page size has changed. The additional space at the bottom of the page allows you to move text frames and picture frames from other pages onto a single page to simplify the Web site.
• On the Tools menu, click Graphics Manager, to quickly review all of the graphics in your publication.
• Review the file format of each of the graphic images in your newsletter. If your original newsletter contained high-resolution photographs or illustrations, use an image editing program such as Microsoft Picture It! or Microsoft Digital Image Pro to resize and resave them in a Web friendly format. This will speed up file download times.

 Note   If you converted a newsletter to a Web publication and then want to return to the original newsletter, do not choose Convert to Print Publication in the File menu. This will convert an already converted file, and result in changes to your original publication. Instead, on the File menu, click Open and then locate your original newsletter publication.

To preview your Web site

• On the File menu, click Web Page Preview.

  The Web site opens in a browser window. You can navigate from page to page by clicking hyperlinks in the publication and links on the Web navigation bars.

Publishing your Web site

When editing is complete, you are ready to create your actual Web files. Follow the instructions provided by your Internet service provider (ISP) to publish your Web site.

To create files ready to be published to the Web

You can publish a Web site to a Web server (Web server: A computer that hosts Web pages and responds to requests from browsers. Also known as an HTTP server, a Web server stores files whose URLs begin with http://.), a network server, a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) (FTP: A communication protocol that makes it possible for a user to transfer files between remote locations on a network. This protocol also allows users to use FTP commands, such as listing files and folders, to work with files on a remote location.) server, or to a folder on your own computer.

 Note   If your Internet Service Provider (ISP) requires you to use a specific program to upload your Web site, or if you are publishing your Web site to a corporate intranet, you may need to save a version of your Web site in a specific HTML (HTML: The standard markup language used for documents on the World Wide Web. HTML uses tags to indicate how Web browsers should display page elements such as text and graphics and how to respond to user actions.) file format and follow a different procedure to publish your Web site. Ask your ISP or your system administrator for information about how to save and publish your Web site.