What is an MVP?

David Bartosik has been a Microsoft Office Publisher MVP for four years. His speciality is Web publications. In an interview, he told Microsoft a little bit about himself.

David is a native of Kansas City, Missouri, where he lives and works. He's an applications developer for Nielsen Entertainment. In addition to the Web site he maintains as a Publisher MVP, he also maintains barvin.com™, a motivational site described as an "Online Magazine for Better Living." David says that barvin.com has been "a journey. It has evolved to what it is. In the beginning I knew I wanted to contribute something, to help others. I knew I wanted to write sometimes, and I've always been interested in self-help materials and motivational books. But I also have a sense of fun and silliness." For a glimpse into David's sense of fun, check out "The Lighter Side" on barvin.com.

Why Publisher?   "Publisher was pre-installed on my first Gateway box and I found it could make a Web site WYSIWYG without too much thought. I had this idea for www.barvin.com. I did the original version of the site in Publisher 2000. As barvin.com grew it got harder to manage in Publisher. At first I adapted by splitting the site into multiple Publisher files, a technique I later wrote about that has since been adopted by many customers."

• Editor's note   You can find more information about splitting a site into multiple files on the Publisher 2002 page on David's MVP Web site. Click the link in the See Also box.

"As a site grows, so does the amount of time you spend on it. I had to find ways to save time. I knew I had to think about automation, using programming for the site and storing the content in databases. Then, ASP.NET arrived and changed my world. I rebuilt barvin.com and created a dynamic and powerful site that can support any idea I come up with. barvin.com now has only about a dozen 'real' pages. Everything else is in databases. The site contains roughly 1000 articles and is growing at a rate of 50-100 a month. And I'm spending less time on it than ever before.

"Somehow, while I was still using Publisher for the barvin.com site, I learned about newsgroups. Most likely it was something I read about in a computer magazine. Since I was spending a lot of time playing around with and learning about Publisher, I also ended up spending more time watching the Publisher newsgroups. Somewhere along the line someone asked something that I knew how to do and so I answered it. At the time, my real job was in software support at H&R Block, so helping someone wasn't a stretch. As my knowledge of Publisher grew, my contributions to the forum increased as well. Out of the blue one day I got an email asking me how I felt about becoming an MVP. I found out exactly what that involved and the rest is history."

• Editor's note   To learn more about newsgroups and how to participate in them, see Office discussion groups.

Most common customer question?   "That's a tough one. I can't say that one question stands out significantly. To be accurate, I'd have to say three questions are equally common:

• Is there a Publisher viewer/how can I share my Publisher file.
• Why don't my graphics display when I publish my web site.
• Why does my web site take so long to load in the browser."

• Editor's notes about common questions  
  • There is no Publisher viewer yet, but you can share Publisher files with people who don't have Publisher. You can find a link to more information about sharing Publisher files in the See Also box.
  • By default, when you create Web pages in Publisher 2002 or 2003, supporting files like graphics are stored in a separate folder. You have to upload that folder along with the rest of the Web site files or the graphics won't display on the site.
  • For information about why your site loads slowly, click the troubleshooting link in the See Also box.

Example of a great publication created using Publisher   "I see good sites built with Publisher all the time, both sites based on Publisher's pre-designed publications and custom built. But currently there is one site that stands out in my opinion as a truly great Publisher-built site: the Home Wine Events site. It's an excellent example of the level of professional quality design that you can achieve and should serve as an inspiration to our customers, be they home-users or small-business owners."

• Editor's note   Pauline Robinson, who created and maintains the Home Wine Events Web site, says that she chose Publisher 2003 because the pre-designed Web publications "make it so easy to keep things consistent across the site." Pauline is planning a newsletter that she can distribute to home wine event hosts and guests. She'll create the newsletter using the Brocade newsletter design in Publisher, the same design featured on her Web site. To see Pauline's site, click a link in the See Also box.

Most underused Publisher feature?   "In my area of speciality, Web design, the answer is clearly the upload client. Customers don't know that Publisher has full upload functionality in both ftp and http protocols. Most customers use a third-party tool like WS-FTP. "

• Editor's note   To learn more about uploading your Web site, click the links in the See Also box.

Most helpful Office Online topics?  

Training courses available at Microsoft Office Training.

Favorite quote/motto?   "Ha. You ask that of a quote lover. I use my site, www.barvin.com, to serve up 365 of my favorites. But if you want to force me to choose one I'll quote Julie O. Smith: 'Boredom is simply the lack of imagination.'"

When not at a computer, most likely to be found where?   "Attempting to hurry up whatever it is so I can get back to the computer. The one thing that takes up my time on par with my technology interests is landscaping and working in my various home gardens."

Visit David's Web site by clicking the link in the See Also box.