By David Bartosik, Microsoft MVP, and co-creator of Publisher MVP Web site

Applies to
Microsoft Office Publisher 2003

Publisher is a good choice for creating your Web site, especially if it's your first. It offers a clear and simple WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) approach to page design and has the Microsoft Office interface you are comfortable with. So regardless of your background, by using Publisher you can achieve a quality online presence.

Note that Publisher is not an HTML editor. Nor is it a Web site management program like Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003. It is best suited for creating smaller sites that don't require the complexity of programming and databases.

I designed the original version of my Web site, www.barvin.com, in Publisher. It was a fairly large site and, in building it, I gained enough experience that I was invited to become a Microsoft MVP. Through the online Discussion Groups, I have helped hundreds of customers—small business owners, non-profit organizations, or parents wanting a family home page—develop Web sites of all sizes.

To learn more about MVPs or Discussion Groups, click a link in the See Also box.

In this article I will discuss some of the Web page design features new to Publisher 2003. Perhaps you're using an earlier version of Publisher or you're considering buying Publisher for the first time. Either way, this article will help you design and maintain Web pages more effectively by explaining how you can get the most out of what Publisher has to offer.

The new or improved features I'll discuss include:

• New Web site wizards
• New Web page types for different kinds of content
• Navigation bar improvements
• Pixel measurement units
• Automatic page length adjustment
• Web page file names
• Incremental uploading
• Smaller, faster-loading Web sites

In addition, I used the Network design with the Easy Web Site Builder wizard in Publisher 2003 to create and publish a sample Web site. You can view it by clicking the link in the See Also box. This site illustrates how the new Web site wizards and improved navigation bars in Publisher 2003, combined with the new Web page types, can empower you to achieve an online presence quickly and easily.

New Web site wizards

Do you have products to display? Do you provide a service? The new 3-page Web site, Product Sales, and Professional Services wizards make it easy to get your information online. All you need to know is what you want your Web pages to say.

If you feel you aren't particularly creative, that's okay. You can start with the Easy Web Site Builder that prompts you to choose the goals for your site.

The Web site wizards in Publisher 2003 come with pre-designed pages, including Home, About Us, Contact Us, and product or service listing and description pages, which enable you to produce a quality site very quickly. You can choose from among a variety of professional page and navigation bar designs to come up with a good-looking, functional site that achieves your communication goals.

How to start a Web site wizard

1. Start Publisher.
2. In the New Publication task pane, click Web Sites and E-mail, and then click Web Sites.
3. Click the wizard you want to start.

Pre-designed Web page types

If you want to build your Web site from scratch, you can take advantage of a selection of new Web page types. By providing a ready-made page structure for your content, these pages enable you to develop your site more efficiently and with professional-looking continuity.

Got an assignment to create an intranet site? The Projects listing page can have you impressing your boss in no time at all. Do you volunteer at a non-profit organization without a lot of time or resources? Web page types, such as the Services list and FAQ pages, will save you time.

Designs are available for page types such as:

• About us
• Contact us
• FAQ (frequently asked questions)
• Calendar
• Photo gallery
• Jobs
• Products
• Services
• Projects
• Events
• Related links

How to add a new page type to your Web site

1. Open your Web site publication.
2. In the page sorter at the lower left corner of the Publisher window, click the page that you want the new page to come after.
3. On the Insert menu, click Page.
4. Choose the page type you want, and then click OK.

Navigation bar improvements

A Web site is all about providing information and resources to your customers. But all the information and resources in the world won't help your customers if they can't find what they are looking for. Navigation can literally make your site the valuable tool you envision or a black hole of frustration.

When you create navigation bars in Publisher, all the site links are created and maintained automatically so you can spend more time developing content and less time worrying about how your customers will locate it.

In previous versions of Publisher, you could only create navigation bars for a Web site of up to ten links. In Publisher 2003, that limitation has been removed. In addition, three new navigation bar configurations have been added:

• Bottom of the page only
• Top of the page only (called Horizontal)
• Top and bottom of the page (called Horizontal and Bottom)

In Publisher 2003, you can also edit navigation bars by adding or removing links and changing the bar and button design.

How to add navigation bars if you create a Web site by using a Web site Wizard

• If you create a Web site by using one of the Web site wizards, navigation bars are automatically added to your Web pages.

   Note   If you want to link to URLs outside of your site or create a special navigation bar on some pages that links only to those pages, you can add a new navigation bar. To learn how, see How to add navigation bars if you create a Web site from scratch.

• You can change the location of the navigation bars by clicking an option under Navigation Bars in the Web Site Options task pane.
• You can also click the navigation bar to select it, and then click the Wizard icon below the navigation bar object to open the Navigation Bar task pane where you can add links or change the design.

  

How to add navigation bars if you create a Web site from scratch

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.

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

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

Pixel measurement units

Publisher 2003 introduces the pixel as a measurement unit. Screen resolution is measured in pixels, and the pixel is the standard unit of measurement in Web page design. With pixel measurement, you can produce a much more accurate page layout and design graphical elements to standardized dimensions.

When you open a Web publication, by default the measurement unit is pixels. You set measurement units, by clicking Options on the Tools menu, and then clicking the General tab.

Automatic page length adjustment

In Publisher 2003, you no longer need to be concerned about having too much or too little content on a page. You can just add your content to a page and, when the site is published to the Web, only the part of the page that contains content will display.

 Tip   Each page in a Web publication has a default length of 4608 pixels (approximately five letter-size printed pages). If you need a longer page to contain your content, you can change the page length. To change the length for a page, display the page. On the File menu, click Page Setup. Under Publication type, click Custom. For Height, type the page length you want, and then click OK.

Web page file names

Publisher 2003 enables you to specify the file name of each Web page in your publication. This enhancement is particularly useful if you choose to organize the supporting files for your Web site in a folder. File names display in a Web browser's address bar. Assigning file names to Web pages (for example, naming the About Us page aboutus.htm) gives a Web site a more professional appearance.

Notes

• By default, Publisher automatically assigns file names to your Web pages when you publish your site to the Web. If you want to choose your own names for all the pages except the home page, follow the procedure described below.
• You can choose a name for your Web site home page only when you publish your site to the Web. It's best to use "index.htm" as the file name for your home page because it designates your home page as the default page that will be displayed when visitors type the URL for your Web site. If you don't use "index.htm" as the default file name for your home page, visitors to your Web site will have to type your URL plus the exact file name for your home page; for example, http://www.adventure-works.com/yourfilename.htm. To learn more about publishing your site to the Web, click a link in the See Also box.

How to assign a file name to a Web page other than the home page

1. Go to the page to which you want to assign a file name.
2. On the Tools menu, click Web Page Options.
3. Under Publish to the Web, in the File namebox, type the file name for your Web page.

    Note   Don't use any spaces or special characters in the file name.

How to organize your Web site supporting files into subfolders

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the Web tab. Select the Organize supporting files in a folder check box, and then click OK.

Incremental uploading

Maintaining a Web site and keeping the content fresh can often times be more time-consuming and challenging than the design of the site. Publisher 2003 saves you time when you use the new incremental uploading feature. Previous versions re-published the entire site after a modification. For minor modifications and with dial-up connections this could be burdensome at best.

When the optional incremental uploading feature is used, Publisher creates on the server a special XML file that keeps track of your pages. When you make a modification to the Web publication and need to publish it again, Publisher uses this file to track what pages in the publication have changed and uploads only those files.

If you have a small site or if you plan to make changes across the site, it may be unnecessary to use this option. However, this option can be a serious time saver if you have a large site that can take considerable time to upload, or if you plan to make limited changes. If you use a dial-up connection, you'll most certainly want to use incremental uploading regardless of the size of the Web publication.

How to use incremental uploading

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the Web tab. Confirm that Enable incremental publish to the Web is selected, and then click OK.

Smaller, faster-loading Web sites

Large graphic files can increase the overall file size of your Publisher Web site and make it slow to download into browsers. If you have installed Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 1, Publisher provides you with a way to compress the graphics files and reduce the size of your Web site. See Compress graphics file sizes to create smaller Publisher Web pages to learn more about compressing graphics files and the Office 2003 Service Pack 1.

 Note   Microsoft provides third-party contact information to help you find technical support. This contact information may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this third-party contact information.

About the Author

David Bartosik, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, where he lives and works as an applications developer for Nielsen Entertainment, has been a Microsoft Office Publisher MVP for four years. His speciality is Web publications. 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."