Microsoft Publisher and IE8

[CDParker]

I am using Microsoft Publisher to develop several of my sites and this
Microsoft software is not compatible with the Microsoft Internet Explore 8
browser! I am a bit surprised as I felt sure that Microsoft software would
be compatible with Microsoft's most current browser, yes?

At first, both my page headers and my navigation bars would not show in IE8.
I had to deselect the Master Page and ungroup the items in the header in
order for it to be viewed properly in IE8. However, my navigation bar, which
was completely hidden when the Master Page was in use, is still completely
hidden.

The pages show beautifully in IE7, Mozilla, Netscape, Google Chrome, and
Safari. But not IE8. Not even when the Compatibility Tool in IE8 is
activated. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions you might have for
getting my navigation bars to be revealed in IE8 on sites developed in
Microsoft Publisher.

The URL for an example of this problem is www.cpelite.com

Thank you!

 

[DavidF]

First of all you should generally not use the Master Page feature with any
Publisher web publication as the results can be a problem, especially cross
browser. Secondly my boilerplate answer about IE8 and Publisher webs:

There is a compatibility issue with IE8 and Publisher 2003 and 2007. Any
design elements that are 'grouped' together, which includes the Publisher
wizard built navbars, do not render when you view the web page in IE8 . The
fix in general is to ungroup the elements. There is both a manual fix to
these issues and a Service Patch that has been issued to fix it for Pub
2007.

Reference: Navigation bars and other content is missing from Publisher HTML
output in Internet Explorer 8: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969705

A manual method of fixing this grouping issue:

After making and saving any changes to your Pub file, and prior to uploading
new web files, make a copy of your publication by doing a 'File > Save As'
and in this copy go to each page > Edit > Select All > Arrange > Ungroup.
This will ungroup the Publisher built navbar and disconnect it from the
wizard, and the navbars will render correctly in IE8. 'Publish to the Web'
from this copy of your publication. When you want to make further changes in
your web, go back to the original Publisher file, make the corrections
there, save your changes, and again make a copy, ungroup the
navbars and produce new web files for uploading. The advantage of this
workflow is that you will not have to rebuild the navbar if you choose to
add a page to the navbar. If you do not need to add a page or section to
your site, you can leave the navbar ungrouped and skip the step of saving a
copy.

Publisher 2007 can be fixed manually or with the Office 2007 SP2:

Reference: Description of 2007 Microsoft Office Suite Service Pack 2 (SP2)
and of Microsoft Office Language Pack 2007 SP2:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=953195

Some users have found SP2 breaks Publisher, and makes it impossible to open
existing Pub files...you know, break one thing to fix another, so there is a
hotfix for that:

Description of the Publisher 2007 hotfix package (Publisher.msp): June 30,
2009
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972566/

DavidF

 

[CDParker]

Thank you, David! I will give this a try over the weekend. I truly
appreciate your help!