MS Publisher Web Design

[RMG]

--- Sorry for my English, but please read my message

Hi people

I am a guy from Portugal who loves to design web pages but just can do it in
MS Publisher (dont know HTML codes).

When I do my webpages, they have a lot of problems with Firefox, as you know.

In Portugal, for a small company to have a webpage it is much expensive. So,
in part-time I am trying to sell webpages, making publicity, etc.

My question is this:

- does anyone who knows a lot, can fix ALL my webpage problems with Firefox?
Is it posible that people using Firefox can visit all my webpage?

My webpages are:

- http://rmgwebdesigner.com.sapo.pt
- http://bfchistoria.no.sapo.pt
- http://arcodotriunfo.com.sapo.pt
- http://arcodotriunfo.com.sapo.pt/condominioonline.htm

They have a lot of problems in Firefox.

So, if there is a person that fixs in the question I made, I would love to
make partnership with him. Because I wouldnt like to come here everetime a
make a website to call for help.

The business would be this one:

- I would design the pages
- Then I send the MS Publisher files to my partner and him would make the
changes to the webpage work better (or perfect ) in other browsers like
Firefox - he would receive part of the money I win with the business

Sorry again for my English, but please comment my post and make any
suggestions to what I say.

A lot of greetings from Portugal!,

Thanks

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

If you are going to sell your website designs, don't you think you should
learn; HTML, CSS at the very least?

Publisher is not an html editor and if your clients want anything other than
very basic websites you will continue to have cross browser compatibility
problems.

 

[RMG]

Rob, thanks a lot for your answer.

What you said is truth. But look well for example to my site about Boavista:

http://bfchistoria.no.sapo.pt


Do you think that for a company that just wants to thow its activity is a
"very basic" website?

Best greetings!

 

[DavidF]

While I don't necessarily agree with Rob that you have to learn HTML, CSS
and coding in general, to produce a good looking and functional site, I do
think you need to learn how to use Publisher yourself. I also question
whether anyone should choose Publisher as their primary tool in producing
websites for others in a professional capacity, but that is a side issue.

As you have discovered, Publisher can produce designs that will work in IE,
but not work well in other browsers. It actually produces different code for
other browsers. There are things you can do with your design that will work
in IE, but not in FireFox and other browsers. To produce web pages that look
and work well in all browsers, you will frequently need to change your
design, layout and formatting, and that can't really be delegated to someone
else. You need to make those design change decisions yourself.

If you want to produce sites for others, then you should learn what you can
and cannot do in your design. You need to invest the time to learn how to
use Publisher. One way to do that is to read the last month's postings in
this group. If you understand everything that has been discussed, and
followed all the reference links and understood that material, then you
should be able to design your pages so that they will have good cross
browser compatibility. Most of the cross browser issues are discussed over
and over in this group, and by investing the time to read and understand the
last months postings you should end up with a pretty good idea of what you
can and cannot do with Publisher webs.

Good luck.

DavidF

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

lots of validation errors

http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&uri=http://bfchistoria.no.sapo.pt/

what does it mean? it means you will have viewers with different browsers
that may not display your page(s) correctly, ...or at all - especially when
IE8 (standards based web browser) is released.

 

[RMG]

Hi, David and Rob

Thanks a lot for your comments.

David: I will do what you sugested. Beginig with this business it is my
intention to know very well MS Publisher, free scripts, gifs and other things
that can improve my web site.

In my opinion (just reading and seeing some examples of "incompatibility"
with Firefox) the big dificult is to put the links (need to use external
links, right?) and scripts working with Firefox.

So, I am thinking to do a Firefox version of the webpages, just changing
some aspects of the original page. Do you think it is a good idea?

Just like I did recently in my page:

http://rmg.webdesigner.com.sapo.pt

I will put a link to a "firefox version" of the web site.

.....

Thanks a lot!... again!


--
MS Publisher Web
Designerhttp://www.microsoft.com/wn3/aspx/postui.a...ups/list/en-us/settings.xml&sdgloc=en-us&tt=2

While I don't necessarily agree with Rob that you have to learn HTML, CSS
and coding in general, to produce a good looking and functional site, I do
think you need to learn how to use Publisher yourself. I also question
whether anyone should choose Publisher as their primary tool in producing
websites for others in a professional capacity, but that is a side issue.

As you have discovered, Publisher can produce designs that will work in IE,
but not work well in other browsers. It actually produces different code for
other browsers. There are things you can do with your design that will work
in IE, but not in FireFox and other browsers. To produce web pages that look
and work well in all browsers, you will frequently need to change your
design, layout and formatting, and that can't really be delegated to someone
else. You need to make those design change decisions yourself.

If you want to produce sites for others, then you should learn what you can
and cannot do in your design. You need to invest the time to learn how to
use Publisher. One way to do that is to read the last month's postings in
this group. If you understand everything that has been discussed, and
followed all the reference links and understood that material, then you
should be able to design your pages so that they will have good cross
browser compatibility. Most of the cross browser issues are discussed over
and over in this group, and by investing the time to read and understand the
last months postings you should end up with a pretty good idea of what you
can and cannot do with Publisher webs.

Good luck.

DavidF

 

[RMG]

Sorry, the site is:

http://rmgwebdesigner.com.sapo.pt

--
MS Publisher Web Designer

Hi, David and Rob

Thanks a lot for your comments.

David: I will do what you sugested. Beginig with this business it is my
intention to know very well MS Publisher, free scripts, gifs and other things
that can improve my web site.

In my opinion (just reading and seeing some examples of "incompatibility"
with Firefox) the big dificult is to put the links (need to use external
links, right?) and scripts working with Firefox.

So, I am thinking to do a Firefox version of the webpages, just changing
some aspects of the original page. Do you think it is a good idea?

Just like I did recently in my page:

http://rmg.webdesigner.com.sapo.pt

I will put a link to a "firefox version" of the web site.

....

Thanks a lot!... again!

 

[Spike]

If you want to keep your design for the IE users and have one for the OTHER
users, may I suggest what I did for the same type of situation.

I made a JUMP page. It looks to see what the user's browser is and directs
the IE users to the site with all the bells and whistles and all others to
the scaled back version. Takes more time updating two sites but
accomplishes a task. The JUMP page can be made in notepad and saved as an
htm file. I named it default.htm and placed it in the root directory.
Here is the file. Copy and paste, change mydomain to your domain name and
give it a try. Good Luck.



<script type="text/javascript">
//note: userAgent in IE7 WinXP returns: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0;
Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)

if (/MSIE (\d+\.\d+);/.test(navigator.userAgent)){ //test for MSIE x.x;
var ieversion=new Number(RegExp.$1) // capture x.x portion and store as a
number
if (ieversion>4)
window.location = "http://www.mydomain.com/IE/"
}
else
window.location = "http://www.mydomain.com/FF/"
</script>


The IE directory holds all the files and sub folders for IE users
The FF directory holds all the files and sub folders for all others

Spike

 

[RMG]

Hi Spike!

I was asking myself if that was posible!

I will try that with one of my pages.

Thanks a lot for the help!!

 

[Spike]

Your welcome .....

Here is one that I did

http://www.technicalsystemsaz.com/

If you have Firefox and IE you can see the difference

Spike

 

[DavidF]

No, in my opinion I do not think it is a good idea to build different sites
for different browsers. You should learn what you can do with your design
that works in all browsers and design accordingly, whether you are using
Publisher or some other program to build your sites. If a particular design
doesn't work in all browsers, then change the design.

Perhaps it would also be a good idea if you took some time to read about
good web design principles. Here are a couple sites that might give you some
insights:

http://webdesignfromscratch.com/

http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/

DavidF

Hi, David and Rob

Thanks a lot for your comments.

David: I will do what you sugested. Beginig with this business it is my
intention to know very well MS Publisher, free scripts, gifs and other
things
that can improve my web site.

In my opinion (just reading and seeing some examples of "incompatibility"
with Firefox) the big dificult is to put the links (need to use external
links, right?) and scripts working with Firefox.

So, I am thinking to do a Firefox version of the webpages, just changing
some aspects of the original page. Do you think it is a good idea?

Just like I did recently in my page:

http://rmg.webdesigner.com.sapo.pt

I will put a link to a "firefox version" of the web site.

....

Thanks a lot!... again!

 

[DavidF]

Spike,

That works really well on your site. Very clever.

DavidF

 

[Spike]

Thank you (even though we disagree at times) It is good to agree to
disagree, that's how I learn new tricks.

Spike

 

[DavidF]

There is no one right way of doing things. If you are referring to my
opinion about designing a site to be cross browser compatible in this
thread, then that was specific to RMG, not you. I had other reasons for my
advice and comments in this case.

I appreciate that you approach things different than I do sometimes. As you
said, it is in reading about how others do things that I learn. I hope I am
always ready to learn a better way...and hope you keep posting.

DavidF

 

[RMG]

Hi all!,

For now, in my sites I will do a Firefox version. You can see it in

http://rmgwebdesigner.com.sapo.pt

Searching on the web for improvements for my webpage I found some animation
tools, so now I can do some flash animations how you can see on my page )

Thanks a lot again for your comments,

Greetings from Portugal


RMG

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

Freekin' OUCH ! Dood....no volume control? !!! Sheesh...that hurts both in
IE & FF.
And links are broken in both browsers as well.



--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression

 

[RMG]

Hi!

About the sound: lol, maybe you are right. Does anybody has a volume control
script??

About the broken links: in IE 7 and in FF 3 the site is working the way I
want... I didn,t understand why you said that.

Greetings

 

[RMG]

By the way: is there much diference between MS Publisher 2003 and 2007???
Which ones?

 

[RMG]

Another question

For example: http://home.eircom.net/

How can you do in the same page diferent link animations??

Thanks

 

[Rob Giordano [MS MVP]]

javascript and CSS - not doable with Publisher

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rob Giordano
Microsoft MVP Expression