Object is not visible?

[Michelle]

I have suddenly started getting some of these error messages when I use
Design Checker. I am not sure why, because when I click on Web Page Preview
I can clearly see the objects? When I try to Fix it, by clicking on 'Bring
Oject to Front' absolutely nothing happens?! TIA.

 

[Spike]

There are many design errors and not all of them are corrected by bringing
objects to the front. Read the error message carefully to see what is
suggested. Even with some design errors detected you will not see a problem
in the web preview.

Give us an example (word for word) of one of the errors you have.

Spike

 

[Michelle]

The error messages says for eg: "Object is not visible" Page 1.
It then gives 3 otpions: 'Go To This Item' or 'Fix: Bring Object to
front' or 'Never Run this check again'. If I click on "Go to this Item" it
shows me which 'object' it is referring to, but when I click on "Fix" it
doesn't Fix it.

 

[DavidF]

I have found sometimes that if you look closely at the 'object' that is
referenced when you 'Go to this item', that there are a group of objects
there. Some of the templates used in Publisher layer text boxes, hot spot
hyperlink boxes, and image or other elements all in one area, and the empty
boxes can be hard to distinguish from the others. If you zoom in to more
than 100% it can help. Try dragging the individual items/design
elements/object apart to see what all is located at the referenced 'object'
location. You may find an unnecessary element that you can delete to avoid
the error message. With that said, you might not bother wasting your time.
As Spike suggested if it does not create a problem for you when you view the
page in IE and FF, then it may be something you can ignore.

DavidF

 

[Michelle]

Thank you very much for the info. I did as you said, and there are no other
objects impinging on the one which is supposedly not visible. This is a very
new error message as I've been building the website for three months now and
changed nothing design wise but I am suddenly getting these errors. I don't
have FF is it absolutely necessary to view my website with that browser
before I go ahead and put it Live? Many thanks.

 

[DavidF]

It sounds like the error is not causing any problem, so I suppose you can
ignore it. As per viewing the site in FireFox, no it is not absolutely
necessary, but certainly advised. You have invested three months in your
site and it looks ok in IE, but what about the other browsers used? The last
time I looked IE was only about 60% of the market. The point is that if your
site looks ok in IE and FireFox then it will look good in all the major
browsers. After all this work don't you want to make sure your site looks
good regardless of what browser a person uses to view it? There are three or
four common formatting or design 'mistakes' that will result in Publisher
web pages not rendering correctly in FF. Read over this group and you can
spot the issues as we discuss them periodically...

The download is only 7.7 megs and the installation is painless. Just be sure
to opt out of making it your default browser.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ Once you installed it, then you can
just Publish your web files to your local computer where you can find the
files, browse to the index.htm file or the other ..htm files in the
index_files folder, right click, open with FF. Easy peasy...but it is up to
you.

DavidF

 

[Michelle]

Thank you, I will download it and do as you say. It makes perfect sense!

 

[Michelle]

Right, I have viewed the website in FF, and it all appears normal. The
objects which are listed as not visible, *are* visible and I cannot seem to
correct it by doing what is suggested when I do the Website Checker. I will
leave that for the time being unless you perhaps have another idea, as there
is now a new problem I've encountered since viewing it in FF: There are two
menu bars, one vertical one on the top rhs of the page and one horizonal one
at the bottom of each page. The vertical one works fine, but the horizontal
one at the bottom does not work in FF. In other words, when I put the cursor

 

[DavidF]

The problem you are experiencing with the navbars can be fixed by ungrouping
them. It will also solve a problem with IE8. Here is my boilerplate answer
about the IE8 compatibility issue that will also fix your horizontal navbar
issue:

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

 

[Michelle]

I replied to this and another thread of mine but they are nowhere to be
found!! Argh! I’ll try and remember what I wrote. [I’ve resorted to saving
what I wrote so I can copy and paste if it ‘disappears’ again.]
Thank you very much for the info, I will do it once I’ve finished any
further changes to the website. To sort out the ‘object not visible’ problem
I have deleted and copy and pasted the objects (they were just ‘lines’
separating text and photos), and now I don’t have that error message anymore.
Thanks again.