publisher easy to use, disappointing drawbacks, especially upgrad.

[Howard]

MS does a lot of things really well so I was disappointed in publisher 2003
and consider the price of the upgrade as wasting my money and time. 2000 had
some limitations that 2003 improved, but the limitations that started with
2003 make it unusable for me. One in particular is the slower loading of
sites buit with 2003. Because there was no direct conversion from 2000
(another big disappointment) I had to completely rebuild my site. That's
when I found out that it loaded much slower and that it now had visual
placeholders until the pictures loaded.

What I need (and it seems others after visiting the forum) is 2003 with
backward compatibility and a few issues addressed like the ones above. Being
able to center frames in the site would be really nice also.

Thanks for listening.

 

[Terje Martinsen]

First of all, let me say that I am a big fan of Publisher, using 2003 for
"professional" printing tasks.
When you complain about the web part of Pub2003 (or any version), I think
you are using the tool for something it is not really designed for.
Maybe MS offer it as a web tool, but I do not think it is any good at it.

Myself, I use Namo Web Editor (6.0 at the present), a much more versatile
tool designed to make web-pages, and nothing more.
Combined with the faboulos AspMaker (www.hkvstore.com) and MS Access, I can
do almost anything.
Take a look at www.modellfly.info (in Norwegian) to see what you can achieve
with Namo (www.namo.com).
I think the price is $99, and the support is good and solid.

You can use an axe driving in nails, but it is better for chopping wood!

Best regards
Terje

 

[DavidF]

Terje,

What if you only have one nail to drive and you already own an axe and
mostly chop wood? Do you go out and buy new tools? Surely Namo Web Editor,
ASPMaker, and MS Access (FrontPage, Dreamweaver, etc.) are great tools, and
allow you to produce just about any website product you choose. But given
the investment of perhaps hundreds of dollars and the hundreds of hours to
learn the software, is it worth the investment if you want to produce a
simple five page, static website when you already own and understand how to
use Publisher?

Howard's criticism of the so called 'improvements' to the web site
development function of Publisher 2003 is valid. Publisher 2000 produced
relatively clean code that loaded quickly, and if you added a little
JavaScript, and tweaked the code a little, you could produce a pretty good
looking and effective website.

I believe the person that wields the tool, can be more important than the
tool. Perhaps check out some of the sample sites produced with Publisher
before you globally condemn Publisher for producing websites. Here is a
list: http://www.publishermvps.com/Default.aspx?tabid=29

Here is one of my favorites: http://www.karmamusic.com/ and
http://www.karmadesigngroup.com/ This company produces all their sites with
Publisher. And here is one produced by a total beginner that just asked for
her site to be reviewed: http://www.absa-intl.com/

Yes, I agree in the principle that one should use the proper tool for the
job, but sometimes an axe will do just fine.

DavidF

 

[Terje Martinsen]

Hello David!

In a way I do agree with you, but if people buy MSPub just for web design, I
still think it is a miss.
You can get Namo AND ASPMaker for 130 dollars (less the price of MSPub?),
and you do not really need Access for anything else than defining the db.
Thus you may borrow someones computer for an hour and do the job.

And, I agree that the person behind (in front of?) the keyboard is more
important than the tool.
But a nice site it not necessarily an effective site.
I have tried MSPub for web design (in version 2000, 2002 and 2003) but given
it up.
Maybe primarily because anything over 10 pages get troublesome, but also
because keeping track of changes is hard.
All the sites you pointed me to was nice, but one of them took ages to load,
even on my 4 Mbit line, pointing out the problem asked by Howard.

That's why I have hammers, axes and screwdrivers in my toolbox (and a few
other tools).

Best regards
Terje

 

[DavidF]

Terje,

I don't think we disagree about much. I would never recommend anyone buy
Publisher of any version just for web design. It is a DTP, not a web design
tool. I also set you up a bit by posting the absa-intl link which was built
with Publisher 2003. While that total novice was able to build a relatively
good looking and potentially effective site, no one is likely to stick
around to read it because it takes so long to load. You should try it with a
dial-up modem...whew! And for that matter it will never load in Mozilla
FireFox. The same site built in Publisher 2000 would probably load in less
than 10 seconds, even with a dial-up connection, and have cross browser
support.

MS has 'improved' Publisher so much that you are mostly right if you say
that Publisher 2003 is no good as a web tool, but as the Karma sites
illustrate, you used to be able to build a pretty darn good website with the
Publisher 2000 axe. IMHO, MS needs to take a step back to the KISS
philosophy, and quit trying to make the axe into anything but what it should
be. A DTP that also allows one to convert print documents to basic HTML and
create basic, simple websites, which in many, if not most cases is all the
Publisher customer needs or wants...including the OP. Then if they need more
than an axe they can go buy and learn how to use more sophisticated and
specialized tools.

hammer on...DavidF

 

[captjmh]

I upgraded(??) to 2003 when I got XP; previously I did not have this problem
with Publisher. In composing my newsletter, I create 3 columns with a text
frame in each column. When I try to copy & paste an article into the first
text frame, however, I get a window telling me "the table is too large for
the workspace." What table? I am not working with a table; as a result, I
am unable to connect the text frames so text will automatically flow to the
next column, if I try to copy & paste. Anyone know how to fix this?

 

[Mary Sauer]

Where are you getting the text? Try paste special, unformatted text.

 

[Mary Sauer]

If you copy text from the Internet, a table may come along. There is a tiny utility
that can help in these situations.
http://stevemiller.net/puretext/

 

[Brett...]

Sorry I don't know what that has to do with printing problems in MS
Publisher???????

Brett

 

[JoAnn Paules [MSFT MVP]]

I thought your issues were with websites built with Publisher? And if you
have issues with that, why are you using a desktop publishing program
instead of a website creation and management program? Proper tool for the
job...