Things move after publishing

[Nicole]

I am a new front page user and am having trouble
publishing a website. When I do, things are moved around
on the page. In other words, it looks very different on
the web than it does in my frontpage program. I wm
wondering if there is a setting that I am missing or
something.

Also, my navigations (link bars) do not publish at all.
The page just contains a blank space where the navigation
bar would be.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[Rick Budde]

Welcome to the world of website development.

As far as things moving around on the page there are many
variables a developer must concern themselves with:

1. various browsers act differently. Some support
absolute positioning. Most don't. Some support Java, Some
don't.

2. users have control over screen resolution and text
size settings.

3. browsers use the fonts available on the user's PC.
They may not have the ones you think look best to convey
your message.

Thus the website development process becomes one of trail
and error and compromise on the part of the developer.
Try your site in various browers (and versions of those
browsers). Try your site at various text size settings.

That said, in general, if you place your content (text
and graphics) in Tables you will have the best shot at
achieving your goals. Realize your site is not going to
look "perfect" in all user situations. Another general
suggestion is to avoid the use of absolute positioning.

As to your link bar problem, I suspect that
you "published" your site using FTP. Using, FTP places
more of the technical burden on you that publishing
via "http". That however requires that your web service
provider has the ability to configure Front Page
Extensions for your site (many don't).

If you must FTP, you must be sure to upload all of the
folders in your disk based wed (the one on yor PC).
People usually forget, or don't know, to upload the files
in the hidden folders. These contain things like
navigation.

I hope this helps your understanding.