Uploading Publisher 2003 site using FTP

[lesleycortright]

I am using Publisher 2003 and have read most of the responses on your blog.
My ISP (godaddy.com) says the reason my site is not posting is because there
is no index.htm file (which i have learned is actually the pubmaster001.htm
file). When I try to upload to the FTP site through Publisher (and I've
already added the FTP site info through Publisher) I get to the Publish to
the Web stage where I put in my FTP login and password. Then, when I try to
save (and the file name is index.htm) Publisher freezes and doesn't let the
upload continue. Any idea what could be happening and how I can get my site
uploaded?

 

[DavidF]

Sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about when you describe a
file called pubmaster001.htm. That is not a default file produced by
Publisher, and when you do Publish to the Web, the output includes the
default file "index.htm" along with a subfolder called "index_files" which
contains your other pages and images. These are what you upload.

Given that GoDaddy has excellent help files in describing in detail how to
upload your files using FPSE, FTP and the hosting manager, I would go back
there and read the instructions. If the following link doesn't get you to
the Help Center, then find it, and type in "ftp", and I got 69 hits
including some of the following;

http://help.godaddy.com/?&

Using the Hosting Manager Web-Based FTP Client

Using Windows XP to Upload Your Site:
http://help.godaddy.com/nonhtml/File/windowsxpftp.pdf

Also you can read David Bartosik's material, including his trouble shooting
article:
http://msmvps.com/blogs/dbartosik/archive/category/1921.aspx

and here is an article by Microsoft:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011053521033.aspx

If you have a form on your site, then concentrate on the HTTP uploading
protocol, as that is required to for the forms to work.

DavidF

 

[lesleycortright]

Thank you David. I have read the article and still have a couple remaining
questions. I'm getting hung up before I'm even able to Publish to the Web as
I am not getting an output file (index.htm) nor a sub-folder. When I try to
do the steps to publish to the Web, the dialog box hangs when I prompt it to
save my website to my FTP location. I know it's working FTP site, but don't
know what to do from here. I've read in past articles by David that the
pubmaster001.htm file is a standard file (from a past string from David: The
pubmaster file is part of the XML methodology and the concept of
round-tripping introduced with 2002), and it wasn't one I created, so not
sure what to do about that??

Would it be possible for me to try to upload using HTTP instead? Are there
any downfalls do doing so and am I going to run into the same problems?

 

[DavidF]

As to pubmaster001.htm, it is not a part of the output from Pub 2003. So, I
guess the first question is what version are you really using? From within
Publisher go to Help > About Microsoft Publisher. If you are indeed using
Pub 2002, then that changes things...post back and we will start over.

Now assuming that you are using Pub 2003, first go to Tools > Options > Web
tab and uncheck "Rely on VML..." and "Allow PNG...".

I would also compress your images. "Compress graphics file sizes to create
smaller Publisher Web pages":
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA011266301033.aspx

Then try publishing to your hard drive. Publish to the Web and choose
Desktop this time, and to keep things tidy, create a folder to publish to.
At the top of your Save In dialog there is a little folder icon with what
looks like a sun on top of it. Hover your mouse over it and it should say
"Create New Folder". Just name it websiteHTML or something like that. Then
after publishing to that folder, go to that folder, open it, change the view
to Detail, and study the files and folder within. You should see the
"index.htm" file plus a subfolder called "index_files". These are what you
want to upload to your site. You can also open the index_files folder and
study the files within. You should have image files and *.*htm files for
each page in your site, but no pubmaster001.htm file, right?

Now if you hung up when you published to your desktop, then look at your
Publisher document to see if you have any design elements overlapping into
the gray scratch area. That can hang things up. Then run the Design Checker
under Tools, and fix any issues that finds.

At this point you might try publishing/uploading your site again.

You can use HTTP uploading protocol, and must use it if you are including
any forms on your site. Read this article by David Bartosik "Publisher web
publication forms 101":
http://msmvps.com/blogs/dbartosik/archive/2006/01/07/80564.aspx
It will give you directions on how to test to see if you have FPSE installed
on your site. I would guess from what I read yesterday that you will need to
activate them. I think I remember an article under the FTP search I did on
the Help Center, about using FrontPage. While this article speaks to using
FrontPage, you are mostly interested in the instructions on how to activate
the FPSE. After you activate the sever extensions, you will NOT use FTP
uploading protocol again, as it will break the extensions, and require that
they be reinstalled. Now you are ready to go back to David's article about
using HTTP uploading protocol.

And if all else fails, then you have the files you need to upload sitting on
your desktop from the test I had you do earlier. You can use the several
other ways of uploading those files as described by GoDaddy.

DavidF

 

[lesleycortright]

David - you're the best! Publishing it to my Desktop worked and did
everything just as you said it would. The pubmaster001.htm went away (and yes
it is Pub 2003) and all is well.
Thank you SO much for your help!

 

[DavidF]

I am glad it worked out, but what was the problem? What part of my long
winded answer was the fix? Inquiring minds wanna know...

DavidF

 

[Peter]

Hi Lesley,

I have the same problem with using Publisher for my website and godaddy as
my host. I save a website as a filtered page and the pubmaster file is
missing but is created with some of my other sites. When i try to load sites
without the pubmaster file they don't load but now cant create a loadable
site as pubmaster files missing each time I save. Have you solved the problem
from your end yet?

cheers Peter