If you want a way to create a web page and start your own website but don’t have the HTML coding skills or time to learn a web design program then you can make a web page using Microsoft Publisher. The Microsoft tool used to create web pages was called FrontPage but it was discontinued after the 2003 version and replaced by Microsoft Expression Web and SharePoint Designer, which were released in December 2006.
Keep in mind that if your site is going to need advanced features such as interactivity or database-driven content, or if it will be used with data validation, such as for verifying credit card numbers then you will need to use a program designed for those features. But if you just want a simple site with text and pictures then Publisher will work fine.
You can start the process by creating your page from scratch or copying content from other websites and then edit it to suit your needs. Click on the File menu and pick New and select Publication Types. From there choose Web Sites. To create a custom Web site that is based on your site goals, use the Easy Web Wizard. To create a Web site from scratch, under Web Sites, click Blank Sizes, and then click the size that you want. Then click on Create. Enter in your content text and images to make the page look the way you want.
After you have things looking the way you want to you can preview the site and use the Design Checker to help find any potential problems. The Design Checker can be run from the Tools menu. You can choose to have the Design Checker fix problems automatically or take you to the points where the problems are located in the page. Finally preview the page by going to the File menu and selecting Web Page Preview. This will open your page in a web browser so you can see how it will look so you can check your hyperlinks and other controls.
To put your site on the internet you will need to have a hosting service that you can upload the content to. There are sites that will provide free web page hosting most likely in return for putting their advertisements on your page. Microsoft provides a free website hosting if you need it. Then you can publish your page on the web server using various methods which will vary depending on the host. You can also publish your page to a local intranet for inter office use and that way you won’t need a hosting service but keep in mind people outside of your network will not be able to see your site.
When you are ready to publish your site, Publisher assembles all the related files that it creates in a single folder including all HTML pages that make up your site, graphic images that you use on your pages, and any files for embedded sounds. By default, Office Publisher creates a single home page and a subfolder that contains all the supporting files that are needed for your Web site. This can be customized to suit your needs. You can publish your site to an internet address, FTP site or a folder on your computer. After your site is published you can publish updates by using incremental publish to the Web, which publishes only those pages that you have updated rather than the whole site.
There is much more to effectively getting your website online and maintaining it than this tip provides but you can get much more detail by using the help section within Microsoft Publisher and checking recourses online at the Mircosoft site.
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