PUB97: Animated GIF Images Don't Animate After Exporting From Publisher 97

If you import an animated GIF into a publication and then export the publication as HTML, the image no longer animates.

Animated GIFs are graphic files that contain more than one separate picture. Some Web browsers can display each of the separate pictures in turn, one right after another, to give the effect of animation. This is a special feature of the GIF 89a file format; many other graphics formats do not allow multiple pictures in the same file.

When you import a GIF file into Publisher, it goes through a graphics import filter. The Publisher graphics filters convert all graphics files into Windows Metafile data and then gives that data to Publisher. Since Windows Metafiles only support one picture per file, only the first image in a multi-image GIF file is converted.

If you want to use an animated GIF in a Publisher-created Web Site, use the following steps (note, these steps assume that you have Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.0 installed on you computer--other Web browsers should have similar capabilities, but the menu choices may be different from the ones presented here):

1. Import the animated GIF into your publication (it will be imported as a static picture).
2. On the File menu, click Publish Web Site To Folder. Choose a folder into which to publish your Web Site.
3. Start Internet Explorer. On the File menu, click Open.
4. Click the Browse button and then double-click the folder you chose in step 2.
5. There will be a file with one of the following names in this folder:
   Index.html
   Index.htm
   Default.html
   Default.htm
   Double-click the file to open your Web Site.
6. Find the static picture of your animated GIF. Right-click the Picture, and then click Properties and write down the name of the GIF file.
   
   This will be a "generic" name similar to Image4.gif. You can now exit Internet Explorer.
7. Delete the file that has the same name as you determined in step 6.
8. Place a copy of your animated GIF in the same folder as your Web site.
9. Rename this copy of your animated GIF to the name you determined in step 6.

If you view your Web Site in Internet Explorer 3.0 now, you will see the animation.

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Publisher 98.