PUB97: How Publisher Determines the Width of a Web Page

When you use Publisher to create a Web page, and then view that Web page using different Web browsers, some Web browsers may put a horizontal scroll bar across the bottom of the Web page and others may not.

In addition, some pages in a multiple-page Web site may have horizontal scroll bars and others may not, even though all the pages are the same size in Microsoft Publisher.

When Publisher exports a page as an HTML document, it places all the elements on your publication page into cells in a big HTML table. Publisher includes codes specifying how wide and tall (in pixels) each table cell should be. Publisher determines the width of this HTML table by doing the following:

1. Publisher measures the distance between the left and right margins of the page.
2. Publisher includes the width of any objects that overhang the left or right edges of the page (but not objects that are entirely off the page.)
3. Creates the HTML table based on a conversion factor of about 100 pixels per inch.

This means that if your publication page is seven inches wide, but has a picture frame that overhangs the right edge of the page by one inch, the HTML table will be about 800 pixels wide.

In theory, if your Web page is 800 pixels wide, and you display it in a window that is only 500 pixels wide, your browser should display a horizontal scroll bar, regardless of what is on the page. However, different Web browsers handle empty table cells differently. If your browser condenses empty table cells together, a Web page with a lot of text on it may display with scroll bars, but a sparser Web page of the same absolute width may display in a more condensed format without scroll bars.

This symptom is a fact of life when creating Web pages. It is not limited to HTML documents created in Publisher. You can't predict which Web browser your audience will use, nor can you predict what screen resolution they will use.

To minimize the chance of this happening, create your Web site publication with a page width of six inches or less. This creates HTML tables that are about 600 pixels wide, which displays without scroll bars in a majority of browsers on a majority of computer displays.