Step 1:  Select a filter

Before you begin the publishing process, be sure to select the filter that you want to apply to your data.  (See All about filters). The selected filter will be used by the publish process to select which records to include.  Many of the templates also make use of the selected filter to decide which columns to publish.  For example, all of the publishing templates described as "Columns of the current filter", will publish only the columns of specimen data which are part of the selected filter.

Step 2:  The publish command

From the File menu, select the Publish specimen command.  Note that this menu item is only available when one of the Specimen Views is active.

Step 3:  Choose the publishing mode

There are two basic types of documents that can be created using the publish tool:  detailed pages and summary pages.  Both can use any of the specimen data fields, and both use any combination of style sheets to produce sophisticated layouts with colors, fonts, and graphics.  Detailed pages contain the data for exactly one specimen record, whereas summary pages contain the data for all specimen.

Detailed pages are useful for creating nursery placards, web pages, and book layouts.  Summary pages are useful for creating indexes, table of contents, photo proof sheets, labels, and abstracts.

When choosing which publishing mode to use, remember that the summary page mode will produce exactly one document, while the detailed page mode will produce multiple documents.

If you want to produce an index or table of contents together with hyperlinks to more detailed pages, choose the third publishing mode.

Step 4:  Choose which specimen to publish

If you want to publish only a few of your specimen records, you can use the multiple-selection feature of the Specimen List together with the "Publish the selected specimen only" option.  This is also useful when you simply want to print or publish a single specimen record. Typically though, you'll want to "Publish all specimen of the current filter".  Remember to select the proper filter before you begin the publish process.

Step 5:  Choose styles to use

Four different types of styling can be applied to your published documents:  color schemes, font styles, font sizes, and logos.

The color scheme applies a combination of two or three basic colors to your published document.  Each scheme sets the font colors, background colors for tables, and line-break colors.

The font style defines which combination of fonts will be applied to your documents.  Some styles apply the same font throughout. Some apply one font for labels and another for data values.  Others set specific fonts for titles. When publishing to the Web, it's best to use the Web compatible font styles.  When your publishing results are intended to be printed it's better to use the "Paper" styles.

	Choose any available font size.  Note that most of your document will use this font size but some will be slightly larger (titles) or smaller (footers).
	Choose any of the pre-supplied logos.  To add you own logo to this list, simply copy a GIF format picture file to the directory  "C:/Program Files/CompleatBotanica/Programs/Publish Templates/Style Sheets/Logos" and it will appear in this list.

To see a sample of your selected styles, press the Show Sample button.  You can keep this publish preview window open as you proceed through the remaining steps of the publish process.

Step 6:  Choose summary table template

Note:  The "Choose summary table template" step is not shown if you picked "Publish one detailed page per specimen record" in step 3.

There are several categories of summary table templates.  Select a category on the left hand side to see the associated templates on the right-hand side. When publishing to the Web, be sure to use a summary table template that has hyperlinks, since those templates are specifically customized for creating links to the detailed documents.  See the templates under "Table of Contents" and "Web site indexes".

Step 7:  Choose detailed page template

Note:  The "Choose detailed page template" step is not shown if you picked "Publish a single page summarizing all specimen" in step 3.

	There are several categories of detailed page templates.  Select a category on the left hand side to see the associated templates on the right-hand side. When publishing to the Web, be sure to use one of the custom tailored templates that have hyperlinks for navigating to the previous and next pages (look under "Web pages").

Step 8:  Select output directory

Choose where you want the newly-created documents to be placed.  If the selected directory already has documents from a previous publication process, you can choose whether to overwrite them or not. Document files are given a filename corresponding to their "Specimen number".  Thus a detailed page for specimen number "S101" would be published in the document "S101.htm" and any pictures and bitmaps would be copied to the sub-directory "S101_files". The document name for the summary table of all specimen is always "index.htm"

If you choose to overwrite existing documents from a previous publication process, the standard document names will be re-used (see above). If you choose not to overwrite existing documents, the newly-created documents will be given artificial names like "1.htm", "2.htm", etc.

Step 9:  Start the process

	Simply press the start button to begin.
	The progress of the publication process is shown in as each specimen document is created.  (The "index.htm" file always takes longer than the individual detail pages.)
	Use the Show button when the process is complete to see your published pages in the publish preview window.