(MS Pub 2003 with service packs up to date)
One novice stumbling block for me was how to publish to the web,  the
available advice includes both FTP and HTTP.  I found that HTTP is easier,
esp with incremental publishing enabled (just  changes the page that have
changed).  I had to talk to my host server tech support for HTTP, they had a
separate user ID and passwork for HTTP which I entered when publishing (these
can be saved for more automatic connection).

I  found that for a pub  of say 2MB it will take serveral minutes  to
publish for the first time even with broadband. Updates will take a lot less
time.

I also found that  I needed to make sure that Front Page extentions were
turned on for my hosting pacakge, I can contol that from my account manager.  
At one time I had to have these reinstalled as they got corrupted.  (These
applied even though I am not using Front Page).

Even though I do not use the FTP publising method, I still have an FTP
client  (Cute FTP) to see my files on the server to see what happened after
publishing under HTTP and to upload other files for linking to from my site.

When reviewing an updated website, I have to first clear out the browser
cached files or I will likely get  pages from the old version

B Smith