This document provides a basic background on Microsoft Publisher, a
widely-used tool for creating newsletters, banners, brochures, and
other publications in Microsoft Windows.
Introduction
Although it is no longer bundled with Microsoft Windows, Microsoft
Publisher has become a mainstay for many people who need a desktop
publishing tool that offers more publishing-specific tools than a word
processor, without the cost and complexity of packages like Adobe
PageMaker, Adobe InDesign, and Quark XPress.
What You Can Do With Publisher
Publisher is set up to allow fast, easy creation of flyers,
brochures, newsletters, banners, and other documents that aren't suited
to word processors. Although Publisher has rudimentary HTML export
functions for Web page building, there are several other tools better
suited to this function.
Other tools such as InDesign and XPress offer advanced typographic
and color-calibration controls, XML export, and other features
necessary for professional document production. Because Publisher
doesn't support these functions, it is not generally used by graphic
design and publishing agencies.
However, Publisher is used by small businesses and nonprofit
organizations of all kinds, because it allows non-designers to create
attractive documents easily, rapidly, and on a budget.
Senior Corps Projects and Publisher
Publisher is ideally suited for the creation of newsletters .
If you are interested in printing a monthly or quarterly newsletter,
Publisher comes bundled with several templates that can get you up and
running very quickly.
You can also design your own banners for events. Again,
Publisher's templates come in handy. You can print out the banners
either on single sheets of paper that are then taped together, or you
can have the banner printed at a local print shop.
By printing on colored paper and using one of the flyer templates, you can advertise upcoming events in mailings, on bulletin boards, and so on.
Believe it or not, with Publisher you can even create designs for t-shirts .
After creating your design, you can take the file to a local t-shirt
shop, and they can print it onto shirts for you. Be sure to call first
to be sure they take Publisher files.
Once you start working with Publisher, you'll likely come up with more ideas of your own.
Tips
Try making a few publications using templates first. This will allow you to get comfortable with the program and see what kind of projects you can create.
Next, use the Quick Publication Wizard to create a document.
This is a more interactive method which gives you a bit more
flexibility in your selection of colors, fonts, and type placement.
For your first Blank Publication (a publication built from
scratch), start out with a simple flyer, so you can get a feel for how
the table, font, and picture controls work.
If you are planning on having a publication professionally printed,
you may run into trouble with many print shops not accepting Publisher
files. Make sure to check with your chosen print professional to see if
they will accept this file format. |
