Introduction to Microsoft Publisher 2003
What is Microsoft Publisher?
Microsoft® Publisher is a full-featured desktop publishing program that helps you design and publish professional print and Web-based materials with ease. Using Publisher’s familiar interface, you can precisely lay out blocks of text, graphics, calendars, order forms, and more, while Publisher’s many built-in designs help you to quickly create a professional publication in a matter of minutes.
What’s new in Publisher 2003?
Publisher 2003 includes additional publication types and designs, which you can print, publish to the Web, or distribute via e-mail. These options are available from the task pane, which makes it easy to get started immediately. Other enhancements for increasing efficiency include a new page sorter, which lets you use shortcut menus and drag-and-drop functionality to rename, insert, delete, and rearrange pages, and the new Find and Replace task pane, which lets you quickly search and replace text throughout the publication.
Enhanced formatting options and layout features let you design publications with more precision and flexibility; for instance, you can apply multiple master pages to a single publication to control several page designs at once, and widow and orphan control let you control the flow of text between linked text boxes. The Design Checker and Graphics Manager automatically check the status of your publication prior to distribution, so you can quickly catch and fix problems you might not have noticed.
The Easy Web Site Builder automatically creates a custom web site based on the site goals you define, and added Web page types give you more pre-built design options for specific types of pages. A new Web editing environment called Web mode provides options specific to Web pages, ensuring your publications are optimized for the Web. In addition, new e-mail wizards help you design publications specifically for e-mail distribution.
Publisher’s commercial printing features have been extended to include composite CMYK Postscript output and enhanced color controls, which let you manage the inks in your publications. And advanced settings for separations are available from the Print dialog.
Also for business users, the new Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard lets you include information in your publications from a variety of data sources, such as a database or spreadsheet.
Starting Microsoft Publisher
To start Publisher:
- Click the Start button on the Windows task bar.
- Point to All Programs.
- Select Microsoft Office.
- From the Microsoft Office submenu, select
Microsoft Office Publisher 2003.
Microsoft Office Publisher 2003.The Publisher toolbars and task menus
While all of Publisher’s commands are contained in the menu bar at the top of the window, most of your tasks can be accomplished using the toolbars and task pane menus.
Publisher’s toolbars, which group together shortcuts to command commands, are virtually identical to those included in other Office applications. You can click a toolbar button to quickly apply formatting, save or print a publication, copy or paste text, or accomplish another of a variety of tasks.
To show or hide a toolbar, open the View menu, select Toolbars, and then select the toolbar you want to show or hide.
The most frequently used toolbars are the Standard toolbar, the Formatting toolbar, and the Objects toolbar.
The Standard toolbar contains buttons for opening, saving, printing, and editing publications. The Zoom box and magnifying glass buttons at the end of the toolbar let you change the display size of the publication you’re working in.
The Formatting toolbar contains buttons and drop-down menus for applying formatting to text, paragraphs, and objects.
The Objects toolbar, which is displayed vertically along the left side of the Publisher window, provides buttons for inserting the objects you’ll include in your publication. These include text boxes, picture boxes, lines, shapes, and Design Gallery objects.
To insert an object into a page of your publication, you simply click the button on the Objects toolbar and then click and drag to the dimensions you want. This makes Publisher a much easier and more versatile tool for designing professional publications than standard word processing programs.
In addition, Publisher uses a task pane, located on the left side of the window, to group common options, as well as to replace many standard dialogs:
As you select options from the task pane, you can see your changes immediately applied to the publication.
All the task panes are available from a menu that you can access by clicking the down arrow in the task pane title bar:
You can easily switch between task panes by selecting a pane from the menu.
You can also close the task pane, if you need more workspace, by clicking the X in the upper right-hand corner. To show the task pane again, open the View menu and select Task Pane.
Ruler Guides
A ruler guide is horizontal or vertical guide that you can move to any point on the ruler. You use ruler guides to help you align the elements you lay out in your publication. When the Snap to Ruler Marks feature is turned on, objects you place near
a ruler guide will automatically snap into alignment.
To show or hide rulers, open the View menu and select Rulers.
To create a guide, click and drag your mouse from the horizontal or vertical ruler to any page or master page in your publication:
You can create as many guides as you need. Click and drag the guides to change their position.
Ruler guides are specific to each page on which you create them, so you can lay out each page differently. If you add guides to a master page, each publication page that uses that master page will display the same guides.
To turn on Snap to Ruler Marks, open the Arrange menu and select Snap and then To Ruler Marks. When you place an object near a ruler guide or an intersection of guides, the object snaps into place:
Similarly, you can turn on the Snap to Objects feature to snap ruler guides to objects: From the Arrange menu, select Snap, and then Snap to Objects.
To remove a ruler guide, right-click on it and select Delete Guide from the shortcut menu, or simply drag it off the page.
