Microsoft Publisher 2003 Tutorial

Creating a Publication

Creating a new publication using the wizards

Publisher provides a large variety of pre-built designs for each publication type. To quickly create a new publication, all you have to do is select the design and replace the placeholder text and graphics:

1. From the File menu, select New.
2. In the New Publication task pane, select a publication type from the New from a design list:

For this tutorial, we’ll create a family newsletter designed for print. Later, we’ll show you how to design a newsletter for e-mail distribution, as well.

Select Publications for Print.

This expands the list to display design categories:

It also opens the Quick Designs preview gallery, which displays designs you can use for your publication:

The preview gallery displays designs for the category selected in the New from a design list.

1. Scroll through the list of design categories and select Newsletters.

The Quick Publications preview gallery displays thumbnails for newsletter designs.

1. Scroll through the gallery. When you find a design you like, click it.

For our family newsletter, we’ll use the Rhythm Newsletter.

The first time you use the design gallery, Publisher prompts you to enter personal information, which it can automatically include in your publications:

1. Enter the information you’d like to use and click OK. You can always change the information later.

The publication is displayed in the main window:

1. The task pane now displays design options for your newsletter:

As you select different options, you can see them applied to the newsletter in the main window. If you select an option and decide you don’t like it, use the Undo button on the Standard toolbar to restore the previous selection.

· The first option is specific to the type of publication design you’ve chosen. Since we’ve chosen a newsletter design, the first option is Newsletter Options.

This lets us select one- or two-sided printing, as well as whether or not to include a customer address. When you include a customer address, Publisher adds mailing address elements to the publication.

For our newsletter, we’ll leave the options as they are: two-sided printing with no customer address.

· Web page, newsletter, and catalog designs include a Page Content option. For newsletters, click Page Content to select a column style.

For the example newsletter, we’ll keep the default option (3 columns).

· If you don’t like the newsletter design you chose from the preview gallery, click Publication Designs to choose a new one.

· To change the color scheme for the newsletter, click Color Schemes.

The current color scheme is Meadow; this was defined in the Personal Information dialog earlier. For our newsletter, we’ll select Pebbles instead.

· To change the font scheme for the newsletter, click Font Schemes.

We’ll select Online, because it has the general look we want to use. You can always change individual fonts later.

1. Once you’ve adjusted the design to your liking, you can complete your publication by replacing the text and graphics Publisher has included. The remainder of this tutorial describes how to do this.

Types of publications

You can create two types of publications in Publisher: print and Web. Each publication type includes a large number of sub-types, each with its own set of pre-built designs.

For example, print publications include designs for newsletters, flyers, brochures, business cards, signs, resumes, and labels. Web publications include designs not only for web sites but also for electronic newsletters and other event announcements that you can distribute via e-mail.

Publisher uses a distinct editing mode for print and Web publications, with each containing specialized options. Print mode includes options for commercial printing, which aren’t available to Web mode, while Web mode ensures that the elements you include in your publication are optimized for the Web. If you aren’t sure which mode you’re in, you can find out by checking the Publisher title bar.

Creating a blank publication

If you want to create your own design from scratch, you can start with a blank publication:

1. From the File menu, select New.
2. In the New Publication task pane,
   select either Blank Print Publication or Blank Web Page.

Saving a Microsoft Publisher publication

You should save your publication as soon as you’ve selected the design and adjusted the design elements:

1. From the File menu, select Save As.

The Save As dialog opens.

1. Browse to the location where you want to save the publication.
2. Enter a file name into the File name field.
3. Make sure Publisher Files (*.pub) is selected as the file type.
4. Click Save.

As you work, you can quickly save your changes by clicking the Save button on the Standard toolbar.