MICROSOFT PUBLISHER
What is Microsoft Publisher?
Publisher is a full-featured desktop publishing program (DTP) that helps you create, design, and
publish professional-looking marketing and communication materials with ease. Using
Publisher's familiar interface, you can precisely lay out blocks of text, graphics, calendars, order
forms, and many other business documents. Documents created in Ms Publisher are referred to
as Publications.
These publications can be printed, sent through email or posted on the website.
Other examples of DTPs in the market are:
Corel Draw
Adobe Page maker etc
Before you create any publication there are a number of factors that you will need to put into
consideration.
1. Type of publication
2. Page size of your Publication
3. Knowing your audience
4. Analyzing other people’s projects
5. Discovering the keys to design success
Be consistent.
Put things where people tend to see them.
Keep your message simple.
6. Publishing with style
7. Working within a budget
Creating a New Publication
There are three ways of creating a new publication
1. Blank publication Use these when you want to create a publication from scratch. You
can choose the page size you want without Publisher adding any sample pictures or
text. You start with a clean slate.
2. Existing publications: take already designed publications and make some modifications
to suit your needs.
3. Using Templates: they provide a convenient starting place for your
work and capture details that you want to make sure not to
change.
LAUNCHING PUBLISHER
Once you launch Publisher, the program offers you a number of different publications types to
start with.
1. Click on one of the publication types in the main window or in the list on the left side of
the main window to view a list of templates (Template – is a tool used in Publisher to
help you easily create basic publications. The Template has a set of pre-chosen design
styles that you can use as it is or customize as you see fit.)There are many different
types of publications you can create in Publisher. Each publication has many
customizable options.
2. After picking the desired type, you can go ahead to Select the Publication page size or
continue with the design template you have chosen
3. Then select the basic design for your publication (Color scheme, font styles etc)
4. Click Create button which is at the bottom right pane/window below the customize
options
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You can also open existing publication from the open recent publication task pane then make
some change to suite your requirements.
Understanding Ms Publisher User Interface
Ms Publisher treats a document as a collection of separate and distinct objects which can be
moved, edited or deleted independently off any other object in the document.
The most frequently used toolbars are the Standard toolbar, the Formatting toolbar, and the
Objects toolbar. This therefore means that for you to create any publication you will mostly
need to use these toolbars and the task pane menus more frequently.
1. Title bar
2. Menu bar
3. Formatting toolbar contains buttons and drop-down menus for applying formatting to
text, paragraphs, and objects.
4. Status bar: Show the number of pages in the publication and the measurements of each
object or item in the page.
5. Horizontal and vertical Rulers: Used to provide measurements during the designing
process of a publication. A guide is a dotted line that runs the length or width of your
page and is used to position objects on your page. To create a guide, hold down the Ctrl
key when you click and drag a ruler.
6. Objects toolbar, which is displayed vertically along the left side of the Publisher
window, provides buttons for inserting the objects you'll need in your publication.
These include text boxes, picture boxes, lines, shapes, and Design Gallery objects.
a. Bookmark: With so many goodies to choose from, you might find that some of your
graphics get lost in the shuffle! Bookmarking a graphic is a quick way to find all instances of
the same graphic.
b. Design Gallery Object tool: Lets you select from a library of objects. Click the Design Gallery
Object tool to open a window, that lets you select from a number of objects in a library
and then inserts your selection into your publication. Objects are organized by category in
the Design Gallery
c. Item from content library
You can design items that will be used more than once in the publication such as logos and
store them in the item from content library so that they are easily accessible in a new
publication in case you need them. Create the item you want to add to the library and select it,
on the objects tool bar click on item from content library. On the task pane that appears click
add the selected item to content library give it a name and save.
7. Page Selection bar: The Page Selection bar, located at the bottom left of the screen, lets
you quickly go to any page in your publication.
8. Publisher Tasks pane: It provides links that guide you through the steps necessary to
complete the design of your publication. It’s located on the left side of the window, to
group common options, as well as to replace many standard dialog boxes: As you select
options from the task pane, you can see your changes immediately applied to the
publication.
Publisher questions
1. Give three ways of creating a publication.
2. Mention any other two DTP programs
3. How can you change measurements Units in publisher
4. Explain how you can add or remove toolbars from the publisher window
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5. Give the functions of the following tools
i. Design Checker
ii. Design gallery objects
iii. Objects tool bar
iv. Item from the content library
v. Bookmark
6. Give three different types of borders that are available in publisher
7. Give the procedure of adding guide lines in your publication
8. Mention any five features of Ms publisher
9. How to insert headers and footers, superscript and subscript
10. Give five picture formatting tools
11. How to create a custom page size
12. Give the procedure of mail merging a publication.
13. Give one advantage of a master page
14. How do you insert a picture watermark
