Publisher 2007 Training

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Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing program that can be used for making flyers, brochures, and a variety of other things that can be printed and shared with others.

Goals

Upon completion of this 1-on-1 training, you will be able to:

  • Create a Publication
  • Add Text Boxes and Pictures to a Publication
  • Save a Publication
  • Print a Publication
  • Save a Publication as a PDF

Training

Unlike the other Office 2007 programs, Publisher 2007 continues to use the menus and toolbars that you are used to from Office 2000 or 2003.

Create a Publication

Let’s begin by opening Publisher. Do this by going to Start > All Programs > Applications > Microsoft Office Publisher 2007.

Note: Publisher may be located in a different place in your Start menu.

You will see a window like the one pictured below. Let’s click on Blank Page Sizes.

We are going to use standard Letter sized paper, which is 8.5×11 inches. Double-click on Letter (Portrait).

Add Text Boxes and Pictures to a Publication

Right now we have a blank publication, which admittedly is not too exciting. The environment might remind you of Microsoft Word or another word processor, and it is possible to use Publisher to make the same kinds of documents you would use a word processing program to make. However, Publisher is not designed for that. Rather, Publisher uses the “page layout” paradigm. A Publisher publication consists of objects, like “text boxes” and “pictures”, which have a specific location on the page. You can move these objects around by clicking on them and dragging them to the desired location. Let’s play around with a couple of text boxes and pictures.

1. Click the Text Box tool in the toolbar on the left side of the window, and somewhere in your document, click and drag to make a rectangle that will become your text box.

2. You now have a text box, and there is now a cursor in which you can type text. You can enter text in this box and edit it in much the same way you would with Microsoft Word.

3. In the text box, type “Free to Good Home.”

4. Select (highlight) the text and change it to size 36 using the Font toolbar.

5. If your text box wasn’t initially very big, you’ll notice that not all of the text can fit into the text box. Publisher indicates this by putting a little white rectangle with an “A” and an ellipsis below your text box.

6. Let’s resize the text box so that the text fits in there, and so that the text is where we want it on the page. Use the resizing handles on the edge of the text box to make it stretch to the left and right page margins, and then click and drag the text box to move it right under the top margin.

7. Change the alignment of the text to centered by clicking on it, and clicking on the Center button in the Font toolbar.

You might think this seems like an awful lot of work to get some centered text on a page. After all, this same task was a lot quicker in Word, but it’s important to keep in mind that as the number of objects on your page gets larger, the more advantageous Publisher becomes to help you control your layout. If you have a page with 4-5 text objects and several graphics and shapes, moving objects around would be a nightmare in Word unless you manually set every single object to not move with text. So if you’re wondering whether Word or Publisher is the superior program, the answer is neither. However, there are certain kinds of documents that Word handles well, and there are certain kinds of documents that Publisher handles well.

8. Let’s add a picture of what it is that we’re trying to free to a good home. If you are feeling devious, grab a picture of your spouse or children, or otherwise, let’s head over to Google and do an Image Search for kittens. Once you have found a cute picture, click on the link to see a full-size image, and then click on the picture and drag it down to your Task Bar and find the button for your Publisher publication. Drag the picture there and hold it there until Publisher becomes the active program. Then drag the picture onto your document and drag it until it’s in the center of your page. Your publication should now look something like this:

9. Let’s put one of those phone number tear-off things at the bottom of our poster, so that interested people can have your number without having to write it down. In the toolbar on the left side of the window, click the Design Gallery button, and choose Phone Tear-Off. Then click Insert Object.

10. Now, enter in the text for the phone tear-off. Simply click on the text in one of the strips, and type in your name, hit Enter, and type a phone number. When you click outside of the tear-off, the text will automatically be copied to the other strips.

Save a Publication

To save your publication, go to File > Save and save it in the location that you want, with the file name you would like. You can also use the Ctrl+S keyboard shortcut.

Print a Publication

To print your publication, go to File > Print. You can also use the Ctrl+P keyboard shortcut.

Additional Resources

Review the Help within Publisher

Microsoft Publisher has a built-in help system. To access it, press F1 or use the Help menu.

  • You can select a topic by clicking on the text, such as What’s new.
  • You can also type a word or phrase into the box at the top of the window, click the Search button, and then select the topic of interest.

Review Online Microsoft Resources

Consult Atomic Learning

Atomic Learning is a provider of web-based software training videos and resources. A relevant tutorial series is:

Review the Technology Help Desk web site

Contact the Technology Help Desk

  • Call 563-387-1000
  • Email helpdesk@luther.edu
  • Stop by the Technology Help Desk in Preus Library
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