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Professional publishing
The first popular desktop-publishing program was Pagemaker.
How Pagemaker arose
Pagemaker was invented in 1985 by Paul Brainerd, who’d been a newspaper executive. Pagemaker ran on the Mac and used Apple’s laser printer (the Laserwriter).
Pagemaker lets you combine words and graphics to form a newspaper page, including headlines, columns of articles, photographs, diagrams, captions, and ads, all on the same page. Pagemaker let you see the page on your computer’s screen, while you moved the words and graphics by using your mouse.
According to traditional nerd jargon, such a program should have been called a “page-layout”, “page-composition”, or “computer-aided publishing” program. But to sell the program he coined a new term: he decided to call it a desktop-publishing program, because it used the Mac’s “desktop” screen to help publishing, and because it let you run your own publishing company from a desktop in your home without having to hire typesetters, graphic artists, and other outside help.
The Pagemaker program and the term “desktop publishing” both became instant hits. Many would-be authors, publishers, and designers bought Apple computers just for the purpose of running Pagemaker. They used Pagemaker to create newspapers, newsletters, reports, books, flyers, posters, and ads.
Most ad agencies standardized on using Apple computers and Pagemaker to create ads. That’s why Apple computers became popular in the graphics-arts community. Even today, nearly every ad agency uses Apple computers, not IBM-compatibles.
At first, the IBM PC couldn’t handle desktop publishing at all. Eventually, Windows (and a competitor called Gem) improved enough so that the IBM PC’s screen could look Mac-like. Finally, a Windows version of Pagemaker became available.
Pagemaker’s competitors
Competitors to Pagemaker arose. Now your main choices are Pagemaker, Quark Xpress, Frame Maker, and Ventura Publisher.
Here’s how they compare:
Pagemaker (for Mac & Windows) is the easiest to learn. It’s the best for handling graphics and short ads.
Quark Xpress is the best for handling text and fonts. Its Mac version is better than its Windows version.
Frame Maker (for Mac & Windows) is the best for organizing long, technical manuals.
Ventura Publisher is just for Windows, not the Mac. It was weak, but it’s improving fast.
Mergers
Pagemaker was published by Paul Brainerd’s company, Aldus. In 1994, Aldus merged into a company called Adobe, which had invented many other desktop-publishing tools, such as Postcript (the font system used in Apple’s Laserwriter), Illustrator (a draw program), and Photoshop (a photo-manipulation program). Then Adobe bought the company that made Frame Maker. So now Pagemaker and Frame Maker are both published by Adobe.
Ventura Publisher was published by Ventura, then by Xerox, then by Ventura again, and now by Corel (which also publishes Corel Draw and Word Perfect).
Quark Xpress is published by Quark, which is still independent.
Difficulties
Using desktop-publishing software can be difficult. That’s why Pagemaker is often called “Pagewrecker”, Frame Maker is called “Frame Wrecker”, Quark Xpress is called “Quark Distress”, and Ventura is called “Vultura”: they can eat your offspring.
Frames
Like a word-processing program, a desktop-publishing program lets you type words onto the screen. But when you start using a desktop-publishing program, the first thing to do is divide your screen (and page) into boxes. Each box is called a frame.
In one frame, type a headline. In another frame, put a picture. (You can create the picture by using the draw tools that are included as part of the desktop-publishing program, or else import a drawing or painting or photo that you created by using some other graphics program.) In another frame, put a table of contents or an index. In another frame, put an ad. In another frame, put column 1 of an article. In another frame, put column 2.
You can link one frame to another. For example, you can link column 1 to column 2, so if you type an article that’s too long to fit in column 1, the excess will spill into column 2.
You can link a frame on page 1 to a frame on page 7, so if an article’s too long to fit on your newspaper’s front page, it will continue on page 7. (Continuing on a far-away page is called a jump. Newspapers do it frequently. I wish they didn’t!)
Master page
If most of the pages in your newspaper resemble each other, create a master page that shows how the typical page should look. On that master page, put frames for each column, and at the top of the page put a header that includes the page number and your newspaper’s name & date (so when a reader rips out an article, the reader knows where it came from).
Special pages can diverge from the master.
Clutter
The typical beginner makes the mistake of trying to be too fancy. Use just a few typestyles and frames per page, to avoid making your publication look like a disorganized cluttered mess.
Put enough frames on your page to add spice; but if you add too many frames, your publication will look chopped-up, dicey, as amateurish as an oil painting by a 2-year-old kid given his first paint box.
Adding some frames will make it look spicy,
But too many frames will make it look dicey.
Gentle control shows a master who knew;
Out-of-control shows a kid who acts 2.
Mozart’s music was masterfully charming because its overall structure was simple, though it had a few subtle surprises. Imitate him.
Cheaper solutions
Unfortunately, professional desktop-publishing programs are expensive: about $500 each!
Kiddie pub
Cheaper, easier desktop-publishing programs have been invented, for kids and novices. The most famous is Print Shop, published by Broderbund.
It’s particularly good at creating greeting cards, posters, and banners. The first version was popular among kids using Apple 2 computers because it was amazingly easy to use, though the graphics it produced were low-resolution and crude. (I guess you call that “folk art”.)
It’s been translated to the Mac, IBM PC, and most other computers, too. The newest versions produce graphics that are better (but still not good enough to pass as professional). Unfortunately, the newer versions are harder to learn.
Print Shop’s price has been reduced to about $20 because nobody wants it anymore. Instead, folks want Microsoft Publisher.
Like Print Shop, Microsoft Publisher can produce greeting cards, posters, and banners. Better than Print Shop, it can handle high-resolution graphics and tiny fonts well and produce professional-looking newspapers, newsletters, reports, business cards, and origami paper airplanes. It asks for your mood (“Would you like your publication to look jazzy or classical?”), then produces a terrific-looking document with fake words, which you replace with your own words. It lets you fine-tune your publication’s graphics and layouts by using your mouse and professional desktop-publishing techniques. Best of all, it comes with a terrific manual (training you in the fine art of desktop publishing) and costs just $70 from discount dealers.
Bill Gates, who runs Microsoft, liked the design of Microsoft Publisher so much that he took the head of the design team and married her!
Word processing
Recently, word-processing programs have grown to include lots of desktop-publishing features.
The first word-processing program that let you create frames was Ami Pro. Other word-processing programs have copied Ami Pro’s idea of permitting frames, so now you can create frames in Word Pro (which is Ami Pro’s successor), Microsoft Word, and Word Perfect. (But creating frames is still easier in Word Pro than in other word processors.)
If what you’re writing has a simple layout, with very few frames or graphics per page, you can use a word-processing program instead of a desktop-publishing program.
How I published this book
I wrote this edition of The Secret Guide to Computers by using just Microsoft Word. I got by with Microsoft Word instead of a desktop-publishing program because I kept my layout simple, with very few frames and graphics per page.
Graphics I clipped most of the graphics from the wonderful clip-art books published by Dover. Dover’s clip-art books are available in most art-supply stores, and their illustrations are far superior to “clip-art CD-ROM disks”, which contain just crude cartoons. To get a catalog of Dover’s clip-art books, send a postcard to Pictorial Archive Dept., Dover Publications, 31 E. 2nd St., Mineola NY 11501.
Being a low-tech guy, I had my staff paste the graphics into my book by hand, by using rubber cement.
Rubber cement is faster than fiddling with scanners, image editors, and high-falutin’ graphics commands in Microsoft Word and desktop-publishing programs.
The only major problem with rubber cement is that if I change my mind and edit the page, we have to paste the graphics in again. To avoid wasting time, we had to plan our work carefully and not paste the graphics in until the text’s final draft was done.
If you use rubber cement, remember that long exposure to its fumes can cause cancer, so use it in a well-ventilated area and try not to get it on your hands.
To make a graphic smaller, I used my photocopier, which can shrink to any percentage.
Fonts For most of this book, I used just 4 fonts:
This font is called “Times New Roman”. It’s from Microsoft. I used it for most of my writing. It’s therefore called my “body-text font”. Unlike other Times Roman fonts, Microsoft’s has the nice property: when working in small font sizes (such as 8-point), each digit is as wide as two blank spaces, and each period takes up as much space as one blank space. That makes it easy to keep the columns lined up! (Microsoft wants you to line up columns by using fancy features such as “tables” and “decimal tabs”, but pressing the space bar is simpler.)
This font is called
"Lineprinter". It comes with all Hewlett-Packard Laserjet printers.
It’s monospaced. I used it to imitate computer output.
This
font is called “Arial Black”. It’s from Microsoft. It’s an extra-bold version
of Arial. It’s big, black, and ugly. It’s so monstrous that it stands out on
the page. That stand-out quality is why I chose it. In fact, it stands out so
much that I shrunk it to prevent it from overwhelming the page. For example, in
the middle of 10-point Times New Roman, to emphasize a word I used 9-point
Arial Black. If I were to set ALL my headlines in Arial Black, I’d look like a
big, ugly, pompous ass, so….
To lighten things up and show I’m a regular
fella who’s light-hearted and funny, I used this funny font, called “Comic Sans
MS”. It’s from Microsoft. I used it at the top of each section. I put a box
around it to give it greater emphasis, since it isn’t black enough to draw
attention unboxed.
Typical text is Times New Roman 10-point (with 11-point line spacing, so there’s a 1-point gap between lines).
Small text (like you’re reading now) is typically Times New Roman 8-point (with 9-point line spacing), boxed, and shaded 5%. Monospaced computer output (like this) is Lineprinter 8½-point. Emphasized words (like this) are Arial Black 7-point, 9-point, 11-point, or 14-point, depending on importance. Big headlines (like the headline “Cheaper solutions” at the top of this page) are Comic Sans MS, 20-point, boxed, and shaded 12.5%.
For gigantic headlines at the beginning of each chapter, I typically used gigantic fonts (usually 48-point) supplied by a company called Formatt.
Each Formatt font is fascinating (much more interesting than its famous competitor, Letraset) and comes on a sheet (available in art-supply stores). You cut Formatt letters from the sheet by using an Exacto knife. The sheet has a background that’s transparent and semi-sticky, so you can easily reposition the letters if you make a mistake.
At the beginning of the strangest chapter (on page 365), I used a strange font that came on a CD-ROM disk called Kid Fonts & Icons, published by Softkey (now part of Brøderbund). That disk is cheap and widely distributed. I got it at my local supermarket for $12.99 while buying groceries!
Dimensions To squeeze as much info as possible onto each page without clutter, I set my left and right margins at .5", top margin at .3", bottom margin at .6" (to leave space for the footer), and distance between columns at .3".
The typical page contains 2 columns, each 3.6" wide. When I needed a wider column (to hold a wide table or graphic), I widened the column to 4.8" instead, so the page’s other column shrunk to 2.4". On a few pages, I used 3 narrow columns, each 2.3".
Microsoft Publisher
The newest version of Microsoft Publisher is Microsoft Publisher XP, which is part of Microsoft Office XP. This chapter explains how to use it.
(For info about using Microsoft Publisher’s previous version, Microsoft Publisher 2000, get the 27th edition of The Secret Guide to Computers by phoning 603-666-6644.)
Prepare yourself
Before using Microsoft Publisher XP, practice using Microsoft Word XP, which I explained on pages 191-213. (To do that, you should be using modern Windows.) Make sure Microsoft Word XP works fine before you try using Microsoft Publisher XP.
To use Microsoft Publisher XP easily, your monitor should be 17-inch (or bigger). Otherwise, the monitor is too small to show your publication well. Set the monitor’s resolution at 1024-by-768 (or bigger), as follows:
Close any windows that are open, so you see just the Windows desktop screen. Right-click in the screen’s middle, where there is nothing. Click “Properties” then “Settings”. Drag the slider toward the right, until it says “1024 by 768 pixels”, then press ENTER. If the computer says “Windows will now resize your desktop”, do this: press ENTER, then wait for the screen to become black, then wait for colors to reappear, then click “Yes”.
Launch Microsoft Publisher
Click “Start” then “Programs” then “Microsoft Publisher”.
The left window shows this list of 27 publication types:
quick publications, Word documents,
newsletters, Web sites, brochures, catalogs, flyers, signs, postcards,
invitation cards, greeting cards,
business cards, resumes, letterheads, envelopes, business forms, banners,
calendars, advertisements, award certificates, gift certificates, labels,
with compliments cards, menus, programs, airplanes, origami
Quick publications
The most powerful publication type is “quick publications”. Try clicking it now! Here’s what happens.…
Design The right-hand window shows these 66 designs:
accent box, accessory bar, arcs, argyle, astro, axis, bars, birthday, blank, blends, blocks, border flowers, borders, bouquet, bubbles, butterfly, capsules, cascade, checkers, circles, confetti, corner art, crossed lines, diamonds, echo, eclipse, edge, floating oval, handprint, hearts and circles, jumbled boxes, jungle, layers, leaves, level, linear accent, marquee, maze, mobile, network, pansies, party time, pinwheel, pixel, profile, punctuation, quadrant, radial, refined, retro, ribbons, romance, scallops, signpost, soap bubbles, starfish, steps, straight edge, stripes, studio, tilt, triangles, wallpaper, watermark, waves, wavy frame
(You see just the first few; to see the rest, use that window’s scroll arrows.)
You can click whichever design you want; but for your first experience, choose “accent box”.
(If the computer says “The wizard will fill in your name…”, press ENTER twice.)
Layout The computer assumes you want your publication to contain three objects:
a picture (such as a photo or drawing)
a heading (a few words in big letters)
a message (a few sentences in small letters)
The computer assumes you want to display the picture on top, then the heading, then the message (since the viewer’s eye will naturally be attracted to the picture first, then the heading, then the message); but you can change that layout. For example, you can omit the picture, omit the heading, omit the message, make the picture smaller, move the picture to below the heading, twist the heading 90° (so it becomes a sidebar heading), or insert a fourth object: personal info about yourself!
At the screen’s left edge, you see the word “Layout”. Below that word you see these 15 layouts to choose from:
Blank
Large picture at the top
Large picture in the middle
Small picture at the top
Small picture in the middle
Sidebar heading, picture at the top
Sidebar heading, picture at the bottom
Sidebar heading, no picture
No message, picture at the top
No message, picture at the bottom
No picture
No heading
Message only
Heading only
Personal information with picture
The computer assumes you want the second layout, “Large picture at the top”. To try a different layout instead, click one that interests you and look at its effect.
After you’ve experimented by clicking several layouts, make up your mind which one to use. For your first publication, I recommend you stay with “Large picture at the top”.
Click the layout you choose, so it’s highlighted.
Color scheme Click “Color Schemes” (which is near the screen’s left edge). You see this list of 66 color schemes:
alpine, aqua, berry, black & gray, black & white, bluebird, brown, burgundy, cavern, citrus, clay, cranberry, crocus, dark blue, desert, eggplant, field, fjord, floral, garnet, glacier, green, grove, harbor, heather, iris, island, ivy, lagoon, lilac, mahogany, marine, maroon, meadow, mist, mistletoe, monarch, moss, mountain, mulberry, navy, nutmeg, olive, orchid, parrot, pebbles, prairie, rain forest, red, redwood, reef, sagebrush, sapphire, shamrock, sienna, spice, sunrise, sunset, teal, tidepool, tropics, trout, Tuscany, vineyard, waterfall, wildflower
The computer assumes you want “waterfall”. The list is too long to fit on the screen; to try a different color scheme instead, use the list’s scroll arrows to see the rest of the list, then click whichever color scheme interests you. Look at its effect. If you don’t like that effect, try clicking a different color scheme instead. Keep clicking until you find a color scheme whose effect makes you happy.
Font scheme Click “Font Schemes” (which is near the screen’s left edge). You see this list of 26 font schemes:
Scheme name Headline font Message font
Wizard Gill Sans Gill Sans
Binary Verdana Georgia
Breve Bodoni Black Franklin Gothic Book
Capital Perpetua Titling Perpetua
Deckle Papyrus Gill Sans
Dictation Lucida Sans Typewriter Lucida Sans
Economy Franklin Gothic Demi Condensed Times New Roman Bold
Etched Copperplate Gothic Bold Garamond
Facet Gill Sans Gill Sans
Foundation Times New Roman Arial Bold
Foundry Rockwell Extra Bold Rockwell
Fusion French Script Calisto
Galley Arial Rounded Bold Times New Roman
Impact Impact Georgia
Industrial Franklin Gothic Heavy Franklin Gothic Book
Literary Bookman Old Style Arial Rounded Bold
Modern Twentieth Century Bold Garamond
Monogram Edwardian Script Twentieth Century
Offset Imprint Shadow Franklin Gothic Book
Optical OCR A Extended Franklin Gothic Book
Perspective Goudy Old Style Franklin Gothic Heavy
Punch Gill Sans Ultra Bold Comic Sans
Streamline Bodoni Condensed Twentieth Century Bold
Textbook Century Schoolbook Arial Bold
Verbatim Agency Bold Agency
Virtual Trebuchet Bold Trebuchet
The computer assumes you want “wizard”. The list is too long to fit on the screen; to try a different font scheme instead, use the list’s scroll arrows to see the rest of the list, then click whichever font scheme interests you. Look at its effect. If you don’t like that effect, try clicking a different font scheme instead. Keep clicking until you find a font scheme whose effect makes you happy.
Heading You see your publication. In it, click the word “Heading”, then type whatever words you want the heading to be.
If you type many words, the computer will automatically switch them all to a smaller font, so the words will still fit in the space allotted. If you type a word that’s not in the computer’s dictionary (because the word is weird or you misspelled it), the computer will put a red squiggle under it.
Message Under the heading, you see a sentence saying “Place your message here”. Click in that sentence, then type the message you want to be under the heading. (If your message contains many words, the computer will automatically switch them all to a smaller font, so the words will still fit in the space allotted.)
Picture Above the heading, you see a picture. Temporarily, that picture is a photo of a sunset, but you can change that picture. Here’s how.…
Double-click the picture you want to change. (If the computer says “Welcome to Microsoft Clip Organizer”, press ENTER.)
What topic do you want a picture of? Pick a topic (such as “girl” or “egg” or “France”). Double-click in the “Search text” box (which is near the screen’s left edge), then type your topic (and press ENTER).
You’ll see several pictures about your topic. To see more, use the scroll arrow. (If you don’t see many, it’s probably because you forgot to install Microsoft Publisher’s Media Content CD-ROM disk, which contains lots of pictures. I explained how to install it, as part of Microsoft Office XP, in the Microsoft Word chapter.)
Click the picture you want. (If the computer says to insert the CD-ROM disk, do so then press ENTER.)
Undo If you make a mistake, click the Undo button (which is near the screen’s top and shows an arrow curving toward the left). If that doesn’t completely undo your mistake, try clicking that button several more times.
Save To copy your publication to your hard disk, click the Save button (which is near the screen’s top left corner and looks like a 3½-inch floppy disk).
If you haven’t saved your publication before, the computer will say “File name”. Invent a name for your publication. Type the name and press ENTER.
That makes the computer copy your publication onto the hard disk. The computer puts your publication into the My Documents folder.
Your publication’s filename ends in “.pub”. For example, if you named your publication “mary”, the computer puts a file called “mary.pub” into the My Documents folder. The file’s icon has P on it, to remind you it was created by Publisher.
While you’re editing and improving your publication, you should click the Save button frequently.
Print To print your publication onto paper, make sure your printer is turned on and contains paper. Then do this:
To print a single copy of your publication, click the Print button (which is near the screen’s top left corner and shows a printer spewing out paper).
To print many copies, do this instead: click “File” then “Print”, then double-click in the “Number of copies” box, then type how many copies you want and press ENTER.
Close When you finish working on your publication, click “File” then “Close”.
If you didn’t save the publication yet, the computer will ask, “Do you want to save the changes you made to this publication?”
If you don’t want to save the changes, click “No”. If you do want to save the changes, click “Yes” then type a name for the publication (and press ENTER).
You see the list of 27 publication types again. You have three choices about what to do next:
To stop using Microsoft Publisher, click its X button.
To start a new document, click one of the 27 publication types.
To make Microsoft Publisher retrieve an old publication you saved, click the Open button (which is near the screen’s top left corner and shows a file folder opening) then double-click whichever publication you want (each publication has a P in its icon).
Congratulations! You’ve learned all the important techniques of Microsoft Publisher! You can create your own publications!
Now let’s dig deeper.…
Alignment The heading and message both contain words. The computer assumes you want each line of words to be centered. Centering is fine if your heading and message are both short. But if your message contains many lines of words, centering makes your message hard to read.
To change whether a paragraph is centered, click in the paragraph and then click whichever alignment button you prefer:
The Align Left button makes the paragraph’s left
margin be straight, the right
margin be ragged, so the paragraph looks like this. This is the easiest to read
and the friendliest, since it looks informal. But it looks lopsided.
The Align Right button makes the paragraph’s right
margin be straight, the left
margin be ragged, so the paragraph looks like this. This is the hardest to
read. It’s the least popular choice.
The Justify
button makes the paragraph’s
left
and right margins both be straight
(except for the end of the paragraph’s last line), so the paragraph looks like
this. This is the most sophisticated. It’s fairly easy to read, though it puts
too much space between the words. It’s the best choice for a long message. It’s
what I used for most paragraphs in this book.
The Center button makes each line in the paragraph be centered again, so the paragraph looks like this. This looks
the neatest. It’s good for short headlines and messages, but it’s hard to read
if the message is long. It’s what I used for the headlines in this book.
Those buttons work the same way as in Microsoft Word.
Frames Your publication contains three main objects: the picture, the heading, and the message. It also contains several other objects (border decorations near the paper’s edge).
You can change each object’s size and position. Here’s how.…
Click in the object’s middle. Then the entire object will be surrounded by a pack of white dogs! Each dog is a white circle, called a handle.
The dogs (circles) are arranged to form a box surrounding the object, so the object is boxed in. The box surrounding the object is called the object’s frame. Yeh, Louie, we’ve been framed!
Then you can manipulate the object in three ways:
To change the object’s size, drag one of the white circles (by using the mouse).
To rotate (tilt) the object, drag the green circle.
To move the object, drag an edge of its frame (but don’t drag a circle).
Signs
Instead of clicking “quick publications”, try clicking “signs”. That lets you create signs. Here’s how.…
Design The right-hand window shows these 28 designs for signs:
authorized personnel only, beware of dog, business hours, checks accepted, closed for remodeling, closed, for rent, for sale, garage sale, gone fishing, help wanted, information, inventory, kid’s room, lemonade for sale, no loitering, no parking, no smoking, open house, open, out of order, private property, restrooms, return time, special offer, we speak, wet paint, wheelchair access
(You see just the first few; to see the rest, use that window’s scroll arrows.)
You can click whichever design you want; but for your first experience, try clicking “kid’s room”.
Color scheme Click “Color Schemes” (which is near the screen’s left edge). You see the full list of 66 color schemes, but just 5 schemes work well for signs: click either “black & gray”, “brown”, “dark blue”, “green”, or “red”. If your printer can’t print colors, choose “black & gray”.
Font scheme Click “Font Schemes” (which is near the screen’s left edge). You see a list of 26 font schemes. It’s the same list as for “Quick publications”, except that the Wizard choice is different (it uses Curlz for the headline font) and the computer typically uses just headline fonts (and ignores message fonts).
Edit the words You see your publication. It’s a sign that says “Kid’s Room” and includes a drawing of a moon with stars. The sign is in the color you chose.
Change the word “Kid’s” to your own name. For example, if your name is “Joan”, change “Kid’s Room” to “Joan’s Room”. Here’s how: click “Kid’s”, then type your name, then type ’s.
Change “Room” to a word that’s more descriptive, such as one of these:
Bedroom, Hideaway, Lair, Hovel
Office, Headquarters, Classroom
Home, Castle, Garden, Pond, Swimming Hole, Woods
Closet, Locker, Trunk, Corner, Secret Passage, Private Parts
To do that, click “Room” then type whatever replacement you want.
Change the picture Change the moon to a different kind of moon picture — or whatever other picture you prefer. To do that, double-click the moon, then double-click in the “Search text” box, then type “moon” (or whatever other kind of picture you wish) and press ENTER. Scroll down to the pictures, then click whichever picture you want.
Finish You can undo, save, print, and exit, using the same techniques as for “Quick publications”.
Banners
A banner is a big sign that nearly a foot tall and several feet wide. You can create a banner by taping several sheets of paper together, side-by-side.
To create a banner, click “banner” instead of “quick publications”.
Design The computer can create 40 kinds of banners. Each kind is called a design. Those 40 designs are organized into 9 categories:
Informational: apartment for rent, caution, (checked frame), information, (interwoven frame), new management, order here, (plain background), registration, reservations, safety equipment
Sale: bake sale, clearance sale, sale, yard sale
Event: anniversary, bon voyage, enter to win, grand opening, open house, pageant, school dance, street fair, team spirit
Birthday: birthday
Welcome: welcome back, welcome, welcome new addition
Congratulations: baby congratulations, champions, congratulations, graduation, promotion, retirement, the greatest, to the best
Holiday: Fourth of July, New Year
Romance: marry me
Get Well: get well
In the screen’s left window, under the word “banner”, you see those 9 categories. Click the category that interests you. Then click the right-hand window’s scroll-down arrow if necessary, until you see the specific design that interests you. Click that design. Then you’ll see it enlarged.
Width How wide do you want the banner to be? Click “5 feet”, “6 feet”, “8 feet”, or “10 feet”. (For your first experiment, try “5 feet” to avoid wasting paper. Hey kids, if you want to choose more than 5 feet, get your parents’ permission first!)
Height How tall do you want the banner to be? Click “11 inches” or “8.5 inches”. (For your first experiment, try “8.5 inches” to avoid wasting paper.)
Graphic Next to the message, the computer normally puts a little graphic (a picture). Do you want the graphic to be left of the message, right of the message, on both sides of the message, or omitted so you have none? Click your choice.
Border The computer normally puts a border around the message. (The border is a fancy box.) If you want a border, click “Border”; otherwise, click “No border”.
Edit To change the message’s words, click the message then type what you want instead.
To change the message’s color, click “Color Schemes” then click one of these color schemes: “black & gray”, “brown”, “dark blue”, “green”, or “red”. The color scheme will affect the message’s color, but the border will stay black and the graphic’s color will stay unchanged.
To change the font, click “Font Schemes” then click whichever scheme you want. The computer will tend to use the scheme’s message font and ignore the scheme’s headline font, but the computer will occasionally change its mood and use the scheme’s headline font instead. The Wizard font is Times New Roman.
Finish You can undo, save, print, and exit: just use the same techniques as for “Quick publications”.
If the computer says “A Publisher object is too large to print”, do this:
Click Cancel then OK then File then Print then Properties then “Graphics”.
Click the “Resolution” box’s down-arrow; put a smaller number in that box.
Press ENTER twice.
Warning: when you’ve printed the banner onto paper, examine the banner carefully before you hang it on your wall: a few letters or graphics might be missing, because your printer doesn’t contain enough RAM memory chips or your printer can’t print close enough to the paper’s edge.
Greeting cards
To create a greeting card, click “greeting cards” instead of “quick publications”.
Design The computer can create 109 kinds of greeting cards. Each kind is called a design. Those 109 designs are organized into 14 categories:
Thank you: accent box, accessory bar, arcs, axis, balloons, bars, bird, blends, blocks, borders, bubbles, capsules, cascade, checkers, crossed lines, echo, eclipse, edge, floating oval, flower and heart, globe and flower, layers, level, linear accent, marquee, mobile, network, pixel, profile, punctuation, quadrant, radial, refined, scallops, straight edge, studio, sun, tilt, watermark, waves
We’ve moved: banner bar, compass point, side stripes, steps
Engagement announcement: rings
Birth announcement: expectant mom, mother and child
Reminder: watch and pin
Holiday: Christmas deer, Christmas Nutcracker, Christmas Santa, Easter egg and bunny, Easter lilies, Halloween pumpkin and witch, Hanukkah dreidel and star, Hanukkah menorah, holiday design box, holiday fading frame, holiday tipped title, Kwanzaa candles, New Year champagne, Ramadan crescent, Ramadan open book, Ramadan stars, Ramadan twilight, Rosh Hashanah star of David, Thanksgiving leaves
Birthday: sun moon stars, cake and heart, cake, clown, fireworks and star, gift and balloon, Jack-in-the-box, open present, wine and cheese, woman with cake
Special day: anniversary bride and groom, anniversary romantic couple, Father’s Day dad and daughter, Father’s Day strong shoulders, Grandparents Day hand and heart, Mother’s Day blooms, Mother’s Day heart and tulip, Mother’s Day May flowers, Valentine’s Day Cupid, Valentine’s Day heart, Valentine’s Day rose and moon
Congratulations: bon voyage luggage, joyful jumper, shooting star, strong man, graduation book and dancer, graduation hug, new baby infant things, new baby mom and baby, new home house and garden, new home weather vane, promotion corporate ladder, retirement golf and bowl, wedding swirl and heart
Friendship: heart and moon, swirl and girl
Romance: city couple, shared heart
I’m sorry: arrows
Get well: flower basket, hospital
Sympathy: rose
In the screen’s left window, under the phrase “greeting cards”, you see those 14 categories. Click the category that interests you. Then click the right-hand window’s scroll-down arrow if necessary, until you see the specific design that interests you. Click that design. Then you’ll see it enlarged.
Layout The computer might let you click one of these layouts for the card’s front cover:
juxtapositions: message is at the top, above squares and small picture
pattern pickup: message is in the middle, surrounded by 12 tiled icons
picture squares: message is at the bottom, under 4 big tiles containing icons
art bit: message is in the middle, under a small picture
greetings bar: message is at the bottom, under a big picture
Size and fold The computer might let you click one of these ways to fold your greeting card:
“Quarter-page side fold” will make a greeting card by having you fold a sheet of paper into quarters. For your first experience, choose this!
“Quarter-page top fold” will make a greeting card that looks like a tent.
“Half-page side fold” will produce a bigger card but make you glue two sheets of paper together — or print on both sides of a single sheet.
Suggested verse Click “Select a suggested Verse” (which is near the screen’s bottom left corner). You’ll see about 20 verses that relate to your topic. Here are examples:
Topic you picked Sample verse
anniversary You two seem to have everything you
need… Each other! Happy Anniversary.
birth announcement A baby has arrived. And the
world is bright with wonder and light.
bon
voyage All systems are go. So, take off! And have a blast on your
vacation.
Easter Happy Easter Wishing you joy in this season of renewal.
engagement We’re pleased to announce… An engagement to be married.
Father’s
Day Dad, you’ve always
protected me. You’re my super hero!
friendship When I look on the bright side… It’s always in your direction.
general
congrats When you come down to earth… I’d
like to give you a pat on the space helmet. Congratulations!
get
well Your well-being is of great concern. And your absence deeply felt. Please get
well soon.
graduation
congrats The school book has closed. A new chapter begins.
Grandparents
Day How wise of them to name a day… For people nice in every way.
Halloween Happy Halloween… From our dungeon to yours!
happy
birthday May this birthday… Be the beginning of the best years of your
life.
happy
Hanukkah May the Festival of Lights… Illuminate
both your heart and your home. Happy Hanukkah.
happy
holidays Of all the gifts
bestowed this year… First be the gift of
loved ones near.
happy
New Year Pop the cork and throw the
confetti. The New Year’s here and we’re
all ready.
I’m
sorry We goofed… Please excuse our error.
Kwanzaa Kwanzaa Kwanzaa candle burning bright, feel the wonder of the light.
Share the pride, keep the glow, pass it on
to all you know.
love
& romance Roses are red,
carnations are pink… I’d like to go out
with you, what do you think?
merry
Christmas Yuletide Greetings Hope your holidays are happy!
Mother’s
Day To Mother… Thank you for years of love.
new
baby/adoption Congratulations on the new
baby. We always knew you could perform
miracles.
new
home congrats Congratulations on your
new home… From your old friends.
Ramadan Warm thoughts to our friends… During Ramadan.
reminder Don’t forget… You have an appointment with us. We look
forward to seeing you.
retirement
congrats Have fun when you retire, but
remember… Don’t play too hard!
Rosh
Hashanah May the New Year… Bring you happiness and prosperity.
sympathy With deepest sympathy Our condolences to you and your family.
thank
you In a world of chaos… Thanks for the order!
Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving Have a festive fall!
Valentine’s
Day Everyone should have a special
Valentine… I’ll be yours if you’ll be
mine.
wedding I’d wish you luck for your
wedding… But you already seem to have it
all.
we’ve
moved We’ve Moved Please send all correspondence to our new
address.
Click the verse you want, then click “OK”.
Color scheme Click “Color Schemes”. You see the list of 66 color schemes. The computer assumes you want “waterfall”. Click whichever color scheme you want.
Font scheme Click “Font Schemes”. You see the list of 26 font schemes. Click whichever font scheme you want.
Edit Your card has 4 pages. You’re seeing the front cover, which is page 1.
At the screen’s bottom, you see the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. To see page 2, click the 2. That makes you see page 2 (and you’ll simultaneously see page 3, next to it). To see page 4 (which is the back cover), click the 4. To see page 1 again, click the 1.
You can edit each object on each page.
To edit text, click it.
To edit a picture, click it, then use the same techniques as for “Quick publications”.
Finish You can undo, save, print, and exit: just use the same techniques as for the “quick publications” wizard.
When you print onto paper, all four pages of the greeting card will appear on a single sheet of paper (if you chose a “quarter page” layout). Fold that sheet of paper in half (to divide pages 1&4 from pages 2&3), then fold in half again (to divide page 1 from 4).
Other publication types
You’ve learned how to use 4 publication types: “Quick publications”, “Signs”, “Banners”, and “Greeting cards”. Altogether, there are 27 publication types to play with. Try them! They’re similar to the types you already mastered.
Blank publications
Instead of clicking one of the 27 publications types, try clicking “Blank Publication” (which is below the list of publication types).
You see a picture of a blank, clean sheet of paper, on which you create any publication you wish, without locking yourself into one of the 27 traditional types. Be creative! Here’s how.…
Typing with F9 Start typing on the blank page. Your typing will be too small to read: to see it bigger, press the F9 key.
That makes the type look bigger, but too big to fit the whole page on the screen. If you want to switch back to the “whole page” view, press F9 again. F9 is a toggle that switches back and forth between “easy to read” and “whole page” views.
Similar to word processing While you’re typing, Microsoft Publisher XP resembles Microsoft Word XP (explained on pages 191-213). After you’ve practiced using Microsoft Word XP, Microsoft Publisher XP is easy! Here are the main peculiarities of Microsoft Publisher XP:
Type your document (pages 193-194): the PAGE UP and PAGE DOWN keys don’t move the cursor; Ctrl symbols don’t work; Microsoft Publisher can’t check your grammar, so there are no green squiggles; Microsoft Publisher expects your entire message to fit on one page (unless you use special tricks I explain later), so there are no page arrows and you can’t give a simple page break.
Font Size (page 196): the computer assumes you want the Font Size to be 10 (not 12); the Font Size menu starts at 4 points instead of 8 points.
Style (page 197): in the Style box’s pull-down menu, the only choice is “Normal”.
Color buttons (page 198): there is no Highlight button; if you click the Font Color’s down-arrow, you see 8 colors instead of 40.
Save (page 200): your document will be called “mary.pub” instead of “mary.doc”.
How to finish (page 200): when you finish working on a document, choose Close from the File menu. Then click Microsoft Publisher’s X button or choose New from the File menu or click the Open button.
Print Preview (page 201): instead of pressing the Print Preview button, you can press F9.
Zoom (page 202): in the Zoom box, you normally see 100% or 50%, depending on how many times you pressed the F9 key; I recommend you just press the F9 key rather than edit the number in the Zoom box.
Table buttons (pages 202-203): the Insert Table button is at the screen’s left edge; it creates frames, which I’ll explain later; the Tables and Borders button is missing.
Edit menu (page 205): the menu says “Delete Text” instead of “Clear”; the menu says “Go to Page” instead of “Go To”.
View menu (pages 206-207): the View menu has no “Normal”, no “Print Layout”, and no “Full Screen”.
Insert menu (pages 207-209): the Insert menu has no “Footnote” and no “Bookmark”; the menu says “Text File” instead of “File”.
Format menu (pages 210-212): the Format menu is organized differently.
Tools menu (page 212): the Tools menu has no “Word Count”; the menu says “Spelling” instead of “Spelling and Grammar”.
Window menu (pages 212-213): the Window menu has no “Split”.
Help menu (page 213): the Help menu has no “What’s This”; the menu says “Publisher” instead of “Word”.
Frames The text you’ve been typing is in a box, called a frame. The frame has 8 handles (1 at each order, and 1 at the midpoint of each side). Each handle is a tiny white circle.
Try this experiment: make sure you’re seeing the entire page (by pressing F9 if necessary), then make the frame smaller (by dragging one of the handles toward the frame’s center). Now the frame is small, so it does not consume the whole page, so you can create extra frames elsewhere on the page.
The frame that’s already on the page is called a text box, because it contains text you typed. Here’s how to create an extra text frame:
Click the Text Box button (which is an upright A at the screen’s left edge). Decide where on the page you want the extra text frame to begin; put the mouse pointer there; that will be the frame’s top left corner; drag to where you want the frame’s bottom right corner to be. The frame will appear.
In that frame, type whatever text you wish. To see your typing more easily, press F9.
You can change a frame’s position:
To change a frame’s size, click inside it then drag one of its white handles.
To rotate a frame, click inside it, then drag its green handle.
To move a frame, drag one of its edges (but not a handle).
You can create 5 kinds of frames. To create a frame that contains normal text, you’ve learned to do this:
Click the Text Box button (which is at the screen’s left edge and shows an upright A).
Drag across the page, to form the frame.
Type the text (and press F9 to see it better).
To create a frame that contains a table (of numbers or words), do this:
Click the Insert Table button (which is at the screen’s left edge and shows a grid).
Drag across the page, to form the frame.
Type how many rows you want, then press the TAB key.
Type how many columns you want, then press the TAB key.
Press the keyboard’s down-arrow key repeatedly, until you see a nice format.
Press ENTER.
Type the data (and press F9 to see it better, TAB to move to the next cell).
To create a frame that contains a picture from Publisher’s CD, do this:
Insert the CD.
Click the Clip Organizer Frame button (which is at the screen’s left edge and shows a clown face).
Double-click in the “Search text” box, type a topic to find a picture of, and press ENTER.
You’ll see several pictures about that topic. (Use the scroll arrow to see more.) Click the picture you want.
The computer will put the picture onto your page and put a frame around the picture.
Change the picture’s size and position, however you wish, by dragging the picture’s handles and frame.
To create a frame that contains a picture from a different source (such as a photo, or a painting you created by using Paint), do this:
Click the Picture Frame button (which is at the screen’s left edge and shows a pair of mountains).
Drag across the page, to form the frame. The computer will make it a perfect square.
You’ll see what’s in the My Pictures folder (photos & paintings). Double-click whichever you want.
To create a frame that contains curved text, do this:
Click the Insert WordArt button (which is at the screen’s left edge and shows a rotated A).
You see 30 ways to curve text. Double-click your favorite.
Type the text. Be brief, just a few words. If you want several lines, press ENTER at the end of each line.
Click OK.
Then computer will curve your text, put it on your page, and put a frame around the text.
Change the frame’s size and position, however you wish, by dragging the picture’s handles and frame.
White handles move the frame simply. Green handles rotate the frame. Yellow handles change the curvature.
To delete a frame, right-click in the frame’s middle, then click “Delete Object”.
If you type text that’s too long to fit in its frame, the computer puts the symbol “A¡¡¡” at the frame’s bottom instead. The few words you typed are temporarily invisible: the computer stores them in an overflow area (which you can’t see) until you make the frame bigger (by dragging its handles) or make the text shorter — or create a 2nd frame, to display the overflow, as follows:
Click the Text Box tool (which is at the screen’s left edge and shows an upright A).
Drag across the page, to form the 2nd frame.
Click in the first frame (the frame that was too small).
Click the Create Text Box Link button (which is at the screen’s top right and shows a pair of chain links).
Your mouse pointer turns into a pouring cup. Use it to click in the 2nd frame.
Extra pages So far, your publication contains just one page. To make your publication longer by adding a second page, click “Insert” then “Page” then “OK”.
Now your publication has two pages. You’re seeing page 2. To see page 1, click the “1” at the screen’s bottom. To see page 2 again, click the “2” at the screen’s bottom. Remember to press F9 to toggle between “full page” view and “easy to read” view.