Mouse Clix

By: Hobie Lunin

Desk Top Publishing, including Holiday Cards

Microsoft’s Publisher, component of their Office Suite, was designed to help small businesses and home users publish whatever they need to, newsletters, flyers, web sites, calendars, invitations, catalogs, flyers, direct mail advertising and the like. Of course, you can do these in a word processor but Publisher is rich in templates of all kinds, getting you off the ground with little taxi time.

For those of you who have M/S Office suite, look and see if you have Publisher. When you look at Programs, it will probably appear between Power point and Word in your start menu. This is a great program and I will discuss it here.

First, look at all the various Wizards on the left of the opening page. Note the variety: so many things a small business or home user might be interested in. Of course, you may have some of these in a card program that you already have purchased, but this is a real addition to what you have and, I think, simpler to use. In addition, it is especially true if, e.g., your greeting card program only makes ¼ fold cards and you prefer the elegance of a single fold card.

Another handy item for those of you, who have businesses, is that you can make color and design coordinated forms and stationery in just a few minutes. Select the publications by using the Publications by Design tab and find things like business cards, letterheads, purchase orders, expense forms and invoices all with the same design. There are many choices under Master Sets.

The list of publications that can be made in Publisher includes more than 20 wizards including newsletters, websites, stationery, award certificates and labels (this is one of the better label programs IMO). Moreover, you can make anything you want using the Blank Publication Tab.

The best part about Publisher is that it seems to be very user friendly. Let us look at a greeting card together. When you click on Publisher from the Start Menu (Start and then Programs), you get a window overlay that is labeled “Catalog.” From there, you can select a Publication by Wizard (the opening tab), and Click Greeting Cards from the List. A sub-list appears and you can select what kind of card you want. Let us select Holiday. Here is a list of templates for cards. Select New Year Champagne (scroll down to see it). Click on it and click Next and you see the first page of the card. There are four rectangles representing pages at the lower end of the window with the card on it. Clicking on these will bring up each of the pages. Have a look at all the pages.

Click on page 1. Next, click on the card. An instruction comes up to tell you to go to the wizard, which is in a panel at the left side of the screen. Clicking Next (at the bottom) will bring you to a decision about the layout (look at them all and decide) then click Next to establish the size (try Half Page fold). You will see a large choice of color schemes after clicking Next again. Select one (Click on it), bringing the colors to your card. Try a few until you find one you like then click on Next.

You can select a verse for the card by clicking Browse. As you click on available messages, you will see the front as well as inside messages that will be generated. You can also change the category of the card there; just click on the arrow and you will be able to see a large collection.

When you have made the selection, click OK and then next select Home/Family. Click on Finish. To make further changes, e.g., on the graphic that is there, click on your card. You can move it around by dragging or change it by double clicking. If you do not like the selection after it is there, click on Edit at the top of the tool bar and then Undo. Then go to the next page and make whatever adjustments are necessary

On the Back page you may want to personalize your card so the recipient knows it was home made effort not just a trip to the card store.

Print your card as you would print anything else but select a stock that is 100# or greater. Better yet, you can buy single fold card stock that are pre creased and include accompanying envelopes (at your office supply). It is normally suggested that you print the inside first so that the first page only goes through the printer once to protect it from smearing.

My version of Publisher does not have a selection for an envelope for a half fold card, but you can use it for regular (#10) envelopes or #6, which will take a quarter fold card. Instead, go to Word and select tools, then Envelopes and Labels. Select the Envelopes tab and the resulting screen then click “options.” Set the size to “custom size” and the change the dimensions to 6” for height and 9” for width. After clicking on OK, select the font you want, then type the delivery and return addresses. These may be selected directly from your address book by clicking on the icon over the field. Put the envelope in the printer. If you are unsure where to put it, cut a few pieces of blank paper the size of your envelope and try printing. Alternatively, consult your printer’s guidebook.

Good luck with Publisher’s Cards. In a future article, I will explain how to make a newsletter in this program. In the meanwhile, try your hand with making some origami (last on the wizard list).

Hobie Lunin is a Computer Instructor and Consultant. He can be reached at mouseclix2@yahoo.com

Previous articles may be seen at http://mouseclix.tripod.com