Articles by Inge Grimaldi
literature in-house rather than sending it out to a design studio. Using a software package that
is designed for desktop publishing is a viable alternative. Microsoft Publisher is one of the
popular choices for desktop publishing.
Microsoft Office Publisher was introduced to the market in the year 2000 and it has been
revised in both 2002 and 2003. Publisher is a wonderful package to use for creating
marketing materials in-house. Publisher can also be used to create web pages and commercial
e-mails.
Each version of Publisher has increased its features. Below is a list of publication-creation
features and the versions that carry these capabilities:
- Catalog merging of text and pictures from another Microsoft Office software (2003).
- CD/DVD labeling with templates (2003).
- Personal stationary sets for address labels, letterhead and envelopes (2003).
- Greeting cards and invitations collection (each version is improved and larger).
- Quick publication wizard to make your decisions easy (each version).
- Catalog wizard to help with layouts and the creation (each version).
A new aspect of marketing in the recent past is the use of e-mail. Publisher 2003 increased
support for this marketing tool by:
- The E-mail wizard can set up newsletters, events, letters and more.
- E-mail message viewing permits the recipient to view the message in Outlook Express,
Hotmail, and AOL Mail.
- Sending e-mail attachments of Publisher files is an option.
Web marketing is expected in today's business world. Publisher supports this need as well.
- Web site wizards go from easy to 3-page to professional (improvements with each version).
- Web page templates let you add photos and pages quickly (improvement with each version).
- Incremental web site upload lets you post just the changes rather than everything (2003).
- Web navigation bars helps you link or navigate around in a more user-friendly fashion
(improvement with each version).
- Web viewer is a nifty editing environment (2003). This differs from the printing-editing
environment in Publisher 2002.
Any publishing tool needs to support a variety of printing capabilities. In addition to
supporting desktop printing, Publisher 2003 is compatible with commercial printing
specifications that ask for process color (like cyan, magenta, yellow or black). Another
special feature of Publisher 2003 is print separations, needed for many professional
commercial printing machines. Publisher lets you pick any PANTONE color.
Training to learn Publisher is very easy for a professional graphic artist. Microsoft Learning
offers courses online. You can also download tutorials or take a class at a technical college.
The cost for Microsoft Office package breaks down to a better price per program than by
purchasing Publisher separate. After all, wouldn't it be handy to have some of the other
programs to import into your publications such as charts or Word documents? While you
can purchase nearly any Microsoft Office program at many locations such as Office Max or
Best Buy, you can also order these online at Microsoft Office . A new Publisher 2003 edition
sells for about $169 or $210 with Digital Imaging. Upgrades cost less.
Inge Grimaldi is the webmaster of Fun for Publisher which is a principal
resource for publisher related information on the web.
