Now that you've walked through your workspace and are familiar with the Publisher window and its tools, you're ready to roll up your sleeves and start designing your publication. Publisher offers you a variety of ways to get started via the Microsoft Publisher Catalog dialog box. (See Figure 29-1)
Wizards are Microsoft Office tools that ask you questions pertaining to an objective (in this case, a document you want to create and publish), and lead you through to a successful conclusion based on the information you provide.
NOTE
Before choosing a wizard, you'll want to set your publication up for printing. See the last section in this chapter, "Printing Your Publication" for an overview of that procedure.
As already mentioned, Publications By Wizards takes you through the publication process by asking you to choose the kind of publication you want to produce. You'll find a list of 25 types of publications in the opening Microsoft Publisher Catalog dialog box. If you're already working in the program, choose New from the File menu to display this dialog box. Select the Publications By Wizard tab, and then pick the type of publication you want to produce. Publisher 2000 displays Quick Publications as the new default opening type, and has added another new category to the list— Catalogs. Here's how to use a wizard to create a business card:
NOTE
The first time you employ a Publisher wizard, you'll be asked if you want to tell the wizard about yourself so the wizard can automate the flow of personal information in your publications. Click OK in the Publisher message box and the Personal Information dialog box appears, as shown here:
Take a minute to fill it in and you won't have to enter your name, address, company name, and other facts about yourself every time you create a new publication. When you want to edit this information, click the Update button in the Personal Information pane of the Business Card Wizard (or whatever Publisher wizard you are using.)
That's all there is to creating a basic business card, which is illustrated here:
You can continue to embellish your work, adding text and graphics using Publisher's toolbars. Or you can go directly to the File menu to print your publication.
When Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," he wasn't thinking of desktop publishing! The hallmark of good publication design is unity— the result of choosing consistent design elements that tie a publication or group of documents into a cohesive whole.
When you want to create a group of business documents that share the same design scheme, or if you're planning a special event that requires several documents that have a unified theme, select the Publications By Design tab in the Catalog dialog box. Publisher 2000 contains 10 new Master Design Sets, which provide even more flexibility in creating a cohesive package of publications. Master Design Sets have names such as Arcs, Tilt, Floating Oval, Mobile, and so on. (See Figure 29-3.) Here's how to link publications by design scheme:
You can easily put together a coordinated set of business stationery (letterhead, fax cover sheet, business card, and envelopes) using Publications By Design. You can also create all the documents you need to promote a special event, such as a kick-off party for a new product or a fund-raising initiative, by selecting one of the Special Event Sets or Fund-Raiser Sets.
Figure 29-3. Design Sets create a cohesive group of publications.
Publisher's publication types and design sets are quite flexible and interchangeable, as you'll see in the next few chapters when you begin complementing the wizard's guidance with clip art, pictures, embedded objects, fill effects, and text from your own files.
If you're feeling creative, and you know just how you want to shape your document, you're ready to begin a publication from scratch. To do that, follow these steps:
If you want to create a type of publication that isn't represented in the choices for blank publications in the Catalog, click the Custom Page button at the bottom left side of the window. Then choose the options you want in the Page Setup dialog box to lay out your publication. Click OK. This will display a blank publication ready for you to modify in any way that you want.
TIP
Start with a Clean SlateBy default, Publisher opens blank publications by displaying the Quick Publications Wizard. You might want to test-drive your publication without this kind of encouragement. To turn off this setting, click Options on the Tools menu. The Options dialog box appears. Click the User Assistance tab, and clear the check box for Use Quick Publications Wizard For Blank Publications.