Designing Simple Home Projects


Microsoft Word is a very versatile word processing program and even includes some very simple home projects. For example, you can use Word to create basic greeting cards. But if you want to really get fancy, you'll want a software program specifically designed for graphic projects what we call home publishing software.

Popular Home Publishing Programs

Most home publishing programs come with templates for a variety of different home-related projects, including banners, brochures, business cards, calendars, crafts, envelopes, forms, greeting cards, invitations, labels, letterheads, newsletters, postcards, and posters. Most of these programs also include a large number of clip art pictures, which you can use to add visual diversity to your projects. Home publishing programs are typically low-cost (under $50) and easy to use. Here's a quick overview of some of the most popular programs:

  • Greeting Card Factory. This program does nothing but greeting cards but it's great at what it does. Nova Development sells several variations of the basic Greeting Card Factory program, including Greeting Card Factory Deluxe, Humorous Greeting Card Factory, and Christian Greeting Card Factory. (Go to www.novadevelopment.com for more information.)

  • Hallmark Card Studio. Hallmark produces several versions of this low-priced program, each geared around a specific theme: Holiday, Comedy, Christian, Scrapbook, and so on. (Go to www.hallmarksoftware.com for more information.)

  • Microsoft Picture It! Photo. This program is included as part of Microsoft Works Suite. While it's mainly used for editing digital photos, it also includes quite a few built-in photo-related projects, such as photo albums, picture postcards, and photo greeting cards. (Go to www.microsoft.com/products/imaging/products/ for more information.)

  • Microsoft Publisher. This is a full-featured publishing program, good for everything from simple projects to sophisticated publications. Publisher is included with some versions of Microsoft Office. (Go to www.microsoft.com/publisher/ for more information.)

  • Print Shop. Print Shop is one of the most popular home publishing programs. It's affordable, it's easy to use, and it lets you create all manner of fun projects. (Go to www.broderbund.com for more information.)

  • PrintMaster. Another popular home publishing suite (lower-priced than Print Shop), complete with all manner of home-related projects. (Go to www.broderbund.com for more information. )

Creating a Project

All of these home publishing programs work in a similar fashion. You identify the type of project you want to create, open a template for that project, and then edit it as you like which typically includes choosing your own color scheme and artwork.

For example, PrintMaster's home page (shown in Figure 18.1) lets you create a new project from scratch or personalize what it calls a "ready-made" project. Whichever route you take, you can choose from all manner of projects, from banners and booklets to post cards and posters. Once you have a project onscreen, you can add your own text and clip art. It's as easy as clicking and dragging!

Figure 18.1. Use PrintMaster to create greeting cards, banners, photo albums, and other fun projects.

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Figure 18.2 shows a birthday party invitation designed in PrintMaster. This took less than five minutes to create, and looks great when printed on a color printer.

Figure 18.2. A birthday party invitation designed with PrintMaster.

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Absolute Beginner's Guide to Computer Basics
Absolute Beginners Guide to Computer Basics (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0789731754
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 253

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