Why Publisher and Not Just Word?

Word is perhaps the most powerful word processor offered today. Word works with more than just words, as you learned starting with Hour 5, "Advanced Word 2003." In addition to words, Word lets you import graphics, charts , worksheets, and just about every other kind of data, including videos (represented as icons that you or the reader of your document can click to watch). As you now know, Word lets you easily create documents with multiple columns , headlines, and virtually any other kind of publication you'll need.

Publisher differs from Word in several fundamental ways. First and foremost, Publisher focuses more on your publication's design, whereas Word focuses more on your publication's words. Despite the fact that you can create publications with Word, and quite powerful publications at that, Word's strengths do lie in its ability to manage the words you type. To complement Word (instead of competing with Word), Publisher lets you manage the layout of those words, along with graphics and the other design elements you want to put in your finished publication.

Microsoft includes both Word and Publisher in some versions of Office because these two products work so well together. If you want to create attention-getting publications that contain exactly the information that's important to you, first write your publication's text (perhaps more than one article if your publication requires multiple articles) with Word's powerful word-based editing tools. Hone your words to perfection in Word. Once you are satisfied with your writing, import that Word document into Publisher. Publisher then takes over and, with Publisher's help, you can turn your words into a publishable product.

Of course, Publisher imports files from Office programs other than Word. For example, you can import an Excel worksheet to use as a table in your publication.