Microsoft Publisher Basics: Tips & Tricks

The following is a list of tips and tricks for using MS Publisher.  Many of these are designed to save the user time in creating a publication or to show an option that is not easily found.

1)  Prepare Before You Start:  If you are designing a brochure, newsletter, etc., always obtain, edit, and organize the images that you will be using in the publication.  This will enable Publisher to keep going back to the same file source(saves time) and you won't need to go hunting for images to fill in parts of the publication.  It is also helpful to sketch out what your publication will look like before you begin.  This will also save time from having to re-work entire sections or having to move objects around to make things fit because you didn't layout the publication properly.

2)  Select Objects Tool & Grouping:  The Select Objects Tool can be used to draw around a group of objects, which selects all of them and then they can be moved, deleted, etc., as a group.  You can also use that same method or click on multiple objects with the use of the CTRL key, then click on the Group icon below the objects.  This is an effective tool if you need to move a large amount of objects to different areas of your publication.

3)  Insert Pages Options:  You can insert additional pages into a publication by going to the Insert-Page option in the menus.  There are options in the dialog box depending upon what kind of publication you are working on.  These options will allow you to insert blank pages, duplicate objects, insert only a singe page and more.

4)  Filling Space:  When creating a publication users will occasionally be confronted by running out of content for a page, but not wanting to extend other content from other areas of the publication.  Since objects in Publisher can be easily modified, some good options are to increase the size of your images, add a caption text box, change the font to a larger style, or increase the font size in certain text boxes.  Any of these options will quickly fill up any blank space on your current page.

5)  Print Review is Your Friend:  When you first click on Print a preview with various options will open up that will allow you to check how your publication will look before printing.  It will often show you that graphics have been placed to close to the margins, items are hidden, objects aren't aligned, etc., so it is a good way for you to fix these problems before you spend valuable time and money printing first, then having to fix these things after.

If you need to create a publication in a short amount of time, don't forget about the Quick Publications that are available as part of the Built-In Templates that come with Publisher.  There are a wide variety of templates that just need some basic editing to be made ready for printing or email.

Also, don't forget to use Page Parts from the Insert Ribbon.  The dialog box that opens has samples of every type of object that Publisher uses for its built in templates.