Introduction to Desktop Publishing

Transcription

1 Headley Computer Club Introduction to Desktop Publishing Microsoft Publisher Margaret Manly November

2 Introduction to Desktop Publishing Session 1 Why not stick with Word? More flexibility More scope for working with graphics Easy production of multiple-page publications Templates help with different types/sizes of publications Examples of documents produced in Publisher Newsletters Posters/flyers Greetings cards... Parish magazines! Getting started 1. Open Publisher Start button > All programs > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Publisher (unless you have created a shortcut on your desktop/taskbar. 2. Take a look at some of the ready-made templates (to which we may return at a later date): you can do this either by clicking on the list on the left-hand side of the screen or one of the file type icons in the centre. [Note: Ignore the right-hand column - this is a screen capture from my computer.] 1

3 3. Click on Postcards and see what happens: Here is a selection of possible template designs based on a postcard-sized publication arranged by the subject of the card: invitation, house move, thank you etc. You get a larger view version of the template at the top of the right-hand column - scroll down and pick some at random to see what happens. You can customise the colour scheme and the fonts used within the basic design in the panel on the right by clicking on the to display the built-in options (there is also a facility to create and name your own). 4. These templates would be particularly useful if you were preparing a whole suite of literature and wanted to incorporate, for instance, a logo. It is good practice to adopt a consistent design so, for example, you could use the same design theme for a poster, a flyer, an invitation and a ticket for a specific event. Once you have set the theme for one of these, it will carry over to the next type of publication you start to prepare. 5. Click on one of the postcard template designs - eg Eclipse - look at the large preview version at the top of the right-hand panel, experiment with the colour theme and fonts to reach something that appeals to you. Then click on Brochures in the list of publication types on the left of the screen and look for the same design in that and click on it - see what I mean?! 6. But we re not going to work with these templates. They are meant to make your life easier but I m not convinced they do, so we will start with a clean sheet of paper. 2

4 Starting with a clean sheet 1. Either click on the left-hand (back) arrow on the top left of your screen, underneath the File, Edit, View... toolbar (you may need click several times, depending how deeply you have delved into the templates) OR (quicker) click on Getting Started, at the top of the left-hand menu column; you should now have returned to the original Getting Started page. 2. Click on Blank Page Sizes and a variety of options will appear; let s take the most common, A4 portrait - again you will see what A4 portrait as a piece of paper looks like over at the top of the right-hand column; you can now either double click the A4 portrait icon, or click on Create in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. 3. Note that the screen is now displaying the whole page and, in order to do so, and depending on the size of your screen, it has reduced it in size; this will probably be too small to work with but at this stage we will stick with it while we format the publication how we think we may want it, by setting options in the left-hand column (I ll show you in a minute how to change these if you decide you don t really like your first choice). 4. Choose the Urban font scheme (Trebuchet & Georgia) and close the Format Publication column by clicking on the x; you now have a blank sheet of paper on the screen, with familiar toolbars (similar to Word) across the top but a less familiar set down the left-hand side; note there are also measures across the top and down the side. 5. The main difference between Word and Publisher is that, instead of starting at the top of the page (in Word) and typing across and down the page, in Publisher you create and type within boxes which you place on the page according to how you want it laid out. You can also insert other types of boxes that contain pictures - photographs, clip art etc - and headings at angles, and I ll show you how to do this next week. 6. For now, let s deal with simple text boxes: move your mouse arrow to the column of icons on the left-hand side of the screen and go almost to the top, to the icon that looks like a square with a capital A in the top left-hand corner (if you hover your mouse over this icon, a box saying Text Box should appear). 7. Click on this icon, its background colour will change to orange, and your arrow cursor will change to a cross ; move across to your piece of paper, place the somewhere on the page, hold down your left-hand mouse button and move it across and down; release the mouse and you should have a box, with a dotted line around the outside and little circles at the sides, corners, along the top and bottom edges, and a flashing curser at the top lefthand corner. Click anywhere outside the box and the cursor will disappear. Now practise drawing text boxes anywhere on the page. 8. Now click inside one of the boxes and look at the right-hand side of the light-blue bar at the bottom of your screen: here you will see some dimensions - the first set is the position of your box on the page, the second set is the size of the box itself. 9. Now position your mouse arrow on one of the circles around the edge of the box where it will change to a double-ended arrow, left click, hold and drag and see what happens to the box and the dimensions. 10. Now position your mouse arrow anywhere on the dotted line around the edge other than on one of the circles, where it will change to an arrow-headed cross, left click, hold and drag the box somewhere else on the page. (You will have been used to doing this when you worked with pictures within your Word documents.) 11. Having experimented with random boxes all over the page, let s delete them all (right-click and Delete Object). 3

5 Creating a newsletter Let s imagine we are going to produce a newsletter for Headley to tell people what s going on over the Christmas period. 1. First we need to set the desired margins around the edge of the page in a similar way to setting up a Word document, except they are marked for you by a blue dotted line; the default provides a fairly wide margin, so let s reduce it slightly. 2. You can do this in one of two ways: Either click on File>Page Setup, which will take you back to the Blank Page Sizes screen with a facility to set the margins on the right-hand side OR a better/quicker way is to click on Arrange>Layout guides; let s set our margins at 1.5cm around the edge of the page (click on the down arrow alongside the measurements) and click OK. 3. Now create a text box across the top of the page, lining it up with the top blue line and the two side margins. 4. Now you will notice the flashing cursor and, in the formatting toolbar the fonts that you previously set; these will probably say Normal and Georgia; change Normal to Heading 1: you should now have Trebuchet in the other box and a larger cursor. 5. Type in the words Headley Herald (don t worry for now about the size of the heading - you ll probably think it s too small) 6. Now create another, smaller text box underneath, keep to the Normal font and type in: Headley has started preparing for Christmas and encourages everyone in the village to come and buy at the Christmas Fair in the Village Hall on Saturday 28th November from pm. 7. You may at this stage (or later) decide you don t like this font scheme after all; if you d like to change it now, go to Format>Font Schemes, change it to, say, the Origin scheme and watch the text change. You can create your own combination of fonts (and give it a memorable name) by clicking on Create new font scheme at the bottom of the column. [Note: Publisher will determine the default font sizes for each scheme but you can modify these by right-clicking on the categories you wish to change.] 8. Have you now chosen a font that you like for both your headings and your normal text? 9. Let s now return to the heading: you think it s a bit small and insignificant? You d like it to take up the whole of the space in the box across the top of the page? Click on the box and go to Format>AutoFit Text>Best Fit and see what happens. 10. Now you have your heading - we should now Save the document (good practice) - to do this, it is exactly the same as you would save a document in Word: File>SaveAs>[choose a folder]>[give the publication a name] Your list of Documents will now have a file listed with its name and a.pub extension, denoting it s a document created in (and therefore only able to be opened with) Microsoft Publisher software. [Note: If you are likely to be transferring this file to someone with an earlier version of Publisher, you will need to save/resave it in Publisher 98; later when you have completed your newsletter, I will show you how to save (package) it ready for printing professionally.] 11. We should, by now, have decided on the content of our Christmas newsletter eg the Christmas Fair, the Christmas Quiz, the WI December meeting, perhaps special Christmas events at The Cock, opening times (and special offers?) over Christmas for the shop (legal) activities on Headley Heath; so now you can start to design your newsletter with a mixture of text, perhaps some large, eye-catching adverts, and it ll need some Christmassy pictures to add some topical interest. 4

6 Introduction to Desktop Publishing Session 2 Adding some pictures to your newsletter 3