Printing projects designed
from Microsoft Publisher can be one of the most powerful means a small business
owner uses to stay in front of qualified prospects as well as customers.
West Printing Company identified this need
early on with clients but not entirely in the way you would expect. We have become Microsoft Publisher Experts through problem solving experience :-)
You see, we print professionals are the ones that
end up doing the actual printing of the newsletter for our client’s
distribution. Challenges abound. But we accept it and even
encourage it as a part of the entrepreneurial business model. So don't hold back with this great little software. You can be an Microsoft Publisher Expert too with a little guidance and the desire to learn from your mistakes.
While Publisher is probably the
most user friendly and powerful layout program there is for the money, it still
takes some knowledge to get what you want from it.
All to often clients do not invest
to train the person who writes the newsletter for the company. Consequently,
West Printing often gets files that simply are not ready to print. Fixing
files, while frustrating for you and us, is also a revenue center. Thank you
very much
Publisher comes with many
templates that totally eliminate the need for you to be a crack designer.
Just pick a template and start filling in the blanks. Microsoft Publisher has
ample graphics and illustrations as part of the program. You can also go to the
Publisher website to get more, free. Here’s a link for MSOffice
clipart
While that is easy to do, this
is also where the novice gets into trouble. Not all graphics and illustrations
are equal. The in-house designer needs to learn the differences between
hi-resolution and low-resolution file formats. Generally, you are safe with
files having EPS or Tiff extensions.
Maybe those with JPG extensions will be “OK”, but its best to stay away
from GIF,
Further, many novices get into
trouble by using too many fonts. Limit yourself to two or three font families
that are already in your computer’s font directory.
Stay clear of those CD’s of 500
fonts you can buy for $10 at Office Depot and the like.
Why? Well, one of the things
you need to use is Publishers “Pack and Go” feature found under the file menu.
While we may be able to print your newsletter if you do not use this feature,
you are running a risk of raising the cost of printing when fonts and graphics
are not properly embedded.
Something new for 2007 is
Publishers latest release. Version 2007 now has the capability to save your
document as a PDF without having the full version of Adobe Acrobat. For
complete instruction on how to save your Microsoft Publisher file as a PDF, you
can go to this link http://toledoprinter.com/Publisher_Save_PDF.htm
PDF is like a mason jar your
grandmother used to preserve stuff from her garden. Except, PDF (portable document file)
preserves your publisher file, fonts and graphics so that anyone with a PDF
reader, e.g. Acrobat Reader can view and print your file just as you created
it.
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Steve Robison is the owner of West Printing, a Microsoft Publisher
Service Partner and a specialist with Microsoft Publisher for over 10 years.
To get straight up advice and more information about the uses of Microsoft
Publisher browse to http://www.toledoprinter.com
and click on the resources tab. You can also call us at |