Learn to create your own newsletters, calendars, brochures, greeting cards, and more with Publisher, the desktop publishing app included in the Microsoft 365 suite.
Desktop publishing is not just for design professionals! Microsoft Publisher puts desktop publishing within everyone's reach, with easy-to-use templates and designs that help you create dozens of different publication types, including greeting cards, banners, flyers, and booklets. Best of all, if you have a Microsoft 365 subscription on a Windows PC, Publisher is available at no extra cost.
The online Introduction to Microsoft Publisher course teaches you how to use Microsoft Publisher through a series of engaging and useful projects. With each project, you not only learn about a new publication type, but you also build a set of core application skills that will carry through to your own future projects, no matter what type of publication you need. By course completion, you will know how to create a brochure, design business cards, and much more!
Requirements:
Hardware Requirements:
- This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.
Software Requirements:
- PC: Windows 10 or later.
- Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
- Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox is preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
- Microsoft Office 365 suite with Publisher (not included)
- Microsoft Word Online
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.
Other:
- Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.
Instructional Material Requirements:
The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.
Ready to get creative? With Microsoft Publisher, anyone can master desktop publishing. Through dozens of hands-on exercises, you will create newsletters, calendars, greeting cards, brochures, and many other publications you can use for business, clubs, schools, and more.
Learning Your Way Around Publisher
New to Microsoft Publisher? This lesson provides a gentle, no-experience-required introduction. You will learn how Publisher compares to other apps, such as word processors like Word and higher-end desktop publication programs like Adobe InDesign. You will find out how to create, save, close, and open publication files, and how to get around in the Publisher interface. You will also create your first publication here, and in the process, you will learn about color schemes and font schemes.
Creating a Simple Publication
This lesson introduces some fundamental skills that will apply to almost every publication you will create going forward, including business information sets, text boxes, pictures, and shapes. You will start out by using a template to create a flyer that contains text and graphics, and then change its template and its content. Then you will create an award certificate that contains text and drawn shapes, and you will learn how to stack and group objects.
Creating a Publication from Scratch
Templates are great, but sometimes it is easier to start with a blank slate. In this lesson, you will learn how to create blank publications of various sizes, and how to insert and delete pages in them. You will also get a closer look at how text boxes work, and practice creating, resizing, and moving text boxes, as well as formatting the text within them. You will also learn how to add borders and shading to a text box and adjust its margins and padding.
Creating a Publication using Imported Content
You might sometimes have content created in a different application that you want to use in Publisher. No problem! In this lesson you will learn how to import text from a variety of sources. You will find out how to clear any old formatting from the imported text, and how to make text flow seamlessly from one text box to another. Pictures are another type of content you might want to import, and in this lesson, you will learn how to import a picture and then format it in various ways, including moving and resizing it, applying a border, and applying filters, effects, and color corrections that can improve the picture's original appearance. You will also find out how to control the relationship between text and graphics when they overlap.
Sharing a Publication
What do we create publications for, if not for sharing them with people? In this lesson you will learn all about printing your publications, as well as how to save publications in other digital formats such as PDF and HTML. Then you will learn how to send a publication via an email message in several different ways, including attaching the publication as a PDF or XPS file and sending a publication in the body of a message.
Creating Publications of Different Sizes
Not all publications fit neatly on a standard letter-size sheet of paper. This lesson focuses on three different kinds of publications that all break the size mold in different ways. First you will create a business card and learn about layout options that enable you to print multiple copies per sheet of paper (or cardstock). Then you will learn how to create large banners in Publisher and then either have them professionally printed or piece together a makeshift banner using multiple sheets of paper and a roll of tape. Finally, you will learn how to create advertisements for print publications using whatever size you need to fit the publication's requirements.
Creating Folded Publications
In this lesson, you will learn about three kinds of publications that have one thing in common: they are designed to be folded. You will first create a trifold brochure and discover how to make a brochure layout without interfering with the folds. Then you will plan and create a greeting card (and save yourself a fortune in buying store-bought cards!) Finally, you will create a booklet and learn about setting up mirrored pages and adding headers and footers.
Creating a Newsletter
This lesson is devoted to a single project: a newsletter. You will discover some common newsletter elements and learn how to plan for double-sided printing. Then you will flow text between pages and create notations that help readers find the second part of a story that starts on page 1. Finally, you will learn how to add pictures, design access, and page parts, and how to print a double-sided newsletter using an ordinary home printer that prints on only one side of the paper at once.
Ensuring Consistency
Publisher includes several features that help you make sure your work stays consistently formatted from page to page (and even between publications). You will start out by learning about master pages, which are page templates that help you repeat certain elements and positioning guides on every page of a multi-page publication. Next, you will learn about styles, which apply consistent character and paragraph formatting to text. You will also practice creating and using personal templates, which can be reusable models that can contain both master pages and styles. Finally, you will learn about building blocks, which are saved content snippets you can reuse over and over again.
Creating Magazines and Calendars
This lesson takes your design skills to the next level! You will plan and create a magazine cover that includes a full-page bleed, graphics, text boxes, and other elements. You will learn how to align objects precisely on a page, and how to control character spacing and kerning. Next, you will design a table of contents for a magazine, and in the process, you will learn about Publisher's Tables feature. Finally, you will learn how to create two kinds of calendars: a small one that's part of a larger publication, and a whole publication devoted to a multi-month calendar that you could have professionally printed.
Creating Mail-Merged Letters and Email
Mail merge. The name can sound intimidating, but it's really not that hard! In this lesson, you will create two kinds of mail mergers: a letter to be mailed and an email message to be sent electronically. You will learn about the elements of any mail merge, including a data file, a main document, and merge fields, and you will find out how to combine those elements to make a merge happen.
Creating Labels and Envelopes
In this final lesson, you will learn how to print envelopes and address labels, continuing your exploration of mail mergers. You will first create a single envelope and then expand it into a set of merged envelopes. Then you will first create a single self-stick label and print a whole sheet of the same one (for return-address labels), and then you will expand that into a mail-merged set of address labels for sending out cards or packages. Finally, you will put all your skills together and try out some projects that enable you to showcase what you have learned in the course.
What you will learn
- Create single-page publications like award certificates, flyers, and signs
- Make folded publications, including greeting cards and brochures
- Produce varied sizes of publications, from business cards to banners
- Design multi-page, two-sided publications like booklets, newsletters, and magazines
- Use mail merge to personalize each copy of a publication
How you will benefit
- Become the go-to desktop MS Publisher pro for your business, school, or organization
- Save money by designing and printing your own printed materials
- Express your creativity by creating original publication projects
- Open the door to new career opportunities or potential promotions
Curt Simmons
Curt Simmons, B.A., M.Ed, is a best-selling author, trainer, and multi-media expert. He holds degrees in English and communication studies and has more than 10 years of experience teaching English and writing in the classroom. Additionally, Simmons has authored numerous books on a wide variety of technology topics and has been a technical editor for numerous other titles.
FAQs
Is it easy-to-use Microsoft Publisher? ›
The application provides you with affordable and easy-to-use desktop publishing features that anyone can use. Because of this, it's a great option for small businesses, everyday users, educators, parents or freelancers who need to design publications, but don't have graphic design backgrounds.
What is the introduction of Microsoft Publisher? ›Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application from Microsoft, differing from Microsoft Word in that the emphasis is placed on page layout and graphic design rather than text composition and proofreading.
What are the 7 basic parts of MS Publisher? ›The Publisher environment consists of the Title Bar, which also contains the Quick Access toolbar, the Ribbon, the Page Navigation Pane, the Publication Page area, and the Status Bar, which also contains the Page Layout View buttons and the Zoom Slider.
How important is MS Publisher for students? ›Microsoft Publisher is an inexpensive program that can help business or education users create professional-looking business cards as well as publications like flyers, brochures, newsletters and posters.
What is the weakness of MS Publisher? ›However, while Publisher does have certain advantages, it also has the disadvantage of being the least developed program in the Office 2010 suite. It does not include the theme colors, advanced image editing tools, or many of the other new features present in Word and PowerPoint 2010.
Does anyone still use Publisher? ›Publisher 2010 is the latest edition of Publisher in use, which is part of the latest Office 2010 suit. So yes, Publisher is still in use.
What is Microsoft Publisher best used for? ›Publisher can be used to create a wide variety of publications, from business cards and newsletters to calendars and greeting cards. Publisher is an easy-to-use tool for users that are not design professionals. Microsoft Publisher is also a cheaper substitute for programs such as Adobe InDesign.
What is the difference about Microsoft Publisher and Word? ›Microsoft Publisher is an application that allows you to create professional documents such as newsletters, postcards, flyers, invitations, brochures. MS Word is a word-processing program used primarily for creating documents.
What is the main purpose of Microsoft Publisher? ›Publisher is a great app for creating visually rich, professional-looking publications without investing lots of money and time in a complicated desktop publishing application.
What are the basic skills in Publisher? ›- Creating tables.
- Creating text boxes.
- Manipulating graphics and inserting images.
- Making, using and customizing templates.
- Creating page layouts.
What can you make in Microsoft Publisher? ›
Using Publisher, you can easily create business cards, greeting cards, calendars, newsletters and much, much more.
What is the most frequently used tab in MS Publisher? ›Home-This is the default ribbon in Publisher and the one that you will use most of the time.
What is the advantage of MS Publisher instead of Word? ›Publisher allows for many more design elements, all independently placed on the document, to be added and moved around. If your document is more image and design-driven, then Publisher is the right choice.
What is the difference between PowerPoint and Publisher? ›What is the difference between Microsoft Publisher and PowerPoint? Publisher is a page-layout application that's oriented to how the page will print, and displaying that accurately onscreen. PowerPoint is a screen-layout application for which printing is secondary.
Is MS Publisher discontinued? ›It appears that Publisher was removed from Microsoft 365 Family sometime after 8/1/2021.
What are three features of Publisher? ›- Templates.
- Layout editor.
- Publishing formats.
- Saved preferences.
- Infographics.
- Asset Library.
Publisher's ability to position text and graphics, handle pantone images and merge text and images makes it ideal for brochures and other creative documents.
What replaced Publisher in Office 365? ›Marq offers all the best features of MS Publisher & Microsoft Office 365: Professional-looking effects, versatile sharing options, and online access to your existing content on the web.
Does Office 365 still include Publisher? ›With Microsoft 365 subscription plans you get the fully installed Office apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, and Access (Publisher and Access are available on PC only).
Does Google have an equivalent to Publisher? ›Google Docs has 27588 reviews and a rating of 4.71 / 5 stars vs Microsoft Publisher which has 110 reviews and a rating of 4.45 / 5 stars.
Is Microsoft Publisher user friendly? ›
Microsoft Publisher is simple and sleek!
Extremely user-friendly. Easily converts to image files and PDF.
Should You Use Word for Book Writing? If you're planning on self-publishing your book, Word is an adequate option. But if you want to make things (a lot) easier, we recommend using a writing tool that's designed for writing books.
Can I convert Publisher to Word? ›Open the Publisher publication that you want to save as a Word document. Click File > Save As, and browse to the location where you want to save the Word document. In the File name box, type a name for the Word document. In the Save as type list, select the version of Word you want save for.
What application is Publisher most similar to Microsoft? ›Adobe InDesign is a versatile desktop publishing application that gives you pixel- perfect control over design and typography. Categories in common with Microsoft Publisher: Desktop Publishing.
What software is Microsoft Publisher an example of? ›Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application (program).
What is the basic element of Publisher? ›It is composed of three fundamental elements: book making, book supply, and book sales. Whether these are done by you, the author, or somebody else we call “a publisher”, is irrelevant to the reader–so long as the processes are properly done.
Can you open a PowerPoint in Publisher? ›PowerPoint to Publisher
If you're pressed for time, you can directly open and edit your PowerPoint in Publisher.
Publisher is a powerful software application used for desktop publishing. It allows you to manipulate features such as page size, text, graphics, and borders. Publisher's strengths are in its ability to bring together text and images to make professional looking flyers, brochures, handouts, and newsletters.
Is Publisher better than Photoshop? ›Compare Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher
based on preference data from user reviews. Adobe Photoshop rates 4.6/5 stars with 12,585 reviews. By contrast, Microsoft Publisher rates 4.3/5 stars with 964 reviews.
The word for Desktop Publishing
For reports and books, Word is much better for text layout. If your project is a very text heavy document, Word will allow you to layout the text much more easily. While the text is possible and easy in Publisher, the layout of large quantities of text can be problematic.
How hard is it to get a Publisher to read your book? ›
Within the book publishing industry, it is agreed that the odds of an author getting their work published stands between 1% and 2%. Despite this low number, more than 95% of manuscripts received by publishers and agents are below the level the standard required.
Is it hard to be a Publisher? ›Publishing is a notoriously hard business to get into, so you'll need to be at your very best to get a job, but it's most definitely worth it.
Why do people still use publisher? ›Publisher can be used to create a wide variety of publications, from business cards and newsletters to calendars and greeting cards. Publisher is an easy-to-use tool for users that are not design professionals. Microsoft Publisher is also a cheaper substitute for programs such as Adobe InDesign.
Do publishers prefer Word or PDF? ›If you're an author, you know that publishers prefer your work to be submitted in the Portable Document Format (PDF). But do you know why that is? Here are the 3 main reasons why submitting your work in PDF is the way to go. A PDF is a read-only file that cannot be modified without leaving an electronic footprint.
Can a Word document be converted to publisher? ›Fortunately, converting Word documents that were created in Microsoft Office Word into Publisher publications is easy. All you have to do is choose the publication design that you want and then locate the Word document that you want to convert. Start Publisher.
How long does it take to publish a 100 page book? ›A 100 page book is about 30,000 words. If you write more than 1500 words per week, you can expect for it to take 2 – 4 months to write a 100 page book.
Do I really need a publisher for my book? ›Do I need a publisher for my book? If you've written a book, you can choose to self-publish or get it published by a traditional publishing house. Because you have these two options, you don't necessarily need a publisher for your book.
How long does it take a publisher to edit a book? ›However, it is essential to ensure that your book reaches a publishable standard. The time it takes to edit a book varies from book-to-book, but it would be best to allow at least one calendar month for the developmental edit and then additional time for any rewrites and research that might be required.
Is Publisher being phased out? ›Microsoft still makes Publisher. They just do not include it as one of the programs in the standard version of MS Office. You have to purchase a Pro version to also get Publisher (and a lot of other extra programs.)
What is the primary use for Microsoft Publisher? ›Publisher is a great app for creating visually rich, professional-looking publications without investing lots of money and time in a complicated desktop publishing application.
How much does being a publisher make? ›
| Annual Salary | Monthly Pay | |
|---|---|---|
| Top Earners | $131,000 | $10,916 |
| 75th Percentile | $93,000 | $7,750 |
| Average | $71,364 | $5,947 |
| 25th Percentile | $34,000 | $2,833 |
- Apply for internships. Make a list of the publishing firms you'd like to work for and see if they have any open roles or internships available. ...
- Network. ...
- Consider pursuing advanced degree programs. ...
- Relocate if necessary. ...
- Be adaptable.
When seeking a publisher, you are facing an uphill battle. Thousands of hopefuls send their novels to publishers per week, and the majority get rejected. Most publishers don't allow unsolicited manuscripts, so it doesn't matter how good or talented you are. These publishers won't even see your work.