Overview

Microsoft® Publisher for Office 365™ is a desktop publishing software application capable of producing greeting cards, certificates, newsletters, and other printed publications. Publisher includes a large collection of templates that provide a great way to start a new publication. Publisher offers a large selection of "building blocks" that can be dragged into your documents, helping you to create page elements such as calendars, newsletter sidebars, and borders. Publisher integrates online sharing and mail merge features, which are handy when you need to send publications to a list of customers, and it's possible to export publications as HTML web pages or PDF documents. With a user-friendly interface, Publisher makes it easy to create and edit publications. This course is intended for persons in a variety of job roles such as publishing specialists, layout specialists, graphic designers, or any other knowledge workers who need to use Microsoft Office Publisher to create, lay out, edit, and share publications. In this course, you will: perform basic tasks in the Microsoft Publisher interface, add content to a publication, format text and paragraphs in a publication, manage text in a publication, work with graphics in a publication, and prepare a publication for printing and sharing. This course requires that you have Microsoft Project installed on a Windows PC. The course setup instructions provided in the first module of the course go into more detail about the hardware and software requirements.

Syllabus

Getting Started with Microsoft Publisher

Creating professional-looking publications has always been a task that was left to design specialists. Microsoft® Publisher allows you to easily and accurately create a wide range of professional-looking publications. It is possible to create almost anything that you can think up using Publisher's tools. People frequently use Publisher to create brochures, printing labels, business cards, certificates, and flyers. Publisher comes with templates for each of these types of documents, and thousands of other designs are available online.

Adding Content to a Publication

Now that you have created a publication, you will want to include different types of content. Microsoft® Publisher gives you the flexibility to use different types of content, such as text and graphics, together in a publication. Whether you start from scratch or from a template, you will need to include additional items to finish your project. Being able to add various kinds of content will help you effectively create powerful, professional publications.

Formatting Text and Paragraphs in a Publication

You have created the basic elements of your publication's design. Formatting text to improve readability and make it more attractive is the next step in creating professional publications. Publications with many pages of text can seem monotonous and lead to readers losing interest and focus. The use of attractive formatting can make a big publication more pleasing and effective. Proper use of colors and fonts helps attract and retain a reader's attention.

Managing Text in a Publication

You have formatted the text in your publication and applied color and font schemes. While designing a publication there may be times when you need to add, delete, or modify your text. Getting the text correct, well organized, and free of errors will be a major part of your effort in creating a professional publication. If your text is misleading, incomplete, or confusing, your publication and your organization will lose credibility. Microsoft® Publisher provides a number of options to help you create error-free publications.

Working with Graphics in a Publication

Your publication contains all of the required textual information. Pictures and other graphic objects can complement and reinforce the text to make the message of your publication more powerful and effective.

Preparing a Publication for Sharing and Printing

Now that your publication is finished, you want to share it with the world. Before you share the publication with everyone, there are a few final steps that you must take to make sure that the publication you worked so hard on will get to your audience exactly as you designed it. The effort that you put into this publication can be wasted if it goes out with design errors. To avoid this, you will want to make sure that it gets a thorough review so that any problems get fixed before it is printed or published. Since your audience may use your publication in many different ways, you will also need to make sure that you save the file in a format that they can access. Microsoft® Publisher provides many tools to prepare and share an error-free publication with your readers.