How to Design Books on Microsoft Publisher

You can use Microsoft Publisher to set up your own book template.

Just because Microsoft Publisher doesn't have a book-designing template doesn't put you out of the publishing business. With a quick workaround of one of Publisher's installed templates, you can start work on your next bestseller. Using Publisher to design books offers multiple benefits, including an automatic text flow. This means that when your page text exceeds the page size, Publisher moves it to the next page. You can also take advantage of this when you want to go back and insert more text, such as character development.

Things You'll Need

• Digital image

Instructions

1. Click the "Programs" option at the bottom of the Available Templates screen. Double-click one of the Blank Sizes options, such as the first option, "1/2 A4 Booklet," for the book layout you want. When Publisher opens the Automatically Insert Pages popup, click "Yes." This sets up the book design for the required four-page printing.

2. Click the "Insert" tab. Click the "Page" button on the left side of the Ribbon below the tab. Click "Insert Blank Page" and click "Yes" at the Automatically Insert Pages popup. Four more pages are added to the book layout. Repeat to add more sets of pages. You can also add more pages through this process at any time.

3. Click page one in the navigation panel on the left side of the screen. Click the "Insert" tab. Click the "Picture" button. Browse to the cover image for the book and double-click the file name. Drag the cover image into place on the page.

4. Click the "Draw Text Box" button on the Ribbon. Draw a text box below the picture. Type the book's title and the author's name.

5. Click page two on the navigation pane to open pages two and three. Click the "Draw Text Box" button. Draw a text box on page two, within the boundaries of the blue margin line on the page. Press the "Ctrl" and "C" keys to copy the text box.

6. Move the cursor onto page three and press the "Ctrl" and "V" keys to paste in the text box. Repeat to paste a text box onto all remaining pages in the book.

7. Click page two. Click the text box on the page to open the "Text Box Tools" tab at the top of the screen. Click the "Create Link" button on the tab. Note that the cursor changes to a bucket symbol. Click the next text box -- page three -- and the two text boxes are joined. Continue this to link all page text boxes. This creates an autoflow so that when you type the book text, everything will run from one page to the next.

8. Click in the text box on page two. Begin to type the book's text. You'll notice as you type that Publisher automatically moves your text from the text box on page two to the text box on page three as you come to the end of a page.

9. Click the "File" tab. Click "Save As." Enter a name for the book file and click the "Save" button.

Resources

• Microsoft Office: Publisher 2010 Features and Benefits