How to Create a Halloween Invitation

Ready to have a really spooky Halloween Party? Personalize your party from the beginning by making your own Halloween Party invitation.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer
• Microsoft Word program
• Color printer
• Invitation paper

1. 
   Open/launch Microsoft Word

   The first step in creating a Halloween invitation, is to launch/open Microsoft Word. MS Word 2003 is used in this example.

2. 
   Change the paper size

   Change the paper size for the Halloween invitation by choosing Page Setup from the File Menu. In the Page Setup dialogue box, set the Paper Size to "Custom size", Width to 5.5" and Height to 8.5"

3. 

   To make it easier to work with the Halloween invitation document, change the view to "Whole page" by choosing "Zoom" from the View Menu.

4. 
   Change the background color of the Halloween invitation to orange

   To change the background color of the Halloween invitation to orange, from the Format menu choose "Background" then "More Colors". Click on the orange color in the Colors dialogue box, then click the OK button.

5. 
   Open the Drawing Toolbar

   Open the Drawing Toolbar by selecting from the View Menu, "Toolbars" and then "Drawing".

6. 

   Add a Text Box to the Halloween invitation by double clicking on the Text Box button on the Drawing Toolbar.

7. 
   The Halloween invitation with the Text Box added

   This image demonstrates what the Text Box looks like after it is added to your Halloween invitation document.

8. 
   The Halloween invitation Text Box prior to formatting

   To format the Text Box, click once in the Text Box then select the "Select Objects" tool from the Drawing Toolbar. Click once on the crosshatch border of the Text Box. In the drop down menu, choose "Format Text Box".

9. 
   Change the Text Box background color of the Text Box to black

   In the "Colors and Lines" tab of the Format Text Box dialogue box, select Black from the drop down "Color" menu, and "No Line" from the Line drop down menu.

10. 
    Change the size of the Halloween invitation Text Box

    In the "Size" tab of the Format Text Box dialogue box, be sure that the "Lock aspect ration" box is unchecked (turned off). Then, in the "Size and rotate" section, set the Height to 8.5" and the Width to 4.5".

11. 
    Set the layout option of the Text Box of the Halloween invitation

    In the "Layout" tab of the Format Text Box dialogue box, click on "Behind text" and "Center". Click on OK to close the Format Text Box dialogue box.

12. 
    Drag the Text Box to the top of the Halloween invitation

    Holding down the Shift key, drag the Text Box up to the top margin of the Halloween invitation.

13. 
    Set the paragraph formatting for the Halloween invitation

    Click once in the Text Box so text can be entered in the Halloween invitation. Choose "Paragraph" from the Format menu to open the Paragraph dialogue box. In the "Spacing" section of the Paragraph dialogue box, set "Before" to 300 pt. Click OK to close the Paragraph dialogue box.

14. 
    Set the font formatting for the Halloween invitation

    Next, set the Font formatting of the title text for the Halloween invitation. To do this, select "Font" from the Format menu. In the Font dialogue box, choose the "Creepy" font. Set the "Font Size" to 36. Choose White from the "Font Color" drop down menu. Click OK to close the Font dialogue box.

15. 
    Center the Halloween invitation title text

    To center the Halloween invitation text, click on the "Center" button on the Formatting Toolbar. Enter the text, "Halloween Party" and press the Enter key to move the cursor to a new line.

16. 
    Set the font formatting for the Halloween invitation text

    Change the font settings for the remaining Halloween invitation text by choosing "Font" from the Format menu. In the Font dialogue box change the "Font" to Verdana, the "Font style" to Italic, the "Font size" to 20, and the "Font color" to White.

17. 
    Set the paragraph formatting for the Halloween invation text

    Change the paragraph formatting by choosing Paragraph from the Format menu. In Spacing section of the Paragraph dialogue box, change the "Before" setting to 12 pt.

18. 

    Enter this text into the Halloween invitation body:
    -Line 1: You are invited!
    -Line 2: Saturday, October 21st
    -Line 3: 7:30 - 1:00 AM
    -Line 4: 1234 Main St.
    -Line 5: Any Town, USA
    
    See the image for this step to see what the Halloween invitation looks like at this step.

19. See the image for this step to see what the Halloween invitation looks like at this step.

20. 
    Insert a Halloween picture into the Halloween invitation

    With the mouse, click outside of the text box, so that the text box is deselected. The cursor will appear above the text. To add a picture to the top of the Halloween invitation, select "Picture" and then "Clip Art" from the Insert menu. This opens the Clip Art pane. In the Clip Art pane, in the "Search for" box enter Halloween.

21. 
    The Halloween invitation

    Double click on a picture with a black background to add it to the top of the Halloween invitation.

[kaseysviewblog]

on 9/23/2008 Very good info, thanks for sharing.

[Thims]

on 9/17/2008 Great informative How To. The pics really make it into an understandable lesson.