How to Create an Effective Tear-Off (Pull Tab) Advertisement or Notice

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Setting narrow margins

Launch your word processing program (Word 2007 for the purposes of this article). Create a blank new document, save it, and remember to save frequently during this process.

On the Page Layout menu, click the Margins button and set your margins to narrow (0.5" all around). Later you'll instruct your printer to fix or ignore this setting if necessary.
Step 2

Inserting a 1x2 table

On the Insert menu, click the Table button and drag in the grid to create a table of 1 column and two rows. See the screenshot at left.

You'll see two long cells, one on top of the other, each taking up the width of the document. You'll use the upper cell as your main text area, and you'll later split the lower cell into about 10 cells for your pull tabs.
Step 3

Sample title and subtitle

Click the Home menu to close the Table Tools menu and access your main toolbar. Click in the upper cell, and begin to compose your flyer contents within it. Treat that cell as though it is your full document. Begin by clicking the button to center your document horizontally. Choose a font size of about 48, and type your main header. Keep it very short and simple. It might say something like "High School Tutor" or "Lost Turtle" or "Help Wanted."
Step 4

Optionally create a subtitle on the next line in a smaller font. Again, keep it very simple. In the case of a lost animal, you might include "$$$ Reward $$$." For a "Help Wanted" sign, you might include a brief general description of the job. The details will depend upon the nature of your advertisement. Be sure that your flyer stays on one and only one topic.
Step 5

Don't get hung up on any formatting at this time. It is very easy later to adjust font sizes, and add vertical white space to spruce up your sign. Consider increasing interest by setting some of your text to a color such as red, but take photocopying or printing costs into account. Avoid using different colors within the same word, and avoid using light colors like yellow which fade quickly in the sun and are hard to see from a distance.
Step 6

Add a photo if relevant

Consider adding a relevant photo to increase interest. Make sure that your photo is printed with high quality or it will just look like a big blob of ink. Take into account whether or not the photo will photocopy well, and/or how much extra ink you'll need to use if you print the flyers yourself. Note that your photo will likely fade very quickly if it is on a pole out in the sun, so don't use any contrasting color combinations that will not handle such well.
Step 7

Sample main body text

Type the main body of your flyer. Try to keep it as brief as possible since people don't like to read much, and don't have a big attention span. Use very simple language. Avoid including any extraneous words or information. People will contact you if they have questions or want more information.
Step 8

Be sure to include your contact information as part of the flyer itself, since all your pull tabs may be quickly taken. Many people prefer using e-mail over the telephone, so be sure to include your e-mail address. Include your phone number and postal address if relevant, as well as a website if applicable. Avoid using any long URLs or artificially shortened ones as many people are apprehensive about visiting an unknown link.
Step 9

As you continue to edit your flyer, you may want to click on the View menu and select One Page so that you'll be able to see your whole flyer at once. Add blank lines as needed so that everything is nicely centered. Of course don't hesitate to adjust font sizes or do any other type of basic editing. Remember that everything you are doing now is taking place in the upper cell.
Step 10

Drag the lower border of the lower cell down a bit so that the lower cell is about 2" in height. If this makes it spill over onto the second page, remove some of the vertical white space in the upper cell, or reduce your font sizes.
Step 11

Splitting the lower cell to make the pull tabs

Click in the lower cell. Under the Table Tools menu, click Layout, then click the Split Cells button. In the pop-up box, enter a number around 10 for the number of columns that you want, but leave it at one row. This will become your pull tabs.
Step 12

Changing the text direction

After the split, each cell along the bottom should be selected (highlighted with a thin blue strip at the top). If they aren't, drag along all the cells to select them. Click the Text Direction button on the Layout menu bar which should still be active. This will rotate the text 90° clockwise in all the selected cells.
Step 13

Creating the first pull tab

Enter the text of your pull tab in the left cell. It may be a bit tricky because the text is all rotated 90 degrees. Turn your head accordingly if it helps. If you reduce your font to about size 10 (don’t go smaller than that), you should be able to fit 3 or 4 lines of text in your pull tab. Include all of the relevant information from your sign including your headline, name, and contact info.
Step 14

The full row of copied and pasted pull tabs

Drag across the text to highlight it (again, a bit tricky because it's sideways), and copy it. Click in the second cell and paste it. Repeat the pasting for the other cells.
Step 15

'One Page' View

Add blank lines and adjust the heights of the main and pull-tab sections as needed for visual appeal, and so that the pull tabs are as far down as they can be on the page. Note that sometimes blank lines can spill over onto second page and they can be tricky to delete. If that happens but your sign looks good otherwise, don't worry about it and just print first page.
Step 16

Optionally removing the borders (gridlines)

You're almost done. If you want to remove the border lines from your ad, click the Table Tools menu, then Layout, then click the Properties button, then click the Borders and Shading button, then click the None box, then OK.
Step 17

Print your document. If you get a message saying that one or more margins are outside the printable area, click Fix or Yes to continue. It should print just fine. Cut slits in between each pull tab, and pull a central one so it looks like there was already some interest. Bend the other pull tabs a bit.
Step 18

A sample end-product

You're done! You made yourself a customized tear-off (pull tab) advertisement for public posting in your neighborhood, and you now have a template that you can use the next time you need to make one. Good luck! ☺