Tricks for MS Publisher
Microsoft Publisher is a versatile desktop publishing application and one of the most popular publishing software, along with QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. As with every other application of the Microsoft Office series, it is updated constantly with new features, but the basic tricks to make navigating the program easier are still there. These tricks are nothing more than simple actions, which can either make the result more fascinating, or at least minimize the time needed for routine tasks.
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Word Art and Fonts
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Whenever you have written a text that seems dull in appearance, highlight it and press Ctrl+Shift+F. Use the up and down keys to navigate through the available fonts and select the one you like by pressing Enter. For more colorful and fascinating results, primarily for titles, press the icon with the 3-D letter "A" on the toolbar. A window will pop up with a number of designs for your text. Select the one you like and then type your small text in the next window.
Auto-Formatting
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Instead of formatting each section of the page one by one, repeating all the steps regarding options such as size, font and color, use the format painter. Highlight the text -- the format of which you want to copy -- and click on the format painter, the icon on the toolbar that resembles a blue and yellow brush. Select the text you want to apply the format to and it will be automatically formatted. You can apply the format painter to shapes, frames and lines as well.
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Clip Art
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Clip Art is an old trick of many Microsoft Office applications, including Publisher, which is widely disregarded nowadays considering the abundance of sources of pictures on the Internet; however, it is still helpful when you try to find abstract images. Click on the "Insert" menu from the top and select "Picture" and then "Clip Art." Apart from the numerous pictures readily available, you can also download more from the Microsoft Office online Clip Art and Media website (see Resources).
Align Objects
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To avoid aligning objects manually, which is frustrating and can rarely produce flawless results, use Publisher's rulers. Click on the "Arrange" menu and go to "Ruler Guides." You can add a horizontal or vertical ruler guide (or even both if you repeat the process). The guides will now be visible on your page and you can adjust them by dragging them with your mouse. Press Ctrl+Shift+O if you want to keep the guides, but make them invisible.
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References
Resources
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