The Basics of Microsoft Publisher 2010

What's New in MS Publisher 2010 With each version of Publisher that Microsoft releases, the features keep getting better and better. If you've used previous versions of MS Publisher before, you might be wondering what exactly is new in 2010.

Building Blocks

The first thing you'll notice that's different with 2010 is that it offers building block galleries. These are also offered in other Office programs. Building blocks are simply reusable pieces of content, such as headers, advertisements, and calendars. In previous versions of Publisher, you'd have had to create these yourself. However, in 2010, Publisher gives you these building blocks to easily use at any time. You can also create and save your own.

Backstage View

The Backstage View is accessible through the File tab. It is used to manage files and data that are about the files, but not IN the files. The Backstage View contain such information as creating and saving files, setting file options, and inspecting for hidden data or personal information.

Print and Print Preview

In Publisher 2010, Print and Print Preview are combined so that you get a more accurate view of what your publication will look like before you print. It's also a huge time saver! You can view multiple pages at the same time, see page boundaries, page numbers, and rules all while in print/print preview.

Save as PDF or XPS

You can now save files as a PDF or XPS file. PDF files can be password protected for extra security.

Image Tools and Styles

Publisher 2010 also offers you better and improved image tools over previous versions. You can now crop photos right in Publisher. You can also edit the picture style to give images a 3D feel, as well as other effects.

Introduction to Layout and Design Since MS Publisher is a desktop publishing software program, it's just as important to learn more about layout and design as well as to learn about Publisher. That said, before we delve into the technical aspects of Publisher itself and teach you how to use it, let's learn some basic principles of good design. You'll find that this information will help you use Publisher to create more professional and beautiful publications and designs.

Here are the aspects of good design and layout:

Alignment. Alignment refers to the placement of text and graphics so that they line up on a page. It helps to create attractive pages. You can use alignment to group items, create order, or organize the page elements. Alignment can be horizontal, vertical, or you can line up text and objects along their top, bottom, left, or right edges.
Balance. Balance is achieved by making sure elements are evenly distributed on a page. You don't want to have one section with dozens of pictures, the next with none – or everything lined up on side of the page and nothing on the other.
White Space. White space is the space in your layout and design that has nothing in it. It's just blank space – or white space. It's important to have enough white space so the page is easy to look at and to read. You don't want to cram in pictures and text. It looks like a traffic jam for the eyes.
Proximity. When you place objects close together on a page, you group them together and suggest a relationship. If you place objects far apart, it suggests lack of a relationship. This is important to remember in design. Group objects that are related close together. For example, you can group pictures and text together. Put the picture near related text, not in some other section where it's out of place.
Contrast. If you put all square shapes in your design, not one part of your design would stand out, would it? Use big and small elements, different shapes, and even different colors of text to achieve contrast. It makes for a more attractive design.
Unity. All the different objects and pieces in your design should tie together and become a whole.
Consistency and Repetition. Repeating use of design styles, font types, and design elements helps someone to easier navigate your design and find what they need. This is especially important if you are designing monthly newsletters or brochures.

These are all things that you must keep in mind whenever you design a layout in Publisher or any other desktop publishing software. The great thing about Publisher 2010 is that you can use templates to make your work quicker and easier. However, if you need or want to design your own pieces, these terms are what you need to apply to your work to create stunning presentations.

Starting to Work with MS Publisher 2010 The easiest way to teach you to use MS Publisher for your desktop publishing needs is to jump right in and show you how to do it. Just keep in mind the terms from the last section because they will help you as we go forward.

That said, let's start out by opening Publisher 2010 and becoming familiar with the screen. Being able to navigate the program is a big first step to learning to use it.

Whenever you open MS Publisher 2010, you'll see the screen pictured below. The only way you will not see this screen is if you open an existing MS Publisher file that is located on your computer. Again, the screen pictured below is when you open the Publisher program and not an actual file.

If you click Open on the left side of the screen, you can open an existing MS Publisher file.

Now, let's dissect the screen to teach you how to create a new Publisher file.

Shown above is the section where you can create a blank MS Publisher 2010 file. Your first two choices are standard 8.5x11 sizes that you can choose. One is portrait and the other is landscape. You can click More Blank Page Sizes to select a different size, or you can select My Templates to choose from a template that you've created and saved, such as for a monthly newsletter. Just click on one of these choices to open.

In the next section (shown above) you can select from dozens of templates. Choose the template that matches your project.

Let's say, however, that you don't have time to search through all these templates, and you want to choose one quickly. Go back to the top of the page to the search box (shown below).

Type in the type of template you're looking for. We're going to type in "invoices."

You'll then see this as MS Publisher 2010 searches for a template.

When it's finished, it will show you the results, as shown below.

On the left, you can see all the different invoice templates available. By clicking on one of these, you will be able to see a larger version to the right. Once you find a template you want to use, click on Download.

To get back to the original Publisher screen (the one that we saw when we opened the program), click Home. You can also use the backward and forward arrows to go back or forward a page when looking through templates.

The Ribbons and Toolbars

For now, let's create a blank 8.5x11 file. We click on it, and this is now the screen we see.

Let's start at the top of the screen and learn about the toolbars and the ribbon.

Want to learn more? Take an online course in MS Publisher 2010.

Starting with Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft started using the ribbon to better group toolbars. If this is new to you, it may take a while to adjust, but rest assured the ribbon makes navigating and finding what you need much easier. We've shown the toolbars and ribbon above.

At the very top of the snapshot above, you'll see File, Home, Insert, Page Design, Mailings, Review, and View. These are your tabs. The ribbon appears below these tabs. Each ribbon contains toolbars that complete certain tasks. For example, the ribbon under the File tab has to do with opening and creating files. Home (as shown above) contains formatting tools for text. If you click the Insert tab, you'll see tools for inserting things into your design. All your toolbars are located on the ribbon. The toolbars you see will depend on what tab you click on.

That said, toolbars are arranged into groups in the ribbon. Look at the ribbon for the Home tab shown above. You have the Clipboard group, the Font group, the Paragraph group, etc. These all contain tools related to the name of the group. It makes finding the tools you need a lot easier.

Below the ribbon is your workspace. It's the biggest chunk of area in MS Publisher 2010. To the left of the work space, you have the Page Navigator, which we're going to discuss right now.

The Page Navigator

Page Navigation is shown by default on the left hand side of the MS Publisher 2010 screen.

Page Navigation shows you thumbnails of all pages in your file. For example, if you had a multi-page newsletter, Page Navigation would show you thumbnails of each page. You can use this to easily navigate from page to page. You can click on a thumbnail to open it in the work space area.

You can also right click on a page to do a variety of tasks quickly and easily.

When you right click on a page, the following menu appears:

You can insert a new page, insert a duplicate page, delete the page, move the page up or down (make page 1, page 3), rename the page, work with the page numbers, or master pages (we'll discuss what this is later.) You can also view two pages at a time.

For now, click on Insert Page.

You'll see this dialogue box:

Type in the number of new pages you want to create. Then, decide if you want them to come before the current page or after.

You can also choose to insert blank pages, pages with one text box on each, or duplicate all objects on a certain page number. Make sure you type in the page number.

When you're finished, click OK.

The Status Bar

The status bar is located in the bottom left corner of the MS Publisher 2010 screen and is pictured below. By default, it shows you what page you are viewing and how many total pages exist in your file.

Right click on the Status Bar to set options.

You'll also see this box appear near images and/or text boxes on your page:

With this, you can alter image sizes and locations. You can play with these different options to get a better feel for what they do.

X and Y are the coordinates on the screen where the image or text box appears. Adjusting these will move the image.

Adjusts the image width.

Adjusts the height.

Adjusts the rotation.

Adjusts the spacing across a word, line, or column of text. The higher the percentage, the more spacing. This is called tracking.

Allows you to shrink or stretch the width of the text characters.

Allows you to adjust the kerning, or the space between two letters.

Working with Publisher 2010

In this article, we're going to start learning the basics of using MS Publisher 2010.

Drawing Objects

To draw objects in MS Publisher 2010, click on the Insert tab, then click Shapes in the Illustrations group.

You'll see the following dropdown menu appear:

Select a shape that you want to draw, as we've done below. Click on the place on your page where you want to place it.

The box that appears around the shape allows us to move it, as well as to resize and rotate it. Use the green circle above the shape to rotate it. Use the square handles to expand it vertically up or down, or horizontally left to right. If you want to move the object, move your cursor inside the box. You'll see arrows that look like a plus sign. Hold in your left mouse button and drag it to its new location.

If you right click on the object, you'll see this menu that you can use to edit the object:

Let's cover the top row of icons in this menu from left to right.

The first is to wrap text around an image or graphic.
Next is to bring an image or graphic forward, perhaps on top of another image.
The last icon is to send an image back, as in behind another image or graphic.

Now, let's cover the second row.

The icon with the paint bucket allows you to change the fill color of the image. Our smiley face above is white. We can change it to yellow using this icon.

The next icon is to change the outline of the shape. Our smiley face has a solid black line. Using this icon, we can change it to red and dashed lines if we wanted.

The last icon is the Format Painter. This allows you to copy and paste formatting, such as alignment, indentations, etc. Select the text that you want to copy and click the icon to copy character formatting. If you want to copy alignment, indentations, etc., you'll have to go to Paragraph in the Home tab and click so the paragraph mark shows up after a paragraph. Copy and paste that as well as your text.

Cut, Copy, and Paste

Cut Objects

To cut means to remove an object or text from your page. Don't confuse this with Delete, however. When you use cut, you are cutting it from your page and moving to the clipboard. We'll learn about the clipboard in just a minute. When you delete an object, it's erased.

To cut an object such as a graphic, picture, or text box, click on it. You'll see a box form around it. Move your cursor over a line on the box, then right click and select Cut. The object then appears on your clipboard.

Copy Objects

When you copy an object, you leave the existing object where it is, but move a copy of it to your clipboard. You can then put that copy anywhere else on the page – or on other pages. To copy an object, follow the same steps for Cut, but select Copy.

Cut or Copy Text To cut or copy text, select the text by holding in your left mouse button and dragging it over the part of the text you want to select. Right click, then select Cut or Copy.

Paste Objects

To paste an object, move the cursor to where you want to position the object, right click and select Paste .

Paste Text

Pasting text gets a little more detailed because you have more options for pasting in Publisher 2010. You have three options .

Paste using original formatting of pasted text.

Paste using the formatting of the majority of the text in the document.

Allows you paste text only. Any graphics or images will not be pasted, only text

Note: To cut, copy, and paste, you can also click on the Home tab and go to the Clipboard group.

The Clipboard

Whenever you cut or copy anything in MS Publisher, it is automatically sent to the Clipboard. The Clipboard does just as its name implies. It holds what you copy and paste for you to use. The Clipboard and its associated tools can be found on the Home tab at the far left end of the ribbon. The Clipboard group looks like this:

Click the arrow at the bottom of the Clipboard group to see its contents. The clipboard will open as a long window to the left of your work space. It can only hold 24 objects. When a 25th object is added, the first copied item is removed. To empty the Clipboard, click the Clear All button at the top of the Clipboard menu.

You can remove individual items from the clipboard by moving the mouse pointer over the item and clicking the arrow button that appears to the right of the object. In the drop down menu, select Delete.

Select Objects

Selecting objects in MS Publisher 2010 is easy. First, click on the object. A little box will appear around it. This means it is selected.

Right click on the object to cut or copy it.

Undo and Redo

But let's say you accidently delete something or deleted it and then decided that you want it back. You grit your teeth and start to grumble, trying to remember the exact wording. It's a lost cause, right? Wrong. Microsoft anticipated this problem and supplied an easy solution. The Undo button!

The Undo button can be found in the upper left corner of the program window in what Microsoft calls the "Quick Access Toolbar." The Undo button is the blue arrow shaped like a comma. If you are not sure you've got the right button, you can move your mouse over it and wait and a small box that reads "Undo (Ctrl-z)" will appear.

The Redo button is to the right of the Undo button. It looks like the recycle symbol you might see on trashcans at the airport. The redo button allows you redo an action that you just undid or to repeat the last action. If Publisher cannot redo the last action, the button will be faded.