How to Use Basic Microsoft Publisher

Microsoft Publisher is an Office application that allows you to create professional-looking documents (newspapers, postcards, flyers, invitations, brochures, etc.) After choosing a pre-built Publisher template, you can add text and images as you like, save and print.

Table of Contents

Sampling
Create Document
Insert more frames
Insert photos
Crop photo
Save document
Print documents

Sampling

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Launch Microsoft Publisher. After opening the application, the Catalog window will appear on the screen. The Catalog window offers a variety of publications and templates that you can use to design documents, including newspapers, brochures, signs, greeting cards, letterheads, envelopes , banners, advertisements, and so on.

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Look in the left column and click on the type of publication you want to create. Several different templates for the type of publication you choose will appear in the right pane.

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Scroll down on the templates in the right pane to select. For example, if you selected 'Newsletter' as your publication type and the content is geared towards children, check out the 'Kid Stuff Newsletter' template.

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Select the template, then click 'Start Wizard' in the lower right corner of the Catalog window. After the Catalog window disappears, the template will appear in the Publisher window.

Create Document

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Click 'Next' in the left pane once the wizard for the Publisher template starts. The wizard will take you through the document formatting process.

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Follow the instructions provided by the Publisher wizard to create the document. This process will be different for each document, depending on the specific type of publication. For example, if you create a newsletter, the wizard will ask you to choose a color scheme and specify whether you want the recipient's address to be printed on the document.

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Click 'Finish' on the last tab of the Publisher wizard. The wizard will be minimized, now you can start adding text and images to the document.

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Click the document section where you want to add content. The document will have multiple frames for you to add images or text. In most cases, Publisher will replace example text and images in each template so that you get a general idea of how to compose and format the document. For envelopes, for example, Publisher will insert a dummy address into the appropriate text frame in the document so you can replace it with the real information.

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Enter content or insert images into each frame in the document as you like. You can also insert additional frames into the document if necessary.

Insert more frames

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Click the 'Insert' tab and select 'Draw Text Box'.

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Place the mouse pointer at the position that you want to select as the upper left corner of the frame.

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Drag the mouse pointer diagonally down and to the right until the frame reaches the size you want.

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Click inside the frame and start typing.

Insert photos

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Place the mouse pointer at the location where you want to add the image to the document.

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Click the 'Insert' tab and select 'Picture' located below the Illustrations group. The 'Insert Picture' dialog box opens.

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Click the folder in the left pane containing the pictures you want to add to the document.

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Open the last folder in the right pane of the dialog box.

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Select the picture you want to add to the document, then click 'Insert'. The picture will be added to the document.

Crop photo

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Click the picture in the document that you want to crop. The border of the frame will appear around the image.

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Click the 'Format' tab and select 'Crop' below the Picture tool group.

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Place the crop handle on the border or corner of the image you want to crop.

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Drag the crop handle towards the part of the image you want to crop or delete.

Hold down CTRL while dragging the center handle to cut both sides evenly.

Hold down CTRL + Shift while dragging the corner handles to evenly crop all four edges while maintaining the aspect ratio of the image.

Save document

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Click 'File' and select 'Save'.

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Enter a name for the document in the 'Save As' dialog box.

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Specify the location where you want to save the document. Otherwise, Publisher will save the file in the default working directory.

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Click 'Save.' Your document will be saved.

Print documents

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Click 'File' and select 'Print'.

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Enter the number of copies you want to print next to 'Copies of print job'.

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Check the printer selected next to 'Printer.' In most cases, the default printer's properties are automatically displayed in this field.

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Specify the paper size you are using to print the document under 'Settings'.

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Choose a custom color and then click 'Print'. The document will be sent immediately to the printer.

Kareem Winters

Update 24 February 2022

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