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Starting Microsoft Publisher

To start Publisher:

1. Click the Start button on the Windows task bar.
2. Point to All Programs.
3. Select Microsoft Office.
4. From the Microsoft Office submenu, select  Microsoft Office Publisher 2003.

The Publisher toolbars and task menus

While all of Publisher's commands are contained in the menu bar at the top of the window, most of your tasks can be accomplished using the toolbars and task pane menus.

Publisher's toolbars, which group together shortcuts to command commands, are virtually identical to those included in other Office applications. You can click a toolbar button to quickly apply formatting, save or print a publication, copy or paste text, or accomplish another of a variety of tasks.

To show or hide a toolbar, open the View menu, select Toolbars, and then select the toolbar you want to show or hide.

The most frequently used toolbars are the Standard toolbar, the Formatting toolbar, and the Objects toolbar.

The Standard toolbar contains buttons for opening, saving, printing, and editing publications. The Zoom box and magnifying glass buttons at the end of the toolbar let you change the display size of the publication you're working in.

The Formatting toolbar contains buttons and drop-down menus for applying formatting to text, paragraphs, and objects.

The Objects toolbar, which is displayed vertically along the left side of the Publisher window, provides buttons for inserting the objects you'll include in your publication. These include text boxes, picture boxes, lines, shapes, and Design Gallery objects.

To insert an object into a page of your publication, you simply click the button on the Objects toolbar and then click and drag to the dimensions you want. This makes Publisher a much easier and more versatile tool for designing professional publications than standard word processing programs.

In addition, Publisher uses a task pane, located on the left side of the window, to group common options, as well as to replace many standard dialogs:

As you select options from the task pane, you can see your changes immediately applied to the publication.

All the task panes are available from a menu that you can access by clicking the down arrow in the task pane title bar:

You can easily switch between task panes by selecting a pane from the menu.

You can also close the task pane, if you need more workspace, by clicking the X in the upper right-hand corner. To show the task pane again, open the View menu and select Task Pane.

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