Creating a One Page Flyer on Publisher 2003

How to Guide

Creating a One Page Flyer on

Publisher 2003

by Adrian Martin

How to Create A Flyer

‘How to Guide’ by Adrian Martin 1

This following guide is intended to illustrate to the reader the very basics of how to create a one sided, one page flyer using Microsoft Publisher. There are really no boundaries as to the content of your flyer except your creativity and imagination, for which there can be no instruction! I have tried to keep this simple and easy to follow for complete novices to Publisher by writing a step by step guide in seven parts. Publisher is part of the Microsoft Office suite and is a Page Layout programme for desktop publishing. It is probably one of the easiest programmes to use for this purpose but that does not mean to say that it is easy in itself, (especially if you are new to it). If you are stuck for ideas or how to layout your creation then Publisher can make it easier for you by providing Templates for brochures, newsletters, flyers, invitation cards, certificates and loads more! Further still, there are loads of templates that you can download from the Microsoft Office website with tips, tricks and even online instructions and tutorials on how to use Publisher and create flyers. This guide assumes that you want to create a mini-masterpiece from scratch using your own company logo, a picture and some text. Step 1 – Open Publisher To open the programme you will need to locate it in your programmes listing, highlight it with your cursor and then double left click on it. Step 2 – Getting Started You will then be presented with the Start-up screen which will give you a number of options. As a beginner, the ones that you will use the most will be ‘Publications for Print’ or ‘Blank Publications’. This guide will focus on the ‘Blank Publications’ option, but it is worth outlining here what the ‘Publications for Print’ offers you. Publications for Print: Clicking on this will open up a huge choice of the templates I mentioned earlier. As you can see reading down the list there are choices for creating menu cards, invitations, labels, flyers and more. Each has its own set of designs, (no surprise that this is called a design set then), with placeholders for text and images to be

The Publisher programme can be found by clicking St art > All Programmes > Microsoft Office > Microsoft Office Publisher



inserted from a folder of your choice. It will even automatically fill in your creation with personal information which can update itself. From the personal information dialogue screen you can change the colour scheme of you chosen template to customise it to how you want it to look.

The Start up screen

Choosing Publications for Print option will open up a huge choice of templates



Blank Publications: Clicking on this option will present you with several choices for page layout such as business card, tent card, poster and more. Clicking on one of these will open up a blank template in the specific size and layout of your choice, in other words, the default settings. For your flyer we will opt for the first choice called ‘Full Page’. If your computer and printer are configured correctly then this will open up a completely blank page in A4 sized paper. With your blank page on your screen you are now ready to begin your flyer from scratch.

Choosing a template will open up the Personal Infor mation dialogue box



Step 3 – Inserting a Text Box The first thing we will do is to place some text in your flyer. Publisher is a page layout programme which means you will need to create a box in which to insert your text, (this is

unlike word which uses a carriage and return system). To insert a text box you will need to click on ‘Insert’ from the Menu Bar and drop down to ‘Text Box’. Left click on this to select and use it. When you move your mouse arrow back to your page it will have changed to a Crosshair. To draw your text box just left click and hold it down whilst dragging it across your page to draw your box. Let it go to release and complete your task. If you are unfamiliar with drag and hold then you will probably get this wrong. It’s really just down to practice so this will get better in time. Your text box will appear as a black dotted line on

the page. You can use your mouse arrow to lock onto a corner or side of the box to move it around the page or manipulate its dimensions by dragging a corner or side in or out. To enter text just click into it and start typing. Similar to Word you can select your preferred Font, Point size and Font colour from the Toolbar. You can create as many text boxes as

Opening up the Blank Publications option will prese nt you with several options for page layout and siz es

Select Insert and then drop down to Text Box



you like as you are gong along and I think it is best that you do not fit all of your text into one single text box. Placing different text elements into different boxes makes it easier to move things around and edit changes at a later stage. In the example here I have used three text boxes, one for the announcement of the Coffee Morning, another for the date, time and venue, and, lastly one for the admission fee. I can then move them around independently of each other should I need to. There are no hard fast rules of design, it’s up to you. However, bear in mind your target audience and what message you want your flyer to convey. I would keep things simple at first. As a general guide try not to use more than three font types on one page as it just makes it look messy and confused. Similarly, try to resist the temptation of using wild and vivid colours for your text. They are often unreadable to those who

have less than 20/20 vision, especially form a distance. It is better to grab someone’s attention at a distance with your flyer with a simple and clear design, rather than put them off up close with gaudy colours and unreadable text. Step 4 – Using Word Art Another way of placing text in your flyer is to use Word Art, and this is exactly what it says on the tin; it’s wordy art. In this example I am going to delete the words ‘Coffee Morning’ from the text box and use Word Art to create a more outstanding title. I am also going to change the font colour of ‘Admission £1’ to red. Again, you will need to navigate to ‘Insert’ on the Menu bar and drop down to ‘Picture’. This will reveal a further drop down dialogue to reveal an option called ‘Word Art’ so left click to select it. This will open up the Word Art Gallery which contains several wordy designs, effects and colour combinations. These include Rainbow effects, 3D, shadows and funny angles. Further, all of these can be customised away from these pre-sets to how you want them to appear on the page, but that is a little more advanced for this basic work through. As I mentioned earlier it’s your flyer so which word art you choose is up to you. However, bear in mind the guidelines of simplicity. Try not to be tempted by Rainbow effects or titles that disappear into jaunty 3D angles because they are difficult to read and often does not

At first try to keep it simple and reader friendly



Select Insert > Picture > Word Art for another way of using text

The Word Art Gallery



lend any more class to the aesthetic quality of your masterpiece but, instead, could may it look cheap and glary. I prefer the first selection. It is plain and simple but for most tasks it does the job fine as I can define a border colour and a fill colour to make it stand away from the page. \once you have selected your choice then a dialogue box will open into which you will type your text, select your font type and size. Upon clicking ‘OK’ your Word Art will be placed onto your page. From here you can left click and hold on it to move it around, resize and stretch it from the corners or the sides, (just as you did with the text box before).

At this point my Word Art looks very plain but this will change very soon. Clicking on the piece of Word Art makes the Word Art Toolbar appear.

Another way to format your Word Art is to select your Word Art and right click. A context menu will appear which will have the option of ‘Format Word Art. Either way is fine. From here I am going to select ‘Format Word Art’ and choose red for my fill colour, choose black for my line colour and increase my line weight to 1 point.

As you can see on the example on the next page the title now jumps out from the rest of the page. Now we have that sorted, let’s put in our logo, (or a picture).

The Word Art is placed and resized by dragging it out from the corners

The Word Art Toolbar

The Format Word Art dialogue box



Step 5 – Placing your Logo or Picture A very simple method to place any picture or logo in your creation is to select it from your folder/subfolder and copy and paste it directly into your document. You can then resize it by grabbing hold of the corners and sides in the same way you did with text boxes and Word Art. The other way is to select ‘Insert’ from the menu bar and then from the drop down box ‘Picture’ and then ‘From File’. Doing it this way heavily relies on your good file management. You will need to know where you save things to on your computer, so avoid dumping everything into one folder. I suggest that you create separate folders for different projects and subfolders within them for events, activities, records, photo’s, logos and so on. Maintain consistency by being uniform throughout your filing structure and you will soon get the hang of good file management.

Navigating to your logo, (or picture) you will then need to select it and then click on ‘Insert’ to place your logo/picture in your flyer. In this example I have navigated to a Logos subfolder I previously created within the company’s central drive.

Once you have placed your logo/picture you can then move it about your page with the click and drag technique. You will probably need to rearrange the other elements of your flyer around to accommodate it, but this is half the fun and is where your creativity for design comes into play. Once complete, the next step is to choose some clip art for your flyer.

The completed title made with Word Art

Insert > Picture > From File > and then Navigate to your picture

Choose your folder, your picture and click Insert



Step 6 – Inserting Clip Art Clip art is a collection of icons, button, and other useful image files, that can be inserted into pages. When you installed Publisher on your computer it will have installed a folder full of useful clipart which it will ask you to organise the first time you use it, (don’t worry it will do this automatically for you if you select OK). Should you not be able to find the perfect piece of clip art you had in mind then the Microsoft Office website has an archive of literally thousands of clip art that can be trawled through with a search engine looking for key words and tags. Alternatively there are numerous websites offering free downloads of loads of goodies including clip art, so you could try ‘Googling’ for some of them from your web browser. For a more permanent record you can also buy collections of clip art on CD-ROMS from many retail outlets. I have one in my collection that I bought from a local supermarkets bargain bucket, so it’s worth keeping your eyes peeled. For this guide I am keeping things basic by using a clip art from the collection that Publisher installed on my computer. Again we will need to select ‘Insert’ from the Menu Bar and then from the drop down box select ‘Picture’ and then ‘Clip Art’. A clip art search box will then open for you to enter your search terms, e.g. ‘Coffee Cup’. Here, I have chosen to look in ‘All collections’ by default but have narrowed down the search by deselecting photographs, movies and sounds. Notice at the bottom of the box there is a web link to Office clip art online, tips for searching and organising clips.

Searching for clip art is made easier with key word s and collections



Once your clip art has been located move your mouse arrow on top of it to reveal a drop down menu from which there is an option to ‘Insert’. Alternatively, just right click on top of your chosen clip art to reveal the context menu form which you will need to select ‘Insert’.

Step 7 – The Final Print All that now remains to be done is to print off your flyer by selecting the Printer Shortcut icon in the toolbar or, as is my preferred method, by selecting ‘File’ from the menu bar and then print from the drop down box. Here I have access to my printer driver should I want to change my printer settings to black and white, paper type, size and quality and so on. You may find it useful to select ‘Print Preview’ to see how your finished article will look in printed form. Any mistakes can be quickly checked for and rectified at this final stage. This is good practice because if you tell the printer that you want 100 copies, and there is a mistake on the page that the printer has picked up then you will have lost a lot of paper, ink and money! I hope this guide has provided the basic walkthrough you needed. For now, keep it simple and uncomplicated. As with most things, at first it will be difficult, but with practice your

Your first masterpiece is now complete



creations will become more sophisticated, and as you learn how to do more you will discover the many other facets of Publisher.

Have fun ☺

Documents

Creating a One Page Flyer on Publisher 2003