Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 - Some Thoughts

Publisher 2007 is designed primarily for creating various forms of marketing material, from single page leaflets, fliers and newsletters to more complex brochures and catalogues, but also includes tools for the compilation of mailing lists, etc..

Microsoft Publisher 2007 Features

Users of other Microsoft Office 2007 products will notice immediately that Publisher 2007 is devoid of the "Ribbon" user interface, and some other aspects of the "Office Themes" feature that is fully implemented in the other products.

Nevertheless, it is still possible to create, and choose, standard colours, fonts and logos to maintain a "corporate identity" throughout a range of different publications. Indeed, the so-called "Content Library" is, perhaps, the best of the new features included in Publisher 2007. The Content Library is independent of individual publications, and allows a collection of text, graphics and other useful objects to be assembled. This removes the need to open numerous publications to retrieve the various elements required, and can provide a "toolkit" of approved texts and styles for inexperienced users.

This idea is continued in the "Business Information" feature, which allows a business logo, slogan and basic contact information to be "preloaded", for individual departments, or the business as a whole, and applied to template files as, and when, required.

Another obvious difference, for users of previous versions, is the way in which the "Task Pane" has been reorganised; it is now easier, for example, to set and reset variables at the start of a project, and select the basic features of that project. Project templates, colour schemes, and font sets were, of course, included in the previous version of Publisher, but with more templates and a more intuitive user interface, Publisher 2007 makes it even easier for new users to get started.

Publisher 2007 now also offers a greater choice of output formats and options, depending on the ultimate destination of your publication. You can, for example, convert a publication to XML Paper Specification (XPS), or Portable Document Format (PDF) without the requirement for third party tools. Furthermore, you can specify CMYK ("Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK") composite PostScript, four colour process or spot colour printing, and hence tailor your output to its destination, or available output devices. This may, of course, include the Web, local printing facilities, or a professional printing house, or print shop.

In the latter case, help is also at hand from an improved "Pack & Go Wizard", which collects together all the elements required for the printing of a project – fonts, graphics, etc. – with the Publisher file, itself, ready for commercial printing.

Conclusion

DTP ("Desk Top Publishing"), and graphic design for print, remain the strongest features of Publisher 2007, particularly with the inclusion of a PDF output option. Publisher 2007 includes some powerful tools, which, although applicable to home users, are more specifically designed for the small, or medium sized, business that requires professional marketing material; such material can be distributed electronically, printed "in house", or sent to a printing house for bulk printing. New, or inexperienced, users to can take advantage of a variety of categories, and templates, to get them started, and almost anyone can start producing high quality documents with a minimum of effort.

About the Author

Patrick Sawyer writes regularly on technology and business subjects. Find further information on Microsoft Office Publisher 2007 at bluesolutions.co.uk, specialists in OEM software and software licensing from leading manufacturers for PC and Mac.