Tips for Microsoft Publisher

Get going fast with Publisher

Repeat elements on facing pages

When you place elements onto your Master Page (background) they’ll be the same on every page. If you’re creating a publication with facing pages, you might want to arrange your elements so they’re facing each other:

•	Go to the Arrange menu and select Layout
•	Check Create Two Backgrounds With Mirrored Guides
•	Click OK
•	Go to the View menu and select Go to Background
•	Add the elements you want on your background. If you want to copy an element, hold down Control and drag the element to where you want it
•	Once you're happy with the position of your elements, go to the View menu and Go to Foreground

Hide your background for a specific page

Hiding a background on a page is easy:

Go to the page, then to the View menu and select Ignore Background.

Using the Design Checker

The Design Checker scans your publication and reports back on common layout problems such as empty frames, text in the overflow area and spacing between sentences.

To use the Design Checker:

•	Go to the Tools menu and select Design Checker
•	To check for specific problems, click Options, then click Check selected features and choose what you want to search for
•	Select the pages you’d like to check and click OK
•	When Design Checker finds a problem you can either fix the problem and continue, or choose to ignore it
•	Click OK when the check is complete.


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Using the Design Gallery

The Design Gallery gives you a selection of design objects to include in your publication. These can be mastheads, calendars, reply forms and picture captions.

To use something from the Design Gallery in your publication:

•	Click the Design Gallery Object icon on the Objects toolbar
•	Look through the categories and choose your element
•	Click Insert
•	Size and position the element on the page

It’s easy to add elements to your Design Gallery. Try your company logo or masthead:

•	Click the element
•	Go to the Insert menu and select Add Selection to Design Gallery
•	Give the element a name and specify its category
•	Click OK

Customise a colour scheme for your publication

Microsoft Publisher comes with standard colour schemes for you to use in your publications. But it’s also easy to create your own colour schemes.

•	Go to the Format menu and select Color Schemes
•	Click the Custom Color Scheme tab in the dialog box
•	Click the arrow for the colour you want to change
•	Select a new colour. If the colour you want isn't there, click More Colors
•	Do this for the other colours in the scheme
•	When you’ve finished click Save Scheme
•	Click OK twice

What next?

•	We've produced a number of printed How to... guides, showing you how to do new things with Microsoft software. You can download or order them free of charge from our download centre.

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