FRANK'S REVIEWS

for the NJPCUG

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Program:

MS PUBLISHER 98 

Microsoft’s Publisher is a desktop publishing program which I found easy and enjoyable to use even though I had no previous experience with such programs.  It produces  professional-looking print documents - such as letterheads, newsletters, brochures, business cards, calendars, signs and the like.  There are  countless wizards and templates to provide pleasant, consistent graphics, even for those lacking artistic talents.  The program also allows developing web site pages and posting them on the web .  Finally, there must have been room left on the CD because it includes printouts for origami and paper airplanes.  While I reviewed Publisher 98, I understand that Publisher 2000 is similar, with added features. 

Publisher was easy to use, once I became acquainted with it.  I always would like a manual to give an overview of the program’s capabilities and the way to use them.  Alas, manuals are increasingly rare and the Publisher I received does not have one - even on disk. It  does have tutorials which give a reasonable indication of how to use the program.  These can be viewed at any time.  One tutorial provides an overview of the program and another gives a description of the new features in this version.  Then there are 13  separate tutorials on subjects such as colors, layers, mail merge, tables and more.  

Without a manual to show all the features and how to apply them, I made frequent use of the ‘Help’ pages.  These are specific to the work in progress as well as having the usual index and contents and can be kept onscreen while working on the document, but they instruct only one step at a time so progress can be tedious.  However, the program’s  wizards do help in selecting and setting up the templates.  Since  there are so many features in this program I don’t believe I found them all.   However, once I learned a feature was available and how to use it, the needed steps were easy to remember, often almost intuitive.   

Entering text was easy since the program functions like MS Word, including spell checking and font formatting.  But it does not include all the Word capabilities.  For instance, it does not allow creating ‘bullet’ lists.  However, one can create a document in Word and import it into Publisher. 

Publisher operates in true WYSIWYG fashion.  Inputs immediately show as they will in the finished document - color changes, graphics resizing, text wrapping around the graphics, headline resizing - all on the fly.  And the Undo feature rescues from creative mistakes.  Oh how often I used that feature! 

Graphics is where Publisher really goes beyond word processing.   There are 60 coordinated color schemes to choose from or to edit. There are hundreds of templates including 26 for flyers and 53 for brochures.  Then there are 175 fonts, 10,000 clip-art images and 1,500 digital photographs, stored in categories that make selection nearly effortless.  If these are not sufficient, graphics can be imported free from MS’s online Clip Gallery Live.  Once selected, the graphics can be resized and repositioned at will. 

The document can be prepared for commercial printing using black and white, color, or black and white with spot color.  And if one wishes to mail out the document the program allows creating a mailing address space and a mail merge feature which allows importing a data base from another source so labels can be printed. 

There are an estimated 800 million web pages world-wide.  That’s a lot,  and now I see why.  Using Publisher I created 15 pages for two personal web sites.  They look fine and convey the information I want to present.  In fact. I’ve received compliments on the sites.  And I’ve done this without knowing, or even seeing, HTML code.   

Publisher will use a print document, say a three-column, two-sided, four-page brochure, and automatically convert it into web pages, with links between the pages; or they can be created directly.  The pages can be edited and the individual page or all pages can be viewed in a selected browser. A check with another product indicted no problems using current Navigator and Explorer browsers to view the  created web pages. 

There are special web graphics - 340 animated GIF files and 40 music clips on the CD, with more available Online.  Links to other pages or to other sites can be imbedded in the page. Layers allow creating areas common to all pages. However, I did not find a control to return to the top of the current web page without using the ever-present right slide bar. Tables can be created but using online input forms requires special scripting and coordination with the ISP - I  didn’t try this out.  The program does not create frames, such as used on  the NJPCUG site, but it does allow creating independent blocks of content that can be individually manipulated. 

Publisher creates the HTML and GIF files needed for web posting and will send them to the site using FTP. 

Apparently, publisher is intended for simple, short web sites.  Reportedly, MS Front Page is more powerful and has more features for web creation, and there are still more powerful web creation programs.  But then, they don’t allow creating print documents. 

Required hardware is: a 486DX processor or better; Win95 and 8 MB RAM or WinNT 4.0 and 12 MB RAM; 109 MB hard drive space for a typical  installation; CD-ROM drive; VGA or higher resolution monitor and mouse. 

While these first efforts of mine certainly did not match experienced,  professionally-produced products, those who saw the products were impressed.  This was pretty good for someone who had never before done desk-top or web publishing.  All in all, I enjoyed using MS Publisher 98.