Microsoft Office Publisher is a program with which you’ll design and layout all sorts of documents for marketing products, services and companies. You’ll use this program to create pamphlets, emails and all sorts of products focused on communication and promotion.

Design, edit and publish all your communication materials

If you want to design the documents for your company yourself but don’t have a lot of knowledge about working with communication publications, Microsoft Office Publisher is an alternative that will work for you. This is because you’ll find a number of options and tools that are very easy to use, and wizards and manuals that will guide you through the entire creative process.

Thus, when you download Microsoft Office Publisher you’ll get an instrument that will help you organize texts, images, graphics and diverse ornaments within a coherent, attractive and professional communication product.

The program’s tools will let you divide the work area into manageable frames. Each one of them will let you insert diverse types of contents to let you work on each of your project’s aspects in an independent and customized way.

Installing the editing program

Once you have downloaded Microsoft Office Publisher, just double-click on the installer to let it integrate the program with your system. Bear in mind that to use this program you’ll have to input a key to register your trial version; you can do this with the steps explained below.

Requesting a key for the Microsoft Office Publisher trial version

Since Microsoft has modified the way it distributes its trial versions, to use the Microsoft Office Publisher installer, you’ll have to request a key on the official Office site. The procedure is very simple, and to carry it out you only need a valid Windows Live account.

Once you have it, just access your account and go to this page, in which you’ll find the information required to activate Microsoft Office Publisher. Once you have done that, you’ll be ready to enjoy everything it has to offer you.

Interface

If you have ever used any of the Microsoft Office product family, you’ll have no problem using Microsoft Office Publisher. This is because its interface is the same as the one used in the other programs of the famous office suite.

This implies that you’ll find the popular Ribbon interface, in which the main commands are concentrated on a button while the remaining functions are spread out among convenient tabs.

Main features of Microsoft Office Publisher

Achieving quality results with Microsoft Office Publisher is a very simple task, thanks to the large gallery of editable templates included in the program itself. By using these predefined structures, you’ll work will consist simply in choosing the one that best fits your needs and then insert the text and images you want.

You’ll also be able to use your own fonts, letting you put your own seals to the predesigned templates.

But if you don’t like any of the built-in structures in Microsoft Office Publisher, you’ll have two options available. The first one consists in creating your own templates, which you’ll use in future projects. The second one will take you to the official Office site, from which you’ll be able to download the templates you need from a large variety of examples.

Apart from the templates, you’ll encounter an interesting variety of tools especially designed to help you achieve a simple organization of all the items you publish. Guidelines, style galleries, font and color themes and diverse effects to achieve a perfect look in the images are just some of the alternatives that Microsoft Office Publisher offers you.

Finally, it is important to note that this software works with a proprietary format (PUB), which can cause problems working with people who use different tools.

Performance

Historically, the greatest criticism against Microsoft Office Publisher has been related to its limitations, especially compared to the two giants in the field: Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress. And although there is some truth in these claims, the comparison seems exaggerated.

This is because Microsoft Office Publisher is focused in providing publication solutions to small companies and private entrepreneurs who don’t want to put up with complicated layout processes.

This program also works fast, letting you get results in a short time. It is also very stable, and the export to PDF (ideal to share projects over the Web) works fluidly.

Conclusions

If you are looking for a software to design and layout publications, the first thing you should know is the type of resources you have and the types of projects you’ll do with the desired tool. If the answer to these questions implies economy and simplicity, Microsoft Office Publisher is undoubtedly the alternative you are looking for.

If, on the other hand, you require robustness and total control over your documents, get ready to continue searching, for this application won’t satisfy your needs.