Microsoft Publisher 2016 Made Easy Training Tutorial

A publication is the file type created in Publisher. Within a publication you create and modify text and graphic objects on the pages that constitute the publication. When you close a publication, Publisher will prompt you to save any unsaved changes in any open publications that you were working on before closing. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Title Bar runs across the very top of the window. The name of the publication you are working on will be displayed here. At the right end of the Title Bar is a button group. There are four buttons in this group. They are, from left to right, “Microsoft Publisher Help,” “Minimize,” “Maximize/Restore Down,” and “Close.” Learn this and more during this lecture.

The main tool in Publisher is the Ribbon. This object allows you to perform all of the commands available in the program. The Ribbon is divided into tabs. Within these tabs are different groups of commands. The commands in each group can be accessed through the use of the buttons, boxes, or menus available within the group. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The “File” tab within the Ribbon is your access to the “Backstage View.” In this view, you can perform all of your file management functions. This includes functions such as saving a file, opening an existing file, setting the options for Publisher, printing a file, or creating a new file. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The Quick Access toolbar is located above the Ribbon by default. However, you can also place it below the Ribbon by clicking the “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” button at the right end of the toolbar and then selecting the “Show Below the Ribbon” command. You can reset it to its default location by clicking the same “Customize Quick Access Toolbar” button and then choosing the “Show Above the Ribbon” command. Learn this and more during this lecture.

With the increased use of touchscreen computers, tablets and smartphones, Publisher was redesigned in 2013 with a new mode to allow for easier access to the buttons and other commands within the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar. This mode is called touch mode. When you enter touch mode within the Publisher interface, the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar are enlarged and extra space is added around the buttons and commands within the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar so that you can more easily access them on your touch-based device. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When viewing your publication pages, scroll bars will appear both vertically and horizontally along the right and bottom sides of your publication page. They have arrows at each end that point in the direction in which they will scroll the page when you click them. You use the scroll bars to scroll through your page’s content. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Depending upon the type of publication you are creating in Publisher, you may want a one-page or two-page page layout to be displayed onscreen. For multi-page publications, you often will use a two-page layout. Publisher allows you to view your publication using either a one page or two page spread. Learn this and more during this lecture. 

In the lower right corner of the application window, you will see the Zoom slider in Publisher. You use this to change the magnification level of the pages in your publication. This does not modify the publication in any way, but rather changes your perception of how close or far away the pages in your publication appear onscreen. Learn this and more during this lecture.

At the bottom of the application window is a long, thin, horizontal bar in which you find objects such as the “Zoom slider” and the “Page Layout View” buttons. The bar within which these tools appear is called the Status Bar. Here you can see various statuses monitored within Publisher, such as the magnification level and the current page number and total count of pages. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Another time-saving feature in Microsoft Publisher is the Mini toolbar. When you select text within the publication and hold your mouse pointer over it, you will see a small toolbar appear next to the selection. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you are new to Publisher, then you may be wondering what a “keyboard shortcut” is. A keyboard shortcut simply allows you to press a combination of keyboard characters to execute a command function instead of clicking a button in the Ribbon or the Quick Access toolbar. While you may never really use them, many users who type significant amounts of text find it tiresome to always have to reach for their mouse. These users may favor the use of keyboard shortcuts, instead, as it allows them to perform many command functions while keeping their hands on the keyboard. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you first open Publisher, you will see a startup screen that allows you to create a new publication. Simply click the type of publication that you want to create within the listing of available templates that appears at the right side of the startup screen. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Publisher allows you to change the template used by a publication to switch its layout and page design. This can be useful when starting from a blank page design so that you can then change the blank page template to a selected type of publication template prior to adding text and pictures. This can also save you a lot of time in designing page layouts and page sizes when creating various types of publications, such as brochures, business cards and flyers. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In Publisher, you can input and save your business or personal information, including name, position, address, email, logo, phone and more into a “Business Information” set for ease of use in publications. You can create different “Business Information” sets for different users or different purposes. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you save a publication for the first time, you must use the “Save As” command so that you can choose where to save the file and what to name it. Learn this and more during this lecture.

If you have multiple publications open and you would like to close one of them, click the “x” in the upper right corner of the application window to close the current publication. Clicking the “x” is equivalent to executing the “Close” command. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To open a publication, you must first know where the publication you want to open is located. When you initially open Publisher, you can see a listing of recently opened publications shown in the panel at the left side of the startup screen, under the “Recent” section. You can open one of these listed publications by clicking its name within the panel to reopen it. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When you are creating your publications, you will often need to add pages to hold more content, especially if you are creating a new blank publication from scratch. Before you insert a page, you will most likely want to select the page in the Navigation Pane that is immediately before the position at which you want to insert a new page. While it is possible to insert pages before a selected page, they are more commonly inserted after a selected page. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can delete publication pages by selecting the page to delete within the Navigation Pane. Then click the “Delete” button in the “Pages” button group on the “Page Design” tab within the Ribbon. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can easily reorganize the pages within a publication by simply clicking and dragging pages up and down within the Navigation Pane. You can click and drag the pages shown within the Navigation Pane to the desired page location and then release it when it is in the correct position. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Text boxes are used to display text within a publication page. To insert a text box, click the “Draw Text Box” button in either the “Objects” button group on the “Home” tab or the “Text” button group on the “Insert” tab within the Ribbon. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Publisher allows you to insert various shapes into your pages. Click the “Shapes” button in either the “Objects” button group on the “Home” tab or the “Illustrations” button group on the “Insert” tab within the Ribbon. A dropdown menu of all of the various shapes you can insert will be displayed. Roll your mouse pointer over the shape you want to insert and click it to select it. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can add text to any shape you have drawn within a page. When you do this, Publisher will convert the selected shape to a text box. However, since you have many shapes at your disposal you can see that a text box does not have to be a literal box shape. Using this technique allows you to create text circles, text triangles, and many, many other types of text-containing shapes. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can insert pictures that you have saved to your computer into your publications. For example, if you were creating a newsletter and wanted to insert a picture from a recent meeting or event you had saved to your computer, you could easily do that in Publisher. However, before you do this, ensure that you know within which folder on your computer the picture that you want to insert is located. You will need to know this information to locate and then insert the picture. Learn this and more during this lecture.

One of the most useful and fundamental functions of Publisher is the ability to add pictures into your publications to enhance their appearance. Publisher allows you to search online for a picture using “Bing Image Search,” or choose a picture from your OneDrive, Facebook or Flickr accounts. Learn this and more during this lecture.

A picture placeholder allows you to allocate space in a page for a picture you can insert later. To do this, click the “Picture Placeholder” button in the “Illustrations” button group on the “Insert” tab in the Ribbon. A picture placeholder will automatically be inserted into your page. You can then move and resize the placeholder as desired. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Publisher allocates the space surrounding your publication as a scratch area that you can use to store pictures or shapes. If you insert multiple pictures at the same time when using either the “Insert Picture” dialog box or the “Insert Pictures” window, Publisher will add the selected pictures into a column within the scratch area to the right of your publication page. Learn this and more during this lecture.

One of the great features of Publisher is that you have the freedom to move and rearrange all of the objects anywhere you want on a publication page. In this lecture, you will learn how to move, resize, and rotate objects within publication pages. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When working with a publication, eventually you will need to delete an object. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In Publisher, you can use the “Find & Replace” feature to replace text that you search for with replacement text within publication pages. Learn this and more during this lecture.

When adding text to a publication, you may make typographical errors. You may swap the “i” and “e” in certain words, or forget a second “r,” for example. A common error is typing the word “the” as “teh.” The AutoCorrect feature recognizes some of these commonly misspelled words and automatically corrects them for you. The best part of AutoCorrect is that it is automatically enabled when you use Publisher. Learn this and more during this lecture.

WordArt is text that is created and formatted as if it were a shape. Therefore, you can use many of the same formatting techniques and styles that you use when formatting shapes to also modify WordArt. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In Publisher, you cannot apply font formatting to a text-containing object if it is selected as an object. When selected as an object, you can only apply shape formatting to the object even if the shape contains text. To apply text formatting to text contained within an object, you must click into the text within the object and then select the text to which you want to apply font formatting. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Before you can apply formatting to a shape, you need to click it to select it. If selecting a text box or WordArt as a shape, ensure that you click on its border so that the border appears as a solid line. That indicates that the shape itself has been selected, and not its text. Once the shape has been selected, you will see the “Format” tab of the “Drawing Tools” contextual tab appear in the Ribbon. This tab provides you with several formatting options for the selected object. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Once you select a picture, the “Picture Tools” contextual tab appears with the “Format” tab displayed. This tab contains functions you can use to quickly and easily format pictures. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Building blocks allow you to create reusable content you can insert into your publication pages. For example, you could save your company’s logo and name as a custom building block you could insert into future publications without having to recreate all of the content and related formatting. The content that can be saved as a building block can range in complexity from simple text entries to more complex logos and watermarks. The building block content is saved into and organized by galleries. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In Publisher, you will use the “Building Block Library” to perform tasks related to building blocks. This dialog box allows the user to insert, edit the properties of, or delete existing building block content that you have created. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You will use the master pages in Publisher to change the default appearance of pages in a publication. A master page is a page that contains the default objects and content you want to apply as a page layout to a publication page. When you add pages to a publication, they can then be formatted according to the master page’s specifications. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In Publisher you can create a custom color scheme to use within your publication. To create your own custom color scheme, click the “More” button in the lower right corner of the “Schemes” list on the “Page Design” tab in the Ribbon. Then select the “Create New Color Scheme…” command from the dropdown menu that appears to open the “Create New Color Scheme” dialog box. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Publisher allows you to create a custom font scheme to use within your publication. To create your own custom font scheme, click the “Fonts” dropdown button in the “Schemes” button group on the “Page Design” tab in the Ribbon. Then select the “Create New Font Scheme…” command from the dropdown menu to open the “Create New Font Scheme” dialog box. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In Publisher you can customize the backgrounds of the publication pages themselves using the various “Fill Effect” formatting that can also be applied to shapes and pictures. To display the available default page background choices, click the “Background” button in the “Page Background” button group of the “Page Design” tab. You can click any of the choices in the dropdown list to apply it to your currently selected page as a background. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Tables can be very useful tools when working with a publication. You can use them to display data for a publication, to add a colorful grid to a design, or even to use as an invisible alignment tool for page objects. These are not all of the possibilities of tables, but a few common examples. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Now that you have learned how to create tables, you need to learn how to select the individual elements of a table. In addition to being able to select the entire table, you can also select the “cells,” “columns,” and “rows” that make up a table. Just as with text, once you have selected an element, you can then make changes that are applied only to the selected element. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can add and delete whole columns and rows to and from your tables, if needed. Remember that Publisher will automatically add new rows at the bottom of a table when you press the “Tab” key while your insertion point is in the lower right corner cell of the table. Learn this and more during this lecture.

You can merge multiple selected cells together into one larger cell or split a single selected cell into multiple, smaller cells. This is often performed on layout tables in a publication page to create cells of various sizes into which you can place page content for more precise alignment of the content. Learn this and more during this lecture.

To modify the text in tables, use the buttons in the “Alignment” button group on the “Layout” tab of the “Table Tools” contextual tab in the Ribbon to change the alignment of text within selected cells. Learn this and more during this lecture.

With Publisher, you can format tables to enhance their appearance. Publisher has many default table styles you can apply. In addition to these table styles, you can also select individual table elements and apply your own custom formatting. Learn this and more during this lecture.

In Publisher, you can set the page size, orientation, and margins for your publication. To do this, click the “Page Design” tab in the Ribbon. The buttons that control the page setup of the publication are in the “Page Setup” button group on this tab. Learn this and more during this lecture.

Publisher gives you margin guides that appear onscreen to assist you in staying within the printable page area. Margin guides are one type of layout guide you can use when designing publications. In this lecture, you will learn about the other types of layout guides, such as ruler guides, baseline guides, and grid guides. Learn this and more during this lecture.

The rulers in Publisher assist you in making precise measurements and placing objects into the publication pages. Learn this and more during this lecture.