computerwriter.com

Publisher 98 - Not too bad!

Toronto Star Fast Forward column for Apr. 16/98

Back to Computer Wares index

Back to White Pages main article index

© Copyright, Myles White, 1998

Tip of the Week: Effective use of "Find"

The latest revision of Microsoft Publisher illustrates how difficult it is to find the fine line developers need to tread between making software approachable for relative novices and making it too simplistic for slightly more advanced users. Publisher 98 tries hard to find that line, but on occasion wobbles over it.

According to Microsoft, Publisher's user base, estimated at over four million users since its introduction in 1991, is composed primarily of small business owners with fewer than 10 employees (about two-thirds). The program is used on the job and at home to produce newsletters, flyers, brochures, business cards, Web sites, stationary and letterhead, cards and invitations, signs and business forms. Additional users include volunteer groups, school organizations, community groups and other nonprofit enterprises. Aside from business, marketing and promotional projects, Microsoft estimates that over half of Publisher's licensees also use it for personal projects such as garage-sale flyers, birthday invitations, family newsletters, lost puppy posters, paper airplanes, origami sculptures, and "Happy Birthday, Mommy!" banners.

The point the company is trying to make here is that Publisher's user base is made up of people whose primary job or avocation isn't to become sophisticated desktop publishing (DTP) experts. Microsoft acknowledges that there is a place for professional DTP programs such as Adobe PageMaker, Corel Ventura and QuarkXPress. It also knows there are those who need the sophistication of a full-blown Web authoring tool such as its own FrontPage 98. Publisher 98 is for the rest of us.

In the fourth full revision of the program since its inception, Publisher 98 has tried to remove as much as possible the need for any particular set of desktop publishing skills through extensive use of automated "wizards" to guide you through the process of creating just about anything you can imagine. For example, you can start with the wizard to help you pick one of 28 different newsletter designs (or 58 flyer designs or 40-odd brochure designs), but once you've made a preliminary design choice, there are 62 different colour schemes you can apply to that choice as well as a "custom" setting you can use to design your scheme. Under earlier versions of Publisher, once you spent the next couple of hours importing text and pictures to fit the pre-set columns and frames set up for a particular design, you were stuck with the end result unless you wanted to start over. Not this time - you can change the basic design or colour scheme at any point and Publisher 98 will reformat the document without losing content. Cute trick.

Instead of using a wizard to design a single document type, there's another approach in this version -- the ability to create a set of documents based on a single design concept. For example, if you liked the "Arcs" design set, you could use it to create matching business card, envelope, letterhead, fax cover, brochure, flyer, gift certificate, postcard, newsletter, shipping labels, price list, web site, party invitation, order form, invoice, and the list keeps on going. There are 10 master sets as well as special events sets, fund-raiser sets, holiday sets, "We've moved" sets, restaurant sets and sets for use on special paper.

Other new features include greater integration with other Microsoft Office products. Publisher now shares the spelling dictionary, spell as you go checker, AutoCorrect, and the Office Assistant (complete with animated "helpers").

Publisher 98 still shields you from having to know anything about Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) code when creating Web pages - you never see the code and you can't edit it within Publisher - and many of its elements are still non-standard (tables, for example, are pictures with hotspots if a hyperlink is included in a cell instead of HTML tables). However, there is one new element: you can now insert HTML code if you do know it within a page, although this still won't allow you to insert Java or Active X controls, videos, animation or a host of other HTML trickery.

There's also a trap for the unwary. Microsoft says Publisher 98 will create interactive forms you can use to collect information online, and to an extent, this is true. However, your Internet Service Provider must support the company's server side extensions - the same extensions required by FrontPage 98 -- before they will work. And you'll discover that the majority of ISPs in the Toronto area don't support the necessary extensions.

Okay, enough detail - let's get back to the broader strokes. I said at the top that Publisher was approachable by novices and those with little time to get sophisticated with a more robust DTP application, but I also hinted that there were some drawbacks. You'll find them as soon as you set out to have multiple copies of your work printed by a professional service bureau. Publisher assumes that you'll be able to afford (or find) a bureau using full-colour continuous tone printing that's also able to handle a file produced in Encapsulated Postscript format and an imagesetter capable of printing at anywhere from 400 to 1200 dots per inch. If you want to go to a slightly less sophisticated printing method, spot colour, for example, or even if you want to use black and white or grey-scale output at a lower resolution, you're in for a whole other set of problems.

Publisher still doesn't supply Pantone (or any other) colour matching, nor will it print separations. You're instructed to select your spot colour when you're at the printer's shop instead (tedious and unnecessarily time-consuming). You also have no control over the halftone values used in graphics. For example, my lady and I do a monthly community newsletter for a nonprofit organization and we produce the camera-ready copy on my PostScript laser at up to 1200 dpi for nice sharp text. One of the other volunteers on our committee is a printer with fairly typical equipment for low-cost printing. We couldn't use Publisher (we actually use Ventura) because it doesn't allow us to independently set the screen frequency for graphics to the 65 dots per inch the printer's camera needs (any more than that and it can't see the dots -- we get a smudged, poor quality photo).

Despite this little carp, however, I wouldn't steer you away from Publisher '98 and I do plan to use it myself because, ironically, its ability to redesign layouts on the fly is going to help me find a new look for the newsletter that I'll later duplicate in the more robust application once we've decided which one we like. You'll find it on the street for under $100 Cdn. and given the amount of hand-holding you get from the software, it's a good product to try, especially if you're not sure that desktop publishing is something you can use.

Publisher '98 requires Windows 95 or better (i.e, Windows 98 or NT), at least a 486 (f you've got lots of time to wait), 8 MB of memory (12 for NT, but 16 or more for productive use), 24 to 116 MB of hard drive space, CD-ROM drive, SVGA graphics and a mouse. Aside from Publisher 98, you get 12,000 clipart graphics, 1,500 photos and 300 animations and sound clips as well as online support. Publisher 98 is sold by itself and is also packaged as part of the Office 97 Small Business Edition.

Tip of the Week

Run that by me again

Do you find yourself searching for the same types of files over and over again? If so, you can make life simpler by saving search sets to your desktop. Let's for example, say you constantly search for sound files with .mid or .wav extensions. Normally, you'd do one of two things, either locate Find on the Start Menu, click on Files or Folders, type *.mid or *.wav into the Files Named: box, then click on Search. Alternately, in an open Windows Explorer Window, you'd click on the Tools menu, then on Find, then on Files or Folders and so on.

Here's the simpler way. You'll still have to follow the old method one more time, but this time, when you've finished the search, click on the File Menu, then Save Search. A serach icon, complete with the parameters you've chosen, will appear on your desktop. Now all you have to do is double-click (or single-click if you're using the Web view desktop in IE4) on the desktop icon and the search will start.

Back to top

Copyright Notice

This document, and all other articles found within the White Pages Web site, are protected by international copyright. All rights are reserved. You may download items for your personal use. You may place a link to the White Pages at your own web site. However, you may not post the articles at your web site, make paper or digital copies for your friends or your class, or quote any part of these documents in any medium whatsoever for any reason unless you ask me first. Okay?

Back to top