Please Help!

The templates and wizards are an enormous help for the unimaginative. The church
secretary that has to put together a bulletin, order of service, prayer lists,
newsletters and so on, Publisher is the right application. A lot of
organizations I have had anything to do with have Publisher, but the folks who
do the actual creation work are not hired for their design skills, the job
description only asks for experience in using the product.
Folks come to this forum for help and a nudge in the right direction, to
denigrate the poster serves no purpose.

--
Mary Sauer MSFT MVP
http://office.microsoft.com/
http://msauer.mvps.org/
news://msnews.microsoft.com

"Mike Hall (MS-MVP)" wrote in message
...
Ron

Wizards for labels, envelopes etc are a good thing.. if I want a calendar, I
go out and buy one.. but printed envelopes. labels etc are not available from
my local stationery store..

I do agree that earlier Publishers were a mass of wizards, and it was
difficult to 'freehand' a job.. this is why I used PagePlus up to version 6..
while wizards were available latterly, they could be turned off.. having said
that, a wizard was useful for starting a document sometimes.. one could then
tinker around with the results..

These days, people expect to start Publisher and find a wizard that will
instantly produce a Church social newsletter that includes details a chess
tournament against Boris Spassky to be held next Saturday.. 'easy to use'
flashes on the packaging get translated into 'requires no effort'..

Publisher will eventually be seen as the decent DTP that it truly is, but only
after the generations that remembered Pub 95/97 are long gone..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User


"drc023" wrote in message
...
You've just hit on my main hot button about Publisher. Even back in the olden
days when I was one of the MVP's (along with Mike B. and Brian K.) I was
fussing at MS over the emphasis they put on leading new users to think the
only way to create a document was to use a template or wizard - a.k.a.
Paint-by-Numbers DTP. IMNSHO, the only wizard of any value is for making
calendars and even the ones in the newer versions are inferior to what was in
Pub97.
Warning - Rant On:
Example of what is so ridiculous about some of the questions posed here -
"How can I print only one label on a sheet?" Good grief - How much trouble is
it to make a small text frame for the data and position it where desired on
an 8.5 x 11 page? Answer - None at all if you don't use a wizard or template.
Same goes for envelopes, business cards, any other kinds of fold over cards
and anything else needing to be created. Wizards and the obsession over not
having templates to do even the most elementary of tasks is one of the main
reasons Publisher suffers from an incorrect perception of being an amateur,
entry level program. If people would take a few minutes and actually put a
little effort into creating something on their own, they would be surprised
how easy it is to do.
Rant Off:
--
Ron

"JoAnn Paules [MVP]" wrote in message
.. .
That's an excellent question. If Help doesn't help, then I Google. I post
after I've expended all of the tricks up my sleeve.

Why is creating something from scratch only considered after finding out
that the available templates are seen all over the place? I am getting ready
to create a national seminar handbook. I have the handbooks for the last six
year. One of them was DEFINITELY created with Publisher. She used the Blends
theme. There are some positive features to this handbook but the first thing
I saw was the distinctive look.

For the record, I'm going to use Publisher (of course!) but I am NOT using a
template. I'm starting with blank pages. :-)

--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]



"Chuck Davis" newsgroup at anthemwebs dot com wrote in message
...
I usually try to find an answer using help. When I do, I reply: "Help
returned the following: paste here" Never a response, but you know they got
the message. Why is "help" such an ignored 4-letter word?
"JoAnn Paules [MVP]" wrote in message
...
1. With a template.
2. With a template.
3. With a template.
4. With a template and flowers.
5. With a template and a flashlight.


--

JoAnn Paules
MVP Microsoft [Publisher]