Chapter 2
Refining a Publication
IN THIS CHAPTER
Entering and editing text
Making text fit in frames
Wrapping text around frames and graphics
Putting graphics in a publication
This chapter picks up where the previous chapter left off. In Chapter 1 of this minibook, you discover how to create a publication, find your way around the screen, and use the different guides. In this chapter, you explore how to make a publication your own. This chapter offers speed techniques for entering and editing text. It explains how to handle frames, make text “flow” from frame to frame, and put graphics and other kinds of art in a publication. Bon voyage!
Entering Text on the Pages
The placeholder text that appears in publication designs has to go, of course. One of your first tasks is to replace the placeholder text with your own words. If you’re putting together a sign or greeting card, you have only a handful of words to write, and you can write them in Publisher. But if you’re working on a story (story is Publisher’s term for an article that reaches across several text frames), the easiest way to handle the text is to write it in Word and import it.
If you have to replace more than two dozen words, follow these steps to replace the placeholder text in a text frame with text from a Word document:
In Word, write the text and save the text in a file.
You can call on all the Word commands to edit the text. Book 2 covers Word.
In Publisher, click in the placeholder text, go to the Home tab, click the Styles button, and note on the Styles drop-down list which style has been assigned to the placeholder text.
You can tell which style has been assigned to the text because it is selected on the Styles drop-down list. In Step 6, you assign the style that is currently applied to the text to the replacement text you insert into the text frame.
- If necessary, press Ctrl+A to select the text in the story.
On the Insert tab, click the Insert File button.
You see the Insert Text dialog box. You can also open this dialog box by right-clicking and choosing Change Text ⇒ Text File.
Select the Word file with the replacement text and click the OK button.
Replacement text from the Word file “flows” into the text frame or frames. If the replacement text doesn’t fit in the text frames allotted to the story, you see the Autoflow dialog box. You can click the Yes button to tell Publisher to flow the text into different text frames in the publication, but I recommend clicking No in the Autoflow dialog box. Later in this chapter, “Making text flow from frame to frame” explains how to decide on your own where to put overflow text from a story.
The replacement text maintains the styles assigned to it in the Word document. In the next step, you reassign a style to the text.Press Ctrl+A to select the text in the story, go to the Home tab, click the Styles button, and choose the style that was assigned to the placeholder text.
In Step 2, you noted which style this was.
Making Text Fit in Text Frames
When text doesn’t fit in a text frame, red selection handles appear around the frame, and if the text frame holds a story, the Text in Overflow icon appears in the lower-right corner of the text frame, as shown in Figure 2-1. When you see this icon and the red selection handles, it means that you must make decisions about how to fit stray text into text frames. You can either fit the text into an existing frame, or, if you’re dealing with a story, flow the text to other frames. These pages explain strategies for handling text that doesn’t fit in text frames.
FIGURE 2-1: “Flowing” text from frame to frame.
Fitting overflow text in a single frame
To fit a heading or paragraph into a single text frame, try one of these techniques:
- Shrink the text automatically: On the (Text Box Tools) Format tab, click the Text Fit button and choose Shrink Text On Overflow on the drop-down list. This command shrinks the point size of text so that all text fits in the frame. Sometimes, however, shrinking the text this way makes the heading or paragraph hard to read.
- Edit the text: Snip out a word or sentence here and there to make the text fit. Have you ever wondered why magazine articles always fill the page and never end in the middle? That’s because skillful editors and typesetters remove and add words here and there to make the story fit the page.
- Make the text frame larger: Click the frame to display the selection handles; then, drag a handle.
- Make the text frame margins smaller: Like a page, text frames have internal margins to keep text from getting too close to the frame border. To shrink these margins and make more room for text, go to the (Text Box Tools) Format tab, click the Margins button, and choose Narrow on the drop-down list. You can also choose Custom Margins, and on the Text Box tab of the Format Text Box dialog box, enter smaller measurements for the text box margins.
Making text flow from frame to frame
As shown in Figure 2-1, the Text in Overflow icon and red selection handles appear when story text overflows a text frame. How do you flow story text from frame to frame and handle a story that is spread across several frames? Better keep reading.
Flowing text to another frame
If necessary, create a new text box for the overflow text and follow these steps to direct text from one frame to another in your publication:
Select the text frame with overflowing text.
You can tell when text is overflowing because the Text in Overflow icon appears in the lower-right corner of the frame (refer to Figure 2-1).
On the (Text Box) Format tab, click the Create Link button.
The pointer turns into an overflowing pitcher (or is that a beer stein?) after you click the button.
Move the pointer over the box that you want the text to flow into.
You may have to click a page navigation button to go to another page.
- Click in the target text box to make the text flow there.
Handling text frames in a story
As I mention earlier, text frames that are linked are known as a story in Publisher-speak. Here are techniques for handling text frames that are linked in a story:
- Going from text frame to text frame: On the (Text Box Tools) Format tab, click the Next or Previous button to go from frame to frame. You can also select a text frame and click its Go to Next Text Box or Go to Previous Text Box icon.
- Selecting the text in all the text frames: Press Ctrl+A; or go to the Home tab, click the Select button, and choose Select All Text in Text Box on the drop-down list.
- Breaking the link between frames: Select the frame that you want to be the last one in the chain, and on the (Text Box Tools) Format tab, click the Break button.
In a crowded publication, you can easily overlook a text frame with overflowing text. To find these text frames, go to the File tab, and on the Info page, click the Run Design Checker button. Then, in the Design Checker task pane, look for “Story with Text in Overflow Area.”
Filling out a text frame
The opposite of an overflow problem is a text frame with too much blank space. Here are some techniques for handling semivacant text frames:
- Use the Best Fit option: On the (Text Box Tools) Format tab, click the Text Fit button and choose Best Fit on the drop-down list. This command enlarges the text so that it fills the frame. Sometimes, however, the command makes text too big.
- Edit the text: Add a word or sentence here or there. In the case of headings, write a subheading as well.
- Insert a graphic, page part, or advertisement: Placing a small graphic, page part, or advertisement on the page makes the page livelier and fills the dead space. Chapter 3 of this minibook explains techniques for decorating dead space on pages.
Formatting Text
Use these techniques to format the text in a publication:
- Home tab font and paragraph commands: The commands on the Home tab for changing the look of text and paragraphs are nearly identical to the Home tab commands in Word and PowerPoint. Book 1, Chapter 2 explains these commands.
- Styles: Select text, and on the Home tab, click the Styles button and choose a style on the drop-down list to format text. Each template comes with many different styles. Beware, however, because you can get lost on the Style drop-down list. Be prepared to click the Undo button often as you experiment with styles.
Making Text Wrap around a Frame or Graphic
Wrap text around a frame, an image, a picture, or a WordArt image and you get a very elegant layout. Figure 2-2 shows text that has been wrapped around an image. Looks nice, doesn’t it? Wrapping text may be the easiest way to impress innocent bystanders with your layout prowess. As Figure 2-2 shows, text wrapped tightly follows the contours of the picture, whereas text wrapped squarely runs flush with the picture’s frame.
FIGURE 2-2: Text wrapped tightly (left) and squarely (right).
Here are shorthand instructions for wrapping text:
Select the item that text is to wrap around.
In Figure 2-2, you would select the image.
On the Format tab, click the Wrap Text button and choose a wrapping option on the drop-down list.
For Figure 2-2, I chose Tight for the picture on the left and Square for the picture on the right.
The Wrap Text commands are identical in Word and Publisher. Book 2, Chapter 6 (about wrapping objects in Word) explains the wrapping commands in detail.
Replacing the Placeholder Pictures
As you must have noticed by now, publication designs are littered with generic pictures and graphics. Besides writing your own words where the placeholder ones are, replace the generic pictures with pictures of your own. Well, do it if you please. You are welcome to pass off the generic pictures as your own. I won’t tell anybody.
Follow these steps to put a picture of your own where a placeholder picture is now:
Click the placeholder picture to select it.
You can also select a picture by clicking its name in the Graphics Manager. To use the Graphics Manager, go to the View tab and select the Graphics Manager check box. The Graphics Manager opens on the right side of the screen.On the (Picture Tools) Format tab, click the Change Picture button and choose Change Picture on the drop-down list.
The Insert Pictures dialog box appears.
Select a picture and click the Insert button.
Book 8, Chapter 3 describes the Insert Pictures dialog box and how to handle graphics in all the Office programs. You’ll be delighted to discover that graphics are handled the same way, no matter which program you’re toiling in.
You can postpone choosing a picture to replace a placeholder picture. Right-click the picture in question and choose Change Picture ⇒ Remove Picture on the drop-down list. Publisher places a picture icon in the frame to remind you to insert a picture later on. You can click this picture icon to open the Insert Pictures dialog box.
Inserting Frames on the Pages
Publications are made of frames — text box frames, table frames, picture frames, or clip art frames. Nothing appears on the pages of a publication unless it appears within the confines of a frame. These pages explain everything you need to know about frames. You can find out how to insert a new frame, adjust the size of a frame, align frames, and place borders around frames. You can also see how to make frames and the words or images inside them overlap.
Inserting a new frame
How you insert a new frame depends on what you want to insert: a text box, table, picture, clip-art image, or WordArt image. Start by clicking the page roughly where you want the frame to go. Then insert the new frame by using the techniques described here. (See “Making Text Wrap around a Frame or Graphic,” earlier in this chapter, for information about wrapping text around a frame. See “Changing the size and position of frames,” later in this chapter, to find out how to change a frame’s shape.)
To delete a frame, all you have to do is select it and press the Delete key or right-click and choose Delete Object. You can tell when a frame is selected because selection handles appear on the corners and sides.
Inserting a text-box frame
To insert a text-box frame, go to the Insert or Home tab and click the Draw Text Box button. Then click the page and drag to create the text box. Book 8, Chapter 4 explains how to change the background color and border of a text box.
Inserting a table
To insert a table, go to the Insert or Home tab and use one of these techniques:
- Click the Table button and move the pointer in the drop-down list to the number of columns and rows you want, click, and let go of the mouse button.
- Click the Table button and choose Insert Table on the drop-down list. The Create Table dialog box appears. Enter the number of rows and columns you want and click OK.
Inserting a picture
Follow these steps to insert a picture:
On the Insert tab, click the Picture Placeholder button.
A picture placeholder frame appears.
As best you can, make the frame the size you want your picture to be.
The next section in this chapter, “Changing the size and position of frames,” describes how to do this.
Click the picture icon in the placeholder frame.
You see the Insert Pictures dialog box.
Select a picture and click the Insert button.
Book 8, Chapter 3 explains all there is to know about the Insert Pictures dialog box.
- On the (Picture Tools) Format tab, click the Fit button to make a picture that is too large for the frame fit inside the frame, or click the Fill button to make a picture that is too small for the frame fill the frame.
Changing the size and position of frames
After you click a frame and see the selection handles, you’re ready to change the size of the frame or adjust its position on the page. Use these standard techniques for resizing and moving frames:
- Changing the size of a frame: Move the pointer over a selection handle and start dragging. If you’re dealing with anything but a text frame, be careful about dragging a selection handle on the side of the frame. Dragging a side handle changes the frame's size as well as its proportions. Images can blur or become distorted when you change their proportions.
- Changing the position of a frame: Move the pointer onto the frame (or the perimeter of a frame, if you’re dealing with a text box), and click and drag when you see the four-headed arrow. To move more than one frame simultaneously, Ctrl+click the frames you want to move.
As explain in Chapter 1 of this minibook, frames snap to the grid as you move them, but you can hold down the Alt key as you drag to adjust frames with precision. You can also press an arrow key to move them ever so slightly.
Making Frames Overlap
When frames overlap, you have to tell Publisher which frame goes in front of the other. And you are hereby invited to overlap frames because overlapping frames are artful and look good on the page. Figure 2-3 shows a portion of a newsletter. If you look closely, you can see where frames overlap in the figure. Overlapping frames like these make for a sophisticated layout.
FIGURE 2-3: Examples of overlapping frames.
Making frames overlap like the ones in Figure 2-3 requires a delicate balancing act using these commands:
- Text wrapping: On the Format tab, click the Wrap Text button and choose None on the drop-down list.
- Fill Color: For frames and objects on the bottom of the stack to show through, the frames and objects above them cannot have a fill color that would obscure other objects. To remove the fill color, select the object, and on the Format tab, open the drop-down list on the Shape Fill button and choose No Fill.
- Object and frame order: To tell Publisher which object goes where in the stack, go to the Format tab and click the Bring Forward or Send Backward button as necessary. Book 8, Chapter 4 explains all the techniques for handling overlapping objects.
Inserting, Removing, and Moving Pages
Suppose that you have too many pages or you need to add a page or two. On the Pages pane (select the Page Navigation check box on the View tab), click a thumbnail to select the page where you want to insert, remove, or move pages. Then follow these instructions:
- Inserting a new page: On the Insert tab, click the Page button and choose an option on the drop-down list:
- Insert Blank Page: Inserts an empty page.
- Insert Duplicate Page: Inserts a page identical to the thumbnail page you selected.
- Insert Page: Opens the Insert Pages dialog box, shown in Figure 2-4, where you can enter the number of pages you want to insert and click the More button to put the new pages before or after the page you selected. You can also tell Publisher what to put on the new page or pages.
- Removing a page: On the Page Design tab, click the Delete button. You can also right-click a page thumbnail and choose Delete.
- Moving a page: On the Page Design tab, click the Move button. Give instructions for moving the page in the Move Page dialog box and click OK.
FIGURE 2-4: Inserting a new page.