What’s new in Office 2010: Publisher

If you are still using an older version of Publisher then you are really missing out. By now most of you have installed a copy of Office 2010 and if you were previously using Office XP or Office 2003 as many were then you are in for a real treat. Publisher 2007 introduced a lot of new things and 2010 builds on those. It is a really useful program to master for your flyers, spec sheets, invitations, and other business marketing materials.  I’m going to do is just post what’s brand new and then point to some quick and easy training courses at the end.

If you missed our other post on Office 2010 you can read them on our blog.

Here’s what brand new for Publisher:

Integrated print and preview experience - Print and Print Preview are integrated so that it is easier to get a more accurate view of what publications will look like when they are printed. This includes the ability to make print adjustments while viewing the effect of the changes in a large preview of their publication. You can view multiple pages at the same time, view page boundaries, page numbers, and sheet rulers while in print preview, and even view a simulation of a two-sided document as if it were held up to a light — to see the front and back at the same time, as the publication will look when printed. This is really handy stuff.

Save file as .pdf or .xps - Users can save files in the .pdf or .xps file format. No PDF writer required.

Improved picture technology - You can more easily work with pictures in their publications with the following picture technology improvements:

· Cropping   Rotate and resize pictures, crop them into non-rectangular shapes, and preview the images while keeping the picture in the desired size, shape, and location.

· Replacing pictures   Replace pictures by drag-and-drop, swap two pictures in a single operation, and paste pictures copied outside from Publisher into a placeholder in Publisher.

· Using picture placeholders   Maintain placeholder dimensions when a picture is inserted. For example, pictures either too small or too large for a placeholder are automatically resized.

· Add captions   Add captions to their pictures, choosing from a gallery of caption designs and layouts, and make changes easily.

Publisher is one of those applications that is better seen that described. So here are a few short training courses that will help you get going. These are for Publisher 2007, but since that was when the major changes happened in the application they will be useful for 2010 as well.

Get started designed professional publications (about 45 minutes)

All about handling objects, moving forward and back (5-10 minutes)

Everything you ever wanted to know about pictures (5-10 minutes)

Those last two items are help documents, not courses but you will find them very helpful and clear.