Re: How can I design business cards w/ Micro Office ?

I can't say how useful Publisher is for other things since I've always used
Word but I got so frustrated with Word when trying to make business cards I
opened Publisher and couldn't believe how easy it was. You guys are passing
around a lot of good tips but if you just use Publisher, you don't need any
tips or tricks. It simply works - with the emphasis on SIMPLE.

"BruceM" <bamoob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uraqgzaTGHA.4900@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
That's a really useful idea to use bookmarks in that way. I found that
the graphic does need to be inline, and that Ctrl A, F9 is needed to
update the fields. Text added at the end of the last line of text will
not be updated (since it is outside of the bookmark) until all of the text
in the "active" cell is selected and the bookmark is inserted again.
As I said (in different words) in another post in this thread, Word has a
lot of useful and versatile features that tend to get buried under a layer
of simplistic automation. Critics of Word often lament a lack of features
that are in fact part of the program. Were it not for newsgroups I would
not know one fourth of what Word can do.
Thank you for posting where the conversation started. I use the full
Office Professional suite (not so much Power Point, though), and am always
glad for new ideas.

"Vincent Johns" <vjohns@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Ey3Uf.62157$dW3.30321@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Having used both Word and Publisher to generate publications, I think
both are useful, but that Word is a bit more versatile. (I think
Publisher does a better job of providing document-design help, offering
suggestions, etc., but its files are not easy to convert to Word format.)
Word offers a helpful alternative to Access Reports, by allowing one
greater freedom in displaying the contents of the Query underlying a
Report. You do need to express everything you want to show in your Word
document via a single Access Query, which you invoke using Word's "Mail
Merge" facility. But, for example, if your Query generates a mailing
list, you can print them in 3 columns on a page, which is not nearly as
easy in an Access Report.

Incidentally, concerning business cards, an easy way to set that up is to
create the table that BruceM described, put what you want into the
upper-left cell, define a Bookmark containing the cell's contents
(including graphics, if you wish), and then into each of the other cells
simply use a link to it. For example, suppose you call the Bookmark in
the first cell "BusinessCard". Then in each of the other cells on the
page, you insert a "{REF BusinessCard}" Field. Any editing changes that
you make to the upper-left card are reflected in the remaining cells on
the page. (You might need to use Control-A, F9 to update the REF fields
after making a change.) For this to work, the graphics may have to
remain in line with the text (= NOT in front, behind, etc.).

Or, you can save to disk an image of the card you want to print and
invoke that in all cells of the table. For example, if your card is in
file BusinessCard.bmp, you might fill each cell of the table with a
"{INCLUDEPICTURE \d BusinessCard.bmp \* MERGEFORMAT}" field, which would
link to the *.BMP file. If you were to edit the image, all the cards on
the page would change to match the revised version.

Or, you could combine these (maybe for an advertisement, rather than
business cards): use a linked image for the graphics and boilerplate
text, and a "Mail Merge" field for names or other output from an Access
Query.

Publisher may allow you to do some of this, but my recollection is that
it's not as easy as it is in Word.

-- Vincent Johns <vjohns@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Please feel free to quote anything I say here.


BruceM wrote:

Since we're getting a bit off-topic here I'll just add that when I
needed to create business cards in Word I ignored the wizard and the
templates that came with the card. Instead I created a 2 x 5 table, and
used custom Styles to format and position the text in one of the cells,
then I added the graphics in front of the text (or behind, but not
wrapped or inline) with the anchor locked to the paragraph mark below
the cell. Once that was done I copied and pasted into the other cells.
I don't remember if I needed to lock the anchors for all of the graphics
individually.
Once the layout was complete the client wanted some changes, which I
accomplished by modifying the Styles. Since the graphics were anchored
outside of the table I could select all of them at once and nudge them
with Ctrl + the arrow keys.
Nothing against Publisher. It may well be far superior for business
cards. However, Word is quite servicable for the project. Once cards
have been designed, a template based on the layout can speed future
designs.
Unfortunately, the best features of Word (such as Styles) are buried
behind layers of automation and misguided wizards. Word would be a much
better program if MS didn't assume that its users are incapable of
understanding or using the program.

"mnature" <mnature@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7FBEF0F9-DFCB-4A74-92AA-A406CC0EAEDE@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Thanks, Pat. I've been using Word because I always have, and Publisher
didn't exist when I first started using Office (is anyone else from the
Windows 3.0 era?). But now I need to spend several hours exploring
Publisher, and seeing what else I've been forcing Word to do that I
could do
quicker and easier in Publisher.

"Pat Hartman(MVP)" wrote:


You can do it with Word but word is a really poor tool for that
particular
task. It has a wizard that will generate a page full of business cards
but
there is no way that I have seen to modify the design except by
changing
each individual card??? I prefer Publisher if you have it. That is
what I
use and I really like it. It is quite flexible and comes with a lot of
good
basic designs. If you don't have Publisher, buy yourself a cheap out
of the
box solution (< $30) at Staples or CompUSA.

One hint. Print the first page of labels on plain paper. Hold the
plain
paper up to a strong light behind a page of your label stock to make
sure
that the labels align properly within any graphic elements of the label
stock.

"curly" <curly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EB882EB5-8625-47D8-BCF1-F486775D2735@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

New to Micro. Office setup . Trying to design business cards for my
tattoo
company that i am trying to start. How do i go about doing so ? I love
suggestions & coaching . I am at curly4all@xxxxxxx





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