This browser does not support basic Web standards, preventing the display of our site's intended design. May we suggest that you upgrade your browser?

Microsoft Publisher 2003

Publisher Basics

Publisher is excellent for documents with complex formatting and/or multiple pages, such as newsletters, brochures, flyers, websites, resumes, reports, and handouts. The Publisher window contains many parts that work together to make creating a document easy.

This document concentrates on the fundamentals of using Publisher 2003. Basics such as opening Publisher, opening and closing files, creating new documents, saving, and exiting Publisher will be addressed. This document provides you with a foundation for building your Publisher skills.

return to topOpening Publisher

Opening Publisher may vary from the instructions below depending on the computer you are working on.

  1. From the Start menu, select All Programs » Microsoft Office » Microsoft Office Publisher 2003
    Publisher opens and the New Publication task pane appears, offering many pre-formatted designs to use in creating your publication.

return to topOpening an Existing Document

Once you have closed a document, you can always reopen it at a later time and make changes or additions. With Publisher open and running on your machine, complete the following steps:

  1. From the File menu, select Open...
    OR
    Press [Ctrl] + [O]
    The Open Publication dialog box appears.

  2. Using the Look in pull-down list, locate and select the file you want to open

  3. Click OPEN

return to topCreating a New Document

Publisher offers two options for creating a new document. The New Publication task pane provides pre-formatted designs and is very useful when you need to quickly create an attractive publication. For a more original look, you may want to start with a blank publication; however, this is more time consuming.

Creating a New Document: New from a Design

When you first open Publisher, the New Publication task pane offers many pre-formatted designs to use in creating your publication. At any other time while working in Publisher, you can access the New Publication task pane by following these directions:

  1. From the File menu, select New...
    OR
    Press [Ctrl] + [N]
    The New Publication task pane appears.

  2. From the New from a design section, select a category of designs
    The available publication types within that category are displayed beneath the category heading.

  3. Click a publication type
    Available designs appear in the main window.

  4. Click a design
    The selected design opens.
    NOTE: The Personal Information dialog box may appear, offering choices to assist you in completing your publication.

Creating a New Document: From a Blank Publication

  1. From the File menu, select New...
    OR
    Press [Ctrl] + [N]
    The New Publication task pane appears.

  2. In the New section, click BLANK PRINT PUBLICATION
    A blank publication appears.

return to topSaving a File Using Save As...

Publisher allows you to save your document as a Publisher 2003 publication or template, or it will save a copy of your publication to an earlier Publisher format. Saving a document in an earlier version allows you to share files with others with older versions of Publisher.

Saving for the First Time
Save As allows you to name the file. Do not panic if you choose the Save option instead of Save As when you are saving for the first time. Publisher will always generate a Save As dialog box if you are attempting to save an untitled document.

Saving under a New Name
If you want a copy of the file saved under a new name, use Save As to rename the file. The original-titled document will remain as it was after the last save. The new filename will appear in the title bar, and any subsequent changes will be saved only to the new file.

Saving as a Template
If you want to save your formatting for use in later publications, use Save As to save the file as a Publisher template. For more information on Publisher templates, refer to Using Templates.

Using Save As...

Use the Save As option to save a file for the first time or to save under a new name.

  1. From the File menu, select Save As...
    The Save As dialog box prompts you to name or rename your file.
    Save As dialog box

  2. Verify that the save location is correct

  3. In the File name text box, type the filename

  4. To save as a template or as a different version, from the Save as type pull-down list, select the file type

  5. Click SAVE
    The publication is saved.

Using Save

Use the Save option to save additional changes to a file that has been previously saved.

  1. From the File menu, select Save
    OR
    Press [Ctrl] + [S]
    The publication is saved.
    NOTE: Publisher will save all changes made since the last save. Once the file is saved, the last tool you were using will appear on the screen and you can continue working.

return to topClosing Documents and Exiting Publisher

When you are done working with your document and would like to close it, you have two options, depending on whether you want to continue using Publisher. If you are finished using Publisher for now, be sure to select the Exit command.

NOTE: If recent changes to the publication have not been saved, before you can close the file or exit Publisher, a dialog box will ask if you want to save changes to the document.

To close the saved publication and work on another publication:

  1. From the File menu, select Close
    OR
    Press [Ctrl] + [F4]
    The publication closes.

  2. In Publisher, open another publication or create a new publication

To close the saved publication and exit Publisher:

  1. From the File menu, select Exit
    If you have saved all recent changes to your document(s), Publisher closes.
    If you have not saved all recent changes to your document(s), a dialog box appears asking if you want to save changes to the document.

  2. To save the publication, click YES
    To close without saving, click NO
    Publisher closes.

Excellence. Our Measure. Our Motto. Our Goal.