Some favorite Publisher shortcuts from Crabby

When you're creating posters, greeting cards, catalogs, brochures, branded marketing materials, or, say, cool name badges, there's only one way to go: Publisher. It was made for these sorts of jobs. However, today's post is NOT about creating kids' badges; there are 100 million templates available for Office programs (well maybe not THAT many), and I'm pretty sure you can figure it out. Nope, the whole block-party-name-badge thing just reminded me of a few my of my MOST favorite tips in Publisher.

Simple and effective: Keyboard shortcuts

If you want to toggle between pages in your publication, sure, you can use your mouse to click the page tabs at the bottom of the window. However, if you have many pages in the publication, there is a faster and easier way:

Prior to Publisher 2010   Press F5 and a Go To Page dialog pops up. Type in the page number and hit Enter. If you don't know the page number and you want to move between various pages, Ctrl + Page Up goes to the previous page, and Ctrl + Page Down goes to the next page.

Publisher 2010   There ARE no little tabs at the bottom anymore! There is this new Page navigation pane where you can choose between seeing a single page or a two-page spread of your publication. You click on the page in the Page navigation pane that you want to go to. Easy-peasy. (Note: You CAN still use the the Page Up and Page Down technique for Publisher 2010, too.)

(I hate to say it but once you've used Publisher 2010 and the Nav Pane, that little tip I just gave you, as neat as it is for earlier versions, just doesn't cut it anymore.)

Here are some more useful keyboard shortcuts for Publisher.

Not to be outdone by PowerPoint: Master pages

Master pages in Publisher are like slide masters in PowerPoint: When you create a new publication that has more than one page, and you want those pages to look consistent, you create a master page.

The master page contains the design elements that you want to repeat on multiple pages (thereby avoiding that panicked feeling of running out of time because you have to change all 135 pages of a brochure on the whim of your client who decides to swap a picture that appears throughout). When you need to change the look of your publication (or just add an element), instead of having to do that on each and every page, you can update the master page.

Yes, the master page is the feature for the control freak inside all of us. Master pages can contain a variety of design and layout elements, such as headers and footers, page dimensions, pictures, margins, and just about anything you can put on a page. You can also create more than one master page. If you have a catalog that has the same elements on the front and back covers but want the pages inside to look different from the covers, you can create two masters—one for the covers and one for the inside pages.

Read more about how to create, edit, or delete a master page.

Shhh! Here's a tip: Use the library

I love the smell of old books—it makes me feel comfortable and cozy. And the thought of librarians tamps down my naturally loud voice.

Let's talk about the Content Library in Publisher 2007. When you create branding for your business, you can store it and use it again in subsequent publications. If you create logos, lists of services, success stories, maps to a business location, testimonials, and pictures that you plan to reuse in your future publications, add these items to the Content Library.

Read more about the Content Library.

Building Blocks

In Publisher 2010 the Content Library has been replaced with Building Blocks. The idea is almost exactly the same: Building blocks are reusable pieces of content (logos, headings, advertisements) that are stored in galleries that you can access and reuse anytime. You can also create and save your own building blocks, categorize, write a description, and tag them with keywords to make them easy to find.

Read more about Building Blocks in Publisher 2010

And one more that one of the Publisher gurus around here simply LOVES for Publisher 2010: Printing in the Backstage view. Bob says, "A change in 2010 that I really love is that not only can Pub users now change the print configuration and immediately see the Preview of the change, but when trying to line up double-sided print jobs they can use the Transparency Slider to make the Preview Pane act as a light table for ensuring that both sides have the correct orientation and that the layouts line up correctly."

Nice one, Bob.

"Sweep first before your own door, before you sweep the doorsteps of your neighbors." — Swedish Proverb

— Crabby