Back in April I wrote a short post about adding watermarks to photos with publisher. This three and half minute video shows you how to create and save a copyright watermark to use to copyright images.

-- Bob deLaubenfels

Publisher and HP's cloud publishing site MagCloud are partnering to make using Publisher with MagCloud an easy solution to create, print, and distribute your publications. This video walks you through the process for creating a catalog in Publisher 2010 to MagCloud's specifications and then uploading the catalog to MagCloud for distribution though printing and shipping, and through free digital downloads.

Last month I posted a piece by Jeff Bell, the former Group Program Manager for Publisher and Text Services, talking about the reasons for taking out the new Web page creation functionality in Publisher 2010. You can find this article here: Where is web site authoring in Publisher 2010? But hyperlinks are still available and can be used for your e-mail publications.

Welcome to the Microsoft Publisher blog! On this blog we'll deliver:

• Tips and tricks for getting the most out of Microsoft Publisher, like using the new font typography features in Publisher 2010 or creating/updating calendars.
• The thinking behind some of the development team's decisions, such as the decision to disable some of the Web publishing features.
• Rapid responses on issues and scenarios that you bring to our attention.
• The best Publisher-related writing from around the Web.
• And more as it occurs to us, and as you request it...

I'm back from dropping my son off at college and thought it was a good time to roundup Publisher stories and tips from around the Web, giving you a look into articles on troubleshooting, some tips and tricks for creating great looking publications, and some quick reference cards available through Amazon.com. Be sure to look for my next roundup next month, too.

The addition of shape and picture effects was a big part in Publisher's goal to make it quicker and easier to create better looking publications. Amani Ahmed Dye is the program manager who worked on bringing in these effects. Today, she'll share the outcome of that work and how you can start taking advantage of these new features.

 Scenario-Focused Engineering is how we are approaching designing the next version of Office. The goal is to make the experience of using Office revolve around what you, our customers, do with the applications; to do our best to design through your eyes. This extends right down to writing Help; we plan to deliver scenario-based Help in the next version of Office.

In thinking about this, I wondered what kind of scenario writing most appeals to people using Publisher and Office generally. In the past we've tended to use scenarios in writing fairly technical IT deployment Help, such as these business intelligence scenarios, or these SharePoint 2003 scenarios, or roadmap articles like this one for SharePoint 2007 that wraps a set of articles into a coherent organization. For the Information Worker audience we've produced some scenario-based videos, such as the Office Intervention series. And I've put together a roadmap style article on manipulating images in Publisher 2010, but we haven't had a consistent philosophy about scenarios and Help.

So, my question to you is, what do you want from scenario-based Help?

Creating and modifying pages with many rich graphical elements, such as photos, has always been something Publisher is great at. In the new Office, we did a lot of work to make working with pictures even easier, and help you keep all the photos you’re working with organized from start to finish, making it easier to get the exact page layout you want.