Earlier this month I posted parodies of famous authors, Tom Clancy and then Raymond Chandler, writing Help for Publisher and asked what other authors you'd like to see writing Help. KarinH suggested Hemingway, Marquez, and Sedaris. Here's my version of Gabriel Garcia Marquez writing Help...

So far I've published three parodies of famous authors writing Publisher Help articles:

• Tom Clancy
• Raymond Chandler
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I really enjoy doing these, and you all seem to enjoy them also, based on page views and comments. So today I'm polling you to pick my next author. This poll will be open for the next week and then I'll announce the "winning" author! And as always, please feel free to log in and suggest authors in the comments if you've got an idea that is not one of the poll selections.

The cropping tool got a significant upgrade in Publisher 2010 with the ability to pan your image inside the crop window. First, a couple of definitions to be sure that I'm being clear:

• Crop: To trim vertical or horizontal edges of an object. Pictures are often cropped to focus attention on a particular area.
• Pan: To move the image around in the cropping window. This helps you to focus the attention on a particular area by moving the image.

Let me show you how this can work to help you get the most from your images.

This month's Publisher web roundup includes a Web cast on creating marketing materials, a short review of the history of Publisher, tips for creating greeting cards and to use and configure the "nudge" distance, and a set of brochure, flyer and newsletter templates.

 As always, if you know of a great Publisher tip, story, or post that we didn't list here, please post a comment below.

Information is often much easier for readers to consume when it's in a table--no, not restaurant tables--tabular rows and columns. For example, check out how much easier this list of products and prices is to follow when it's in a simple table. First the list:

Rhododendron: $15/foot; Vine Maple: $5/foot; Japanese Maple: $10/foot; Dogwood (white): $12/foot; Dogwood (pink): $15/foot; Sub-Alpine Fir: $18/foot; Deodara Cedar: $20/foot.

And now the same information in a simple table: 

At the beginning of the month I asked you in a poll what author you'd like to see next in my  "Famous Authors Write Help" series. William Shakespeare was the winner with 42% of the vote, with Dorothy Parker and Ernest Hemingway each getting 17%.

Other posts in the Famous Authors Write Help series:

Tom Clancy
Raymond Chandler
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Now, here's my take on Will Shakespeare writing Help for catalog merge.

I've now written four parodies of famous authors writting Publisher Help articles:

• Tom Clancy
• Raymond Chandler
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• William Shakespeare

The Marquez and Shakespeare parodies are in response to reader suggestions, Shakespeare was the winner of a poll where Hemingway and Parker tied for second. These parodies are challenging and a lot of fun to write so I'm asking you all again to let me know what famous writer you'd most like to write a Publisher Help article.  This poll will be open for the next week and then I'll announce the "winning" author! And as always, please feel free to log in and suggest authors in the comments if you've got an idea that is not one of the poll selections.

Back in May I posted about using the Pack and Go wizard for professional printing. In that post I didn't talk about the option to just create a PDF. These days commercial printers really prefer that you just send them a PDF, rather than the .PUB file and associated graphics and fonts. I called several commercial printers in Seattle and asked them what their preferred digital format was and they all said that while they can use .PUB files there are sometimes issues with layout and fonts that can be avoided by saving your publication as a PDF and sending them that.

Over at the Microsoft Publisher Facebook page, they've asked readers to comment on which Publisher template is the best. I urge you to go over and comment on your favorite Publisher templates, why you like them, and how you use them, as well as maybe what templates you want that you can't find.

Or of course, you could sign in and leave those comments here; that would work, too.

-- Bob deLaubenfels

Well, Microsoft Publisher is a great tool for small businesses, community groups, and families who want to create publications without investing a lot of time and money in buying, learning, and supporting heavy-weight desktop publishing applications. With Publisher you can create things as simple as greeting cards or labels, or as complex as yearbooks or catalogs.

Publisher has the tools you need so that you can layout, crop, and format images in your publication. You can layout your text and make it flow around images, from text-box to text-box, and with Publisher 2010 you can use some exciting typographic fonts to really make your publication sing, but more on that in a post later this month.

So, how can you get started learning about Publisher?