Hello my friends;

Jimmy Krug - coming at you once again... as I promised, with a special edition of "The Jimmy
Krug Report."  Today, I'm going to walk you through making your very first booklet using
Microsoft Publisher.  As I've said before, Publisher can do a lot more things than people give it
credit for.  I say that as an experienced Graphic Designer - having designed pieces for some of
the largest companies in America for what seems like "eons," now.

I've even "cheated" and used Microsoft Publisher myself to produce a variety of pieces over the
years.  Now granted, MS Pub isn't exactly what you'd call "high-end" desktop publishing
software.  Myself, I prefer CorelVentura.  But, unless you intend on spending months (or possible
YEARS) mastering the expensive programs, I'd strongly suggest MS Pub as a perfectly
acceptable location to pitch your desktop publishing tent.

Our goal is to produce a quality publication.  In short... a simple booklet.  I guarantee you, MS
Pub is more than adequate for accomplishing the task.  

We're not going to be dealing with covers today.  Just the "guts" of our publication.  With a
booklet, we'll be creating our layout in "signatures" of four.  There will be two pages on each
side of our 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper.  By turning a sheet of paper sideways... and folding it in half
(from left to right) you're left with four panels.  Two on one side, two on the other.  That's why
all of our booklets will have 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32 pages, etc.  

Add a cover the equation and most people wind up getting too confused.  It's better to create the
cover in a separate file.  Besides, you have to change the paper when printing your cover anyway. 
It's just makes more sense to keep the cover separate from the rest of your publication.


GETTING STARTED WITH MICROSOFT PUBLISHER

*Special Note:
Okay, my friend Boris aside, I feel pretty comfortable assuming that everyone who actually HAS
MSPUB installed on their computers... are also capable of opening the program and doing so
without any "blow-by-blow" instructions.  For those of you who don't know Boris personally,
please don't be offended by the above "dig."  The "B-Man" and I have exchanged these kinds of
pleasantries with alarming regularity for the past 20 years...

Okay, here we go.

STEP ONE:
Upon opening MSPUB, you'll find yourself at the Microsoft Publisher Catalog screen.  I'm
personally using the 2000 version of the product.  On this screen you'll find 3 tabs.  They're
labeled as follow -
TAB 1 - "Publications by Wizard
TAB 2 - "Publications by Design
TAB 3 - "Blank Publications"

Left-click on TAB 3 - "Blank Publications."  You'll now see the Blank Publications window
opened with the FULL PAGE option highlighted by default.  For our project, we're going to
choose BOOK FOLD. 

BOOK FOLD is located to the lower right of the FULL PAGE option.  Highlight BOOK FOLD
and left click on the CREATE button located in the lower right corner of the screen.

STEP TWO: 
A small window will open which contains the following text;
"Automatically insert pages?  This publication layout prints pages in groups of 4.  You have 1
page in your publication now.  Click Yes to automatically insert 3 pages.  Click No to continue
without inserting pages.  For information on printing booklets, press F1 now."

Simply click the "YES" button and proceed.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
At this point, I prefer to close the "Wizard Window" located on the left side of the screen.  It's up
to you, of course.  To do so, click upon the "Hide Wizard" button located directly beneath the
Wizard Window.  Also, you'll notice a group of (4) small page icons - also located at the bottom,
lower left corner.  Right now, Icon 1 is highlighted in black.  This simply indicates that we're
currently viewing PAGE 1 on our screens.

Pay special attention to the mini "fold" on the upper right-hand corner of the small icon.  Do you
see it?  On the page two icon, the little fold is located on the UPPER LEFT-HAND side.

Here's the significance of this often overlooked fact.  New chapters ALWAYS begin on a
RIGHT-SIDE facing page.  Pick up any book on your shelf (professionally published) and you'll
see this.  A new chapter ALWAYS begins on the "right-hand" page.  This is important if you're
going to create chapters in your booklet.  The table of content pages also appear on a RIGHT-
HAND facing page.

The little folds on the icon's take the guesswork out of knowing which pages will appear on the
left and which pages will appear on the right with your finished product.  Sometimes it's
necessary to insert a BLANK page to achieve this object.  No problem.  The pro's do this all the
time.

STEP THREE:
How are you holding up, okay?  Relax, this should be fun.  Not grudging slavery.  You're on
your way to becoming a booklet publisher.  Enjoy it.  Most people will continue to exist within
the confines of 9 to 5.  You're taking steps to a better tomorrow and a better future.  Enjoy the
ride, as they say.

Now, let's take care of our page size.  For the sake of this example, we're going to create a "thin"
booklet that will fit inside a #10 envelope.  Now we're ready to change the page size and the
margins of our publication.  Bring your mouse pointer to the upper left corner of your screen and
left-click on the FILE drop-down menu.  The option you want to choose is "Page Setup..."

As you'll see, "Special Fold" has already been selected in the page setup menu for the overall
layout.  Book Fold has been chosen as well in the section beneath.  The two numbers we need to
be concerned with at this point are the HEIGHT AND WIDTH settings.

Set your width for 3.75 (3 3/4).  Set your height for 8.5 (8 ½ ).  Some people prefer printing their
booklets at 3 ½ inches.  Others, at an even 4 inches.  For design purposes as well mailing
purposes... I personally like 3 3/4 best of all.  Finally, under "Orientation," we're going to change
the page from "Portrait" to "Landscape."


STEP 4:  
Now we're ready to set our margins.  To do so, select Arrange from your file drop-down menus. 
The first option is Layout Guides...  Left-click on Layout Guides.  With the Layout Guides box
opened, we can choose the margins for our publication.  My personal preference is ½ or .50.

Here's what my setting would look like;

Inside: 0.5"
Outside: 0.5"
Top: 0.5"
Bottom: 0.5"

After you've adjusted the settings, click OK.

STEP 5:
Finally, we're ready to create our text frames.  The TEXT FRAME tool is located on the left side
of your screen - directly beneath the pointer tool.  You can identify the icon with the capital "A." 
Creating the text frame is as easy as clicking and dragging your box until the edges are even with
the half-inch borders.  If you don't size your box correctly on the first try, you can adjust the size
of your text box by clicking on the appropriate handle to resize the frame.

Personally, I've never found creating text within MS PUB a satisfying experience.  Instead, I
prefer to create the text within a WORD PROCESSOR such as MICROSOFT WORD.  From
there, I copy and paste the entire document to the clipboard.  Ctrl + A on your keyboard will do
the trick.

Then, you can click your insertion point within the first page of your MS PUB document... and
paste the contents of your clipboard.  Everything, in my experience, converts perfectly.  You keep
your original format and everything.

Also, Publisher will ask you if you'd like it to insert additional pages.  By clicking "YES" when
prompted, Publisher will create the pages, text frames... and insert your entire document
automatically.  What can beat that?  Afterward, you can insert black pages, add page numbers,
etc.  You can even add headers and footers if you'd like to.  Page numbers can be added by
creating little text frames beneath the main text frame.  Or, you can use the auto-page numbering
feature and insert page numbers that way.  

There are a variety of ways to do a particular task.  Experiment and find what works best for you.


PRINTING YOUR MASTERPIECE

Printing is no problem at all.  Even if you have a printer without duplexing (printing on both
sides) capabilities.  You may have to do a few tests before you get the hang of it.  With a basic
printer, you can print the odd pages first... turn over the document... and print the even pages last. 
Or, you could do it vica-versa.   Publisher will automatically arrange the pages for you, inserting
them where they belong.  

This feature alone is worth the price of admission.  When you're finished, you can fold and staple
your booklet and all of the pages will be in proper sequence.  It's truly a thing of beauty!  I
remember creating booklets back in the 1980's as a layout artist.  I used to have to paste the pages
onto layout boards back then.  Getting them in their proper order had to be done manually. 
Forget pressing a button.  There were no buttons to press!


CONCLUSION

In closing, I encourage you to take a step of faith in your own business.  Sure, no one wants to
fail.  But if you don't try... you've already failed.  With a little determination and resolve, you can
succeed in producing your own simple publications.  There's no need to invest a lot of money in
expensive software programs and equipment.  Start out with a simple computer and desktop
printer.  Your business can grow from there.

Well, that's all for now.  

Best wishes for your success...

- Jimmy Krug