Creating professional-looking publications has always been a task that was left to design specialists. Microsoft® Publisher allows you to easily and accurately create a wide range of professional-looking publications. It is possible to create almost anything that you can think up using Publisher's tools. People frequently use Publisher to create brochures, printing labels, business cards, certificates, and flyers. Publisher comes with templates for each of these types of documents, and thousands of other designs are available online.

Now that you have created a publication, you will want to include different types of content. Microsoft® Publisher gives you the flexibility to use different types of content, such as text and graphics, together in a publication. Whether you start from scratch or from a template, you will need to include additional items to finish your project. Being able to add various kinds of content will help you effectively create powerful, professional publications.

You have created the basic elements of your publication's design. Formatting text to improve readability and make it more attractive is the next step in creating professional publications. Publications with many pages of text can seem monotonous and lead to readers losing interest and focus. The use of attractive formatting can make a big publication more pleasing and effective. Proper use of colors and fonts helps attract and retain a reader's attention.

You have formatted the text in your publication and applied color and font schemes. While designing a publication there may be times when you need to add, delete, or modify your text. Getting the text correct, well organized, and free of errors will be a major part of your effort in creating a professional publication. If your text is misleading, incomplete, or confusing, your publication and your organization will lose credibility. Microsoft® Publisher provides a number of options to help you create error-free publications.

Your publication contains all of the required textual information. Pictures and other graphic objects can complement and reinforce the text to make the message of your publication more powerful and effective.

Now that your publication is finished, you want to share it with the world. Before you share the publication with everyone, there are a few final steps that you must take to make sure that the publication you worked so hard on will get to your audience exactly as you designed it. The effort that you put into this publication can be wasted if it goes out with design errors. To avoid this, you will want to make sure that it gets a thorough review so that any problems get fixed before it is printed or published. Since your audience may use your publication in many different ways, you will also need to make sure that you save the file in a format that they can access. Microsoft® Publisher provides many tools to prepare and share an error-free publication with your readers.

You'll wrap things up and then validate what you've learned in this course by taking an assessment.