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Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 builds on the successes in Publisher 2002 and expands it into a much better program.
New features:
- New mail merge engine
- Catalog Merge - allowing you to merge multiple items on one page, and to merge images into your documents from a database
... Read review
Office Publisher 2003is a desktop publishing package, designed to enable non-professionals ... more
to put together publications that look good. Typical uses are for greetings cards, newsletters, advertisements, invitations and leaflets. Part of the Office 2003...
Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Office Publisher 2003is a desktop publishing package, designed to enable non-professionals ... more
to put together publications that look good. Typical uses are for greetings cards, newsletters, advertisements, invitations and leaflets. Part of the Office 2003...
Postage & Packaging: Check Site. Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: Catalog Merge, VBA Enhancements, Interface, Commercial print, Document Imaging, many small enhancements Disadvantages: No built-in PDF, no free viewer
...a little.
Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 builds on the successes in Publisher 2002 and expands it into a much better program.
New features:
- New mail merge engine
- Catalog Merge - allowing you to merge multiple items on one page, and to merge images into your documents from a database
- VBA Enhanced - almost every command that is available from a menu in Publisher is available ... ...of the latest generation of Microsoft mice in Publisher.
- Empty picture frames have now been reintroduced
- Text box borders are thin lines once again, rather than thick hashed bands
- Baseline guides - You can align your text across multiple columns/text boxes to these guides, to give text a uniform appearance across columns.
- Online Help - Publisher Help is now able, with your permission, ... more
As I have had two comments asking for my personal experiences with this product, I have edited this review a little.
Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 builds on the successes in Publisher 2002 and expands it into a much better program.
New features: - New mail merge engine
- Catalog Merge - allowing you to merge multiple items on one page, and to merge images into your documents from a database
- VBA Enhanced - almost every command that is available from a menu in Publisher is available through the Object Model. In addition, many additional commands are revealed.
- Commercial Print tools improved vastly - Publisher can now output Composite CMYK for commercial print, in addition to Composite RGB, Greyscale, CMYK Seps and CMYK + Spot Colours. Publisher can now generate PostScript output suitable for taking to a commercial printer, although PDF is still only achievable by using a third-party printer driver.
- Save As Image improved - in Publisher 2002, you could only save as an image at screen resolution (96 or 72dpi). Publisher 2003 allows you to save images up to 300dpi, suitable for commercial print, in all major formats.
- Task Pane improved - many common dialogs have now been moved into the Task Pane, allowing you to use these functions without having a dialog covering you screen
- Find/Replace across a publication - the Find/Replace functionality is no longer limited to a single story
- Research task pane - You can now use all of the Research functionality offered by Office 2003 in Publisher, including the Thesaurus, translation dictionaries and other web services
- The Publisher Catalog that appears when you start Publisher has had a complete redesign to de-clutter the interface, make users aware of all the options that are available, and also to make it more useful.
- Maximum zoom increased - You can now zoom in to 800%. In addition, Magellan mouse technology is now supported, allowing you to use all the functionality of the latest generation of Microsoft mice in Publisher.
- Empty picture frames have now been reintroduced
- Text box borders are thin lines once again, rather than thick hashed bands
- Baseline guides - You can align your text across multiple columns/text boxes to these guides, to give text a uniform appearance across columns.
- Online Help - Publisher Help is now able, with your permission, to connect to Microsoft's Help servers to receive additional Help articles that weren't available when Publisher was released. If you aren't comfortable with this, you are able to turn it off very easily.
- Multiple Master Pages - All previous versions of Publisher only ever supported a single background/Master Page. Publisher 2003 allows as many Masters as you can handle, allowing different backgrounds on different pages (e.g. removing the header from the first page of a document/chapter, etc)
- Publisher 2003 reintroduces the ability to set default properties for text boxes within the current publication (although not between publications or for new publications)
- Publisher 2003 also sports Office 2003's new UI - although some may find it a little garish (it ties in with your Windows XP theme, if you have Windows XP SP1), and some users don't like the 3D effects on the toolbars, etc. I like it myself.
- Microsoft Office Document Imaging - Anyone with Office 2003 or any Office 2003 application (even if they don't have Publisher) has the ability to read and write Microsoft Office Document Images from any application using the Microsoft Office Document Imaging printer driver. This allows users to share files from uncommon applications with all users. It's hyped to be Microsoft's answer to PDF, but AFAIK there is no free viewer yet.
Existing great features: - WordArt, ClipArt and drawing tools are shared with Office, aiding the transition from other Office applications such as Word or PowerPoint
- Templates, as always, are in abundance - a great number have been added for Publisher 2003. Publisher is more template-based than other DTP applications, and is aimed at those who don't want to have to hire a pro designer to get great publications.
- Publisher is a page-oriented application, rather than a character-oriented application (like Word). Hence, you don't get the problems you do in Word where pictures and shapes move and jomp as you add text, as the objects are all anchored to the page rather than to places in the text.
- Publisher's interface is very similar to that of Word's, easing the transition. However, the interface is different in a number of ways, which make it far easier to accomplish tasks which are more often done in a DTP application.
- You can load add-ins written by third-party developers to add additional functionality to Publisher.
Not-so-good bits: - Publisher is still unable to generate PDFs without the help of an external program such as Adobe Acrobat or PDF995
- Publisher still has problems when printing semitransparency (especially gradients and PNGs with alpha layers)
- Publisher still cannot print larger than 48" in any direction without tile printing
- Tables still don't have formulae
- Defaults for new publications can only be set with an add-in
- It is still difficult to print less than a single sheet of labels when using label templates
- Publisher's web code (which I have not mentioned much as it is not a feature I use) still produces massive code.
My Experiences I used the beta of Publisher 2003 last year to create a school yearbook. I could have used the Catalog Merge to merge in the names, captions and photos, but as I had not managed to collect them and needed to start the design work, I decided I'd do that manually later. Publisher 2003 made it very easy for me to put in placeholders for articles and images so that content could be slotted in when it was ready. I designed the file in the RGB colour space (I hadn't worked out all of the new features at that point), but as I was preparing to go to print, I switched over to the CMYK colour space, and it was a quick and painless process. I outputted a CMYK Composite PS file and distilled it to a PDF file, which was happily accepted by my commercial printer who printed it perfectly.
I find the Publisher 2003 interface a joy to use (I can't remember how I managed before I could customize my toolbar and use VBA - which was only two versions ago). I am using a custom Windows XP skin, and unlike Publisher 2002, Publisher 2003 blends right into it.
Publisher 2003, like Publisher 2002 before it, requires activation online. This is a quick and painless process, despite the beliefs of most. A single copy of Publisher 2003 is licensed for installation on both a portable and desktop computer at the same time, provided that both are not in simultaneous usage. You may have to use the telephone option for activation for the second copy.
There is also a bundle available containing Publisher 2003 and Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9.
Although Microsoft provides no free support for Publisher 2003 apart from for installation issues, there is a good team of people at the Microsoft Publisher Community Newsgroup who are happy to answer any questions anyone may have about Publisher
System requirements for Publisher 2003 are: Computer and processor Publisher 2003: Personal computer with an Intel Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) or higher processor, Pentium III recommended
Publisher 2003 with Digital Imaging: Personal computer with an Intel Pentium 500-MHz or higher processor, Pentium III recommended 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or above recommended
Hard disk usage will vary depending on configuration; custom installation choices may require more or less hard disk space. Listed below are the hard disk requirements for
Publisher 2003. 250 MB of available hard disk space Optional installation files cache (recommended) requires an additional 200 MB of available hard disk space.
Publisher 2003 with Digital Imaging: 500 MB total of available hard disk space for installation of Publisher 2003 (250 MB) and Digital Image Pro (250 MB) Optional installation files cache (recommended) requires an additional 200 MB of available hard disk space. Microsoft Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 3 (SP3) or later; or Windows XP or later Super VGA (800 600) or a higher-resolution monitor
Advantages: Easy to Use, lots of standard format Disadvantages: text sizes between formats - read on, you'll understand !
Microsoft Publisher, a very useful piece of software.
For anyone who produces newsletters, invitations or greetings cards, perhaps a restaurant or cafe who produces menu's, this is fantastic. Being a Microsoft piece of software means that all of the commands , keys and theory you will have already learnt from Word and Excel all applies in Publisher, which means that if you have used Word and Excel, you can open this up and use it to about 90% of ... ...other software application in the Microsoft family.
Anyway, Publisher, it's great. The easiest way to start off is with a pre-produced template, let's say for a newsletter. There are dozens of styles to choose from, each one then having dozens of colour options, so within a minute, you can have a design which is very individual. But you can easily add logo's, photo's and of course text by you of the buttons down the left of the screen, adjusting ...
ChrisAllsopp 25.01.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 Complete package
Product Information for "Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 Complete package" »
System requirements
OS Required
Microsoft Windows XP or later, Microsoft Windows 2000 SP3 or later
Min Processor Type
Intel Pentium - 233 MHz
Min RAM Size
128 MB
Min Hard Drive Space
250 MB
Peripheral / Interface Devices
SVGA monitor
System Requirements Details
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server SP3 or later - Pentium - 233 MHz - RAM 128 MB - HD 250 MB
Microsoft Windows XP or later - Pentium - 233 MHz - RAM 128 MB - HD 250 MB
Manufacturer's product description
Keeping in touch and communicating with customers is essential for any business. A complete business publishing and marketing materials solution, Publisher 2003 can help you reach out to customers. With Publisher 2003, it's easier than ever to design, create, and publish professional marketing and communication materials in-house. Publisher 2003 is a comprehensive solution for creating and publishing a wide variety of publications for desktop printing, commercial printing, e-mail distribution, or viewing on the Web. Publisher 2003 provides all the help you need for professional results. Start from professionally designed templates that you can customize with color schemes, font schemes, various layout options, and your own design sense. Or, start from blank publications and get creative with sophisticated typography and page layout tools. Work productively across Microsoft Office System programs. Publisher 2003 looks and works like other programs in the Microsoft Office System, making it easier than ever to use the right Office tool for the task, while still making the most of your knowledge and experience with the Microsoft Office System.
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