- 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.
- 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
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Publisher is a DTP app, not a webdesign app (although it does have some web export features). Hence, it doesn't compete with Dreamweaver.
I've always been more of a FrontPage than a Dreamweaver person, but I'm moving over to VS.NET now
Techmonkey 05.06.2004 14:11
Nice review! I'e never really been one for ppublisher though... I prefer Dreamweaver, it's good with Flash.
Sarcasm101 13.03.2004 17:30
Sorry for the low rating, but i found this a little bit difficult to read through, it could do with a few paragraph breaks. You certainly seem to know what you are talking about, but as pauljim said, it would be good to know a little bit more about what your comments and experience with the product too. XX Sarah.
very helpful by (27%):
helpful by (67%):
somewhat helpful by (7%):
