• The Microsoft Publisher 2007 software, part of the Microsoft Office Suite, puts a large collection of publication creation power into your hands. With a couple of clicks through the program, you can create newsletters, canning labels, bumper stickers, postcards, website pages and more. Publisher's functionality works similarly to other Office products you may have used; its toolbars and menus are very close to those of Word and Excel, for example.
  
  

Templates

• Save time and effort using Publisher by taking advantage of the program's collection of templates. Templates are documents that come preset by Microsoft, filled with placeholder text, graphics and design elements. Whether you're making a multi-page program or single page sign, a template can direct you where to place your words and serve as a jumping off point for your creativity. All aspects of the Publisher templates are customizable; if you don't like a graphic, you can just delete it or replace it. Templates also help you keep printing rules in mind. A newsletter or program, for example, must have page quantities of four so the printer can saddle stitch the item together. Publisher sets all of this up for you, so you can just start work.
  
  

Graphics

• If you're familiar with clip art from using other Office products, you'll find the same functionality within Publisher. Publisher's clip art section is found under its "Insert" menu. To use Publisher clip art, you type a word or phrase, such as "cat," "cupcake" or "motorcycle" into the Publisher search function. You can narrow your search to graphics or photographs or search both for the most results. Use clip art to highlight points of your publications or serve as illustrations. Even if you can't find what you're looking for with the in-program artwork collection, you have access to Publisher's online clip art database (as long as you have an Internet connection) for more potential graphics options.
  
  

Linking

• It may seem like everything Publisher produces is meant for hard-copy publishing, where you print out your items for distribution, but this doesn't have to be the case. Everything you create in Publisher may be saved in different electronic file formats, including a PDF (portable document format) and graphic extensions. Combine the idea of hard-copy and online reading when you insert hyperlinks into your documents. Linking in Publisher consists of just highlighting the piece of text you want to serve as a hyperlink, right-clicking it, selecting "Hyperlink" and typing in the destination. As long as your link is valid, anytime an online reader comes across the link, he can just click it and a window will open with the new destination.