A brochure can be an effective way to present information about your business, products or services to potential customers. You can produce 3- or 4-page brochures with Microsoft Publisher, using one of the pre-built templates or, with practice, one you create, and customize them with features such as reply forms and address sections. The following are instructions that will help you create brochures with Microsoft Publisher 2003, 2007 and 2010.
Steps
Step 1. Choose a style for your brochure
Publisher sorts brochure styles and templates according to common uses.
- In Publisher 2003, select "New" from a template in the New Publication window, then select "Brochure" from Publications to Print and click the arrow to the left of "Brochures" to see a list of available brochure types. Select the template you prefer from the Thumbnail Gallery on the right.
- In Publisher 2007, select "Brochures" from Common Publication Types, then select one of the templates from Recent Templates, Classic Templates, or Blank Brochures. You can click on any template to view a larger version in the upper right part of the Brochure Options window, on the right of the screen.
- On Publisher 2010, select "Brochure" from Available Templates, then select a template from the previews. You can click on any template to view a larger version in the upper right part of the Brochure Options window, on the right of the screen.
- If you don't find a template you like and you are connected to the internet, you can download more templates from Microsoft.
Step 2. Decide if you want to make a 3 or 4 page brochure
Select "3 Sided" or "4 Sided" from the Page Size section of the Options.
- Publisher allows you to make 3- or 4-page brochure templates on pages of the size of your choice. Before deciding whether to create a 3 or 4 page brochure, you may want to fold a sheet of paper that you will use to print in three or four parts to evaluate the best format..
- The page size option will not be available if you create your brochure from a blank template.
Step 3. Decide whether your brochure will be delivered by hand or by post
If you are going to mail your brochure to potential customers, you will need to leave space for the recipient and sender address.. If you deliver them by hand, this space will not be necessary, although you should still enter your company name and address.
- On Publisher 2003, select "Include" under Customer Address to include an address for a recipient or "None".
- On Publisher 2007 and 2010, check the "Include Customer Address" box to add an address for the recipient.
- The option to include a customer address panel will not be available if you decide to start with a blank template.
Step 4. Include all necessary shapes
If you are using your brochure to request information or orders from your customers, you will need to include a form to collect this information. In the Modules drop-down list, you will find many different options:
- Nobody. Choose this option if your brochure is only meant to present your business, and you don't need to collect information from your customers.
- Order form. Choose this option if your brochure is meant for sales and you want it to contain a space that customers can use to order your products.
- Reply form. Choose this option if your brochure is to present your current products or services and request information from your customers about new products, possible changes or improvements to the services they would like to see.
- Registration form. Choose this option if your brochure is meant to sell your customers a service they need to sign up for.
- The Forms option will not be available if you create your brochure from a blank template.
Step 5. Choose the colors and fonts for your brochure
Each brochure template has a default color and font scheme, but if you want to use a different one, you can do so by choosing a new scheme. You will find colors in the Color Scheme drop-down menu and fonts in the Font Scheme drop-down menu.
- You can also create a custom color or font scheme by selecting the "Create New" option from one of the respective drop-down menus.
- If you're creating other Publisher advertising materials, such as flyers, gift cards, or specialty letter paper, you should use the same color schemes and fonts for all of these materials to create a consistent identity for your brand.
Step 6. Enter your company information
If you are using Publisher 2003, the program will ask you for this information the first time you log in. Later, you can recall them from Personal Information in the Edit menu to include them in your brochure. On Publisher 2007 and 2010, you can select your company information from the Business Info drop-down menu or select "Create New" to create a new set of information. This information will be incorporated into your brochure.
Step 7. Create the brochure, On Publisher 2007 and 2010, click the "Create" button at the bottom of the window to create your brochure
(Publisher 2003 at this point assumes you are creating a brochure and will not ask you for further confirmation)
You may want to print the brochure after these steps, to check that the template is to your liking. You can also create a PDF to email it to your collaborators and ask for their advice
Step 8. Replace the provisional text with your own text
Click on the text you want to replace and type the new text in each field.
- In most cases the text will be automatically resized to fit the space. If you need to set the text to a certain size, select "Auto Fit Text" from the Format menu and then select "Don't Fit" (Publisher 2003 and 2007) or select "Text Fit" in the Text group of the Format Text Fields ribbon and then select "Do not auto-fit" (Publisher 2010). You can then manually choose a new size for the text.
- Repeat this step for any other text you want to replace, on both sides of the brochure.
Step 9. Replace the temporary images with your own images Right click on the image you want to replace, then select "Edit Image" from the context menu and find the path to the image
Repeat this step for any other images you want to replace, on both sides of the brochure.
Step 10. Save the brochure, Choose "Save" or "Save As" from the File menu (Publisher 2003 or 2007) or from the menu on the left side of the File tab (Publisher 2010)
Give your brochure a descriptive name.
Step 11. Print the copies of your brochure you need
Before printing the brochure for the first time, make sure everything is the way you want it.
If you want to have your brochure printed by a professional, you will need to save it or convert it to PDF format, as this is the format most used by these services
Advice
Don't use too many different fonts in your brochure; usually 2 or 3 will do. Generally, it's best not to use serif and sans serif fonts together; however, it is possible to combine a serif body text font with sans serif headings. Reserve the use of bold and italics to emphasize what you write
If you are creating a brochure that will be mailed, put the customer address section on the other side of the reply form. This way, when the customer fills in the form, they can directly read your company's information
- When creating a brochure from scratch for the first time, you could create brochures from multiple templates and copy and paste elements from them onto a blank page.
- You can enhance the look of your brochure by using items from the Clip Gallery, the Template Gallery (Publisher 2003 and 2007), or from the Blocks group of the Insert menu (Publisher 2010).
- Use a largely symmetrical layout. Moving the balance point slightly to the left or right of the center can make the brochure more interesting. Reserve enough white space to make text and graphics easy to read. While most of the text should be left aligned or justified, you can in some cases use right alignment to emphasize the content.
Warnings
- Don't use vertical lines to indicate where to fold the brochure; it will not always be possible to fold the brochure exactly on that line.
- Never use capital letters except for titles; a paragraph written this way can be difficult to read. Also avoid using all uppercase decorative fonts.
- Use only a single space after a period. Two spaces after a period can create formatting problems.
