Using MS Publisher templates

[Paul]

It's no secret that I don't like Microsoft Publisher very much. It's also no secret that I use it anyway, because I work for the kind of organization that doesn't like to buy software in the first place and usually a version of Office that includes Publisher is already installed.

I've been working this week on an annual report, and chose to amuse myself by basing it on a Publisher template - a newsletter template since it will be included in an existing newsletter. The design, as page design, isn't bad at all.

But I was puzzled by a layout that called for four columns on a letter-size page: three narrow columns for body text and one even narrower to be used for occasional graphics and pull-quotes. (One of the sample graphics was a drawing of the Sydney opera house.) The publication will have no pull-quotes, but the narrow outside column is useful for lists that support the main text (board rosters, for example).

It seemed to me that the narrow text columns didn't allow enough words per line for easy reading, and produced really awful hyphenation. Then I looked again at the template, and realized that I was using 10-point type, but the template specced 7.2-point type.

The report will be only four pages. I'm using one wide text column (plus the narrow outside column) on page 1, and two text columns plus the narrow one on the inside pages. Page 4 has four equal columns, containing donor lists.

But who on earth, even without an audience that is 50% geriatric, uses long runs of 7.2-point type?