Free Publishing Software

admin answers:

OpenOffice.org is partly compatible with Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org Writer, which corresponds more-or-less to Microsoft Word, can be used to do many of the same things that Microsoft Publisher can do.

Some people instead use the free program Scribus, available at http://docs.scribus.net/. This acts more like MIcrosoft Publisher, Quark Express, and Adobe In-Design and includes some of the features of these programs that OpenOffice.org Writer (and Microsoft Word) lack.

Neither of these programs are compatible with Microsoft Publisher. Indeed, it is notorious that nothing is compatible with Microsoft Publisher except Microsoft Publisher.

However Zamzar on the web claims that they can convert publisher files to various file types. See http://blog.zamzar.com/2008/01/25/convert-ms-publisher-files-pub-files-to-doc-pdf-odt-rtf-and-more/ . OpenOffice.org Writer can read .otf files and .rtf files. Scribus can read .rtf files.

But you are likely to have to do some fix-up after the import.

admin answers:

When you open Publisher, click on Blank Publication and then select A4 landscape orientation. Up to Arrange to change your margins to say, 1.5cm all round as you want to have as large a working area as possible, but then click on grid guides and put in 2columns, with spacing of 3cm between, and possibly 2 rows and click the centre guide option. This will then quarter your page but more importantly, you will have two halves with a good margin between for your fold. What I would suggest before you start working, get some blank paper and fold and put on page numbers because if you are printing back to back, i.e. One sheet of paper as opposed to 2, when you fold the sheet, the front cover will actually be the other side of the hard copy if you get my meaning.

Create a text frame the size of the guides on the left hand side, then copy and paste so you have identical frame the other side. Then up to Insert, Duplicate page. Now save as a template. Close, and then File New, My Templates, bring in the template and it will now be an ordinary publication in which you start your work, so that your template is still in tact. Hope this helps. Working with Publisher though is very flexible and though you have now drawn the initial text frames (though they can be rectangles) which you can right button of mouse on, down to format textframe – or autoshape) to put borders round, I advise using several frames within this main frame so your positioning and aligning can be more precise. If you need any more help as you start working on your booklet, feel free to email me as I am an IT tutor and dtp is one of my main courses these days.

admin answers:

They cant charge you for a trial, the purpose is to let you try the software for a few days ( around 60 days) and then you decide if you want to purchase the product or uninstall the trial version.