printing a village magazine 2

[parishpete]

I've been handling the magazine artwork in publisher for years (now using Pub 2007). The magazine is between 32 and 44 pages.

Up to now the printer has always printed from hardcopy but to move forward we intend to send a PDF file which is pretty straight foreward.

The magazine has always been made from 2 separate publisher files; text and editorial in one, and adverts in the other (the two tasks are handled by different people).

When we printed hardcopy for the printer it was easy to lay the sheets from both files in the right order for publication. Now we have to copy and paste the adverts onto pages within the text file. It is that task that which is the most difficult as there is no real-time view of the effect of shuffling pages around to get the right balance of articles to adverts.

The only solution seems to be to print the file and play around with a hardcopy, then make the changes in the file.

Does anyone have any suggestions to overcome the problem?

Thanks

Pete

 

[FredWagner]

Do you have Acrobat Standard or Professional ? could you make PDF documents out of both of your source PUB files, and then merge the pages in Acrobat ? If you could insert the page numbers in Acrobat, it would work.... or you could put hard page numbers in the original documents, do the merge the first time, see what page number change need to be made, make the page number corrections, make new PDF's, and merge the final version in Acrobat. The problem with sending PDF's to the printer is that your lose the cool Publisher capability of printing for pages to be stapled at the fold - print first and last on one page, and on the reverse print page 2 and next to last, etc. See what your printing contractor recommends ! They might be doing magazines or catalogs for other customers.

Fred Wagner

 

[parishpete]

Thanks Fred,

Presently we use Publisher's ability to save as PDF capability. We only have Adobe Reader.

The resulting PDF is spot on in terms of what the printer can use.

I think what is missing from publisher is a preview that shows all the pages on one screen. I guess for now we will just have to do the maths of where to insert blank pages on which to put the adverts, paste them in and do a draft hardcopy and see how it looks.

regards

Pete

 

[FredWagner]

I routinely use a Publisher view that shows two pages at a time, so you can page through the document and get a feel for it as you would looking at the hardcopy stapled and bound.
That's called the Two Page Spread view.
Merging your text and advertising pages is awkward if both are done in Publisher. Could you put together the advertising pages in Word, and then save as TIFF graphic files. Each page would become a single TIFF. You could then create blank pages in the main Publisher document, and insert the TIFF graphic which would take up the whole page.... or not - if you wanted to have editorial content and advertising mixed. That way the page numbering would still be entirely controlled in the Editorial document.

Fred Wagner

 

[parishpete]

Thanks Fred,

Ironically the text and other editorial pages were always done in Word up to now. It has taken me years to wean my co-editor onto publisher!

your thought is an interesting work around. Unfortunately the print quality of a tiff (or any kind of graphic is way less quality than actual text. I can't see how Word producess a tiff, it's not a 'save as' option.

I've used Publisher to build the artwork for adverts for about 15 years. It really is the right tool for the job. Word unfortunately lacks the pinpoint accuracy and the ease of layering components.

I also find that copy/paste interface between Publisher and all the other Office applications is seriously wanting.

I guess we'll just have to get used to shortcomings as the end result is, for all the effort, pretty good.

Perhaps the 2010 version will fare better.

regards

Pete

 

[FredWagner]

I first used Publisher 2000 mainly at home, then jumped to Publisher 2007 - and was very frustrated with the copy/paste function, until someone in this forum pointed me to the technique, that rather than control V or right click copy, use Control-V, then Edit, paste Special - which works like plain control-V Control-P did in Pub 2000. I ground several layers off my teeth when I first saw what happened with a plain control-P into Publisher 2007! I have Pub 2003 here are the office, but don't use it much, I mainly use 2007 for newsletters that I do at home.

Fred Wagner

 

[JPaules]

Pete,

FWIW Publisher 2010 will allow you to see multiple pages in one print preview. Download the trial version (do not upgrade your 2007 version just in case you don't like it) and take a look at the new Backstage View.

I've attached a link to a screenshot I just took of one of the 4-page newsletter templates. The purple arrow in the lower right corner shows you where you can adjust the multi-page view. I could have made this 1 page high and 4 pages long.

--
JP

 

[FredWagner]

JPaules - very cool feature, thanks for showing it to us! That's just what ParishPete needed! I've got a new Win7 laptop, may have to invest in Office/Publisher 2010 to go with it!

Fred Wagner

 

[parishpete]

Hi JP,

My version is 2007. That allows a choice of up to 6 pages in print preview which on the face of it is useful.

Unfortunately, but as one would expect, it shows the A4 pages exactly as they come out of a printer; last page/first page, second page/2nd to last page and so on.

What I would like to see is all the pages in the order in which they read in the booklet which is how they appear in the layout pane albeit as one 2 page spread at a time, even if they are only small thumbnails, the whole lot in one screen view would be great(like Word does when you reduce the view size).

Publisher is an excellent tool but it doesn't quite give the real time ability to see what's happening when you are shuffling pages around or adding blank pages.

regards

Pete

 

[JPaules]

I can change what I see in Backstage View. See the photo in the link below.

I know you said you are using 2007 but I'm just letting you know that the Publisher team is trying to make things better for the end user. That's why I suggested you at least try the trial version and see if it helps you.

JoAnn

--
JP

 

[parishpete]

Hi JoAnn

Thank you for that.

I am also a charity Trustee and we use make a huge use of most the office applications. The Charity has decided to buy 4 copies of Office Pro 2010 and I'm just about to place the order.

I'll look forward to the improvements!

regards
Pete

 

[JPaules]

Very cool! Hopefully that will allow you to do your job faster and more efficiently!

JoAnn

--
JP

 

[parishpete]

Just installed Office 2010, WOW!!!

Publisher really has had a makeover. Gone are the page tabs at the bottom, in is the navigation pane at the left which shows thumbnails of the pages in order. Exactly what I need.

Even print preview will show up to 56 pages in front and reverse view.

Well done to the development team they really mean business!!

Pete

 

[JPaules]

Really glad to hear that!!

--
JP

 

[SkipVought]

JPaules,

I've been following this thread with interest. Thanks for the info!

Skip,
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