One of the best ways to add more color and interest to your publications is to add shapes.
There are lots of different kinds to choose from, and they can all be customized using
your own color palette, preferences, and more.
To get started, go to the Insert tab, then click the Shapes command. Take a look at the
menu to see if there's anything you like. I think this sun shape would be perfect for
the business card we're working on. Just click, hold and drag your mouse roughly where you
want the shape to go and now we can start customizing it to fit the style the project.
The first thing I'm going to do is make the shape a little smaller using the sizing handles.
These can be found on the sides and the corners of any shape or object in Publisher.
Every shape will also have a green handle that you can drag to rotate in any direction.
See how it works?
And if your shape has a yellow handle, you can use that to make other adjustments. In
this case, it changes the size and shape of the sun's rays, but it just depends - some
shapes don't have this option at all.
The last thing I'd like to do is change the color and, basically, the overall style of
the shape. For that, you'll find everything you need on the Drawing Tools Format tab,
which appears any time you have a shape selected.
Now, the quickest way to add a fill color or an effect would be to use a pre-designed
shape style. As you can see, you can mouse over for a preview, or open the drop-down menu for more.
For this shape, though, I have something else in mind, so I'm going to customize the colors
individually - starting with the shape fill. First, we'll pick a nice soft yellow. How
about this one? Then for the outline, I actually prefer nothing at all. And I think that does it.
Before we wrap things up, I'd like to show you another type of object in Publisher that
can help you add more color and interest to what you're working on. You'll find this one
on the Insert tab, under Building Blocks.
Building blocks are pre-designed page elements like Borders & Accents, and Calendars, all
of which can be customized to fit your publication.
Take the flip side of my business card. Here, I'd like to add something that introduces
the different services listed on the right. I bet we could find something under Page Parts.
Let's try this heading.
Building blocks are easy to resize and reposition. Just use the sizing handles, and drag and
drop the object wherever you want it to go. Now we can start filling in our information.
With a little formatting here - and maybe a few more bright, graphic shapes when I'm
done - I think this business card is really going to make a great impression.