How To Design Brochures in Microsoft Publisher

Select a basic brochure layout to use for your design. (Click for larger image).

Brochures inform customers and potential customers, and their design says a lot about your business. You want them to be smart, functional and instantly associated with your business. In this article I'll explain how to design an attractive, professional brochure in Microsoft Publisher 2003.

Select and Configure a Template

Launch Publisher 2003 and from the Publications for Print dropdown list select Brochures. The program includes templates for brochures that are primarily informative as well as specialist brochures for events, fundraisers and price lists. Choose a design that coordinates with your other business documents — it’s best if you use the same design for all your brochures to reinforce your brand.

Set the Page Size to three or four panel — a three-panel brochure is the best for letter-size paper. Select whether or not to include the customer address on a brochure panel. If you include it, you can mail the brochure simply by taping it closed and addressing it.

If you want to include a form (i.e., order, sign up or response), click the appropriate form to add it to the brochure. Select Color Schemes, choose a color scheme and then choose Font Schemes to select the document fonts. Ideally you should use the same combination of fonts and color scheme that you use for all your business documents. If you don’t have a set of preferred fonts, safe combinations include Foundation: Times New Roman and Arial Bold or Virtual: Trebuchet MS Bold and Trebuchet MS.

Once you’ve set these options close the task pane, and you’re ready to start on your brochure.

Compile the Brochure

At the bottom of the screen you’ll see links to Page 1 and Page 2 of the brochure. On Page 1 you will find the front cover on the right and the back panel on the left. The address block, if you added one, will be in the middle of this page.

Start with the cover and arrange it so the title of the brochure at the top of the page so it can be seen if the brochure is standing in a display rack with other brochures in front of it at a lower level. The title should be clear as to what the brochure contains.

To move pieces of the design, click them to select them, and drag them into their new position. To drag multiple items, click the Select Objects button in the toolbar, drag over the objects to select them all and move them as a group. To add additional textboxes, click the textbox icon and drag a textbox onto the screen.

You can choose various options such as adding forms and address blocks. (Click for larger image).

To copy an existing object, such as a textbox, click it to select it, and then hold the Control key as you drag a duplicate of the item into position on the brochure. To change the layering of an object, right-click it and choose Order. Now pick one of the options depending on whether you need to move it upward (forward) or down (backward) on the document.

Click in each of the textboxes in turn and replace the place-holder text with your own copy.

Line It Up

Brochures look particularly good when everything is lined up neatly. So, for example, when you line up one edge of an image with the left margin of the text on the page the page will look neater than if the elements are not lined up.

Check your work to see how things look without the non-printing elements on the page. Hide the guidelines by choosing View > Boundaries and Guides. Choose View > Boundaries and Guides again to display the guides.