Microsoft Publisher 97 
Software Review by Timothy K. Hoke

 This is a grand publishing program. However, it has certain limitations. For example, I don't recommend buying Microsoft Publisher to serve as your primary word processor, but just for the record, I am typing this review in Publisher itself. It's not much of a stretch since it has the look and feel of Microsoft Word and beautifully integrates with it. Over the years I have used CorelDRAW! and dabbled with PageMaker. Frankly, for myself (and I suspect, most of us) these applications are overkill and cost prohibitive. They also require a good knowledge of desktop publishing layout skills which only a few enjoy. Microsoft Publisher has bridged the gap of needed publishing expertise and can make even the least creative look like design experts. 

 Activating Publisher 97 introduces a screen which offers several document options. You can choose a blank page and create your own document from the ground up or open an existing publication. There are, however, eighteen Page Wizards to choose from that provide the expert design capabilities many of us lack. They are as follows: newsletter, flyer, brochure, web site, post card, label, business forms, letterhead, sign, business card, card & invitation, calendar, specialty, envelope, banner, resume, airplane and origami. 

The last two items caught my eye, as I couldn't imagine making airplanes with Publisher and had never seen the word "origami" in my life. Now I know! Origami is the ancient Japanese art of folding paper to produce animals, people, etc. I'm sure little Japanese children perfected the finer points of origami as they sat through boring philosophy and mathematics classes. It is probably to my advantage that I didn't have Publisher in high school. Had I been able to make multiple objects out of paper, I'm sure I'd have driven poor old Mrs. Ramsey crazier than I did in Algebra class and would have spent all my time in the office! 

 While all the other Page Wizards interest me, I find one absolutely intriguing. Since I've been wanting to make my very own web site for the longest time, I fixated on this feature. It may well be worth the price of the whole product! You can create your web site for business, community or personal purposes with one or more pages. There are five styles to choose from (basic, bold, classic, jazzy, or modern) and you can import your own pictures. Should you choose, you can specify a calendar of events and your favorite web sites. 

Publisher carefully and gently walks you through the whole process, warning you if you make choices that do not fit with web etiquette. When you're ready, Publisher will even guide you in getting your web site on a server. Since the original web page is stored in Publisher in its own format, you needn't worry about all the HTML intricacies when you revise you web page. You simply republish it to the Web. It is all very easy. The adage, "no pain, no gain" is entirely lost on this product! 

 Of course Publisher 97 offers many other features to keep you publishing. What is a publication without pictures? If a picture is worth a thousand words, what are 5,000 pictures worth? Well, that's how many clip art and photo images Microsoft has included. But should this leave you wanting, just dial up the Microsoft Clip Gallery Live on the World Wide Web (http://www.microsoft.com/publisher) to find over1,000 more clip-art images, as well as additional sound and video clips. Choose the ones you want and import them to your hard disk. Oh yes, if you are not happy with the clip-art, you can customize and recolor it in any of 16 million colors. 

 If you like fancy documents, Publisher 97 accommodates well with more than 150 decorative borders and over 150 font styles (remember when fonts could cost an arm and a leg?) Did I mention WordArt? Well, if you are not satisfied with the fonts provided, WordArt lets you add special effects to your text. You can even rotate text (and everything else, too) to get it just right on your page. 

 How would you like a design teacher to coach you as you produce your documents? Most of us probably can't take a course in design, and even if we could, our professor would not let us call at all hours of the day or night. Microsoft, knowing our need, has placed a design coach inside each and every Publisher 97 box. The coach's name is Design Checker. I call him/her DC for short. Microsoft has gone above and beyond on this one. It is not unusual for inexperienced desktop publishers to create a document which just doesn't work. Beginners tend to think they must use every font, color, and special effect available. Design Checker (DC) warns against such frivolity. It also draws your attention to empty frames, covered objects, disproportionate pictures, objects outside the printing region, or text out in the overflow area. 

Publisher 97 also integrates well with Microsoft applications. For example, if you are typing text in Publisher you can click on "Edit", then click "Edit Story." Immediately, your Publisher document will come up in Microsoft Word. Fix it just the way you want and close Word. All your changes appear in Publisher as you just made them in Word. Also, Mail Merge allows you to merge address information directly into your publication. If you don't want to go to the trouble of creating and storing address lists in Publisher, simply access these lists in your Word, Works, Access, FoxPro, dBase or other database files. 

By now you may be wondering, "What hardware do I need to successfully run publisher 97?" Microsoft recommends a 486DX or higher processor. I reviewed it on a 486-120 and it did just fine. You will also need Windows 95 or NT Workstation, with 8MB or 16MB of RAM respectively. A typical installation requires 116MB of hard drive space, although you can run the program from the CD-ROM, requiring only about 10MB of your hard drive. I chose the latter option, enjoying good performance from a 4X CD-ROM. Of course, if you want to access additional clip-art, a 28,800 baud modem is recommended, along with access to the World Wide Web. Incidentally, I used Netscape quite successfully. 

The magic question, of course, is "How much does it cost?" The street price is less than $70. However, if you would like a free 60 day test drive, just call Microsoft at (800) 370-9272 for a trial version on CD-ROM.