Creating an Autobiography

[Dr. PHILL]

I'd like to write my autobiography and think I want to do it in Publisher,
since I want to include a large number of photographs. I've found trying
this in WORD is extremely difficult.

Is PUBLISHER a good option, or does anyone have a better solution? I want
to easily resize photos and insert them within my text, as I type my text.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Create the text in Word, once you are finished, open Publisher, create a text
box, paste the text, Publisher will automatically create text boxes and pages.
Do your layout, adding more text boxes and pages as needed.

 

[Joy]

Mary, I'm working on something like this too. My childhood memories for my
grandkids. I've written almost all (that I'm going to write probably) in
Word. Then I've been going back and inserting pictures in with the text,
at various places on the page (depending on a variety of factors). Might be
above, or to the right or the left of the text. I think I've found that I
cannot copy that document into Publisher, which I would like to do, though.
I just now tried putting the document into PDF and I see that the text got
there, but not the pictures! Basically I'm just trying to find a way to
save this in a form that would be easy for all kids and grandkids to read.
They might not all have Word. I'd like to eventually save it on a CD for
them and as I said, in a form they can open and view easily. I would
welcome any and all suggestions!

 

[Mary Sauer]

In Word's options, print tab, do you have drawing objects enabled? Pictures will
print in the PDF conversion. If you are planning to do a CD for an universal
audience, a PDF would be the way to go. You could include the Acrobat Reader on
the CD as well.
Publisher is a much simpler layout tool. Do your text in Word, copy/paste into
Publisher, layout your images. If the pictures are already in Word, copy/paste
them individually.

 

[Joy]

I just took a look and it was already enabled. So then I took another look
at the PDF "version", and discovered the pages were backward! And it was
the ending pages where I didn't have any pictures. The pictures did copy
fine into PDF. . . . Just checked that out, and for some strange reason,
Print in Reverse Order was checked. So that is solved!

As for putting it into Publisher, I had tried that earlier, and whereas in
Word using the Word "tight text wrap" they are where I want them (i.e. left
or right or above the text) all of which took quite a lot of time; in
Publisher I'd have to do all that over again, and it wouldn't wrap the text
for me, would it? so I'd have to make a lot of individual text boxes of all
sizes and shapes, etc. Besides, if the people I sent it to didn't have
Publisher, it wouldn't help; that's why PDF sounds like a better choice.
How would I also include Acrobat Reader on the CD?

 

[Mary Sauer]

Go to http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
Download the Reader, rather than install, save... Put the installation files on
the CD, let your friends install it on their hard drives.

 

[Joy]

Thanks, Mary. Your replies are always so helpful. I see your input often
when reading your answers to other people!

There was one question I asked in the middle of my "rambling" that perhaps
you didn't see - and that was (reworded) - Will Publisher wrap text around
pictures the way Word does? When I copied my "story" from Word into
Publisher, it put the pictures (that were in Word, NEXT to text), underneath
the text. Is there any way to solve that? I just looked at Publisher and I
see if one is creating something in Publ. that clicking on a picture give
the same options (i.e. Word Wrap-tight) as MS Word does, but it didn't carry
over when I open the Word document on Publ. I clicked on a photo and
Square was selected, and it didn't let me change it.

 

[Mary Sauer]

Publisher is much easier to wrap text. You can edit the wrapping points the same
as Word, Publisher is just a more friendly workspace. Pictures stay where you
put them.

Wrap text around a picture in Publisher
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP051150061033.aspx

Fine-tune how text wraps around a picture
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HP051150081033.aspx

When you insert an image into Publisher, right-click, click format picture
(object), layout tab, or click the dog icon in the picture toolbar, you should
be able to select any wrap.

 

[Joy]

My problem, though, is that I opened my entire (all that I've done so far)
Word document (story) in Publisher and the pictures are included, but
Publisher put the text below the pictures instead of next to them (where I
had it in Word), and now it won't let me change that. I'm not inserting
the picture because it's already there. When I highlight the picture, the
picture toolbar comes up and the Text wrapping option is already on Square,
and it won't let me choose either Tight or Edit. There are a LOT of
pictures, and I don't want to have to re-insert them (and decide how much
text I want on that page vs. the next page) I've already spent a lot of time
doing that in Word.)

I'm wondering, instead of opening the .doc in Publisher, should I have done
Copy and Paste? Would that have made any difference in the location of the
pictures/text?

 

[Mary Sauer]

If you are importing a Word document from Publisher's file, all the pictures
come through but as you found out, the wrap will not change. Do this, select the
image, copy/paste. delete the original, the new image will wrap. A little time
consuming, I don't know of any easier way to do what you want.