JoAnn said:
My boss wants a booklet in the shape of a house. About the size of a sheet
of paper folded in fourths. She also wants me to insert writing into the
shape. I have no idea how to do this. I tried looking in Pubplisher for a
house shape that I could write in and then cut out to form a booklet.
Take a look at
http://ed.mvps.org/House-shaped Booklet.pub
This file does everything you say you need.
First, I created a booklet at A6 size (when folded; A5 when unfolded,
i.e. one quarter of a standard sheet).
I then created a basic house outline (the kind a 3-year-old might draw)
on the Master Page, then created a negative of it (traced around the
top), and deleted the original. Then I created basic AutoShapes to fill
up that space, and grouped them. Set all of these shapes to No Fill and
No Line, so they are invisible unless you have Boundaries and Guides
turned on. Then set the text wrap to Tight.
Next, I turned the option for a two-page master on. 2007 Publisher
automagically created the second page of the master by flipping the
first; I can't remember if earlier versions did this. If not, it's
simple enough to create a copy of the outline and flip it.
Now, the basic-shape version of the negative has to be cut from the
master page (where it does no good), and placed onto each of the
publication pages, such that they line up with the outlines on the
master pages. Each double-page spread should be symmetrical.
Now you create your actual content. Text boxes must be sent behind the
invisible AutoShapes (which make the text wrap within the house).
Pictures can be fiddled to fit certain nooks and crannies of the house
shape (like I did with the door on page 2).
When it comes to printing, there are two possible approaches. First, you
could leave the guide lines on (faint enough not to notice) and cut
around those on each printed copy. I'll call this method 1.
Alternatively, you could cut and paste the house outlines from the
Master Page into a new publication, make them slightly more visible, and
print off onto thick cardstock. You could then use this as a template to
cut out the other publications, meaning you don't get the unsightly
dotted lines showing if you cut inaccurately. This is method 2.
If you print using method 1, then pictures that fall off (or "bleed off"
to use the proper term) the edge of the page should be cropped using the
Wrap tool. On the Picture toolbar, click the Text Wrap icon
(barely-distinguishable dog on a hatched background), and click on Edit
Wrap Points. Click and drag on lines to create new black boxes (wrap
points). Move these around until the edge of the picture matches the
guidelines on the Master Page. This is illustrated on Page 9 of the example.
If you print using method 2, you should leave the pictures untouched,
falling off the edge of the template. That way, if you're a couple of
millimetres out when you cut out the publication, you won't notice the
whitespace around one side of the picture. (This is done in professional
print for the edges of *all* documents; you need a few millimetres of
slack image to allow for errors in the cutting process. This is because
professional printers print on larger stock and trim to size, allowing
true edge-to-edge printing.)
(All the ClipArt in the sample publication comes from a search for
"house" in the Clip Organizer. The text came from
www.lipsum.com.)
Hope this helps!
