Is Publisher the right tool for my book?

[Mike Bailey]

Word is fine for doing the text (word processing), but it is can be
unpredictable once you move it to another computer. The other problem is if
you are placing graphics into Word it will drive you nuts.

If you plan to Publish this commercially the order of preference to
commercial printers is:
1) QuarkXPress (the price tag puts this out of your league in all likelihood)
2) InDesign (this replaces PageMaker)
3) PageMaker (be aware that it likes to corrupt files)

However some commercial printers (like myself and some others that frequent
this news group) do accept Publisher files, but please use Publisher 2003.

I hate getting files in MS word unless it's straight text and I'm going to
place it in Quark or InDesign, then place the graphics separately.

Regardless of how you do this keep all graphics you create so that the can
be fixed if necessary (converted to CMYK or Greyscale. clean up or whatever
else may need to be done with them).

Do not 'Drag and Drop' or 'Cut and Paste' from another program this will
give you problems regardless of which DTP program you use if you move it to
another computer, for publisher bring images in using the 'Insert' menu
('Insert', 'Picture', 'From File...'). Avoid using Publisher's wizards if you
plan to send the file to a commercial printer.

Mike Bailey
Richmond BC
Canada

 

[rhys]

FWIW #1:
Elmo is correct, in both of his statements.

FWIW #2:
For the benefit of the other readers of this forum who might not be
familiar with the gentleman making this posting, "Brian Kvalheim [MSFT
MVP]" was (and may still be) the 'go to guy' for the
microsoft.public.publisher.prepress newsgroup ... hosted on Micro$oft's own
servers.

So, if it's the go-to guy who says Publisher is great for pre-press,
or 99% of the pre-press forum actual working designers who say
everything from "it's problematic" to "it's the wrong tool" to "it's
buggy consumer ware appropriate for producing yard sale flyers", then
I guess it's the go-to guy that's got all the street cred, eh?

Framemaker was OK and even great in certain situations and it's pretty
well dead. And yet Publisher lives on, even though every service
bureau I've ever worked with cringes when anything more complicated
than a spot colour business card produced in it comes in.

Silly us.

R.

 

[Lee Blevins]

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:
|| Publisher is designed for documents that you print out locally on
|| your desktop printer. It is not designed in any meaningful way for
|| you to hand off to a commercial printer.

Ugh...I thought you knew better.

Please tell me how to get Publisher to reliably print composite CMYK
postscript.

It doesn't.

It craps out when printing or doesn't produce a file.

I'd like to hear the solution.

Not an excuse.

 

[Ed Bennett]

It craps out when printing or doesn't produce a file.

I don't do much work with composite output, but IIRC the fix for the
not-producing-a-PostScript-file issue was called Publisher 2003 SP1.

 

[Terje Martinsen]

Solution:

Stay updated. Have a look here: http://office.microsoft.com/

I produce a 3.6 GB (yes GB) ps-file every second month, fullcolor CMYK which
is then distilled and sent directly to the platesetter.

Terje

 

[Neil Gould]

Solution:

Stay updated. Have a look here: http://office.microsoft.com/

Are there any known issues when using files that were created in earlier
versions? As this is SOP for prepress, any problems in this area could be
a show stopper.

Regards,

Neil

 

[Terje Martinsen]

Opening Pub 2000 and 2002 can take some time, but there is no conversion
problems I am aware of.

When opened, choose Tools/commercial/color/CMYK (something like that, donæt
remember), and the complete doc is converted to CMYK format.
That of course means that some colors will have a darker tone due to the
narrower color space available in CMYK compared to RGB.
This is correct though, and with a good calibrated screen is very close to
the true story.
I myself use a Samsung SyncMaster 192T on digital output from a Matrox G550,
calibrated using Spyder Pro.

Did I answer your quiestion?
Being Norwegian, what does SOP mean?

Best regards
Terje

 

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

Hi Lee Blevins ([email protected]),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| Please tell me how to get Publisher to reliably print composite CMYK
|| postscript.
||
|| It doesn't.

Yes it does.

|| It craps out when printing or doesn't produce a file.

For those who are not updated. If you were an expert at all DTP programs,
you would have known this issues was fixed.

|| I'd like to hear the solution.
||
|| Not an excuse.

Doesn't take a genius.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdate/default.aspx

Be sure you have SP1 for Publisher 2003 that addresses this issue. No
excuses..just facts.

--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

Hi RSD99 ([email protected]),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| FWIW #1:
|| Elmo is correct, in both of his statements.

I guess if you think opinions can be correct....
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

Hi rhys ([email protected]),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| So, if it's the go-to guy who says Publisher is great for pre-press,
|| or 99% of the pre-press forum actual working designers who say
|| everything from "it's problematic" to "it's the wrong tool"

Wrong tool for whom?

|| to "it's
|| buggy consumer ware appropriate for producing yard sale flyers", then
|| I guess it's the go-to guy that's got all the street cred, eh?

What bugs do you speak of. Please elaborate. BTW, if you only know how to
create yard sale flyers in Publisher, it sounds as if you dont know DTP very
well, nor Publisher. How about you impress us as others have by creating
magazine publications, raffles, annuals/yearbooks, etc. as many others have
with Publisher and have had no issues outputing them? When you can figure
that out, feel free to come back and post with the "big boys".

|| Framemaker was OK and even great in certain situations and it's
|| pretty well dead. And yet Publisher lives on, even though every
|| service bureau I've ever worked with cringes when anything more
|| complicated than a spot colour business card produced in it comes in.

Yet every service bureau I work with welcomes the files with open arms,
including ours.

|| Silly us.

Silly you.
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[Neil Gould]

Opening Pub 2000 and 2002 can take some time, but there is no
conversion problems I am aware of.

When opened, choose Tools/commercial/color/CMYK (something like that,
donæt remember), and the complete doc is converted to CMYK format. [...]

Did I answer your quiestion?

I think so, if there are in fact no conversion problems such as text
reflow, incorrect color mappings, etc.

Being Norwegian, what does SOP mean?

SOP = Standard Operating Procedure

Best regards,

Neil

 

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

Hi (e-mail address removed) ([email protected]),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| So this would be the 12th? version/fix of MS Pub?
|| Service Pack for the 2003 version and it's finally fixed, only
|| MickeySoft would crow about that as a victory.
|| Too little, too late, practically pathetic.

You must be void of the facts. Publisher 2003 is the first version to
support composite cmyk. The first patch to Publisher 2003 fixed the issue in
question. Try again.
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[user]

|| Please tell me how to get Publisher to reliably print composite CMYK
|| postscript.
||
|| It doesn't.

Yes it does.

|| It craps out when printing or doesn't produce a file.

For those who are not updated. If you were an expert at all DTP programs,
you would have known this issues was fixed.

Be sure you have SP1 for Publisher 2003 that addresses this issue. No
excuses..just facts.

So this would be the 12th? version/fix of MS Pub?
Service Pack for the 2003 version and it's finally fixed, only
MickeySoft would crow about that as a victory.
Too little, too late, practically pathetic.

 

[Lee Blevins]

Hi Lee Blevins ([email protected]),
in the newsgroups
you posted:

|| Please tell me how to get Publisher to reliably print composite CMYK
|| postscript.
||
|| It doesn't.

Yes it does.

|| It craps out when printing or doesn't produce a file.

For those who are not updated. If you were an expert at all DTP programs,
you would have known this issues was fixed.

|| I'd like to hear the solution.
||
|| Not an excuse.

Doesn't take a genius.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdate/default.aspx

Be sure you have SP1 for Publisher 2003 that addresses this issue. No
excuses..just facts.

As usual your answer is next to worthless MS bs.

I suggest everybody go to the url you posted and see what it is.

Nowhere on that page is there clear direction or acknowledgement that
there is a bug and what the fix is.

I didn't buy Office. Publisher was sent to me since I signed up for the
MS Publisher bureau scam.

Now if you really wanted to help why don't you just post the url to the
specific fix I need instead of sending me on a web goose chase?

Is that you don't want to admit it was ever broken?

Is it that a real fix doesn't exist?

The previous time I asked you this question you claimed you had a
solution and did the same thing in directing me to a web address that
left me searching and only came up with "try to print fewer pages."

I don't even see the word "Publisher" on that site, let me try a find...

I tried a "find" in MS own web browser and I get

"the text publisher was not found"

Now I hardly consider that helping by sending me to a URL that doesn't
even contain the name of the application I'm supposed to be fixing.

But then isn't that the MS way?

It doesn't really matter.

I no longer support publisher. It's just not worth it.

I suggest to users that they email you or purchase Acrobat 6 Pro and
create a PDFX1a and submit that to me.

If they can't make a PDFX1a from publisher I suggest they consider
getting a real page layout app from a company that cares if it's
software works.

Perhaps there's somebody who actually knows the url of the "fix."

I don't have a lot of free time to go downloading experiments or
searching through endless web pages to look for something.

And as far as being a "prepress expert" that has little to do with
Publisher now does it?

Since it's a tool experts don't use.

 

[Lee Blevins]

|| So, if it's the go-to guy who says Publisher is great for pre-press,
|| or 99% of the pre-press forum actual working designers who say
|| everything from "it's problematic" to "it's the wrong tool"

Wrong tool for whom?

|| to "it's
|| buggy consumer ware appropriate for producing yard sale flyers", then
|| I guess it's the go-to guy that's got all the street cred, eh?

What bugs do you speak of. Please elaborate. BTW, if you only know how to
create yard sale flyers in Publisher, it sounds as if you dont know DTP very
well, nor Publisher. How about you impress us as others have by creating
magazine publications, raffles, annuals/yearbooks, etc. as many others have
with Publisher and have had no issues outputing them? When you can figure
that out, feel free to come back and post with the "big boys".

|| Framemaker was OK and even great in certain situations and it's
|| pretty well dead. And yet Publisher lives on, even though every
|| service bureau I've ever worked with cringes when anything more
|| complicated than a spot colour business card produced in it comes in.

Yet every service bureau I work with welcomes the files with open arms,
including ours.

|| Silly us.

Silly you.

What a total line of bullcrap.

You seem to try to walk both sides of the issue here.

When challenged previously you made excuses about publisher claiming it
was not a professional tool and now you seem to be arguing that is is?

Sounds like MS bull - when somebody points out a problem you pass it off
as the program is not for pros but when somebody says it's not a
professional tool you claim that it is?

Doesn't matter to me. It's crap and the overwhelming majority of
prepress professionals know that. If you'd like to argue otherwise well
I guess it speaks to your prepress expertise. Or lack ot if.

If you think it's a good tool then you deserve to use it.

I don't and I don't use it.

There isn't any money in supporting it contrary to the claim you might
make. It's a low-end tool and anybody in the business knows that the
low-end is support intensive and low margin.

I call that bottom-feeding. Sounds like your market.

 

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

Lee Blevins wrote:
|| Doesn't matter to me.

Excellent. Makes your post moot.
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

Lee Blevins wrote:
||
|||
||||| So, if it's the go-to guy who says Publisher is great for
||||| pre-press, or 99% of the pre-press forum actual working designers
||||| who say everything from "it's problematic" to "it's the wrong
||||| tool"
|||
||| Wrong tool for whom?
|||
||||| to "it's
||||| buggy consumer ware appropriate for producing yard sale flyers",
||||| then I guess it's the go-to guy that's got all the street cred,
||||| eh?
|||
||| What bugs do you speak of. Please elaborate. BTW, if you only know
||| how to create yard sale flyers in Publisher, it sounds as if you
||| dont know DTP very well, nor Publisher. How about you impress us as
||| others have by creating magazine publications, raffles,
||| annuals/yearbooks, etc. as many others have with Publisher and have
||| had no issues outputing them? When you can figure that out, feel
||| free to come back and post with the "big boys".
|||
||||| Framemaker was OK and even great in certain situations and it's
||||| pretty well dead. And yet Publisher lives on, even though every
||||| service bureau I've ever worked with cringes when anything more
||||| complicated than a spot colour business card produced in it comes
||||| in.
|||
||| Yet every service bureau I work with welcomes the files with open
||| arms, including ours.
|||
||||| Silly us.
|||
||| Silly you.
||
|| What a total line of bullcrap.
||
|| You seem to try to walk both sides of the issue here.
||
|| When challenged previously you made excuses about publisher claiming
|| it was not a professional tool and now you seem to be arguing that
|| is is?
||
|| Sounds like MS bull - when somebody points out a problem you pass it
|| off as the program is not for pros but when somebody says it's not a
|| professional tool you claim that it is?
||
|| Doesn't matter to me. It's crap and the overwhelming majority of
|| prepress professionals know that. If you'd like to argue otherwise
|| well I guess it speaks to your prepress expertise. Or lack ot if.
||
|| If you think it's a good tool then you deserve to use it.
||
|| I don't and I don't use it.
||
|| There isn't any money in supporting it contrary to the claim you
|| might make. It's a low-end tool and anybody in the business knows
|| that the low-end is support intensive and low margin.
||
|| I call that bottom-feeding. Sounds like your market.



--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[JoAnn Paules [MSFT MVP]]

Top -

I'm going to cut thru all if the bickering and give you a relatively simple
answer.

If you are going to print these booklets yourself, Publisher will be just
fine. If you think you are going to have them printed for you, talk to your
printer first. As you've seen, not all printers will accept a Publisher
file. (Fortunately I have an excellent local printer who does.)

 

[Brian Kvalheim [MSFT MVP]]

Lee Blevins wrote:
|| As usual your answer is next to worthless MS bs.

That would make yours worthless NON MS bs?

|| I suggest everybody go to the url you posted and see what it is.

I suggest that as well. We have offered that url to hundreds of people and
they had ZERO issue finding the updates.

|| Nowhere on that page is there clear direction or acknowledgement that
|| there is a bug and what the fix is.

I guess I shouldn't assume that most people are smart enough to click on
Check for Updates.

Here is a direct link for those like you who are less knowledgeable:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a6-7cb1-4f61-837e-5f938254fc47&DisplayLang=en

And funny thing is...the download gets me to the following public kb article
for Publisher 2003 explaining the fix:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/835709

"
Issues that are fixed in the hotfix package
The following issue is fixed in this hotfix package but was not previously
documented in a Microsoft Knowledge Base article: . When you print a
publication as color separations or composite cyan-magenta-yellow-black
(CMYK) in Publisher 2003, the publication may not print and you do not
receive an error message.

The publication in Publisher 2003 may appear to print successfully,
but there will be no printer output in the print queue or no PostScript file
on the disk.

This problem typically occurs with publications that contain many
high-resolution raster graphics (TIFFs, JPEGs, Photoshop EPS, and other
graphic types), and may occur when the print spool file exceeds
approximately 500 megabytes (MB) on the disk.
back to the top
MORE INFORMATION
Service pack information
This problem was first corrected in Office 2003 Service Pack 1.To resolve
this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Office 2003. For
additional information, click the following article number to view the
article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
870924 How to obtain the latest service pack for Office 2003"

So next time I recommend you "research" there sporto. This is my last
crosspost to the usenet trolls. If you wish to carry on your drivel in the
"MICROSOFT" public newsgroups, come on over.

Cheers mate.
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.publishermvps.com

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and
confers no rights.

 

[rhys]

What a total line of bullcrap.

Well, Lee, I was going to respond to the apologist for The Dear
Leader, but you pretty well summed it up. Now, back to work in the
real world...

R.