Product Reviews

Publisher 2003 is the latest incarnation of Microsoft's desktop publishing (DTP) program. It aims to allow non-designers to produce professional-looking documents, from simple leaflets to full-blown newsletters with columns, photos and other graphics. To do so, you simply choose the template that most closely matches your chosen project, then fine-tune the layout and personalise it with your own content.
Like other DTP programs, Publisher no longer limits itself to print-based documents. It can also generate Web pages and, in this latest version, e-mail 'publications'. Publisher is intended primarily for novices, or those who simply don't have the time to fuss around with layouts, which is why it provides so many templates and wizards. If you prefer, though, you can create documents from scratch, whether they're greetings cards, business stationery or multi-page newsletters.
It also integrates neatly with Microsoft Word 2003. Once you've composed your text in Word, it's easy to transfer it to Publisher so that you can work on its visual design. Publisher 2003 now uses the same paragraph formatting system as Word 2003, for example, so new users will feel at home straight away.
Other changes in this version include a new Web page authoring mode, with a Web-specific tool set. This consists of a toolbar with buttons for such things as adding hyperlinks and navigation bars, formatting HTML tables and publishing a site to the Web. Publisher isn't as sophistiacated as a dedicated