New Tools Thursday

I was frustrated trying to design 4 up postcards in Microsoft Word.

Microsoft Word is a great word processor that has capabilities that go far beyond just typing a letter. However, it isn't the best page layout program. It wasn't designed for that. I finally grumbled and threw out an analogy that I knew my boss would understand. I said, "This is like playing baseball with a broomstick!" He asked what I meant by that, and I told him if I had Publisher I would have the postcard done by now, and I had already spent over an hour on it and couldn't seem to get it to line up right. He conceded and decided that he had heard enough of my gripes, and went and picked up a copy of Publisher 2007 and brought it to me immediately. Publisher isn't really for professional designers that want their work to go to press, but it is great for desktop publishing short runs, which is pretty much all we do. I was able to whip out that postcard with much better quality and accuracy after I got the program installed. I know there is much more potential with the program that I will probably ever use, but it is a valuable tool for my job. Hopefully with enough creativity, I can make this investment more than pay for itself for my boss.

I felt really good about winning a small battle. Perhaps could have encouraged him in a less aggravating manner, but it certainly was effective!