Creating a Publication: Process Overview

Brainstorm and Prepare

Gathering your ideas and determining the goals of your publication is an important step in the writing process.  It acts as a blueprint for what your publication will become.  Things you should consider include:

• Audience
• who is the audience
• age of the audience
• education level
• Purpose
• why are you developing
• why are people reading (general interest, active, research)
• building awareness
• publicity
• sharing information
• Tone of newsletter
• casual
• conversational
• conservative
• chatty
• stuffy
• inviting
• formal
• Type of articles
• Length of articles
• Images: type, quantity, size
• share information
• enhance the pages
• line art vs. photos

Write the Articles in Word

Using Microsoft Word to write your articles or text is a good idea because Word is a more powerful word processor than PageMaker.  It is easy to move your text to PageMaker when they are complete, but make sure you include the following steps before you do so: 

• Initial writing
• Editing
• Spell check
• Confirm content
• Finalize
• Save as Word 6

Locate / develop the images

Images play an important role in any publication.  You can incorporate images from a variety of sources:

• Office 97/98/2000 clip art
• add to Word document (or other Office program)
• Copy
• Move to PageMaker and paste
• CD or other Clip art collections
• personal collections
• use PageMaker Place command
• Scanning
• digitize print image
• Web
• locate image
• right click, select Save Image As …
• place into PageMaker document
• be aware of copyright
• several clipart collections (include Mining Co URL)
• Create your own
• using programs such as Paint or Photoshop
• need drawing abilities

Explore layout options

Looking at finished examples helps you determine what layout you like best.  You can then use ideas from these layouts to make your publication look the way you want it to. 

• Look, look, look at …
• newsletters
• magazines
• newspapers
• web pages
• What do you like, not like
• Take the best and make your own

Layout Includes …

Creating the layout for your PageMaker publication includes a variety of components, each of which contributes to the overall look.  You have a number of options when deciding on each layout option.

• Masthead
• first page
• identifies title of publication
• generally includes a graphic
• placement varies: top, side, bottom
• Header and footer
• images?
• page number?
• title of publication?
• Number of columns
• 2 or 3 general works well for a newsletter
• can vary on individual pages if necessary
• Type of images
• Graphic placement
• Font faces and sizes
• titles and headings: san-serif font such as Arial
• article text: serif font such as Times or Century Schoolbook
• consistency helps put polish on the publication
• too many font faces clutter the document
• work with sizes and formatting (e.g. bold) instead
• Headings
• size
• placement (single column or span over article columns)

Sketch the layout on paper

Before you get started with your PageMaker publication, it is a good idea to sketch a rough draft on paper first.  This will act as a reference when you are creating the layout in PageMaker.  

• Cover page
• Inside pages
• Back page

Pull together in PageMaker

Use PageMaker to bring all the components of your publication together: articles, graphics, and layout.

• Build your skills on a sample document
• Master items from layout go on master pages
• Place the articles
• Add the graphics
• Tweak the layout

Specific Skills

Specific skills you may have to utilize as you build your publication include:  

• Building the master page
• Columns
• Any graphics that appear on every page
• Header/footer information
• Typing in PageMaker
• Text tool
• Changing font face and size
• Adding the articles
• Flowing the text
• Text tool vs. Pointer tool
• Spanning multiple columns
• Adding the graphics
• Placing
• Adjusting size
• Cropping
• Wrapping text
• Moving
• Drawing tools
• Initial creation
• Modification
• General skills
• Deleting items
• Control palette