Three-panel and four-panel publications are an ideal format to use when you create brochures or pamphlets. If you want to start with an existing design that has text, pictures, and colors that you can replace with your own, you can use one of the Brochure Wizards in Publisher. Or you can build your publication from scratch.

The brochure shown here was created by using a Publisher Brochure Wizard (Studio design).

Three-fold brochure

 Note   If you want to create a folded booklet, click a link in the See Also section, which is visible when you are connected to the Internet. To learn more about duplex printing if you want to print your publication yourself, click a link in the See Also section.

What do you want to do?

Begin with a Brochure Wizard

When you begin with a Brochure Wizard, you don't have to worry about setting up or designing your publication. All you have to do is select the brochure design that you want and then replace the placeholder text and pictures with your own text and pictures.

You can also switch from a three-panel design to a four-panel design, and Publisher automatically rearranges the content. And you can add a response, sign-up, or order form to your publication with the click of a button.

Here is how you create a three-panel or four-panel publication from a Brochure Wizard.

  1. Start Publisher. In the New Publication task pane, under New from a design, click Publications for Print, and then click Brochures.
  2. In the Preview Gallery on the right, click the design that you want.
  3. In the Brochure Options task pane, for Page size, click 3-panel or 4-panel.
  4. If you intend to mail the publication, click Include under Customer address. This adds text boxes for return address and mailing address to the appropriate panel of the publication.

Tip     If you store customer names and addresses in a data file, such as a Microsoft Excel worksheet, you can use mail merge in Publisher to personalize copies of your publication for each of your customers. To learn more about mail merge, click a link in the See Also section, which is visible when you are connected to the Internet.

  1. If you want to add a form to the publication, click either Response form, Order form, or Sign-up form under Form.
  2. Click a placeholder text block, and then type the text that you want.
  3. Right-click a placeholder picture, point to Change Picture, and then click the type of picture that you want to use.

 Note   If you right-click a picture and you don't see Change Picture on the menu, click the picture. You should see gray handles around the picture. Right-click it again and point to Change Picture.

  1. If you want to change the color scheme of the publication to better reflect your company's character or to match your company's existing color scheme, click Color Schemes in the Brochure Options task pane.
    • To apply a color scheme, click the scheme that you want under Apply a color scheme.
    • To create a publication color scheme that exactly matches the colors that are used in other company materials, click Custom color scheme. To learn more about creating a custom color scheme, click a link in the See Also section, which is visible when you are connected to the Internet.
  2. If you want to change the font scheme of the publication to better reflect your company's character or to match the font scheme that is used in other company materials, click Font Schemes in the Brochure Options task pane.
    • To apply a font scheme, click the scheme that you want under Apply a font scheme.

Build a three-panel or four-panel folded publication from scratch

If you want complete control over the layout and design of your publication, start from scratch.

To create a publication from scratch, do the following:

  1. Set up the publication.
  2. Lay out the publication pages.
  3. Plan and add the text and pictures.

Set up the publication

Setting up a publication means preparing the publication for printing. During the setup process, you choose the size and orientation of the paper that you will print the publication on.

You also add enough pages to accommodate the publication content. A printed three-panel or four-panel publication is typically one folded sheet of paper with text and pictures on both the front and back sides. During the setup process, you create two publication pages, one for the front side of the sheet of paper and one for the back side.

 Note   Before you choose the paper size for your publication, you might want to experiment with some actual sheets of paper. Try folding a letter-size or legal-size sheet to create three or four panels, and then sketch the content on each panel.

  1. Start Publisher. In the New Publication task pane, under New, click Blank Print Publication.
  2. On the File menu, click Page Setup, and then click the Layout tab.
  3. Under Publication Type, click Full Page.
  4. Click the Printer and Paper tab.
  5. Under Printer, for Name, click the printer that you will use to print the publication.
  6. Under Paper, for Size, click the paper size that you want to use.
  7. Under Orientation, click Landscape. Click OK.

The page in the publication window shows your choices.

  1. To create the page for the second side of content, on the Insert menu, click Page.
  2. In the Insert Page dialog box, click After current page, and then click OK.

Lay out the publication pages

The second step is to lay out the publication pages by setting measurements for margins, columns, and other elements.

  1. On the Arrange menu, click Layout Guides.
  2. On the Margin Guides tab, set all the margins to zero.

 Note   Some desktop printers won't print anything that is too close to the edge of the page, so you may want to set your margins to match the boundaries of your printer's nonprintable region. To learn more about how to determine your desktop printer's nonprintable region, click a link in the See Also section, which is visible when you are connected to the Internet.

  1. On the Grid Guides tab, type 3 or 4 in the Columns box. Use the default for Spacing. Click OK.

Guidelines divide each publication page into three or four equal-size panels.

Plan and add the text and pictures

For step-by-step information about how to add text and pictures to a blank publication, see the topics listed in the See Also section.

As you add content to your publication, keep in mind that you need both of the following:

  • Design elements, such as borders or bars, that tie the entire publication together.
  • Text and pictures for each panel or set of panels that match the function that the panel has to perform.

For example, in the following three-panel publication, the text and pictures on each panel stand alone, and the colored bars establish a design theme across the publication.

Three-panel publication

You might want to use placeholder text and graphics to produce a preliminary design of each panel or set of panels before you design the final content. You can print the preliminary design to make sure that all the panels work well together and the correct content ends up on the correct panel when the publication is folded.

Tip     Use the pre-designed three-panel and four-panel brochure publications in Publisher for layout and design guidance or as a source for design elements.

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