SOMETHING DIFFERENT FOR 2005

I'm always trying to integrate these disparate parts of my work life--writing, editing, publishing, packaging, tech design, and so forth. As part of my publishing services business (reVisions Plus, Inc.), I am introducing a year-long series of free articles about how to improve small business communications (written, spoken, and electronic). It occurred to me when I published the list on my business blog that the software I'll be using to create the various communications vehicles (communications plan, brochures, cards, web pages, etc.) will be Microsoft products (Office Pro, including Publisher and Front Page). So if you find yourself in a position of creating communications-related materials with Office products and you have questions about how to do something specific or how to get around a particular problem, please feel free to email me your questions related to the following monthly themes and I'll do my best to get them researched and answered in the articles. Then I'll cross post to both blogs so the articles are available in both places. That's the plan, anyway! :) Here's the list for the 2005 articles:

January: Create a 2005 Communications Plan

February: Improve Staff Communications

March: Know Your Audience

April: Find Your Business Story

May: Communicating through Design

June: Brochure and Business Card Basics

July: What Do You Need on the Web?

August: E-mail Newsletters

September: The Dos and Don’ts of Catalogs

October: Create a Product Promotion Campaign

November: Time for a New Look? Upgrading Your Publications

December: Looking Back: How Well Did Your Plan Work?

Send your article-related questions to kmurray230@sbcglobal.net.

And here's to a safe, happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! :) k

FITTING TABLES ON A PAGE

category : office XP and office 2003 : Word tables

June from New York sent me an email the other day because she was having trouble with an oversized table. She'd tried to reformat the table using AutoFormat and by manually dragging the column borders, but the table was still printing off the page. If this happens to you, you can use this quick trick to resize the column that's giving you fits:

1. Click above the problem column so that the whole column is selected.

2. Right-click in the selected column and choose Table Properties.

3. Click the Column tab if it's not already selected.

4. In the Preferred width: field, enter a new (smaller) measurement.

5. Click Previous column and change that width if you like.

6. Click OK to save the settings and return to the document.

7. Choose File > Print Preview to look at the table to see whether it will print on the page.

8. Change the Preferred width again if necessary (following steps 1-4) until you get the widths you need for the columns.

9. Remember to save your document as soon as you get it right. :)

Now the whole table should print the way you want it, all on one page. Thanks for sending this in, June! Happy printing. :)