Jun 24, 2001 03:18 AM
4733 Views
When a customer says that they are bringing me a file in Microsoft Publisher, I tend to either want to run or hide as fast as I can. Being a small print shop that accepts files from Microsoft Publisher, however, I have no choice.
Why do I hate opening Microsoft Publisher files?
Well, it's very simple, they are never set up correctly for printing, they always need some kind of work and they never color separate easily. We have purchased a program called ''To Press'' and this will only resolve some of the problems with Publisher. It won't solve the problem of customers who seldom save the fonts to disk for me or scan the pictures at a high quality or provide them in a separate folder on their files.
Is there anything that I do like about Microsoft Publisher? I can not tell a lie, I have used Microsoft Publisher in the past, in fact when I was teaching a lady how to use her computer, I kept her in Microsoft Publisher. This let her see some of the reasons why I could not stand the program and compare it to programs that I actually enjoyed using. I also, have used Microsoft Publisher to design home pages for myself. I feel that it does make is very simple for the home user to upload their home pages online, where as some of the other software programs specifically designed for uploading Web pages, have not made it as simple.
Technical support Microsoft Publisher was suppose to some of the problems that people like myself whine about constantly in a Print shop. When I tried to use it to fix customer files, I could not resolve the problems and called technical support. The technical support did not know what a screen frequency was and told me that it was not capable of doing what I wanted, after all it is a software package you can buy for under $100.
So what programs would I recommend? I would recommend Quark Xpress, Corel Draw or Pagemaker if you are going to design a piece and send it to a printer. These programs are more likely to be in your local print shop, than programs such as Microsoft Publisher and Print Shop Deluxe. You will most likely have much more success and friendliness with your local printer than bringing them a file that will give them a hard time as well as a dent in your wallet with time taken about by the graphic designer to fix the problems that are created in Microsoft Publisher.
