How to use Word for desktop publishing

The ability to layout text in multiple columns is just one of Word's DTP features.

If you want to add flair to a Word document, you'll need to harness Word’s desktop publishing (DTP) features. While Publisher might be the better choice for complex publications, Word has plenty of tricks up its sleeve. Here's a few of them.

Line and character spacing

One feature of a DTP program is its ability to vary line and letter spacing. In Word, you can do this by selecting the text and from the Paragraph group on the Home tab, clicking ‘Line and Paragraph Spacing’ —> ‘Line Spacing Options’. A good choice for professional-looking documents is to add six points of spacing in the After box. Then you only need to press Enter once to finish a paragraph and move to the next. The spacing between paragraphs is added automatically and it’s a little smaller than normal.

To give your text a professional look, adjust the spacing between characters. Select the text and from the Home tab, open the Font dialog launcher and click the Advanced tab. Set the Spacing to Condensed and then set the By: value to 0.2 or 0.3 points. The resulting text has a typeset look.

Drop caps

The first character of a page or section in the document can be highlighted using a drop cap. To do this, click anywhere in the paragraph and go to Insert tab —> ‘Drop Cap’ and select the type of character: either Dropped or ‘In Margin’; typically, Dropped is the better option. Then click ‘Drop Cap’ —> ‘Drop Cap Options’ and set the number of lines to drop — 2 is a good value. You can also add extra spacing between the dropped capital and the remainder of the text.

Column layouts

You can easily arrange text in columns by selecting the text and from the ‘Page Layout’ tab, clicking Columns —> Two. If you want a line between columns of text, click somewhere inside the columns, go to ‘Page Layout’ —> Columns —> ‘More Columns’ and select ‘Line Between’ to add a narrow line.

Pull quotes

Pull quotes are a great way to add some white space to a document. To create a pull quote, click Insert —> ‘Text Box’ and choose a style. Copy and paste some catchy text from the body of your document into the box. Move it into position on the page by selecting it and dragging it. To change its look, select it, go to ‘Drawing Tools’ —> Format and click ‘Change Shape’, and ‘Shape Fill’ or ‘Shape Outline’ to change its colours.

Three handy DTP features in Word

1. To ensure that you use publisher’s quotes rather than plain quotes, select File —> Options —> Proofing —> ‘AutoCorrect Options’. Click ‘Auto Format As You Type’ and enable the checkbox for ‘Straight quotes’ with ‘smart quotes’. This ensures that whenever you type quotation marks, they’re automatically converted to rounded marks.

2. To add a cover page to your document, go to Insert —> ‘Cover Page’ and select a cover page to use. Cover page objects can be edited, so you can change their colour or replace the image. Use theme colours so the colours update if you change the theme.

3. You can instantly change your document’s look using styles. From the Home tab, select ‘Change Styles’ —> ‘Style Set’ and mouse over the various sets to determine what looks best for your document. Choose the style set and then modify the individual styles to get a custom look, if desired.