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Microsoft Publisher

Score7.4 out of 10

45 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Microsoft Publisher?

Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application available with an Office 365 subscription, or as a standalone download.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Microsoft Publisher.
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Usability Review of Microsoft Publisher

Incentivized
Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

we are using Microsoft Publisher for our day-to-day activities in our project like making banners and printing it on very high resolution scale. Our project has multiple requirement for banners and promotions, pamphlets and brochures making. We also have invitation letters and editing of documents related work involved. Publisher is one of the best software being used with a Microsoft Office license in our organisation.

Pros

  • Microsoft Publisher is just like Word, but Publisher, give much more features like multi page printing of single image and banner
  • We have faced very much difficulties for picture control in Microsoft Word, but Microsoft Publisher has much advanced picture. Control features with multiple alignment and distortion correction function.
  • We are also using Publisher for big banners for streets for promotion of our products, which is helping us on a very large scale advertisement with in-house design, designing, and printing of large banners easily

Cons

  • Publisher should must improve UI as it is familiar like Microsoft Word and not very much different from Word, Publisher can change UI and add multiple automation functions for banners and image designing
  • Templates and drafts can be much more improved as it has a very limited template and designs when it comes to picking pre-built projects

Return on Investment

  • we have invested on our Microsoft license for our team and that has made a very big productivity for making banners and holdings for our projects as making it from third party would cost much higher and the return is very well over the comparison with third-party vendors
  • Functionality is very easy, so we don’t have to train much to get it in production and use it efficiently so we don’t have to invest much on training and learning things and we can work on it directly with a very basic knowledge as well
  • It has functionality to get stored and share things directly to the OneDrive and using curated links, which is very secure and reliable to transfer files without losing picture and banners quality and share them in lossless quality.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Canva and Adobe Express

Other Software Used

Adobe Express, Canva, Microsoft 365

Professional Content Creation in MS Office

Incentivized
Verified User
Employee in Human Resources (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Microsoft Publisher to create high standard documents and infographics for sharing department- or company-wide. It gives a more professional look than Microsoft Word when the document is more flow or picture based, rather than pure written content.

Pros

  • Professional presentation
  • Infographics
  • Internal communication documents
  • Event information

Cons

  • Finding the right template
  • Unable to edit WordArt

Return on Investment

  • No extra fee as included within MS Office 365 suite.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Powerpoint and Canva

Other Software Used

Canva

Robb's Not Real Impressed With Micorosft Publisher

Incentivized
Robb Auspitz
Owner in Marketing at Groovy Hemp Company LLC (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use it for business cards, flyers, newsletters, and other lightweight desktop publishing projects. Microsoft Publisher is OK for quick and easy desktop publishing projects. It's useful because we have a lot of Microsoft Publisher boilerplate built up over the years so we can just take a previous project and repurpose it. When used that way it's time-efficient and cost-effective. It is not our first choice for new projects that demands detail and real creative energy.

Pros

  • Business cards
  • Internal memos that use a logo or a little bit of design.
  • Quick and simple flyers for internal events.

Cons

  • Formatting in general. It's a pain to refine a layout in Publisher in my opinion.
  • Microsoft is so invested in their approach to software and making it look and feel like an Office 365 application that they inadvertantly cripple applications like Publisher.
  • Earlier versions of Publisher gave you a lot more latitude and creative freedom. They were also much easier to work with. Not everything has to look like it's part of Office 365. They did the same ... thing to Access.

Most Important Features

  • It's very cheap since it is part of Office 365.
  • Since we have years of experience with Publisher and a lot of boilerplate, we can turn some documents over quickly.
  • Because it is part of Office 365 we have familiarity with the interface.

Return on Investment

  • It's a sunk cost so on easy projects there's a positive ROI.
  • Because it's not very good at creating long and/or complex documents we needed to obtain other applications to create long and/or complex documents.
  • It's just so not essential to what we do that the positive or negative ROI is negligible.

Alternatives Considered

QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Acrobat Reader DC, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe InDesign

Simple Program that Creates Fantastic Results!

Incentivized
Ashley Vogler
Executive Assistant at Spiegelglass Construction (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Microsodt Publisher to create quick signs or flyers. As a construction company, there is always something that we need to create quickly that is specific to one job or client. This program allows me to create and save templates that I can customize to each job, or I can start from scratch and put something together in minutes that looks professional for our client.

Pros

  • Importing photos to insert into flyers or documents.
  • Creating quick signs for either directions or safety at jobsites so the superintendents can have them right away.
  • There is a wealth of pre-loaded shapes, fonts, and clip arts that allows for a professional looking document without having to have a graphic design degree to figure it out.

Cons

  • Overall I don't have any issues using this program.

Most Important Features

  • The ability to import photos and logos for each specific client.
  • The ease of adding text boxes, images, etc. to create balanced and professional-looking flyers or brochures.
  • The ability to import client-specific fonts/colors in order to personalize to each individual job.
  • The ability to create and save templates for use on future projects.

Return on Investment

  • I have been able to create flyers and brochures that in the past we sent out to a marketing company and spent a ton of money on something I was able to do myself in minutes.
  • The quick and simple user experience has allowed us to create signs that are designed to keep people safe on our job sites. This is important because we take safety very seriously and sometimes need to be able to produce these signs in a matter of minutes so that the superintendent can safely mark off areas to avoid.
  • The program has taken the place of Word and Excel in many cases to make documents like proposals look more balanced and professional.

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365 Business Premium

Great for basic needs

Incentivized
Amanda CarpenterView profile
Administrative Office Technician at Lebanon Campus of Harrisburg Area Community College (1001-5000 employees employees)

Pros

  • The templates are great
  • It’s very user friendly for anyone familiar with Microsoft suite
  • It’s easier to manipulate images on your workspace than using Microsoft word

Cons

  • More options or more blank templates

Most Important Features

  • User friendly
  • Easy to master
  • Comes with the Microsoft suite

Return on Investment

  • It’s just been helpful to create some basic documents

Alternatives Considered

Adobe InDesign

Other Software Used

Microsoft Access, Adobe InDesign