Microsoft Publisher
| File:Office Publisher 2007 Icon.png | |
Microsoft Publisher 2010 in Windows XP | |
| Developer(s) | Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 2007
/ November 6, 2006 |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Desktop publishing software |
| License | Microsoft Software License Terms |
| Website | Publisher Home Page |
Microsoft Publisher, officially Microsoft Office Publisher, is a desktop publishing application from Microsoft. It is an entry-level application, differing from Microsoft Word in that the emphasis is placed on page layout and design rather than text composition and proofing.
Features
Microsoft Publisher 2007 provides simple story editing with Microsoft Word 2007, but unlike Adobe InDesign & Adobe InCopy, it does not provide built in XML story board and copy-editing support. Also, unlike the core Office 2007 applications, it does not feature the Ribbon user interface.
The Microsoft Publisher trial version can be used as a viewer beyond the trial period.[1]
Market share
Publisher has a relatively smaller market share in the desktop publishing market, which is dominated by Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress.[2] Publisher has historically been less well-liked among high-end commercial print shops, compared with other desktop publishing applications.[3] Publisher's position as an entry-level application aggravates many issues (particularly in older versions) such as fonts unavailable and embedded objects not available on service providers' machines (however, Publisher does come with tools to pack related files into a self-expanding application). Many higher end features like transparency, object shadowing, slugs, text on paths, built-in PDF output, etc. are either not fully-functional or simply unavailable (especially in previous versions). However, recent versions have greater capabilities concerning color separations and proper process coloring output. Publisher 2007 also includes the capability to output commercial press quality PDF with embedded fonts as an optional download from the Microsoft website.
Publisher is included in high-end editions of Microsoft Office. This reflects Microsoft's emphasis on Publisher as an easy to use and less expensive alternative to the "heavyweights" and also its focus on the small business market where firms do not have dedicated design professionals available to make marketing materials and other documents.[2][4]
Publisher's proprietary file format (.pub) is unsupported by most other applications, with the exception of Adobe PageMaker. Publisher supports numerous other file formats, including the Enhanced Metafile (EMF) format which is supported on Windows platforms.
Release history
| Version | Year | Microsoft Office SKU availability |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 1991 | |
| 2.0 | 1993 | |
| 3.0 (Publisher for Windows 95) | 1995 | |
| 97 | 1996 | Small Business Edition |
| 98 | 1998 | Small Business Edition 2.0 |
| 2000 | 1999 | Small Business Edition, Professional, Premium, Developer |
| 2002 | 2001 | Professional OEM, Professional Special Edition |
| 2003 | 2003 | Small Business, Professional, Professional Enterprise |
| 2007 | 2006 | Small Business, Professional, Ultimate, Professional Plus, Enterprise |
