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Microsoft Office Publisher 2003 version comparison

Compare the features and benefits of Publisher 2003 with previous versions.

In this article

Create impressive marketing materials for print, Web, and e-mail

Professional design, done in-house

Work smarter and easier with familiar Microsoft Office tools

Create impressive marketing materials for print, Web, and e-mail

Print publications on your desktop printer or take them to a commercial printer, or create online marketing materials for the Web or e-mail.

KEY:
= Feature Included = Improved = New

New and improved ways to create publications

Feature	Publisher 2000	Publisher 2002	Publisher 2003
Catalog Merge Merge text and pictures from a data source such as Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access to create a merged publication, which you can easily update when content in the data source changes. Merge multiple records into a single publication.
CD/DVD Labels Includes eight new design templates for CD or DVD labels and case inserts. v
Personal Stationery Sets Eight Personal Stationery Sets include address labels, letterhead, and matching envelopes.
Greeting cards and invitations Includes a greatly improved collection of professionally designed greeting cards and invitations with combinations of verses, layouts, colors, and designs.
Quick Publication Wizard Publication type for creating quick and easy single-page designs and layout options.
Catalog Wizard Publication type for creating eight-page catalogs and booklets with numerous catalog page layout options.

New and improved e-mail support

Feature	Publisher 2000	Publisher 2002	Publisher 2003
E-mail wizards Six e-mail wizards, including Newsletter, Letter, Event, Activity, Product List, and Featured Product. Includes support for all 45 Master Sets.
E-mail message viewing Recipients can view e-mail messages not only in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Express, but also in popular e-mail clients and Web-based services such as Microsoft Hotmail, and AOL Mail.
Send e-mail messages Send Publisher 2003 files as e-mail messages using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Outlook Express 5.0 (or later).
Send e-mail attachments Send Publisher 2003 files as e-mail attachments.

Web support

Feature	Publisher 2000	Publisher 2002	Publisher 2003
Web site wizards Includes four wizards: Easy Web Site Builder, Three-Page Web Site, Product Sales, and Professional Services.
Web page templates Includes 26 templates—such as Photo Gallery, Products, Project List, or Services—so you can add pages to your site quickly.
Incremental Web site upload Upload only the changes that were made to a publication that has already been posted to a Web server.
Web navigation bars Microsoft Publisher 2002 let users add, delete, and change the design. Publisher 2003 provides much greater flexibility—add and remove links and secondary navigation bars.
Web view The Web view editing environment changes significantly from the Publisher 2002 print editing environment. Changes include: Default page size and zoom settings. A visual display for viewing Web pages in a browser. Object rendering. A toolset designed specifically for Web authoring.

New and improved commercial printing support

Feature	Publisher 2000	Publisher 2002	Publisher 2003
CMYK Composite Postscript Create process-color—or cyan-magenta-yellow-black (CMYK)—composite postscript files, which is a feature highly requested by commercial printers and makes it easier for you to get your Publisher 2003 publications commercially printed.
Advanced print settings Create separations directly from the Print dialog box, including converting spot colors to process colors.
Improvements in color conversions Convert spot to process color. Convert process to spot color. Convert RGB (red-green-blue) to CMYK or spot color.
Design Checker Use the enhanced Design Checker task pane to identify and fix potential desktop printing, commercial press, and Web site problems before you print or publish.
Graphics Manager Use the enhanced Graphics Manager task pane to view graphic size and file extensions quickly.
Spot Color	Up to 3	Up to 12	Up to 12
Process plus Spot Color
Support for PANTONE Colors
Pack and Go Wizard Prepare your file to take to another computer or to a commercial printer. The wizard embeds TrueType fonts and gathers graphics.
Font Manager
Font Substitution
Graphics compression and handling
Page Setup dialog box Publisher 2003 combines Print Setup and Page Setup for simplicity.

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Professional design, done in-house

Publisher 2003 gives you all the help you need for professional results — from customizable design templates with color and font schemes, to blank publications, to sophisticated typography and page layout tools. Use one of the ten new Master Design Sets (for a total of 45), or get additional templates from Templates on Microsoft Office Online.

KEY:
= Feature Included = Improved = New

New and improved design and layout

Feature	Publisher 2000	Publisher 2002	Publisher 2003
Multiple master pages Repeat background design and layout elements on multiple pages in a publication.	Left and right master pages only	Left and right master pages only
Baseline alignment and guides Baseline guides improve the appearance of text by aligning text across multiple columns and evenly spacing text in columns. You can also align text to a baseline guide.
Save As Picture Select the desired image resolution when saving publication elements as an image. Choose resolutions for the Web at 96 dots per inch (DPI), desktop printing at 150 DPI, or commercial printing at 300 DPI.
Master Design Sets An expanded collection of Master Design Sets—coordinating sets of common business publications—can help you project a consistent business identity across all your marketing materials.	Includes 20 sets	Includes 35 sets	Includes 45 sets
Page Sorter Easily move, add, or delete pages, or rename Web pages—as you do in other Microsoft Office programs.	For page navigation only	For page navigation only
Layout Guides The improved Layout Guides dialog box includes the following tabs: Margin Guides, Grid Guides, and Baseline Guides.
Dragging Inline Objects Publisher 2003 supports dragging inline objects using the left mouse button. Publisher 2002 required using the right mouse button to drag in-line objects.
Insert an empty picture frame Insert an empty picture frame. Or insert pictures from clip art, a file, or a scanner or camera.
Move ruler guides Drag horizontal and vertical ruler guides directly from the ruler for more precise object alignment. (In Publisher 2002 and Microsoft Publisher 2000, press CTRL+SHIFT to move ruler guides.)
Zoom and pan improvements Zoom in to 800 percent in Publisher 2003; zoom in to 400 percent in Publisher 2002 and Publisher 2000. Drag the page around, or zoom in on a particular area.
Color schemes Choose from more than 60 professionally-coordinated color schemes that you can apply to your publication.
Font schemes Choose from sets of professionally coordinated fonts, such as fonts for headings or body text.

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Work smarter and easier with familiar Microsoft Office tools

Publisher 2003 looks and works more than ever like other Microsoft Office programs. This makes it easier for you to take advantage of your experience and knowledge while still selecting the right Microsoft Office tool for the task, even if you are new to Publisher 2003.

KEY:
= Feature Included = Improved = New

Consistency across Microsoft Office programs

Feature	Publisher 2000	Publisher 2002	Publisher 2003
Paragraph formatting Paragraph options include Line and Paragraph Breaks with Widow/Orphan control.
Paragraph dialog box A Paragraph dialog box (on the Format menu) combines features from two dialog boxes found in previous versions.
Research task pane Quickly reference information online and on your computer while using Publisher 2003. Insert definitions, stock quotes, and information from an encyclopedia, a dictionary, and translation resources.
Templates on Microsoft Office Online Download templates from Templates on Office Online. Save the templates you create or download them to the Publisher 2003 template directory and then display them in the New Publication task pane.
Clip Art and Media on Office Online Download additional images, photographs, and media elements from Office Clip Art and Media, available directly from the Clip Art task pane.
Find and Replace Find and Replace—in a task pane in Publisher 2003—includes support for finding and replacing text across multiple text boxes or the entire publication.
Bullets and Numbering Use a new Word-like menu item for Bullets and Numbering. In previous versions of Publisher, Bullets and Numbering appeared under a menu item, Indents and Lists.
Thesaurus Introduced in Publisher 2002 and moved to the task pane in Publisher 2003.
Windows SharePoint Services Save Publisher 2003 files in the same manner as other Office files when working with Web folders and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services sites.
Task panes Consistent with other Office programs: Office Clipboard, Styles and Formatting, Insert Clip Art, Search, Mail Merge, Research
Properties option in the File menu Before saving a Publisher 2003 file as a template, add a Category description, such as "real estate" to define your own template categories in the New Publication task pane.
Print Preview
Inline graphics support
Tables
Application error reporting
Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) support
Quick access to Help with the Type a question for help box
Mail Merge A shared feature with Word, Mail Merge now supports Catalog Merge.
Headers and footers
Customizable toolbars
Picture toolbar
OfficeArt Includes AutoShapes and WordArt.
Open multiple documents at once
Office Clipboard
Format Format objects, pictures, text boxes, and AutoShapes.
Smart tags Publisher 2003 includes smart tags for the AutoCorrect Options... command (on the Tools menu) and the Paste command (on the Edit menu).
Speech support
Handwriting support
Background Save and AutoRecover
Horizontal rules
Insert ClipArt
Office Assistant
Formatting and standard toolbars
Background spelling checker Includes a shared dictionary.
AutoFormat and AutoCorrect
Multi-level undo
AutoFit Text

File compatibility

Feature	Publisher 2000	Publisher 2002	Publisher 2003
Operating system support	Microsoft Windows 95 or later; Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 or later	Microsoft Windows 98 or later, and Windows NT	Microsoft Windows 2000 or later
Share your Publisher 2003 files Share with Publisher 2002 users (same file format).
Save as Picture Publisher 2003 supports .jpg, .gif, .tif, .bmp, .png, .wmf, .emf file formats.
Save as a Postscript file
Share your files Publisher 2003 shares the same file format as Publisher 2002, making it easy to share files. Use Save As file formats to share files with Publisher 2000 or Publisher 98 users.
Save as Word, Works, or WordPerfect Save text only in Word or Microsoft Works or Corel WordPerfect formats.

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