Microsoft Publisher 2002 (MP2) is a desktop publisher that requires a Pentium 133 MHz (or better), Win 98/NT (or better), 128 M of RAM (for unimpeded processing), 290 M of Hard Drive, and an Internet connection for updates and other Microsoft support information available at the MS web site.

The MP2 package comes with two CDs: one with the MP2 software the other, called Microsoft Office XP Media Content, contains a wealth of graphics, animated graphics, photos and sound files. The MP2 software installed easily on my computer with MS XP. However, I tried s installing the complete 2nd CD, but the installation stopped at two files. The first stoppage was cleared up after several tries. The second stoppage, at the file j0074715.wav, could not be cleared and the installation was aborted. I opted for a typical installation, which was successful.

A desktop publisher may be thought of as an expanded word processor. Most of the modern word processors can do almost all the things a desktop publisher can do. Thus, for letters and even publishing jobs, a word processor serves the purpose. As a matter of fact, I produced our entire BPCA news letter using Microsoft Word, a while back, when circumstances forced this. I also produced a later issue using an older version of Publisher. Both issues were excellently on par with the standard newsletter outputs and indistinguishable from each other in so far as which software produced which.

However, a publisher facilitates complex document formatting and outputs by providing numerous document templates, formatting functions and tools which allow one to: a) initiate any publishing job with more of it completed by its software at the start than is similarly completed by processor software; b) allow a more flexible page design than is obtainable with a word processor; c) easily create artistic outputs which are much more professional looking than those done with a processor.

MP2 is a full-fledged professional desktop publisher that is designed to be used not only by businesses, small and large, but by any organizations or home users that require producing business forms, catalogs, flyers, brochures, letterheads, banners, calendars, posters, business cards, index cards, greeting cards, etc. It has professional publication templates, numerous pieces of clip art, photographs, fonts, sounds, and animated .GIF's.

This software comes with a wealth to wizards that, for each type of output, lead a user (even a novice) through a series of steps from beginning to end. In the creation of a product, this software takes a user from the product's concept ... through a sequence of steps that produce the detailed elements comprising the particular product ... and finally through the elements required for color commercial or desktop printing. Choosing a multicolor design for a publication is greatly facilitated by more than 8,500 (quoted) coordinated color-scheme suggestions that can be customized. The MP2 package even contains advice and full facilities for designing a web site.

One disappointment is the manual that comes with MP2. Aside from propagating a grammatical mistake ("Who are you talking to?", pg. 25, and also in the manual of the previous MP Ver. 2000), this manual is smaller and contains less information, especially software operation information (such information is left to the MP2 'Help' utility). Worst of all, the MP2 manual has no index. There is no information on the full use of the Media-Content CD. Another element I missed in MP2 was a hard copy of a clip-art catalog. Any software with as many clips as has MP2 requires such a catalog to make clips truly user-friendly.

In changing text, MP2 showed each text style directly, which tremendously facilitates one's choice or change of font. Also, there is a convenient zoom button to flip quickly between a required near-look, for changing the design of a given feature, and a global-look, for viewing the overall aesthetic effect of the change.

I easily produced a number of published, eight-page news letters, starting from scratch with my pre-designed templates, formatting each page with various sized text frames, flowing text from one frame to another, adding graphics, and finally printing original copies of each newsletter on an inkjet, for a commercial printer.

All in all, MP2, with its large bundle of publication templates and design utilities, allows a self-trained designer to produce many types of publications professionally. But especially for home users and novices, MP2 needs better documentation.