Microsoft Publisher is a desktop publishing application available with an Office 365 subscription, or as a standalone download.
$139
one time purchase
Visually, by Rock Content
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Visually, by Rock Content acquired in 2019 with ScribbleLive, is a content marketing solution, allowing the user to get visual, video and content creation services, on demand and at scale. Visually is designed to supply the user affordable, premium quality work with creative talent, coordinated through what is described as an easy-to-use marketing collaboration product.
Microsoft Publisher is well suited for almost any situation. It is something that I'm sure has far more advanced tools than I use or am aware of, but it is also very simple for entry-level users to create professional documents quickly. I have used it for very involved brochures in real estate scenarios and I have also used it for very simple "Construction Zone" signs at a job site under construction. There are so many uses for this program!
I would be less inclined to recommend Visually to a colleague now than I would have in the past. In the past, highly skilled freelance programmers and designers were more able to get matched with potential clients. Now, things have to go through Visually and creators cannot post their independent work and get matched up independently.
The greatest shortcoming is large (300+ page documents) that require lots of internal hyperlinks. While it can do it, I can tell, due to the way it bogs down, that I am pushing the program to its limits.
I would like to be able to work better with pdf's. I would like the ability to import a pdf of a graph, picture, or some other object directly into a Publisher document. Currently, I have to first convert the pdf to a jpeg and then import the jpeg. I have not found a way around this issue.
At one point, I thought I had the option to automatically turn off hyphenation. Somewhere along the way, it seems as if the default for everything is hyphenation is turned on. I detest hyphenation and turning it off on every box I create becomes cumbersome.
More options for graphics. Particularly the defaults that allow you to place "frames" and effects around photos. More options.
It has a great feature set but does not overwhelm me with its complexity. This is not an entry-level program, but it is also not one of the top of line graphic designer programs, like Abode In-Design. I can use Publisher to do 95% of what I need to get done. The other 5% I farm out to the graphics design person in the organization. It simply works and does so in a simple to use manner.
While I have not directly used support for Microsoft Publisher, I have used their help files and found them to be useful. I have also found that most answers that I need can be found through simple web searches and chat platforms. In all though, there are very few times when the preloaded help files have not given me the answers that I need.
Microsoft Publisher is more for beginners, or for basic needs, anyone with some familiarity with the Microsoft suite should be able to use it easily. If you’re looking to create something more graphic and advanced, you’d probably want to look into something like InDesign, which is not as user friendly if you’re not familiar with it at all. For basic needs the average employee should be able to use Microsoft Publisher with ease.
I would recommend other design studios that specialize in data visualization and infographics before visually for a few reasons: - small design studios have an emphasis on the creators (who is part of the studio), whereas Visually is more of a black box because you don't know who is creating your project - Portfolio is okay, but not great, there are many other studios with better looking portfolios One way that Visually is better is that it has an impressive client list and quicker turnaround and maybe more streamlined feedback loops.
Allowed us to created our own documents/educational material for patients. In previous practices I have worked we had to buy "pamplets and brochures" which were very costly.
