July 27, 2005

I'm trying to beat the system...
But I'm not succeeding. I am very close to becoming a computer geek, I think. I'm doing promotional stuff in Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Word (yes, Word is a rather powerful graphics program but few people use it for more than a word processor). There are glitches in the template part of the software. I want a background that will "fill" the full page - edge to edge. The program has it built in to NOT do that because paper sizes are not uniform, nor are templates and software for various paper companies (an Avery paper card is sized slightly different than another brand).So - I'm trying to skirt this issue by changing margins, borders, expanding text boxes, removing gutters, removing edge placement...sigh. Its not working. The best I've been able to accomplish is 1/8 of an inch of white space all around the paper. Gah. I'm making bookmarks with card stock. I can fit five 2.20" bookmarks on one sheet. The only problem is - the two outer bookmarks have that 1/8" white space...one on the left of the left one and one on the right of the right one. The 3 middle bookmarks are perfect - no white space at all. What I'm trying to do is make fewer cuts. If I have five bookmarks, that's 4 cuts. But the problem with the white space is two of the bookmarks need it cut off. Easy, you say, so do it. Except now the 2 outer bookmarks are NOT the same size as the other 3! Uniformity is gone. If I make a smaller bookmark (like 4 instead of five), then I have to waste paper. I'm having the same problem with the postcards, but curiously, not the business cards. Ahhh, well. I suppose I'll have to do the extra cuts and make them only 4 instead of three. Sigh.Off to geekdom to see if I can figure it out.