Microsoft Word Designer
Front cover design
TPA Town Planning Alliance – The client required a high-end Word document that was well designed but also editable by their 12 staff. By using embedded images from Photoshop into the header I was able to give the document an image bled to the edge. The editable text is style sheeted and positioned in the centre of various text boxes.
Style sheeted pages
The internal pages are style sheeted and have page breaks to prevent any unwanted flow between pages. The headers and footers give the pages a nice branded and templated logo and address and page numbers.
Can you do good design in Word?
When I first looked into using Microsoft Word for design I was sceptical about how flexible the program would be. But after researching what it could do compared to professional design programs such as InDesign, I was pleasantly surprised at how much Word had to offer and even had features that InDesign didn’t offer.
Can you place pictures and text anywhere in Word?
My preconception that Word was a cascading design of blocks of text followed by pictures then more text was all wrong.
Sure, that is the default setting but there are ways around that if you explore more of the design options.
It’s just a simple matter of changing the default settings when you import an image or draw a text box.
The InDesign default is to have a floating box and the Word default is to have a wrap-around but each program allows you to changes that on each object or picture.
Using Adobe combined with Microsoft Word to make premium designs
This is where things get more interesting. By using such programs as Photoshop and Illustrator you can come up with almost any design in Word.
By making the tricky non-editable parts of the design in a program like Photoshop and then importing. and then embedding that image into Word, you can come up with unique and professional designs that are editable by the client.
Cover designs in Word
Melbourne cup poster
These cover designs are made in Illustrator, Photoshop and finished in InDesign but would have just have been easily finished off or replicated in Word, as long as you have the Adobe tools to hone the fine details.
Employee Assistance Program Poster
This poster design for BMF Advertising was designed to be used internally. This is another example of a design that could easily be replicated in Word.
Combining Adobe and Word
The background and title text would be made in Adobe and the foreground text could be made as floating and editable text
