If you want to design catalogs, newsletters, or professional-lookinggreeting cards but don't know where to start, Microsoft Publisher is an idealprogram for you. Continuing its user-friendly tradition, this latest version isperfect for novices and experienced users alike.

As you'd expect, Publisher 2002 fits in seamlessly with Office XP, so you'llfind features such as XP style menus and the new Task Pane and AutoCorrect toname but a few. Word users will approve of the Import wizard, as you can loaddocuments directly into Publisher and apply new fonts, styles, and color schemesat the click of a mouse button. A huge range of predefined templates areprovided, and you now get an additional 15 design sets focusing on businessstationary themes--just pick one from the Task Pane and it's loaded, ready foryour master touch. Fill effects and background choices abound, and you decidehow you want text to wrap around each object.

The Web page design tools are a mixed bag, as Publisher allows you to produceexcellent results and export them directly into HTML format. However, a lack ofcontrol over the Web page naming convention used for multipage projects, and thefact that Netscape Navigator doesn't cope well with Publisher's proprietaryXML-based code, won't impress professional designers. It's a pity that Adobe's PDFformat isn't supported either. However, while these shortcomings may makePublisher 2002 less appealing to professionals, it offers the rest of us aflying start into the world of desktop publishing.--Dave Mitchell