Guides

To help you precisely arrange objects on a page, you can use guides. The guides come in two forms. Layout guides are blue and green, and define the margins and column boundaries. Ruler guides are green and can be added anywhere on a page. It is important to use these guides to that your publication does not look “sloppy” and unprofessional.

To change the layout guides (margins), choose Arrange à Layout Guides… You can adjust the top, bottom, left and right margins, and even set up a grid of rows and columns. Note that these guides do not prevent you from adding objects outside the lines; they serve only as a tool to help you design your layout.

Snap-to

The Snap-to option makes it easy to align objects. When it is enabled, guides and boundaries have a magnet-like pull on nearby objects.

You can enable or disable three different Snap-to options from the Arrange menu. Snap to Ruler Marks makes the cursor stay on 1/8 inch ruler marks. Snap to Guides causes the mouse pointer to “jump to” the guides when it is close. Snap to Objects makes it easy for one object to touch another.

Why is the Snap-to feature useful?

Show / Hide Boundaries and Guides

Microsoft Publisher does not have a print preview option, and sometimes it is difficult to envision your publication when it is cluttered with layout guides and text frame boundaries. You can show and hide these guides by pressing Ctrl + Shift + O.