Which Program?

Which Program Should I Use?

Here is a helpful article from Microsoft's Office Online to help you decide which program you should use.
Word or Publisher: Choose the best tool for the job

For many of us, Word is the air that we breathe. We use word processing programs to accomplish nearly every task we perform on a computer, from letters and memos to longer documents, such as legal publications and research papers. However, a word processor, even one as multi-faceted and robust as Word, is not designed to easily create the more graphical and layout intensive publications required for professional-looking business and marketing communications. Though you can create many of the same publications in Word, Publisher is designed to provide flexible and precise page layout and design, with the additional advantages of design assistance and automation. You'll never replace Word, but you might add Publisher to your business publication toolbox.

At a glance

Word and Publisher were designed to provide specific document and content solutions. You'll save time if you choose the application designed specifically for the tasks you're trying to accomplish.

If you want to create	Use this program	Why?
Graphically rich print and e-mail newsletters	Publisher	Precise control over positioning text with images and other design elements.
Graphically rich catalogs	Publisher	Pre-designed catalog publications and the Mail and Catalog Merge Wizard.
Greeting cards	Publisher	Greeting card types and designs you can customize for all your business and personal needs.
Consistently branded business communications and marketing materials	Publisher	Master Design Sets that create a coordinated look and feel for your company letterhead, business cards, brochures, and labels.
Posters or banners	Publisher	Poster and banner designs with easy width and height choices to match your needs.
3 or 4- panel brochures or flyers	Publisher	Many designs to choose from with optional space for customer addresses, and order, response, or sign-up forms.
Business cards	Publisher	Design types to match all of your business communications and marketing materials.
Design publications to be commercially printed	Publisher	Support for large jobs that require the services of a commercial printer, including composite CMYK PostScript output and advanced print settings for better color separations.
Documents with a table of contents and index	Word	Indexing and table of contents features allow you to create a professional published document.
Long documents	Word	Features specific to research papers, business plans, or other longer documents including page numbering, footnotes, endnotes, and annotations.
Legal documents	Word	Legal document support with features such as line numbering, restricted access to sensitive documents, and checks for hidden text.
Short, simple documents (memos or letters)	Word	Templates and Wizards that allow you to choose style and function, as well as content for the documents you write every day.
Document sharing and collaboration	Word	Document Workspaces allow colleagues to work together on documents by using task lists, using links to resource materials, and storing related or supporting documents in a document library.
Handwritten notes and comments	Word	With Tablet PC ink features, you can take handwritten notes or mark up Word documents.
Documents with XML support	Word	The Extensible Markup Language (XML) feature saves hours by allowing creation of document elements that are both searchable and reusable.
Documents requiring review or editing	Word	Change tracking, inline comments, side-by-side compare, compare and merge, compare versions, and text highlighter features support document revision and collaboration.