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Microsoft Publisher 2010: create email Template with flexible height

Anonymous
2011-10-28T17:24:55+00:00

I would like to create a simple email newsletter template in Publisher, with a header graphic, an article and a footer graphic. The thing I'd like to have is a "flexible" height, so that the article can be any length, and the footer will stay positioned at the bottom of the article.

I understand that Publisher is "print-oriented" in that it generally works with fixed-sized layouts, but web pages and emails can typically be a variable height, since you can just scroll through them.

I notice that the blank web page or email by default is a very tall layout, so maybe this is the recommended way to handle this issue. Also, looking at available templates, it looks like email newsletters typically have short areas for articles to be of a specific length.

Is there a way to set up a "smart" template that can have a footer graphic anchored to the bottom of a text box, no matter how long that text box is, and then the layout can be cropped at this height when it is sent as an email?

A little background: I am trying to determine a best way to make email newsletter templates using Office Products. It has worked pretty well using Word for the layout, sending in Outlook, but many features in Publisher seem a little better for this. It appears Word can handle this flexible height issue better than Publisher, so I may stick to using Word.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-10-29T13:42:07+00:00

    If you add content to a Publisher page, it does not 'push down' the content below like in Word. If you add more text than can be displayed in a text box you have to either enlarge the text box or link it to another text box. And if you lengthen a text box then you have to manually move everything below it to make room including a 'footer grahphic', or in other words move the 'picture box' down to make room for the additional text.

    One option you could consider is to insert your footer image 'inline' in a text box. It will then move with text within that text box much as it would in Word.

    Web pages templates are by default very long because when you convert them to html Publisher will automatically truncate the page after the last design element creating a custom length page. I don't have Outlook 2010 installed so I cannot test this but given that the email templates are also longer than you will probably ever use at 66 inches, I think they are also truncated after the last design element on the page when they are sent as a html formatted email message in the body of the email. They certainly are truncated if you convert them to html.  However if you convert the email template to a pdf file it produces a page 66 inches long. So if you are using the email template and want to convert to pdf you would want to change the length of the page after you have finished the design and page layout and before you converted it to pdf.

    Bottom line is if you want everything to be automatically pushed down on a page then you should probably stick with Word. Publisher is better at page layout but you have to move the design elements around manually.

    DavidF

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-10-31T14:42:14+00:00

    Thanks David for the helpful response. It looks like I can find a workaround with inline elements in the text boxes and leaving the page layout long, because it looks like it does truncate automatically.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-10-31T14:38:26+00:00

    Thanks Raju for the helpful links, particularly the template guidelines. I was looking for some good specifications like that.

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