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Amazing feature(s) of Microsoft Publisher/Rave about my new camera

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with Bluegrass Homes & Farms Realty, Agent Know How

I am in the process of creating a fan page photo banner with Publisher. While that isn't working out as well as I had hoped, I have discovered some really cool features of Publisher. Did you know that:

  • You can select any part of your Publisher document, and save it as its own image? Just use the arrow tool that is usually there by default, and select the area. Right-click the area, and chose Save as Picture. Then you can use the format you want to use. I love PNG, but it doesn't work well for the web. JPEG does but it gets grainy looking.

 I guess I'll have to break down and use someone's Photoshop to finish the photo banner.

  • You can put a picture inside of a shape, and make it look like it's been cropped to that shape?

This is awesome, and I can show you exactly how to do it. In Publisher, choose the shape you want, even a star if that is appropriate. Keep in mind that a square picture will do better with a circle, a rectangular picture with an oval shape, etc.

Unless you have disabled it, there is a toolbar on the side with Auto Shapes on it. Otherwise, choose Format, Auto Shapes, then choose your shape.

Right click on the shape, then choose Format Auto Shape.  (Here I chose oval.) Guess what? I did this in Microsoft Word, too.

 wildflowers gatlinburg tn 

In Word, I clicked on Fill Effects - in Publisher you click on the drop down arrow Color then Fill Effects.

I can't blog this time without mentioning my new camera. While I'm sure it's nothing close to Russel Ray's "handy dandy Canon 550D (Rebel T2i)," for my own amateur purposes it exceeds my expectations. It's a Sony Cyber Shot Carl Zeiss and has 14.1 megapixels.

I chose this particular camera because my former employer, a real estate agent, years ago used a Sony Cyber Shot with 5.0 megapixels, and everyone used to brag on the great pictures in his listings. I have several Sony products so I know how great the brand is.

My husband and I bought the camera in the Smoky Mountains, and what better place to test it out? Here are some shots we took:

Smoky Mountains     Smoky Mountains 2            

The amazing thing is, these pictures were taken from a moving car!

Have an awesome weekend, and happy image editing!

Lynda

Emily Medvec
eXp Realty LLC - Santa Fe, NM
Broker | Realtor | Serving Santa Fe & Northern NM

Your resource of interesting Publisher tips reminds me to re-look at the software again. Like you I got a new camera, expect it takes film no longer made by Kodak. However, I love my 1935 circa Kodak Six-16 as a reminder of how far we have come with technology.

Jan 15, 2011 01:58 PM
Randy Ostrander
Lake and Lodge Realty LLC - Big Rapids, MI
Real Estate Broker, Serving Big Rapids and West Central MI

Most software has amazing features most of us never see. Good call on sharing what you have found.

Jan 15, 2011 02:08 PM
Lynda White
Bluegrass Homes & Farms Realty, Agent Know How - Louisville, KY
Admin. Mgr., Keller Williams Realty

Emily, I still have my Polaroid 600 from the 80s and I think they still make film for it! But I never use it.

Thanks, Randy!

Jan 15, 2011 02:10 PM
John Pusa
Glendale, CA

Lynda - Excellent information and tips about microsoft publisher on new camera. Thank you for sharing a very good blog.

Jan 15, 2011 03:35 PM
Steve Scheer
Realty Oasis - Metro Brokers - Highlands Ranch, CO
Highlands Ranch Real Estate - Denver Real Estate

I may need to check out the camera, while i really liked mine, its been acting up and may be time to replace.

Jan 15, 2011 05:10 PM
Lynda White
Bluegrass Homes & Farms Realty, Agent Know How - Louisville, KY
Admin. Mgr., Keller Williams Realty

You're welcome John.

Steve, this blog post was written back in September and I forgot to publish it. I got the camera for $150 back then, but I noticed the Christmas sales had it for as low as $120. I don't know what it sells for now, but you may end up getting a deal on it.

Jan 16, 2011 08:09 AM