If you are running a business of yours or are a freelancer then you want to spread your business by letting people know you and by letting people remember you. Both of these can be easily done by your business cards. Business cards are really useful for people to know about your business or to contact you anytime. You can go to a publisher or printing office and can get a card designed and printed for yourself but would it not be good if you can do it by yourself. The printer models available these days are quite smart and capable of printing on all sorts of media and business card is one of them. You can install some application like Adobe InDesign to make these cards but such software will cost you money. And purchasing software just for creating your business card doesn’t sound realistic or practical. Microsoft probably keeping this user requirement in mind has given some free tools to design and print the business card.
In Windows Vista there is no Business card designing tool available but it is available in Microsoft’s Office suit. Microsoft Office is an application package is likely to be installed on your computer and if it is fully installed then you should also have Microsoft Publisher in it. Microsoft office publisher is the application which can be used for designing and printing Business cards in Windows Vista.
To start Publisher we can click on the Start Menu and then All programs. In all programs list look for Microsoft office and then open Microsoft Office Publisher. In case the shortcut is not available in the Start menu then it can be opened by its executable file directly. This can be done by Opening the Computer window and then opening the C Drive. In C Drive open the folder named Microsoft Office. In Microsoft Office open the folder depending upon the version of Office Installed. If it is Office then 2007 then open Office12 folder. In Office 12 folder look for the file named MSPUB.EXE. MSPUB.EXE is the executable file for Microsoft Office Publisher and double clicking on this will start the application which we need to design the business cards.
Once the application opens click on File and then on New. It will give you a long list of publication types which you can create like, Advertisements, Banners, Business Cards, Envelopes, Flyers, Labels, Letterheads, Postcards, and Resumes etc. Since we have to create a business card so please click on Business card category and then you will get many predefined templates for Business Cards. You can choose the design or base layout from these templates and click on open. Once you open it gets opened in editable mode and all the text labels present there can be edited and personalised. All the base colours and the colour schemes can be changed and you can use the colours you prefer. You can also add the logo of your company if any by going to the Insert Menu and clicking on Picture. If you want you can start designing your business card without using any template on a blank white background. All you need to know is how your business card should look like and rest will be done by the designer in you.
