Classroom Banners

Banners can make a great visual impact on your classroom display and will really stand out against your chosen background. They can simply be printed out from your computer and stuck together or laminated for greater durability and either hung from the ceiling or mounted on a wall.
Here are some basic instructions. Publisher can be set up to print continuously on several sheets of paper. As ever with software things vary with the edition you have, have a play and see what you can come up with. Just watch out that images and some WordArt will distort if used in very large banners.

1. Open Publisher through the “Start” menu or double click the icon on the Desktop. Click “File” and “New” from the top menus after the program has opened. Give it a relevant title and save.
2. Choose Blank Publications. From the drop down list select “Banner”. An example will appear on the right hand side of the window.
3. Select a size larger than 8.5-by-11 inches in Page Setup . You can choose up to 240″ in Publisher 2007. This will spread your banner over several pages.
4. Select a design from the examples on the right hand side. Publisher has several templates but most won’t be suitable for school. Choose “Blank” to start from scratch. (To use a template just double click it and it will appear in your banner.)
5. Left click the “Insert” and “Picture” to add a design, photo or a clip art.
6. Choose “Insert” then “Text Box” to add your text. Click the mouse where you want the box to start in the banner. Have a good play with fonts, sizes colours etc at this stage. Make sure it looks clear.
7. Select “File,” “Print,” then “Properties” to use the Landscape option to rotate your paper.
8. Choose “File” and “Print Preview” at any point during the design process to make sure everything is as you want it.
9. Only when you are really happy with the banner, print it out. You will have to stick the A4 pages together to make the banner.

Happy printing!