Locked lesson.
About this lesson
Create a manual of products with corresponding pictures.
Lesson versions
Multiple versions of this lesson are available, choose the appropriate version for you:
2016, 2019/365.
Quick reference
Creative Ideas - Catalog
A Catalog is a manual of products with corresponding pictures. It uses the same concept to create as the Mail Merge process.
When to use
Creating a catalog mimics a mail merge in that it uses a database of information that you create and can include pictures of products. The final layout is determined by your own particular preferences.
Instructions
- Start with a Blank publication, then click “Insert”
, Catalog Pages
- Click Add List
, then choose from the 3 options:
- For this exercise, start by selecting “Type a New List”
- Enter the base information into the blank database template:
- Add or delete columns as needed by clicking the “Customize Columns” button at the bottom of the database screen:
- Because Catalogs generally include product photos, the “Picture” field is a common feature in the database, but there is no “Browse” button to click to the picture location.
- You will have to find the picture location in the SEARCH section of your computer, then copy/paste the location into the database.
- BE SURE to include the picture file type on this line or it won’t work.
i.e.: .JPG or .TIF or .PNG
- After you have entered the product data, you will SAVE the database.
- If you need to edit anything you will have to select the name of the Data Source, then click EDIT.
- If you need to edit anything you will have to select the name of the Data Source, then click EDIT.
- The entire ribbon will be active at this point and you can finish the catalog project:
- To merge product information into the Catalog pages, click the “Text Field” button and arrange the fields to your preference.
- This is a good time to also format the font of the Text Fields.
- Be careful not to delete the arrows on either side of the text field or it won’t find the corresponding database entry.
- To include a picture with the catalog items, click the “Picture Field” button and place the field to your preference.
Note: if pictures do not appear as expected, confirm the database contains the correct file location of each picture as well as the file type extension: .JPG or .TIF or .PNG - To arrange the entire catalog, click the Layout gallery and choose a layout of your preference.
- When the fields are all in place, click the “Merge to New” button and review the catalog for any changes or edits, then Print the finished catalog.
- 00:04 This lesson's going to show you how to create a catalog of your products with
- 00:08 pictures.
- 00:09 So we're gonna double-click a blank publication.
- 00:12 Right in here we're gonna go to Insert and click Catalog Pages.
- 00:17 My title page remains single but
- 00:18 as you can see the Catalog Pages look like they're stacked.
- 00:22 I also have a new option right over here that says Catalog Merge Area.
- 00:26 If I click there and zoom in, it basically gives you a definition of what's
- 00:30 gonna happen here, and notice up on top I have a Catalog Tools ribbon.
- 00:34 When I click on Format,
- 00:35 everything is grayed out except the very first option that says Add List.
- 00:39 This is going to be your product list as well as pictures.
- 00:42 When I click that,
- 00:43 I can Type a New one Use an Existing or Choose from Outlook Contacts.
- 00:47 I'll go ahead and type a new one so you can see what happens.
- 00:50 Right here we have Product, Description, ID, Price, Picture.
- 00:53 You can absolutely customize this and maybe I wanna add a new one,
- 00:57 I'd like to put the size in there.
- 00:59 So I hit OK and I could of course move it up or
- 01:02 down and click OK and there we have our new field right there.
- 01:06 So these are database fields.
- 01:08 Now I'm gonna enter in base level information, but
- 01:10 I want to explain to you about the picture part.
- 01:13 So first of all, I'm gonna expand this.
- 01:15 At no point does it give me a browse button so
- 01:17 I can browse my way to the picture.
- 01:19 I actually have to go to my file,
- 01:22 my file system, and surf my way to the pictures from here.
- 01:28 So I have a file I'm sorry, called Japan flowers.
- 01:33 Now I went in through my Windows Explorer system.
- 01:37 I can click on this address bar right here and copy this, but
- 01:40 notice it didn't give me the name of the actual flower.
- 01:43 So this is Japan flowers 1,
- 01:45 I've gotta type that in afterwards along with the file type.
- 01:49 So I'll go ahead and click back here, I'll just paste that,
- 01:53 put a backslash and it was called Japan, spell it correctly,
- 01:59 JapanFlowers1.dot jpg.
- 02:03 If you should forget to put the file type, it will never find that picture.
- 02:08 So it's a little in-depth, it's a little awkward, but
- 02:12 you have to actually go outside of Publisher to go get the file location and
- 02:18 then back into Publisher and paste it and type it.
- 02:21 So, all right, I'm gonna finish filling out my information.
- 02:26 I have the information in here so I'm gonna go ahead and hit OK.
- 02:29 It is going to ask me to save it.
- 02:31 So I'll save it.
- 02:32 I'll name the database, and there it is.
- 02:34 At this point, I can uncheck any particular ones I don't want to include in
- 02:38 the catalog, I can sort these, I can filter these.
- 02:42 I cannot edit from this screen, though.
- 02:44 No matter how much I wanna type here,
- 02:46 I have to click on the name of it, click Edit.
- 02:49 Now I can come in here and edit or make any changes.
- 02:52 Just wanted to point that out to you.
- 02:53 All right, I'll go ahead and click OK, and let's go ahead and finish this.
- 02:56 Now, notice that the ribbon has all, everything has lit up on here, and so
- 03:01 I can change the way the entire catalog page is going to appear.
- 03:08 Now the items that are on here are simply your suggestions or suggestions for you.
- 03:13 So basically,
- 03:14 you've gotta put in the merge field to go find that matching field in the database.
- 03:18 So I'll go ahead and click on Text Field here and I'll click Product and
- 03:22 it put it right over here in its own little placeholder box.
- 03:26 You have full control to move these around,
- 03:28 to move everything around that you want, okay?
- 03:32 So you're not stuck with anything here.
- 03:34 So there's my product and now I can have the size and
- 03:37 I can move that whereever I want.
- 03:40 And I'll just keep continuing, continue going through these.
- 03:45 I guess the important thing to point out to you, though, is if at any time,
- 03:48 if you've gotta delete any of these, make sure not to delete these little arrows.
- 03:53 Those are called chevrons, and if you delete that arrow right there,
- 03:57 you're gonna be stuck with the word Size on every one of them instead of the actual
- 04:02 merged field from your database.
- 04:05 Another thing I did after I put those in was I actually increased the Font size, so
- 04:10 you can actually just see it better.
- 04:12 Now the last thing I want to do here is actually put in the pictures.
- 04:16 So at the picture field, I'll go ahead and put the picture and there it is.
- 04:20 And of course,
- 04:21 take a little look at what's going on over here on the left-hand side.
- 04:24 As I made that block bigger, the picture got bigger.
- 04:26 All right, alls I have to do at this point is finish and Merge to New.
- 04:30 Now this will merge to a new, brand new, publication.
- 04:34 Before I do that,
- 04:35 if I wanna change my layout, I can come right over here, change the layout.
- 04:39 It's going to keep all my fields in place,
- 04:40 it's just going to adjust the layout a little bit.
- 04:43 Let's go ahead and hit the Merge to New.
- 04:45 I get a brand new publication on my screen.
- 04:48 Move that into view for you, and take a look.
- 04:50 There is my catalog with everything in there.
- 04:53 All right.
- 04:54 So that's basically how you create your own catalog.
- 04:57 You're in full control of the layout, so don't be afraid.
- 05:00 And come right back into the next video.
- 05:02 We're gonna add one more thing to this whole concept.
- 05:05 Thank you.
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