I like to design brochures, posters, banners, etc. do you feel I can successfully do this without design software?

Hi there, I'm not sure I understand your question - can you please elaborate?
If you are already designing these things then you must have some kind of software on hand to assist in the production, yes?

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You would be amazed at what you can do in Microsoft Word. I can almost make anything.

I agree you can do many things in Word. lol (including calcs - always remember the day I figured that out! LOL)

I am not a graphic designer so hopefully someone else will chime in too. I kind of think it might be at least interesting to branch out a little into something like MS Publisher or an Adobe product if you can swing it - just to see what they're all about. Something that gives greater flexibility when it comes to manipulating images or overall layout. Open Office has a good desktop publishing program too similar to Publisher, & it's free.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my main issue with Word is that you can't (that I'm aware of anyhow) create graphics & then save them as an image... so if I'm doing a logo or something that I know needs to be an image I'll use Adobe first, but Publisher does work too.

This is just my experience & two cents though.

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shana
www.shanafore.com

I would suggest checking with printers to see what software they can work with. I tried to get something printed one time that was designed in Publisher, and the printers really balked!

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~Cindy
www.FiveToNineOfficeSolutions.com

Me too! You'd think that a Microsoft Office Suites product would be popular with printers, but not necessarily so. I had to convert my Publisher project to pdf for the printer.
Janet

pamdac - I worked with a very smart woman once who was like you in that she did astounding things on Word.
BUT, it takes longer, doesn't save conveniently (as noted above), and has none of the professional capabilities of a graphics software. You won't go far without making this investment.
Besides, if you're interested in graphics, you owe it to yourself to get good tools and let your creativity explode!

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com