Instructions for Greeting Card using Word
M. Murray, October 2006
click here for PowerPoint presentation

PREPARE YOUR FOLDER AND FILE – make sure you are in Print layout view, the third button from the left at the bottom of the window.

1. Go to my documents, click on file > new > folder. Call it “Christmas card”.
2. Open a new word document. Click on File > Page set-up > Margins. Change the top and bottom margins to 0.5 inches. Change the side margins to 0.25 inches. Use your cursor instead of the down spin arrow and
   remove the "1" from 1.25 and add a 0, because the spin does not give you 0.25 as a choice. Click o.k.
3. Then click on Tools > Options > View > Print and Web Layout options > put a tick in the box for Text Boundaries and also for the vertical ruler if there isn’t one there already and click O.K. now you can see the margins of your card
4. Click on File > Save As > name it “trialcard”and save it in your new folder “Christmas card”. Then minimize the file and Word.
   

OBTAIN YOUR PICTURE AND SAVE IT TO A FILE

1. Open Internet Explorer or Google and type http://cgfa.dotsrc.org/index.html
   in the URL address line. Or use http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/index.htm
2. When you get to the CGFA home page, click on the artist index; choose to search by artist’s name. When you get to the artists’ index, scroll down to the alphabet, click on the C and look for Campin, Robert (Master of Flemalle). Of his paintings listed, click on The Nativity scene. Left Click on the picture to go from the thumbnail size to the full picture. If you cross the line at the edge of the painting into the picture with your pointer, you may get a floating tool bar with icons in the upper left hand corner that enables you to save, print or email the picture. You will save by left clicking the first button, and then indicate that you will save it (Campin1) to the Christmas card folder in My documents. (If you have trouble getting the floating tool bar or if you pick a site that doesn’t have one, then right click and choose “save image as” or “send to” then whatever folder.) Make sure you are saving it in the jpg format. Left click “save”. Now minimize the website in case you need it again.
   

INSERT THE PICTURE IN TRIAL CARD FILE

1. Maximize your word document, “trial card”, which you minimized earlier.
2. Click on “insert” on the menu bar > picture > from file, find “Campin1.jpg” in the dialogue box and click on “insert”.
3. Now you should have a thumbnail size picture in your trial card document. Click on the picture to get a dark line and solid boxes around it. (You must do this to get a picture option in the format menu.) Left click on Format > Picture > Layout tab > Square > OK. and now click on Format>Picture> size tab and click on the boxes “lock aspect ratio” and “relative to original picture size” to clear the tick marks. Then change the height to 4.5 inches and the width to 3.75 inches and click o.k. Your pointer will become double headed crossed arrows, which will enable you to move the picture to the bottom right hand corner of the page to the text guidelines corner, leaving a margin of ½”and ¼” from the bottom and side edge of the page. This placement should give you equal side margins and equal top and bottom margins when the paper is folded into quarters. Use arrow keys to get an exact placement. Save!
   

INSERT THE GREETING MESSAGE

1. You need a greeting in the upper left hand quadrant. Because of the way the paper will be folded in quarters, the printing will need to be upside down. Therefore you must make a text box in WordART.
2. Left click on the slanted letter “A” icon on your drawing tool bar. (If your drawing toolbar isn't showing, go to view > toolbars and check Drawing.) Choose a box, second selection in the second row and click OK. Select a font size 20 and select a font, monotype corsiva. Type the text, “Merry Christmas, hit enter, type “ and a” hit enter and type “Happy New Year” in the dialogue box, Click o.k.
3. Left click on it to select the text
4. Next go to the word art tool bar and select “format word art” (bucket and paint brush icon) and pick the” colour and lines” tab, click on the down arrow beside colour in the line section, pick a colour sample, red, in each section. (The line does not change colour in the dialogue box.) Click OK. To change the shadow colour to green, go to the drawing tool bar, click on the green “shadow box”. Then click on shadow settings in the dialogue box. On the shadow settings tool bar, click on the down arrow to get the colour choices box and you can click on a green colour sample. You can also change the position of the shadow on this tool bar.
5. With the message still selected, go to the Word art tool bar and select text wrapping button (the picture of a dog) and then select square. When you place your cursor over the green circle on the selected message, your pointer will turn into the coiled arrow, left click, and it will turn into a circle of arrows. Drag the dotted parallel lines until it indicates that the message will be upside down when you stop dragging. With the crossed double-headed arrows, centre the upside-down message horizontally between the left guideline and 3 ¾ mark on your ruler. The centre should be at 2 inches. Vertically, you may not wish to centre it, but have it a bit higher (lower as it is upside down) so that you will have space for a signature. Place what will be the top of the message at about 4” on the side ruler. The top margin of ½ inch is shown by the guideline. The fold will be at 4.5 on your ruler. Make sure your message is inside these marks on your ruler. Save!
   

N.B. For those of you who have an earlier version of Word, like Word 2000, instead of step 13… when you have clicked on the text to select it, you will get double crossed arrows, which will allow you to move the text into position. (see step 14. for particulars of placement) On the menu bar, click on format > wordart > size tab and it allows you to chose the angle (180 degrees) that you wish to rotate the text. The pick the colour and lines tab, click on the down arrow beside colour in the line section and pick a colour sample, red. Follow the instruction in Step 13 for the shadow colour and other choices.

INSERT INFORMATION ABOUT PAINTING

1. Now you need to add another upside down text box, to go in the right hand upper corner, giving the name of the painting, the artist and his dates, which museum it is in and courtesy of the cgfa website. Get this information from the website you minimized at the bottom of your screen. Do this the same way you entered the greeting message text. You will want to use a small font such as size 8 and Ariel font. You can get rid of the shadow by clicking on your green shadow box on the drawing toolbar. Then click on the "no shadow" bar. Remember to place the description in the upper right hand quadrant close to the top margin, centred between 4.25 and 8, that is centred horizontally at 6 on your ruler.
   

INSERT YOUR TRADEMARK

1. If you wish to put in a “made for you by your name” or some crib on the hallmark signature, put that in the left bottom corner and this time right side up. Use a word art shape, another button on the word art toolbar. It looks like a distorted “A”
   

SAVE AND PRINT CARD

1. Close all the dialogue boxes and save.
2. Print the card first on regular paper, using economy level print quality as a trial and then you may wish to get heavier stock such as Kodak inkjet photo letter paper. Folding premium photo paper is a bit of a challenge. You could print 2 cards on the same 8.5 by 11 paper and print both pictures on the right side of the paper, then turn the paper over and print your message on the other side of the paper, also on the right hand side. ! You would need card stock to do this. If you want to use your own photograph or even a picture you may wish to use glossy premium photo paper. Depending on the shape of your picture, you could use either landscape or portrait orientation for the printing. You will of course use the “best quality” for the final printing.
3. The challenge is to find the right size envelope! Buy quarter size for this size card
4. If you buy plain cards and envelopes in a package they often contain greeting card software, which makes life very simple. However, think of how much you have learned about using Word, which after all was the object of this exercise.
   
   

A new website has come to my attention which has large file sizes for paintings. This wouldn’t be an advantage for an printed image this size, but if you wish to print an image up to 8x11, the file sizes of these images would allow it. The website is www.artrenewal.org. and some not all images are free.