Holiday greeting cards are a great way to recognize and call up business contacts, friends, and family unit that y'all'd rather not purchase gifts for, simply exercise want to wish a Merry Vacation and Happy New year. If yous want to add together a personal touch, try making your own holiday cards – no special software required. Microsoft Give-and-take has everything you lot need to make create, charming greeting cards for the holidays.

This weblog post is likewise available as a TechRepublic gallery and TechRepublic download. The download includes a sample card in the .doc format.

Gear up the folio layout

Before you design the carte, you must set the page layout (Figure A). Go to File | Page Setup (in some versions of Give-and-take, the card may be File | Page Layout).

Figure A

Page Setup

Under Orientation in the Margins tab, select Landscape. (Figure B)

Effigy B

Mural Orientation

Also in the Margins tab, select 2 pages per sail in the Multiple Pages drop-down menu. (Effigy C)

Figure C

Two pages per sheet

Click Okay and you're set up to go.

Agreement the layout

The card will be made up of 4 pages. Page one is the left-side interior. This page is often left bare in store-bought cards. Experience costless to embellish information technology any manner you wish, but keep in mind that text may not be noticed if it's on this page.

Page two in Give-and-take will impress equally the correct-side interior. This is where your bulletin should get. Page three will impress as the exterior back cover. This is a great place to put a personalized embellishment, commonly washed at the bottom where a printer's postage stamp would be. Page four volition print as the forepart cover of the menu – this is a expert place for a graphic and card title.

Design the card

For added interest, y'all can decorate page ane whatever way you like. (Figure D) If you are printing at home, consider leaving the background white and using graphics and font styles and colour to add interest — yous'll salvage quite a lot on printing if you don't fill in the background. If yous wish to leave page one entirely bare, merely insert a hard folio break by striking [Ctrl]+[Enter]. This will ship you lot straight to page two — the interior, right-side page.

Figure D

Folio ane

To add together a graphic or image to the pattern get to Insert | Picture show, so select Clip Art or From File every bit appropriate. (Figure E)

Effigy Eastward

Adding a graphic

When you are washed creating page 2, go to Insert | Suspension. (Figure F)

Figure F

Insert a page break

Then select Folio Suspension under Break Blazon and click OK. (Figure Thou)

Figure One thousand

Suspension Blazon

You are now on folio three, the outside, back cover. Greeting bill of fare companies normally put their stamp at the bottom of this folio. Let them yous know y'all care enough to brand your ain cards by calculation your own stamp here. (Figure H)

Figure H

Put your by-line at the lesser centre

Page four is the front of the card, so it is important to spend time getting it simply correct. (Figure I)

Figure I

Card Front

Before you print

Earlier you can properly impress your card, you will demand to know what direction your printer prints. You can decide this by performing a simple test. On the pinnacle end of the top page of a piece of inserted printer newspaper, write "top side". At present print a test page. Did the test print on the marked side or the blank side of the paper? Make note of which side of the paper was printed — you'll demand to keep track of that while printing your cards.

It is wise to exercise a impress preview before get-go printing. Go to File | Impress Preview. (Figure J)

Figure J

File | Print Preview

Check the layout advisedly for accuracy. You lot may consider having some other person look at it for you. (Effigy Grand)

Figure K

Print Preview

Print the bill of fare

In lodge to get the perfect card shape, you must print the card in ii printings. Here's where knowing which way your paper feeds is important. Begin by press pages one-2. Become to File | Impress. (Effigy 50)

Figure L

Impress

Under Page Range select Pages and enter 1-2 in the field, and click Okay. (Figure M) Pages 1 and 2 will print on 1 side of the newspaper.

Figure Thousand

Page Range

At present, turn the paper over and replace in the printer. You lot desire to be certain that the blank side will be printed on this time. Again, bring upwardly the impress menu, but this time enter Pages | 3-four in the Page Range field. (Effigy N)

Effigy N

Print the other side

At this point, y'all should have a card, printed on both sides of a sheet of paper or card-stock. Fold advisedly downward the center, and you accept a lovely, home-made greeting carte du jour.