MS Word How-To: Creating a Flyer

A flyer is an affordable way to advertise, promote, or announce something to numerous people. Creating a flyer can help you let customers know about a sale. You can make a flyer to spread the word about your theater group’s upcoming performance. You might need to create a flyer to aid in the search for your lost pet or to publicize your housesitting services. Whatever your reason, you will be glad to know that creating a flyer in Microsoft Word can be a simple and even enjoyable project.

Start with a nice, clean slate by opening a new, blank MS Word document. Even if you have already typed up the information you want on it, your best bet will be creating a flyer from scratch. The first part of the flyer you will want to make will be the page border. You want something that draws immediate attention to your flyer, so choose something bold and colorful. To create a page border in MS Word 2007, go to the Paragraph section of the Home tab on the ribbon. Click on the Border dropdown and then click Borders and Shading. If you are using MS Word 2003 or an earlier version, go to the Format menu and click on Borders and Shading.

In any version of MS Word, click the Page Border tab of the Borders and Shading dialog box. Click the dropdown menu in the Art box and choose a border to apply around the entire page of the flyer you are creating. Do not worry if the art is black and white, or if you are not crazy about its color. You can change the color of your flyer’s border by clicking the dropdown under Color and choosing the hue you prefer. You can also make the border thicker or thinner by adjusting the number in the Width box.

Think of a catchy heading for your flyer. By creating this document, you are hoping to call attention to something. Determine whose attention you want to catch with the flyer to help you choose an appropriate caption. Once you have it, place it inside a banner at the top of your flyer. Use an AutoShape and a large font to capture more attention. In MS Word 2007, go to the Insert tab of the ribbon and click the Shapes dropdown. In MS Word 2003 or previous versions, you can find AutoShapes on the Drawing toolbar. If the Drawing toolbar is not present, go to the View menu, point to Toolbars and click on Drawing. You can also get to the AutoShapes toolbar in Word 2003 from the Insert menu. Point to Pictures and then choose AutoShapes.

Go to Page 2 for the rest of the steps required to create a flyer.