How To Create a Holiday Greeting Card Using Microsoft Word 2007

To access Microsoft Word's holiday card templates, click on the Microsoft Office button, then select New to open up the Word 2007 templates.

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The New Document window opens. Under Templates, click on Installed Templates. Then scroll down in the left-hand pane and choose Greeting Cards, then select Holidays from the Greeting Cards list. For this example, we will create an Easter greeting card.

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You will see a display of all of Word 2007's holiday cards. You can use the search box to find the particular holiday greeting card template that you want to create. Just type in a keyword such as Easter, Christmas, New Year's, etc., and press Enter or click on the arrow key at the end of the search box. This will bring up all of the Word 2007 holiday greeting card templates that relate to your keyword search. Then choose your favorite holiday card template from the display by double-clicking on it.

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A window may open asking you to validate that you are running a genuine copy of Microsoft Office. Just click Continue to begin the validation of Microsoft Office. Then your holiday greeting card template will automatically download to Word 2007 and open as a new document.

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After the selected holiday greeting card template opens, the first thing you will notice is that the image is upside down. Don't panic - this is how it's supposed to look. The picture is going to be upside down because when you print out the holiday greeting card, you are going to be folding it so that the image is right-side up and the message is inside.

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Because you're going to be folding this Easter card in half, and then in half again, you want to type your personalized Easter message in the opposite corner from where your image is. This is where the gridlines feature in Word 2007 comes in handy.

First, turn on your Show/Hide so that you can see your paragraph marks. (The Show/Hide button is on the Home tab and looks lie a backwards "P".)

Then go to the View tab and check the box next to Gridlines. You should now see vertical and horizontal lines across your holiday greeting card. Don't worry, these lines do not print out. We are just using them to help us align where our personalized greeting will go.

Now, press the Enter key several times so that you are just past the middle of the document.

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Now that your cursor is below the center of the page, you'll need to move your insertion point over to the area that's diagonal from the image. The easiest way to do this is to move the indent marker over to the right. The indent marker is located on the ruler bar at the top of the document. Click on the bottom "square" part of the indent marker and drag it over until you are just past the center of the page.

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Now that you have your cursor where you need it to be, you can start typing your personal message. You can also change the font, size and color of the lettering for your holiday greeting card as well.

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After you have finished formatting your holiday greeting card, just print it on a color printer. Then fold the card in half, and then in half again. You should now have the image right-side up on the outside of the card, and your personal message on the inside.

Looking for more tips and tricks? Be sure to browse through some of the other articles in Bright Hub's collection of Microsoft Word tutorials. In particular, learn more about Word templates, including where to find new ones and how to create your own. New articles are being added all the time, so be sure to check back often!