There are vector drawing tools including freehand lines, Beziér curves and QuickShapes, which provide simple controls for drawing shapes such as rounded rectangles, speech bubbles and arrows. PagePlus's graphic design tools are equally brilliant. When I tried to edit an element on a page that's actually located on a Master Page, the software asked whether I wanted to edit the Master Page or promote the object so it can be edited on the page in question only. Assigning Master Pages to individual pages simply involves dragging and dropping thumbnails. As of version X9, Master Pages can be renamed, and a couple of clicks quickly reveals which Master Page is currently assigned to each page. There's impressive attention to detail here. Master Page elements aren't limited to the top and bottom of the page, though. These are similar to Word's Headers and Footers, whereby elements that repeat on each page need only be entered once.
^ There's wide array of high quality templates to kick-start your designsĪ key benefit of desktop-publishing software over word processors is its support for Master Pages. A nice touch is the ability to choose from three colour schemes for each template. Templates are arranged by document type or as a suite of documents that use the same style. The Startup Assistant offers links to video tutorials plus a wide range of high quality templates – perfect for people without the time or the design skills to start from scratch. It still supports Windows XP and modest hardware, and is extremely spritely on a reasonably modern PC. Software with this long a pedigree often feels overburdened with features, but its various panels are sensibly laid out and labelled, its menus are mercifully straightforward, and key features are quick to locate. Serif PagePlus X9 is looking remarkably fresh-faced considering it's been around for 26 years. You could design them in a word processor or image editor, but a dedicated desktop-publishing application is much better equipped for handling text and images across multiple pages. Desktop publishing seems quaintly old fashioned in this age of Twitter and WhatsApp, but there are still lots of times when we need printed documents: invitations, business cards, complement slips, invoices, flyers, brochures, and restaurant menus to name but a few.
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