Using clip art is an easy way to add professional looking graphics to your newsletter. The selections of clip art you can purchase are so extensive that you may think you would never need to alter a graphic. However, you may find that you want to do more than just resize, flip, or rotate your picture, all functions that are easily handled by MS Publisher itself.

Although there are many software programs out there that can handle graphics creation and manipulation, Microsoft Draw is an easy way to make simple changes to your clip art, without having to leave MS Publisher.

To use MS Draw, go to the Insert drop-down menu. Choose Object. From the list, choose MS Draw 98 Drawing. A box will be created and the menu selections will be changed to those of the Draw program. You can then paste or insert a graphic and use the tools in Draw to change it. Once you click off of the box, the menus will return to those of Publisher. To access the Draw features again, simply double click on the box.

That is the basic idea. But there are some features of Draw that cannot be accessed in this simple way. For example, you cannot scroll around the box or enlarge or reduce the image size on your screen. To take full advantage of all of the features of MS Draw, you will need to do one more simple step. When you are ready to work on your image, right click on the box. Choose Change Object, then choose Microsoft Draw 98 Drawing. Instead of choosing Edit, choose Open. This will open up the full version of Draw. Although it will be in a separate window, any changes you make here will show up in your Publisher document. In fact, if you have the Draw window open and go back to the Publisher window, you will see that the box is grayed out--meaning that it is in use by another program. Once you have finished with all of your changes, click on File, then choose Exit and Return to (Your Document). All of your changes will show up on your Publisher page. If you want to change the image again, simply either double click on it, or open up the full version of MS Draw.