Desktop publishing, or DTP, is a relatively new field.

Programs for laying out newsletters are quite varied and not at all expensive. A newsletter can be set up at home from beginning to end, with an automatic table of contents and suggestions for appropriate graphics, and with articles in the right locations.

Best of all, the text will flow automatically from one page to another. Thus, several articles can be started on Page 1 - the way newsletters are usually written - and the desktop publishing program will cause the text of each article to flow automatically to other selected pages, as stipulated by the designer. It's fascinating to watch this program at work.

You can then edit information on the first page, causing your resulting text to be shorter or longer. If you add text, then the program will move the added text into the continuation page. If you remove text during the editing, then text will move automatically from that continuation page back to the first page.

Of course, all of these programs can also place fancy borders, headlines, or other forms of graphic dingbats on the page, just as you would expect from any newsletter. It can then maintain a uniform format throughout the document. It works through the same styles that you may have used in your own word processor.

This series of articles will introduce you to the world of desktop publishing. However, we won't go through the menus and explain each item. Instead, our focus will be on an unexpected feature - page numbering.

Click here for the next article in this series about desktop publishing.