How to Design a Poster Using Microsoft Word

This wikiHow teaches you how to create a poster-size document using Microsoft Word on Windows or macOS. Before you begin, check to make sure you have the desired size paper and that the printer is capable of large format printing. If you can’t (or don’t want to) print your posters at home, you can send or take the files to a professional printing service.

Table of Contents

Steps

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Open Microsoft Word. If you haven’t already, proceed to launch Microsoft Word from the Start menu (Windows) or the Applications folder (macOS). The application will immediately open the “New” page.

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Click the Blank Document option. This is the first option in the list of new file types.

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Click the Layout or Page Layout tab. The tag name may vary by version, but one of these options is always at the top of the application.

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Click the Size button in the toolbar. This option is located near the top left corner of the app. Various size options for the document will appear.

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Choose a size for the poster. Note: your home printer may not support large format. To customize the size, you need to click More Paper Sizes at the bottom of the menu and select the appropriate parameter. ^{[1] X Research Source}

If you have to print large posters, you can create a file, save it to a USB stick, and take it to a professional print shop.
The common poster size supported by most home printers is 11×17 inches (279 x 432mm). You can find 279 x 432mm paper at any print store.

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Select poster orientation. If you want to print your poster in landscape mode, you’ll need to click the Orientation menu in the Page Layout tab and select Landscape . If you are satisfied with Portrait mode, you can skip this step.

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Create title. Many promotional posters have large title text at the top. If you want to add a title, proceed as follows:

Click the Insert tab at the top.
Click the Text Box near the upper-right corner of Word.
Select Simple Text Box to insert a text box.
Enter a few words that you want to present in large format on the poster.
Highlight text in the subject line.
Click the Home tab to return to the font options, then choose something legible in a large size. You can also choose a color if you want to make a color poster.
Drag the border of the text frame to adjust it to the size you want. You can also move the text box to another location by hovering over one of the lines and dragging.
Another way to insert a headline is to click Word Art in the Insert tab and then select a style. This is a quick way if you want to create text art without specifying font colors and sizes. See more online about creating letter art to learn about this feature.

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Insert graphics into promotional posters. If you have a specific image or illustration to insert into your poster, click the Insert tab and select Pictures . If you want the image to show below the title, you can drag the title text box above the image.

You can also insert and customize shapes. To insert shapes, click the Insert tab and select Shapes . Then proceed to select the shape and then use the mouse to draw at the position you want. You can insert text into the geometry by double-clicking it to activate the mouse pointer.

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Add regular text. To insert text into a poster, add another text frame similar to when you create a headline with the Insert tag, then enter the text. Next, you can proceed to format the text according to the font and orientation you want by returning to the Home tab.

If you want to add text to multiple locations on the poster, enter each block of text in its own box. Thus, you will easily format each text area separately, as well as move them to another location if necessary.
To change the direction of the text, click one of the orientation options in the “Paragraph” section of the Home tab.
See more online on how to wrap text content in one line using the Wrap Text option.
See also Change the direction of text in Microsoft Word and learn some tips for reorienting poster text.

Advice

To add a border around your poster, you can click the Design tab and choose Page Borders .

Steps

Advice

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