Many of the project templates available from the Project Gallery are for creating publishing projects that support the tools provided in Publishing Layout view. You can create these same publications from the Publication Templates tab of the Elements Gallery in a Word document window.

Word publications, which are new in Word 2008 for Mac, are professionally designed publishing projects of diverse types, appropriate for both business and personal use. Publication categories include:

In contrast to a standard Word document in which content is laid out continuously in paragraphs, the individual pages of a Word publication are each laid out separately, with text in text boxes, and graphics. Typical content might include graphic objects (such as pictures, OfficeArt shapes, SmartArt graphics, tables, or charts) placed directly on the page and sections of text inserted in text boxes that set the text apart from the main document content. Longer sections of text might run between two or more linked text boxes. You can link a text box to another on the same page or anywhere else within the publication; Word manages the flow of the text between the text boxes in the order you specify.

Each publication consists of one or more master pages upon which content is built. Each master page defines common elements—page background, borders, images or image drop zones, page numbers, text, and other elements—that appear on all publication pages based on that master page.

In this simple Word publication, the formatted placeholder text is the only element that is not part of the master page.

You work with Word publications in Publishing Layout view. Special features of this view include the workspace; tools for managing pages and master pages, shapes and lines, and text boxes; and a variety of guides to help you precisely position content on pages.