Who wants to pay for someone else to make your wedding invitations? (Or programs, or whatever.)
Use OpenOffice for your wedding invitations.
This of course prompts the objection, "But there aren't any templates in OpenOffice."
Well, there are some. But that's not important. Because there are also Microsoft Word wedding invitation templates out there. Just open them in Writer and you're good.
There aren't a lot of free wedding invitation templates out there but if you can find one, just use it. Also, here's my vague attempt at one. Right-click on the link and choose to save to your computer.
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openofficeblogtemplate.ott
Here are some tips for making your own.
- Unless you're doing fancy really graphically oriented stuff, use Writer.
- Set the size of the invitation here. Format > Page, Page tab, and specify the width and height. Then specify the margins and click OK. You'll want .5 if you want the border lines in a bit from the edge, and 0 inches if you want a background design to go all the way to the border.
- Set borders here. Format > Page, Borders tab. Be sure to specify where you want the borders, i.e. which sides, then the style, then the color.
- - Set a background color or graphic here. Format > Page, Background tab. You'll need to click the Browse button to go find the graphic.
- If you want to make your own background graphic, you could create it in Draw. File > New > Drawing. Then Format > Area, Bitmaps tab, and choose a foreground and a background color. Click to make a design, then click Add and save it. This is just one of the ways to make a design.
Then draw a big rectangle at least as big as the invitation, select Bitmap as the type of fill in the toolbar at the top of the work area, and your bitmap as the fill. Also make the border Invisible.
Then select the rectangle, choose File > Export, export it as PNG, and use that as your background graphic.
- If you've got a full background in your Writer document, you'll need a Frame to put the words in. Choose Insert > Frame, and set options like the width and height, and the background color which could be white or a complementary color to the background or borders.
- Another way you can put a graphic in the background is just to insert it, then put it in the background. Choose Insert > Picture > From File. Navigate to the graphic file and select it. Then right-click on it and choose Wrap > In Background.
To lighten it, click on it and the Picture toolbar will appear. Use the Transparency field to lighten it, or use some of the other icons on the toolbar.
i was wondering if you could help me make wedding invitations. i'm doing a project on a wedding and all and would like to know if you could help.
Posted by: Brisa Hawkins | January 15, 2008 at 01:54 PM
Interesting, about the Wedding templates, since I use MS's templates all the time with OpenOffice.org. The problem with your example is the fact most people could not wake the heart shaped image. Those types of images are not something most people I deal with can do. Me, on the other hand, can do them once I find the rose I like.
Yes, there are a great number of things that people are paying others to do when they can do it for themselves. I have several people who could/would never install OpenOffice.org or any other software themselves. They are too scared to do such things.
After 30 years working with most types of computers, I will try any project, once.
Posted by: Tim L. | February 15, 2008 at 07:11 PM
Hi Tim,
The heart is a prefab shape in OpenOffice and the rose is a prefab fill, so I think it would work for many people. Exporting it to a gif is extra steps but there's a lot of clip art out there, and istockphoto.com has very low-priced nice images.
I totally agree that many people are too scared to do things that they could very easily do on their own. I like the story of a school district IT head whose school leaders were scared of learning OpenOffice....until they realized that they had been looking at it onscreen for the last two hours of the meeting and it looked pretty darned easy.
In general, whether it's changing your oil or making invitations or making pie, people end up missing opportunities because they're not willing to try something that makes them nervous. Here's a very non-computer example: I have sewn all my life and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that anyone with standard motor skills can sew on buttons, let down hems, patch jeans, take in that baggy dress at the waist, etc. Huge financial benefit in many ways but people really seem to think it's beyond them. A friend of mine takes her button-sewing-on to a tailor.)
Posted by: Solveig | February 16, 2008 at 09:54 AM
In general, whether it's changing your oil or making invitations or making pie, people end up missing opportunities because they're not willing to try something that makes them nervous. Here's a very non-computer example: I have sewn all my life and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that anyone with standard motor skills can sew on buttons, http://www.batterygoshop.co.uk/asus/a31-s5-2.htm ASUS A31-S5 A32-S5 S52N S5000 S5200N S5N ,
Posted by: jack | November 11, 2008 at 12:17 AM