I have a hard time keeping my life organized, so for the last year or so I have been making my self a big (36″x24″) monthly calendar. Everyone seems to like, so I am going to tell you how to make one your self with Microsoft Publisher.
Let me preface these instructions by telling you I have Microsoft Publisher 2007.
- Open Publisher and go to publication type calendar.
- Set you options: page size – landscape, time frame – one month per page, set your calendar date range
- Pick the “understated” template.
- You should now see your understated calendar. On left hand column click “change paper size”.
- When page size options come up, pick create custom page with width of 36″ and height of 24″.
- Now you’ll see a tiny calendar on a big sheet. Note: If you picked a date range of more that one month you will have to do the following steps for each month.
- Stretch the calendar to fit the sheet. Change the font type and size to whatever you like. I like “Pharmacy” 125 pt. for the month, and “Pharmacy” 36 pt. for the weekdays and dates.
- Then add the text for all of your activities. I use a different font per family member. Subsequent months get easier to do as you can copy and paste a lot of your recurring activities.
- I then print to pdf (I have deskpdf) making sure I have picked the correct paper size (Arch D) and page range (current).
- I then email the pdf to my local reprographics company (look under reprographics/ blueprinters in your local phone book) and I’m done. So, essentially, you just need to get that pdf file to someone that can do large scale coping/printing. My printer has a minimum four of five dollar charge so it is never more than that.
- I also love that I can print that same pdf file at home to regular paper so I have my calendar in a handy portable size, too.
- Attached is a sample copy of what my June 2010 pdf looks like. june2010
Recently, I discovered digital paper on etsy. You can buy packs of great graphically designed paper and print them out at home at very reasonable prices. I used some of this paper to cover the clothes hangers that hang up the calendar.