Posted on 14, October, 2015
Last Modified on 01, March, 2021
Brochures and pamphlets can be incredibly effective marketing tools for businesses of all shapes, sizes, and industries. Use them to advertise new products, educate customers about your business, or even distribute menus! If you’re a small business, you may want to produce flyers for reasons similar to these. However, if you don’t have access to design programs, like Adobe’s Photoshop or Illustrator, or just don’t have the money to hire a graphic designer, you may not know where to begin with your brochure design! Luckily, there are accessible options out there for making a custom brochure. Believe it or not, if you have Microsoft Word on your computer, you can create your own brochure or pamphlet by following the simple steps below. We'll go over how to create a brochure from scratch, as well as how to make one using a premade template!
Designing Your Own Brochure in Word
I'm using Microsoft Office 2010. If you have a different version of Office, the screen shots below may look a little different, but the overall process should be very similar no matter what version you have.
- Open a new Word document.
- Under PAGE LAYOUT > PAGE SETUP, open the dialogue box for more options.
- In the dialogue box, change all the MARGINS to .5” and change the ORIENTATION to "Landscape." Click OK to close the dialogue box.
- Next, click the COLUMNS drop down under PAGE LAYOUT. For a traditional trifold brochure setup, select the THREE column option.
It can be confusing trying to visualize what the brochure will look like when it's printed out and folded. Check out the graphics below to see what columns you should put your pamphlet information in for it to print out correctly in the end.
The above example is the result of me trying my hand at creating a Displays2go brochure from scratch. I used Word heading styles for the titles, size 10 Arial font for the body text, and then inserted some images from my computer make the design a little more visually engaging! If you read the brochure from left to right when it's still in the Word template, the design might look a little odd and out of order. It's important to remember that once you fold the trifold brochure properly, the order will match up!
If you want your trifold brochure to open up to inner pages, simply complete two 3-column Word templates. After printing, just attach the two back-to-back before folding. For a really professional look, use double-sided printing!
Using Free Templates
Microsoft Word provides free trifold brochure templates for users to download and fill in with their own information. These pamphlet templates come with the page setup, spacing and even some design elements all built in and ready to use. These templates are great for getting even the most novice designer started.
- To access a brochure template, open Word and go to FILE > NEW.
- There you will see a section titled “Available Templates” and underneath it a section titled “Office.com Templates.” In the search bar, search “brochure” and choose the design you like the best! Please note that you will need internet access for this step.
- Once you have chosen the template you like best, select it and press DOWNLOAD (or double click the template icon). The template will then open in its own word document!
- All you have to do now is fill in the template with your desired text, titles, and images!
Display Your Brochures with Pride!
Now that you’ve made your very own custom brochures, display them in your business with pride! We offer a wide range of brochure holders that are perfect for showcasing your expertly made takeaways.