• Adobe PageMaker is a powerful piece of software used for desktop publishing. In order to fit all of the tools and components of the program that users actually use onto a single screen, the program's graphical user interface (GUI) presents you with a formidable array of buttons and menus.
  
  

Pasteboard

• When you open a new document in PageMaker, the majority of the screen's real estate is taken up by a blank document layout screen. This is the Pasteboard, the area where the website or document you're working on comes to life. The screen presents you with a blank page bordered by the page margins for the type of document with which you're working.
  
  

Tool Shelf

• The top bar of the screen, directly beneath the "File" and "Edit" menus, contains a number of square buttons. This is the main Tool Shelf. Many of the buttons are oft-used functions such as "Save" and "New Document." This is much like the corresponding tool shelf in Microsoft Word or a similar program. If you hover your mouse cursor over one of these icons, a pop-up will tell you the name of the tool.
  
  

Toolbox Palette

• For most of the functions in the program, you will need your Toolbox Palette's array of tools. This is where the drawing tools, paintbox tools and pointer tools are located. You can also use the tools located here to add text, rotate images and move existing objects. If your document contains a number of images, this is where you will find most of what you need.
  
  

Ruler and Page Tabs

• Along the outside of the Pasteboard, you will find a ruler at the top and left edge, and a page tab display at the bottom. The rulers are used to determine your position within the document, relative to the edge -- for example, the margins will be 1 inch in from the edges, by default. The page tab marker is used to flip through the pages that make up your entire document. A document may be made up of several different pages.
  
  

Control Palette

• A floating window that starts with just the X and Y coordinates of the mouse pointer, the Control Palette is a tool used to more finely hone the position of document objects. If you need to move a picture up by 5 or 10 pixels, or rotate it by just a few degrees, you can accomplish those tasks with this palette.
  
  

Picture Palette, Plug-in Palettes

• You will use the Picture Palette to select and insert images into the document. As text and images are the meat and potatoes of a document, expect to use this palette a lot. If you use another PageMaker plug-in (a small piece of software, that installs into PageMaker and extends the functionality), it will likely appear in this palette.
  
  

Color and Style Palette

• Odds are that the default font in PageMaker won't pop in quite the way you want, which is why you will use the Color and Style palette; it will let you quickly try out a number of different fonts, colors, sizes and styles on the text with which you are working.