Megal Publisher Instruction Manual

Megal Publisher opens in a welcome screen. Start with a blank publication, a template, an editable Megal file, or an existing Microsoft Publisher file.

Welcome screen

Open recent or existing files, start a design, preview templates, choose a plan, read the manual or manage analytics choices.

Ribbon

Commands are grouped by task. Formatting groups change with the selected object so the relevant controls stay in view.

Pages sidebar

Select and navigate pages. Page commands add, duplicate and delete pages.

Design tools

Select, Text Box, Image, Table, TextArt and Shapes. After choosing a drawing tool, drag on the page.

Canvas and rulers

The white page is the printable design area. Rulers, guides, margins, grid and bleed help position work precisely.

Properties

Detailed controls for the selected page or object, including exact geometry and specialist text or image settings.

Status and zoom

Shows tool guidance and provides zoom from 10% to 300%, Fit and 100% views.

Tip: Press Esc to leave text editing, cancel a drawing tool or clear the current selection.

File commands

Open a Publisher file

1. From the welcome screen choose Open a .PUB File, or use File → Open .PUB.
2. Select the local .pub file and wait while Megal reads and rebuilds it.
3. Compare page size, page count, text flow, fonts, pictures, tables, borders and special effects with the original.
4. Run all three Review checkers. Correct any overflow, missing picture, low-resolution, font or colour warnings.
5. Save the converted design as .mpub. Your original .pub remains unchanged.

Import other artwork

Use the Image tool for supported bitmap artwork. SVG imports remain scalable where possible. PDF import converts page content for editing; because PDFs describe a finished page rather than the original publication structure, carefully review converted text, images and geometry.

Set up a page

Open the Page tab. Choose A4, A5, Letter, Retail Flyer, Bi-fold Brochure or Custom, then set orientation and units. Custom pages accept exact width and height in centimetres, inches or points.

• Orientation: Portrait or Landscape.
• Margins: Set left, right, top and bottom working margins independently.
• Bleed: Turn bleed on and choose its size when artwork must extend beyond the trim edge.
• Guides: Add X or Y guides, centre guides and inset guides, then show or hide them.
• Grid: Set grid spacing and turn Snap to Grid on when objects should lock to regular increments.

Manage pages

Select a page in the Pages sidebar, then use Add Page, Duplicate Page or Delete Page. Duplicate is useful when a design shares structure but needs different content.

Backgrounds and page views

Apply a solid page background or choose a dots, grid, diagonal, stripes or crosshatch pattern. Use View for Single Page, Multi-page or Facing Pages. Facing Pages is especially useful for brochures and magazines.

Master pages

Create a master for repeating elements such as logos, rules and folios. Edit the master, then assign it to publication pages. Changes to the master update the pages using it. Masters can be created, edited, assigned and deleted.

1. Choose the Select tool and click an object.
2. Drag inside the object to move it. Drag a handle to resize it and use the rotation handle to turn it.
3. For precision, type exact X, Y, width, height and rotation values in the object controls.
4. Use Fill, Outline, Outline Weight and Opacity for the object’s appearance.

The Arrange tab changes stacking order with Bring Forward, Send Backward, Bring to Front and Send to Back. It also rotates left or right by 90 degrees and flips horizontally or vertically.

Use Edit or the standard keyboard commands for Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Redo and Delete. Duplicating a page also duplicates its page objects and linked-story data safely.

Tip: When objects overlap, change their stacking order before assuming one has disappeared.

Add and edit a text box

1. Choose Text Box from the left design tools.
2. Drag a frame on the page.
3. Double-click inside the frame to edit its text. Select characters for local formatting, or select the frame to affect the story/frame.

Character formatting

Choose searchable system, local and supported web fonts; font size; regular, bold, italic and bold italic faces; underline; text colour; and character spacing from Very Tight to Very Loose. Grow and Shrink change the current text size by steps.

Paragraph formatting

• Align Left, Centre, Right or Justify.
• Apply bullets or numbering and increase/decrease paragraph indent.
• Set vertical alignment to Top, Middle or Bottom within the frame.
• Use Body, Heading 1, Heading 2 and Caption paragraph styles.
• Set space before/after and line spacing as Multiple, Exact or At Least.
• Set left, right and first-line indents.
• Add left, centre, right or decimal tab stops with none, dots, dashes, line or bullet leaders.

Text box formatting

Use Find, Find Next and Replace in the Edit tab to update wording across the publication.

A linked story can continue through several text boxes, including boxes on different pages. Megal keeps one editable story and distributes it through the linked frames.

Flow overflow into another box

1. Select a text box containing hidden overflow. The overflow port appears at its edge.
2. Click the overflow port. The pointer enters linking mode.
3. Click an existing unlinked text box, or click/drag an empty page area to create the next frame.
4. Edit the story in any linked frame. Text reflows through the chain automatically.

If a selected frame is already linked, its ports can move to the previous or next frame. Use the break-link control to disconnect the downstream chain. Resizing a frame, changing its columns, text margins, font metrics or Text Fit recalculates the flow.

TextArt is live, editable text on the page. Use it for headings, vouchers, posters and decorative lettering without flattening the words into a picture.

Create and edit TextArt

1. Choose TextArt, then drag a frame.
2. Double-click the words to edit them directly on the page.
3. Open Styles and choose a preset. Applying a preset removes the previous TextArt style before applying the new one.
4. Fine-tune the selected TextArt with the live shape and fill controls.

Preset styles

Bold Outline Drop, Soft Drop, Open Face, Light Halo, Colour Blend, Split Face, Repeat Shade, Digital Shift, Text Plate, Mirror Fade, Depth Project and Shape Bend provide ready-made starting points.

Shape and wave controls

• Straight: Keeps the baseline level.
• Arch Up / Arch Down: Use the Arch amount slider to bend the text gradually.
• Wave: Pick 1–8 waves and Megal places them automatically. Wave Intensity controls the depth of the wave.

Fill controls

Choose Solid, Gradient or Outline Only. A gradient has start and end colours, an angle and a movable Position control that shifts where the blend changes. Every adjustment updates the selected TextArt live on the page.

Tip: Apply a preset first, then tune shape, waves and gradient. Choosing another preset deliberately replaces those style settings.

1. Choose the Image tool, select a supported local file and place it on the page.
2. Use Crop to choose the visible part, or Replace to preserve the frame while changing the source.
3. Adjust Brightness, Contrast and Saturation. Recolour options include None, Greyscale, Sepia, Warm and Cool.
4. Use Compress to reduce publication size; Restore returns the picture to its unadjusted source state when available.
5. Add concise Alt Text that describes the picture’s purpose for accessibility.

Pictures inside shapes

A shape can use an image as its fill. Edit the shape image, then change zoom and X/Y pan to choose the crop. Reset restores the default image position.

SVG and PDF artwork

SVG artwork remains vector-based where supported. PDF pages are converted into editable page content when possible, with text and picture recovery and fallback processing for difficult pages. Always proof a converted PDF because it was designed as a final-page format, not an editable publication file.

Choose Shapes and select from Basic Shapes, Arrows, Stars & Banners, Callouts or Flowchart symbols. Drag on the page, then edit fill, outline, outline weight, opacity, object border and corner style.

Wrap text around an object

Select an image or shape and choose a wrapping mode:

Wrap Margin adds space between the object and surrounding text. Tight and Through enable editable wrap points. Wrapping affects linked text boxes on the same page.

1. Choose the Table tool.
2. Set the initial row and column count, from 1 to 30 each, and drag the table on the page.
3. Click a cell to edit its content. Press Tab for the next cell or Shift+Tab for the previous cell.
4. Format cell text, alignment, fill and borders with the available table controls.
5. Press Esc to finish cell editing and return to object selection.

Tables imported from supported Publisher files retain recovered grid, cell content and span information where possible. Check row heights, column widths and substituted fonts after import.

Add a border to the page

1. Open the Page tab and find Page Border.
2. Turn the border on.
3. Choose the line style, colour and width.
4. Set Inset to move the border away from the page edge.
5. Optionally choose decorative Art and Round, Square or Bevel corners.

Border range

Megal supports solid, dotted and dashed variants; dash-dot combinations; double and triple rules; and Publisher-style thick/thin multi-line combinations. Decorative vector choices include Beads, Ribbon, Confetti, Checker, Lace, Postage and Braid.

Object borders

Select an object and use its Outline/Border controls to choose line style, colour, weight and corner treatment. Object borders are separate from the page border, so a coupon can combine a decorative page frame with bordered text, image or shape objects.

Headers and footers

Use Page → Header or Footer to set repeating header/footer text boxes. Combine them with a master page when other repeated artwork is also required.

Sections

Sections let a publication restart or change numbering part-way through. Create and manage a section, then set numbering scope to the whole publication, the current section or from the current page.

Page numbers

Choose ordinary numbers, zero-padded numbers, lower/upper Roman numerals, or lower/upper alphabetic numbering. Position the result at top or bottom, aligned left, centre or right.

Publisher page-number placeholders recovered during import are converted into working Megal numbering where supported.

The welcome screen offers enabled Megal templates and previews from the expanding template catalogue. Choose a template to start with its page size and editable objects, then replace sample wording, colours and pictures.

• Use templates for flyers, brochures, newsletters, vouchers, posters and other recurring layouts.
• Template previews marked as coming soon cannot yet be opened in the website editor.
• For an internal reusable design, save a clean .mpub master copy and use Save As for each new edition.

Design Checker

Reports hidden text overflow, missing pictures, low-resolution images, off-page objects, transparency, unavailable fonts, RGB/CMYK output considerations and unresolved comments. Select an issue to locate the affected page or object.

Accessibility Checker

Checks publication title and language, picture alt text, colour contrast, empty text boxes, very small text, table structure and PDF-tagging considerations.

Proofing Checker

Finds repeated spaces, repeated punctuation, likely missing spaces and placeholder wording. Browser spellcheck and Megal’s English (UK) language service help identify spelling problems and offer replacements.

Thesaurus and comments

Select a word and use Thesaurus to explore alternatives, then replace the selection. Add comments to pages or objects for review, view the comment list, and resolve items when addressed.

Megal AI can generate text, logo concepts, AI images, page elements and poster concepts. It is designed to connect to optional local tools so generation can run on your computer.

1. Open Megal AI and choose the requested output type.
2. Enter a specific prompt, including audience, size, tone, colours and required wording.
3. Configure the local text or image service if prompted. Text generation uses a compatible local Ollama endpoint; Stable Diffusion image generation uses a compatible local ComfyUI setup.
4. Generate, review the result and place suitable output into the publication.

Use Ctrl+Enter (Windows/Linux) or ⌘+Enter (macOS) to generate while the AI prompt is active. Generated output should be checked for wording, factual accuracy, image defects and usage rights before publication.

Print

1. Run the Review checkers and save the publication.
2. Choose File → Print.
3. Inspect the prepared pages, then use the browser or operating-system print dialog for printer, copies, paper, scale and destination.
4. For commercial work, print or request a proof before the full run.

Export PDF

Choose RGB PDF for ordinary screen sharing and compatible office output. Choose CMYK Prep when preparing artwork for a print workflow that benefits from print-oriented colour handling. Include Bleed when the design extends past the trim and Crop Marks when the printer requests them.

Megal’s CMYK Prep assists print preparation; confirm the printer’s required PDF standard, output profile and separations before production. PDF accessibility tagging may require a downstream PDF remediation tool.

Export SVG

SVG is useful for scalable artwork and compatible vector applications. Effects or fonts may render differently in another application, so open and check the exported file.

Plan note: The Free plan can add a watermark to premium output. The current plan chooser in the app shows which print/export features are included before purchase.

Open Help → Account to manage account details, plan and billing information. Sign Out ends the current account session.

• Free: Create, edit, import and save publications; premium output can include a watermark.
• Personal: Intended for individual premium output without the Free-plan watermark.
• Business: Adds business-oriented account benefits shown in the current plan chooser, including supported multi-session use and priority support where stated.

When signed in, Megal can autosave the working layout to the account service. Autosave is useful recovery, but keep downloaded .mpub copies at meaningful milestones and before major conversions.

Some groups only appear when their object type is selected. If a control is missing, leave text editing with Esc, select the frame or object once, and open the relevant tab again.

Recommended file discipline

1. Keep original source files unchanged.
2. Save an editable .mpub immediately after a successful import.
3. Use Save As for significant design revisions.
4. Keep linked images, licensed fonts and usage records together with the job.
5. Archive the final .mpub, approved PDF and proof notes.