This exercise brings together a number of techniques, some of which you may know already and some of which are new.
You are going to collect information on a topic from which you can build either a set of 'top trumps' or a set of information cards (possibly for revision). If you have time you can do both! A deck of top trump cards includes a number of cards on a theme such as cars or computer games. There are around 5 or 6 properties of the subject that are given a score, for example top speed or value for money.
You will need information on a set of 20 or so items such as cars or computer games. Use Excel to collect this information in columns so that one row holds data on one object.
Find a single image of each object and save it in a common location such as a folder created for the exercise. Enter the exact path and name of the image file in the appropriate column of your data table. You will need this to include an image in your cards.
Use the catalogue merge facility in Publisher to create the cards. The wizard takes you through the steps so it is not difficult. The only area where you might have problems is in making the images appear on the cards.
Use the formatting features in Publisher to change the size and shape of the data boxes. Add a rectangle with shading properties to create a background for the cards.