Q I am at present organising my daughter's wedding invitations on my home PC, using MS Word 7 and an Epson Stylus Color II printer. My problem is that she wants the printing to be in a gold or bronze tone. This is not available in the Word selection. I can create the colour in MS Paint, but cannot transfer it to the word processor. Is it possible? Or is there alternative software that will do the job?

A Microsoft Word provides 16 font colours (not including the default colour Auto, which is usually black). These colours are suitable for most business tasks and home uses, but when it comes to more sophisticated desktop publishing and design tasks, they just don't make the grade. Worse still, Word doesn't let you add more colours. One possible reason for this is that neither Word nor Windows 95 have a built-in precise colour matching system, so there is no way to calibrate your monitor and your printer. This means that the colours you see on your screen may not be quite the same as the output from your printer.

The easiest and cheapest way to solve your problem is to design and print the invitation using MS Paint. Alternatively, you could design the invitation in MS Paint, save it as a file, and then import that file into Word. To do this, start Word 7, choose InsertûPicture, navigate to your file, and then click the OK button.

There are also several commercial programs that are designed specifically for creating cards and invitations, including Broderbund Print Shop (www.broderbund.com), Microsoft Greetings Workshop Deluxe (www.microsoft.com/products/prodref/502_ov.htm), and Micrografx American Greetings Creatacard Plus (www.creatacard.com).