We recently installed a large-format poster printer but it didn't come with any large-format layout software. The printer drivers work OK, but we keep ending up with letter-sized printouts centered on three-foot paper. What can we use to print poster-sized poster documents?

PowerPoint works surprisingly well for this. You can lay out your poster document and test print it on regular paper, and then when you are ready to print the final poster-sized version you can set the paper size in the File/Page Setup menu. The limit seems to be 56 by 56 inches in PowerPoint 2003, which is wider than the paper in most poster-sized printers. After setting the paper size under File/Page Setup in PowerPoint, choose File/Print and use the Properties button to adjust the print driver settings to match the paper size you defined in PowerPoint. There is also a ‘Scale to fit paper’ check box in the PowerPoint print dialog that you may also check to ensure the document fits the paper size you defined. This will help to scale the fonts so that the relative size is appropriate for the large printout. Other layout and design software packages can be used with your large-format printer in the same manner as long as you define the paper-size settings and scale parameters in the software program you are using and in the print-driver properties dialog when you print.