Sometimes, a word processor just isn't good enough. You want to produce a flyer or advert, or brochure, or book cover, or newsletter. You need a fully fledged publishing program rather than a word processor. But products such as InDesign from Adobe are very expensive and incredibly difficult to use. Microsoft Publisher is cheaper, but only if you have a paid-up copy of Office.

So here's another option. It's called LucidPress and it's a complete publishing program that runs in your browser. And if you can cope with a maximum of 3 pages in each of your published documents, it's completely free. Just head to www.lucidpress.com in your browser, choose one of the ready-made templates, and get started. You can download your finished publication as a PDF file whenever you like. I put together the sample book cover shown here in about 3 minutes, as the system is incredibly easy to use.