Use Microsoft Montage to display web results as magazine pages

Start by visiting the Microsoft Montage website to view a gallery of searches created by other users. To be able to save your searches so they can be easily accessed in future, you need to create and sign into an account. Click the ‘Sign in’ link at the upper right of the page followed by one of the three ‘Sign in’ buttons – an existing Windows Live (Hotmail), Facebook or Twitter account will do.

In the search box that appears in the centre of the page, type a search term and press Enter or click the Create button. There will be a slight delay while Montage performs a search of the internet and pulls in a range of text and images related to the keywords. After a few seconds, a magazine-style page will be displayed and a pop-up window will appear providing access to different page layouts: click Prev and Next to browse or 'Keep this one' to make your selection.

Even though a page layout has been selected, there are still several customisations that can be made. Hover the mouse pointer over any text or image that is visible and a pop-up will appear. Click the blue cross to remove unwanted content. The two buttons featuring a square with a dotted line running through it can be used to split the content box into two rows or two columns. To change the appearance of a content panel, click the Edit or Add content button followed by the Visual style tab. Click Save when done.

New content panels can also be added by placing the mouse pointer between two existing panels and double-clicking when the double-headed arrow appears. If an existing content box has been split into two or more sections, or new panels have been added between others, your Montage page will have an empty space. Hover the mouse pointer over an empty box and click the Edit or Add Content button. Use the pop-up window to add a range of different content types to the panel.

Use the buttons to choose between adding maps, comments, RSS feeds, plain text, images, videos and various other components to the Montage page. Depending on the type of panel that is added, you may need to provide a link to the online content. Click the Save button when finished. Back at the main page, click the Save button at the top of the page.

Montages can be shared on the Montage website by clicking the Publish button on the upper right of the page. Choosing from a number of tags to enable other people to find it and click Done. To share montages with your friends, click the Save & Close button, click the name of your montage in the displayed list and then use the links at the upper right of the page to post a link to Facebook or Twitter.