RE: Newsletters -- what's the best tool for creating them?

["Rick Bishop" <rickbishop -at- austin -dot- rr -dot- com>]

Hi  Beth:  Yes. I'm sure everyone wants to use a high-end
publishing program, and no doubt that would be best for a
professional writer that maintains complete control of the
newsletter project.
It's still best if one person assembles all the input and does
the page layout. If more than one is involved in layout, there
will be issues, lots of issues. If you accept that only one
person (and their backup) can do assembly, then
I feel that you have two options:

1. Using MS Word you can get a perfectly acceptable newsletter.
You can get a good template here if you haven't already done so.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC060889441033.aspx?
CategoryID=CT011222341033
Styles aren't absolutely necessary, but will contribute to
making headers all look alike, for instance.

2. Go to Ebay and purchase Adobe PageMaker 6.5 for $150 (new,
still in shrinkwrap). It's perfect for newsletters and Acrobat
PDF  distiller comes with it and just about anyone can learn
enough to use it for this purpose in a couple of hours. It
allows for more creativity and variation in layout, handles
graphics and text easier than Word.(PageMaker 7-$500,
InDesign-$700)

If you must allow multiple people to work with the newsletter
file, be prepared to give a 2 hour class on how to work inside
your particular template, be it Word, Publisher, or whatever.
Focus on how not to mess it up and where a backup template is
located when they mess it up anyway.

Allowing multiple inputs to the same file by folks with
differing skill levels is an invitation to a lot of time-wasting
activity on their part and you'll wind up spending hours every
week helping them out over the phone or over their shoulder. The
most common question will be "Where did my text go?" when it
overruns the text box.

All in all, you've got to find a way to convince your boss that
it will save probably 20 or more hours a week if only one person
does the layout and assembly.

For a 3 page newsletter, be prepared to spend about 12 hours on
it every week/month. I've done newsletters for lots of different
companies and made up quite a few templates for newsletters and
they can consume a tremendous amount of time unless the process
is laid out ahead of time and managed carefully.(especially
approvals)

Best of luck,
Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-226950 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-226950 -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
Beth Brooks
Sent: Monday, August 22, 2005 11:58 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Newsletters -- what's the best tool for creating them?


Hi, All!  This week I'm being asked to create a newsletter
template that will be easy to use  and maintain in an
environment that runs strongly to the non-technical (e.g.,
nobody knows how to use MS Word styles). I've been told I can
recommend a tool for  purchase so long as it is not TOO
expensive, can accept content from MS Office  products, and
doesn't have a hefty learning curve. The newsletters will have
8.5 x  11 pages and may be distributed on paper or in PDF
format.   I have MS Word 2000 and MS Publisher 2000 on my
machine and have been working with  templates doewnloaded from
the MS site as a test. My conclusion so far is that  either
product make good-looking newsletters, but that they both
require hand- holding to do what I consider pretty standard
newsletter chores, like have articles  that start on one page
and continue on another or include tables, charts, and  graphics
from many sources, as this newsletter will.  Any thoughts or
suggestions would be most welcome. (An MS Word template expert
willing to work on site would be even better, but that may be
asking too much....)  TIA!  Beth


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