Distribution of newsletters by e-mail

[Guest BruceW]

I probably won't be using email for our newsletter for a good while. Of our approximate 80 members, only about 10 to 15% have a computer and email. The majority of our members are senior and don't have a computer and don't plan on getting one. Since the majority of newsletters would still need to be mailed via the post office, it will be easier to send them all the same way.<BR>Maybe in 10 years or so....

[Jim Bollman]

I do a Newsletter for our local Habitat for Humanity affiliate. We mail the newsletter but I post the current issue on our web site. I use Adobie Distiller, but I write out a Postscript file first and convert that. This eliminates compatabilty problems with the creating software. I end up with 200-500K files for a 2 page newsletter with a couple of pictures. If you try this, create the Postscript file to include all fonts used so the PDF has all the fonts and doesn't substitute.<P>Assuming all your members have web access you might want to consider making a web page based newsletter that they read online.<P>Jim...

[novaman]

I'm the webmaster for the NC Region. Our newsletter editor does our newsletter with Adobe and when she sends it off to the printers she emails me a copy which I in turn put on the website for members to download. She and I do the same thing for the Triangle Chapter of the NC Region's newsletter. Everyone still gets their respective copies of appropriate newsletters via snail mail.

[Guest]

Has anyone used e-mail to replace snail mail for newsletters? If so, what program have you used to generate a file which is small enough to be downloaded by most recipients. I have tried Adobe Distiller, but my version is incompatible with Word97. Many club members can not handle zipped programs. I am open to suggestions.

[Guest BruceW]

Just wanted to add.. <P>I didn't think about the newsletter on website when I made my ealrier post. I was thinking soley on the email idea.<P>I also put portions of our region newsletter on the region website. This is mostly for people unfamilair with the club to see what is happening and the type of activities, etc that the region does.<P>However, I don't put all of the newsletter contents on the web. There are certain things (such as budget information, personal information, executive board meeting minutes, etc.) that the general public does not need to see.

[ply33]

Long post apology in advance. <P>I do not like receiving MS Word document via email: They are too likely to contain viruses. Also, MS changes the Word file format constantly to force people to buy new software. I never know when I will have to take the file to work to open it on a newer version of Word. Different versions of Word will display the document slightly differently (when they are able to open the file at all). So if you have labored over it to get it to look just right, don't believe that the person who receives it will see it the same way.<P>HTML (web) pages are more universal. But nearly every web viewer displays the pages slightly differently. The best way to get the pages to look the same is to exactly follow the HTML specifications. Unfortunately I have never seen correct HTML generated by any MS product (nor any other brand of WYSIWYG web generation software). This almost guarantees that it will look different on every web browser.<P>(Side note: Webmasters, please run your HTML through HTMLTidy or equivalent. It will clean up a lot of errors and make you realize how bad your web generation software really is and how unlikely that it will display correctly on all web browsers. Complain to the manufacturer to fix your software and maybe we can keep the Web an network based on open standards. If you are using a Macintosh, I recommend getting a copy of the <a href="http://www.icab.de">iCab web browser</a>. It has a nice little smiley face when the page it is displaying conforms to the published industry standards. That makes it easy to check your web pages by simply viewing them. It will also tell you what the errors are in incorrect pages. You will find that nearly all pages on the web are incorrect in one way or another.)<P>Adobe Acrobat (PDF) is the only format I know of that looks the same across all versions and all operating systems. I highly recommend this format for electronic distribution. You should, as noted in a previous posting, configure Distiller to save the fonts in the file. This assures that the fancy display type (or what ever) that you used is visible even if the receiver does not have that font installed on their computer. I have had better luck on Windows and MacOS systems printing to a PS file then running that through Distiller. On Mac OSX doing a save of the print preview seems to work fine for generating Acrobat files.

[JanK]

For those of us using MS FrontPage (at Peter's request), how do we make sure our HTML tags are correct? Or is this a non-issue?<P>Jan K.<BR>Wis Region

[Guest norme]

I create our clubs newsletter in Publish 2000. I also have Adobe Acrobat (not the reader, but the program) and once I have the newsletter ready, I do a FILE/PRINT/ to the Adobe Distiller printer. It creates a .pdf file which for example last month went from a 30 meg file (30 floppy disks) to a 768k file (1/2 a 3.5" floppy)....I email it to our printer in Daytona Beach and they print off it. Pictures are turning out great. <BR>RE: I have also for the first time made it available on line as a pdf file (not good for people with webtv (oh well)....Out of about 110 members in our club, about 30 have came on line and I send them a email it is now available on line - but every member still gets a hard copy newsletter. The online newsletter should only be considered as a extra for now to send them. But it does make it available for many other people who may be traveling to, moving to, or passing through your area.....<BR>Also, I just received our clubs award for the newsletter from National. Others should have also received them.....<BR>Norm Echelberry,<BR>Volusia Region "Webmaster and Editor"

[ply33]

Hi JanK,<P>Point your browser to <A HREF="http://www.w3.org/" TARGET=_blank>http://www.w3.org/</A> <P>You will find information there about HTMLtidy which you can down load and run on your computer. You will also find HTMLvalidator which can be used as an on-line checker (you pass it the URL of the page you want to check).<P>If you check the source for the AACA home page you will see it was generated using "Microsoft FrontPage 5.0". Here is what HTMLvalidator has to say about that page:<blockquote>Fatal Error: no document type declaration; will parse without validation<br>I could not parse this document, because it uses a public identifier that is not in my catalog.<br>You should make the first line of your HTML document a DOCTYPE declaration...</blockquote>So, right off the top, the page starts wrong. When I tell it to assume HTML 3.2 (which to my eyes the source kind of looks like) we get the a <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aaca.org%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=HTML+3.2">bunch of other errors detected</a><P>No you can't assume that since you are using MS Frontpage, you are okay. It generates lousy HTML. And it is likely that only some versions of MS Explorer will display it the way you want. For people using Netscape, Opera, iCab, WebTV or any of a host of different browsers there may be viewing problems.