That was our original plan (provide a link to our church's web site).
However, we have decided to continue to offer printed copies to those who
want it instead of using a link to the web site. The problem with the link
is that we realized that we often include a lot of personal information in
the newsletters--names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdays, photos, even
maps to people's homes. So, we don't think it would be a good idea to put
all that information on the Internet, especially without people's
permission. We will only send copies via e-mail to those who request it,
and I will use Bcc (recipients suppressed) so people won't have to scroll
through a couple of hundred names to get to the message.
Thanks,
MaryL
"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
So the PDF is at least smaller than the .doc file. That size won't be much
of a burden on those with broadband but will definitely be a large lump
for dial-up. I would suggest offering members the option of getting a link
(to the file online) rather than an attachment. It will still take
(almost) as long to download, but they will be able to choose the time to
do it instead of having it unpredictably gumming up their email. I
remember how much I hated that when I was on dial-up, and I'm still not
crazy about it--because you have no idea what it is you're investing so
much download time on until it actually arrives (and then it's usually a
PPT of cute baby animals or scenic landscapes, accompanied by kitschy
music and typo-ridden captions, from my cousin!).
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
"MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER wrote in message
...
Thanks for the help, everyone. The suggestion for using PDF turned out
to be an excellent idea. The download worked smoothly, and it only takes
about two seconds to "save as" to PDF. That even solves another issue
that I have been considering--that is, how to make this file more
functional for those with some vision problelms. By using, PDF, they can
easily click on the arrow at the top of the screen to enlarge everything,
yet all of the original boxes and other settings are retained.
The one remaining problem (not as important) is that the file size is now
truly massive! I haven't tried compressing, as someone on the NG
suggested, because this newsletter does not contain any photos. And,
despite that, it is extremely large, and I do have a fear that the size
may cause a problem for some people. The original size of the
newsletter is 2.80 MB. The size when sized to PDF becomes 840 KB.
MaryL
"MaryL" -OUT-THE-LITTER wrote in message
...
As some of you know, I prepare our church newsletter and e-mail it to
the church. It is then printed and sent out by U.S. Mail. We are
thinking of sending it to members of the congregation by e-mail to save
expense (postage and paper) and also trees. However, I use a variety of
clipart, photos, borders, text boxes, and fonts. That sounds like "too
much," but I don't include everything in every newsletter, and many
people have thanked me for the changes I have made. The problem is that
some items do not "hold" on a page when I e-mail them to our secretary.
In fact, one person sends messages to me in Calibri. It is always set
with 1.15 spacing. I often change it to single-spacing to fit properly
within certain areas of the newsletter--but when our secretary receives,
it sometimes reverts back to 1.15. That is easily set back to
single-spacing, but I am wondering if there is any way to save the
newsletter in such a way that it will be seen properly on a variety of
computers if we use e-mail for the congregation. In other words, I want
to make sure that page breaks are viewed properly, photos remain in
place, etc. Obviously, we will not have any control over the types of
settings that various recipients use.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
MaryL