An Easy Act to Follow
Among other things they needed and hoped I could help them with was a beefed up newsletter. R went to the file cabinet and fished out the previous month's: a single page, one-column Word document whose most prominent feature was the fact that a couple of words were in BOLD type.
"They tell me that you can't put in a picture and make the words type around it in Word" she lamented. And she'd like columns but nobody knew how to do that. Sigh.
I don't know exactly what I can do for them, but I do have somewhat of a better sense of design and style than that! So, when she called yesterday to see if I would help, just for now with the newsletter, I said yes.
The first one will probably be just a more sophisticated Word document. But soon she wants to expand it to go not only to their staff of 70 but also to their referrals across the region. And to do this, I probably need to come up to speed with a desktop publisher software. Not been there, not done that.
Is MS Publisher the most logical choice (especially if it is a bird in the hand?) Are there other programs whose costs range from NADA up to FREE for the download that you would recommend? I have obtained Serif PagePlus 5 (which meets my cost criteria) but of course it lacks the standard MS Office icons and will be a bit steeper on the learning curve. Any experience with this proggie?
So, in a few days I'll receive a bulging envelope full of snippets and clippings and scraps of paper to turn into a newsletter, for which I will receive pay on a par with what I used to make mowing grass in high school. But hey--it's a challenge and will add a teeny bit to the Lens Fund. Replacing their old newsletters with something more spiffy may just be the final missing act that will lead to the Universal Equation! Or World Peace! A butterfly beats its wings, and all that. Ya never know.
Comments
MS Publisher is VERY BAD! If it's all you have and it's free, then use it, but don't try to do anything fancy.
From the looks of things, your project isn't too fancy to begin with. If you can get your hands on a copy of PageMaker or an old Quark Xpress, you'll have a better product experience.
Basically, any of the $99 "printshop" or publisher software is going to be difficult to deal with.
Of course, since you have little background to overcome, it won't be as much of a hassle. Good luck. My suggestion is to try to do a simple layout in both Publisher and PagePlus. You may find PagePlus easier to deal with.
And BTW, You *can* run text around a photo in MS Word, but it's just an incredible pain in the behind to do it. It's not made for that.
Boy, you are just the publishing whiz these days. :-D
Posted by: bryan | June 2, 2004 7:05 AM
I agree with Bryan regarding publisher..
It's ok if you're printing to your inkjet, but if you're planing to send the file off to a profesional printer, you're going to want Indesign, Quark, or Pagemaker. I highly recommend Indesign. We recently switched from Quark to Indesign and haven't looked back. I believe that there is a trial version avail for download on adobe's website, but it is somewhat pricey..
Posted by: Jeremiah | June 2, 2004 8:55 AM
Here you are, an editor already. Seems like just yesterday that you became a published author.
Talk about your meteoric career! You're making the fast track look like the slow train.
Like I said, one of these days I'll be sayin', "Yes, but have you read his earlier work?"
With quite the superior smirk, of course. :)
Posted by: Jim | June 2, 2004 9:04 AM
Try that Ragtime Solo program I told you about awhile back. I think it's a free download. I've only looked at it briefly, but I think its main purpose in life is desktop publishing. It would have a bit of a learning curve, but the advantages of avoiding Microsoft outweigh the disadvantages :-)
Posted by: Tim | June 2, 2004 9:37 AM
I dont know who's funnier - Jim or Tsuga! Both made me laugh this morning. Fred made me get misty and think of Dads in their offices slaving away for us and delaying their dreams. So its been an emotive morning all round.
I think excavating butterfly shadows in the tall grass wins. *=)
Posted by: India | June 2, 2004 9:39 AM
If your newsletter is going to a printer, check first of all to see what software that printer can work with. I had to buy the latest Pagemaker version recently (ouch), because the printer I work with on a newsletter updated all their software and then could no longer convert files from my old version of Pagemaker to their latest Quark -- to give one example of what you can run into.
But if the printing is not an issue, then it is possible to produce a decent-looking newsletter using an inexpensive program or even Word -- it's just more hassle.
Posted by: Lin B | June 2, 2004 9:49 AM
Hi Fred, just back from the desert.
MS Publisher is, as many people above have pointed out, evil. I also use InDesign, but it's a professional layout program as is Quark. It's probably overkill if the've been doing one page, one column.
If you just need to deliver camera-ready copy to a printer, then do it in whatever program you feel comfortable using. Word is not designed to do what you want. Why not slosh around a bit in serif page plus and see how you like it? But certainly check with the printer first.
Posted by: Pica | June 2, 2004 10:33 AM
Fred, for what it's worth, I just learned how to do this last year and found it not too difficult. I started with MS Publisher 'cause that's what i had, but the printer didn't have it so we just gave them camera-ready copy. Then I got Adobe Pagemaker software and most of the skills did transfer. Adobe does have pretty clearly written help screens. I find I thoroughly enjoy messing with layout and typesetting - but it can be VERY time-consuming if you're a perfectionist as I am.
Posted by: Dave | June 2, 2004 7:17 PM
Contrary to everyone else I don't think Publisher is too bad provided as they say you are not giving digital files to a printer. If all you want is camera ready copy then it's fine, as are the Serif products. If you already have PagePlus I wouldn't bother buying Publisher. One excpetion might be if you think that you are going to get your files into Pagemaker at a later date. I don't know what file formats PagePlus will create, but htere is a utility packaged with Pagemaker to convert Publisher files.
I had to buy Pagemaker for a job I was doing, and thats what I now use for preference - but despite its cost, there are some things Publisher does better - or at least in more straightforward ways - tables being the best example. I'm sure also that like Word and Excel, there are lots of bells and whistles under the bonnet that I haven't found yet!
Posted by: ian | June 3, 2004 3:52 AM
I personally prefer InDesign, but thought it was overkill as well. PageMaker is NOT the preferred program in professional printing, but it survives because businesses who do their own newsletters and the like are too cheap to move up to quark or indesign.
As for sending it to a printer, most printing workflow these days are capable of printing from high-resolution Adobe PDF output, which PageMaker and InDesign are both capable of doing easily.
We send our student newspaper to the publisher in PDF format every week, so the software compatibility shouldn't be an issue as long as they can use PDF.
Posted by: Bryan | June 3, 2004 7:13 AM