Client FAQ
Helpful information for new CompanyNewsletters.com customers
Listed below are answers to our clients' most frequently asked questions. These answers are especially helpful for new customers. If you need more details about any of these answers or have questions that aren't covered here, please call us at 952/892-6943.
I
need to send CompanyNewsletters.com some articles and a mailing list for
my newsletter. How do you prefer to receive them?
Can
we send you photos from a digital camera to use in our newsletter?
If I want to scan my own photos or graphics and e-mail
them to CompanyNewsletters.com, what scanner settings should I use?
If I'm submitting articles for my newsletter to CompanyNewsletters.com,
do I need to write the headlines, or will you write headlines that fit
the layout?
I'm
writing articles for our newsletter that I'll be submitting to CompanyNewsletters.com
for light editing. To minimize the corrections that will need to be made,
I'm wondering if you have any writing-style guidelines that you can share
with me.
How
can I view online color proofs of the printed newsletter that CompanyNewsletters.com
is creating for me?
Q: I need to send CompanyNewsletters.com some articles and a mailing list for my newsletter. How do you prefer to receive them?
A: The quickest, least-expensive and most convenient way to send us your information is to e-mail the files to us.
Here's how to e-mail us your articles and text files:
1) Write your articles in any word-processing program (for instance Microsoft Word, Word Perfect or even WordPad, which comes with Windows).
2) Go to the word processor's "Save As" screen, and save the articles in Word (.DOC) format or as a plain-text (.TXT) file. Depending on your software, a ".txt" file may also be called "ASCII Text," "Text Document," "Windows Text," or "DOS Text."
3) Send us an e-mail and attach your ".DOC" or ".TXT" article files.
Here's how to e-mail us your mailing list and database files:
1) Create your mailing list in any database program (for example, Access, Approach, etc.).
2) Go to the database's "Export" or "Save As" screen, and export/save the database as a "comma delimited text file." Depending on your software, this format may also be called "Text File," "Delimited Text File," or a similar variation. If the database gives you the option, choose to put your field names in the first row and to delimit your database with commas. If you chose the correct format, the saved file name will end with a ".txt" extension.
3) Send us an e-mail and attach your ".txt" database file.
Q: Can we send you photos from a digital camera to use in our newsletter?
A: Depending on the type of newsletter you have and the type of camera you have, you may be able to use photos from your digital camera in your newsletter.
If you have an online or Web newsletter, then photos from almost any digital camera can be inserted into your newsletter.
However, if you have a printed newsletter, your photos must have a much higher resolution (300 DPI) to print clearly. Many older digital cameras and newer inexpensive digital cameras cannot take high-resolution photos.
We recommend that you use at least a 2 megapixel digital camera for photos that will be used in printed newsletters. We may be able to use photos from digital cameras that have less than 2 megapixels, but they will most likely look fuzzy in your printed newsletter.
(If you have a printed newsletter and your digital camera has less than 2 megapixels, you're usually better off taking the photos with a conventional film camera, and mailing us the prints, so we can scan them at the proper resolution.)
Whatever digital camera you use, always be sure to choose the highest setting for photo size, resolution and pixel count before taking the photo. Then you can simply e-mail us your photo in ".JPG" format, and we'll take it from there.
What if you receive digital photos taken by others for the newsletter and aren't sure if they are high enough in resolution?
It's difficult to tell if a photo has good resolution by looking at it on screen. Most digital photos look fine on screen because a computer monitor can only display 72 DPI.
Thus, the best way to tell if the photos will print well in a printed newsletter is to print them out on your printer, then look closely at the detail within the photos.
If they're fuzzy looking and not crisp, they're probably low resolution. By printing and looking at them, you'll get much better idea of how they'll look when printed in a newsletter than you will by viewing them on screen.
Lastly, if you're unsure if a photo has enough resolution to be used in a printed newsletter, you can always e-mail it to us and we'll check its resolution.
Q: If
I want to scan my own photos or graphics and e-mail them to CompanyNewsletters.com,
what scanner settings should I use?
A: We definitely have some
helpful scanning tips for you.
There are two things you should do before scanning. First, be sure to
wipe the fingerprints and dust from your source photo or graphic with
a soft cloth. Secondly, use glass cleaner and the soft cloth to wipe the
scanner glass, so it is also free of fingerprints and dust. If you don't
do these two steps, we can almost guarantee that these blemishes will
show up on your scanned photo.
When scanning your photo, set your resolution according to the kind of newsletter we're producing for you and whether you're scanning a photo or graphic.
If we're producing an online newsletter for you, scan all your photos and graphics at 72 dots per inch (DPI).
For printed newsletters, scan photos at 300 DPI and other graphics (such as cartoons, logos, documents, charts, etc.) at 600 DPI.
The best file format in which to save your scanned photos or graphics is "JPG." That's because JPG files are smaller in size and quicker to e-mail than other formats. However, when saving the image as a JPG file, your software will most likely give you a choice as to whether you want a small file size and lower image quality or a larger file size and better image quality. Always choose the highest quality, largest file size setting.
Once your photos and graphics are scanned and saved as JPG files, simply send them to us as an e-mail attachment, preferably one e-mail per attachment.
Of course, if this seems too complicated, you can always mail your photos and graphics to us and we'll scan them for you.
Q: If I'm submitting articles for my newsletter to CompanyNewsletters.com, do I need to write the headlines, or will you write headlines that fit the layout?
A: We recommend you allow us to rewrite your headlines because often we have to lengthen or shorten them according to the available layout space.
For instance, a headline for a one-column-wide article must have fewer words than a headline above a story that goes across three columns.
We also try to produce newsletter layouts in a newspaper style, so headlines go from larger to smaller as you go down the page. Of course, this impacts the length of the headlines too, because a large headline can hold fewer words per line than a smaller headline.
For these reasons, we believe your layout will look better if you allow us to rewrite your headlines to fit the available space. However, you are always free to revise them again, once you see a draft of the layout.
And of course, if you prefer that we don't rewrite your headlines at all, just let us know and we'll be happy to accommodate your request.
Q: I'm writing articles for our newsletter that I'll be submitting to CompanyNewsletters.com for light editing. To minimize the corrections that will need to be made, I'm wondering if you have any writing-style guidelines that you can share with me. For instance: Should an employee's job title be capitalized? When should I use numerals for numbers, and when should they be spelled out? When I have questions like this, how can I make sure that I'm on the same page as CompanyNewsletters.com's editors?
A: At CompanyNewsletters.com, we follow the same writing-style guidelines that most major newspapers use. These guidelines are published in a book called The Associated Press Stylebook.
Often referred to as the "journalist's bible," the book is an invaluable reference source for newsletter writers and editors. It gives valuable guidelines for abbreviations, word usage, grammar, spelling and punctuation.
At CompanyNewsletters.com, we follow the book's guidelines when writing and editing our client's articles. So for consistency's sake, we highly recommend that clients who submit their articles to us for editing also use this easy-to-understand, helpful guide.
The book can be purchased at most major bookstores for $17.95 (list price), or you can order the book through Amazon.com for $12.21 and save 32 percent off the list price.
Q: How
can I view online color proofs of the printed newsletter that CompanyNewsletters.com
is creating for me?
A: Detailed directions for
viewing your online color proofs can be found at: http://CompanyNewsletters.com/OnlineProofing.htm.
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Phone: 952/892-6943