| Formatting Guidelines: E-Zines are sent as plain old
vanilla text files. By sending your E-Zine as **text-only**, you ensure that not only can
you reach the widest possible online audience, but that your audience will see your
message the way you sent it.
Forget all the really cool stuff for now. You are going to send your e-zine as text:
the lowest common denominator on the internet. Why? So anyone, anywhere with any
e-mail program can read your message.
Since you may never have the opportunity to meet your subscribers or readers in person,
your e-zine will project your image. Naturally you will want your e-zine to look good on
the screen of each and every recipient.
Use a Text Editor
to create your files.
A text editor is a program that you use to create a text file. If you are a Windows user,
you can use Notepad.
If you do not have a text editor, go to download.com
and search for text editors. Type "text editor" in the search box and you will
get a list of available text editors - both freeware and shareware. Don't know which one
to choose? Start by checking out a FREE text editor called Super NoteTab Light. You can
download it at download.com. If you are looking for
a text editor with all the bells and whistles, check out Textpad at textpad.com. Textpad is a shareware program. You can
download a trial copy at the textpad site.
I use and highly recommend Textpad.
http://www.textpad.com
Use Hard Returns to end lines at 65 characters
Press the ENTER key to end each line. Do NOT rely on word-wrap functions when creating or
editing your newsletter.
Use spaces for
indentation.
Stay away from your TAB key. The length of a TAB key is set by the recipient--your TAB key
might be set at 5, but your recipient's TAB might be set at 10.
Avoid using ALL
CAPS.
If you want to highlight a word or phrase, surround the **word** in asterisks. Your
readers will find it easier to understand the emphasis.
Basic Terms:
Line
Length and Word Wrapping
There are a couple of things you need to understand to ensure that your email message
looks the same on the screen of your recipients as it does on your computer screen.
Because of the variety of e-mail programs available around the world, you need to make
sure that your e-mail message can be read by all of them.
Two things to keep in mind are that some e-mail programs do not use word-wrap and yet
others can't display more than 70 characters on the screen. To accommodate the widest
range of e-mail programs, you need to restrict the length of each line in your e-zine to
65 characters and use a hard line break at the end of each line.
You can create a forced line break by pressing the ENTER key. Look at the illustration
below. Limiting your line length to 65 characters and using hard line breaks will prevent
most e-mail formatting problems. Without hard line breaks, your email message will wrap in
places that you had not anticipated and your message might look like the one pictured
below!
Fonts:
Proportional and Fixed Width or Monospaced
When you create your e-zine in a text editor, you will use a monospaced or
fixed width font for the text. Do you understand the difference?
Using a monospaced font will help you count characters accurately to format your
e-zine to the 65 character line length recommendation. Try using a 10 point Courier New
font. When you create the template for your e-zine, place a grid at the top of your page
to help you keep the line length at 65 characters.
Next
|
New
Students Welcome