How to Design an Ezine Using Microsoft Publisher

If you intend to publish an ezine, you'll want each issue to look like all the others. Design consistency is one of the most important parts of ezine publishing. Therefore, you'll want to design a template that you will use over and over again.

There are essentially four parts of your ezine: the background, the masthead or header, the body and the footer. Each requires special attention. Keep in mind that, while in HTML, your ezine design is not like building web pages. It should be simpler with fewer details.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

1. Open Microsoft Publisher.

2. On the left side of the screen, click on "Web Sites and E-mail."

3. Click on "E-mail."

4. Click on "Newsletter."

5. Choose a template.

6. Follow Publisher's prompts and enter your company's contact information, name, and title for your ezine, as well as color and design elements for your template.

7. Click on "File" and scroll down to "Page Setup." Select a width and height for your ezine.

8. Begin inserting text and graphics.

9. To create a hyperlink from your ezine to a web page, click on "Insert" and scroll down to "Hyperlink." In a separate browser, open the web page you want to link to and copy the URL. The URL will automatically appear in the address field of the hyperlink dialogue box. Click "OK."

10. To test the ezine in your e-mail application, click on "File" and scroll down to "Send e-mail." Click on "Send This Page as Message." Enter your e-mail address in the "To:" box. Give the message a subject header. Hit "Send."

Tips & Warnings

• Keep it simple. Be light with the graphics. People want usability and functionality more than pretty graphics.

• Not all e-mail applications translate HTML accurately. If you have access to Yahoo, Gmail, Eudora, and other e-mail applications, test your ezine in each application to ensure user readability.

• Don't design with Flash. Only a handful of readers will be able to view it.