How To Put Your Newsletter On Your Site

By making your newsletter available on your Web site you can accomplish many things.  First, depending on how many newsletters you publish, you can save your church a considerable amount of money.  Poll your congregation and see how many would be willing to receive their newsletter electronically.  For everyone who says, "Yes," you have cut back on your printing and mailing costs.  It is not uncommon to see churches cut their printing and mailing costs in half overnight after tallying the results of their polls.  Second, if you are prompt about making the newsletter available online, those who get it electronically will have access to it and can print their own hard copy while those who want it mailed are still waiting for their copy to arrive. Third, if a member loses his or her newsletter, or a visitor who isn't on your mailing list wants to see your newsletter, they only have to visit your site to get a copy.  It is a wonderful solution for everyone.

1. PDF files are read using Adobe Acrobat Reader*, which is a free download for anyone who doesn't already have a copy. 

2. PDF files incorporate all the font and image information into the .pdf file, eliminating the problem of someone trying to view a document that uses a font that they may not have installed on their computer.

3. PDF files tend to be smaller than the file they were created from, which means they download faster from your website.

4. PDF files can be viewed on or PC computer or a Macintosh.

Step One: Convert the Document
You will need software to convert a document into a .pdf file.  A registered version of Adobe Acrobat will do this quite nicely.  However if you don't have this software, you can download a free .pdf converter at the PDF995 website.  PDF995** loads into your computer as if it were a printer driver.  To use it, you simply print the document you want to convert, selecting "PDF995" as your printer instead of your actual printer.  PDF995 will then convert the signal that was sent to print into a .pdf document and allow you to save it to your computer somewhere.

• Click Here to download the PDF995 .exe file (version 6.15)
• Click Here to download the PDF995 .zip file (version 6.15)

Step Two: Upload
After converting the newsletter or document to a .pdf format, you will need to upload it into one of your Media Libraries in WebMedley the same way you would upload an image or a graphic.  Be aware, however, that whatever you type in the 'Media Name' field will be exactly how the link to this document will appear on your Web page.  So, you will want to give it a media name  like "January 2002 Newsletter" instead of "01-02 nsltr" or something similar, which might be confusing to visitors to your site.

1. Put your cursor in the editing box where you want the link to go

2. Click 'Insert Media' on your toolbar

3. Choose the library you put the .pdf file in

4. Select the 'Documents' Tab

5. Select the .pdf file to insert

6. Click Insert

(You may want to place a sentence on your page that says something like, "Our newsletters are published in .pdf format.  You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them.  If you do not already have this software, you can get a free copy by clicking here." - Make the word 'here' a link to Adobe's Web site where they can download a copy.  The address is: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html .)

Once, you have done this and completed any other edits on the page, save the page (using the save button on your toolbar) and close the window.  The next time you publish your site, that document will now be available for people to click on and download/view on their own computers.  If they need a hard copy, they can print it off their own printer.