Get noticed! promote your business with a newsletter - includes related guide to creating a newsletter and an article on desktop publishing sources - tutorial

Home Office Computing, August, 1991 by Leslie Simons

5. Use style sheets. If your page-layout program offers style sheets, use them to define the type specs for your newsletter's body text, headlines, photo captions, and other text elements.

Setting up pages. My sample newsletter is designed to be four pages long. When printed, it takes up the front and back of a single 11-by-17 sheet of paper. The sheet is then turned sideways and folded in half to create a four-page publication.

Here's how you can set up pages to get similar results:

1. Specify your page as letter-size, 8.5 by 11 inches, with a vertical or tall orientation. Chances are, you don't own a laser printer that can output on 11-by-17 sheets. So this way, you print preliminary page proofs in a standard 8.5-by-11 format.

2. Set the margins. Remember to allow sufficient margin space to let your publication "breathe." Margins are in important source of white space. They also create a framing effect, directing your reader's eye to central information on each page.

3. Work with spreads. Specify four pages and check your layout program's facing-pages option, if available.

4. Decide on a set of spacing standards. Determine the amount of space you'll leave between elements--graphics and text, photos and captions, caption baselines and text, headline baselines and text, and so forth.

5. Employ master pages. Many layout programs now offer a master-page feature. This lets you create a basic grid with room for repeating elements that will appear on each newsletter page--such items as page numbers; date, issue, and volume numbers; your company name; borders; rules; and the like.

Layout choices. When it comes to making pages, there are as many different approaches as there are designers. The page you start on and the element you create first will depend largely on your resources and personal preferences. Generally, however, your main goal is to establish the basic look and balance of all your pages.

As you develop your own newsletter, be aware of the steps you take to build each page. When you're done, review those steps. Which steps seemed most logical--or most repetitive? Would you delete some steps or approach them in a different order? As you answer these questions, you'll streamline the approach that best suits your needs.

Page spreads. In the newsletter layout, the front and back covers appear to be facing pages. When printed on a single sheet of paper and folded, however, each cover will be viewed as a single page. As a result, they should be designed independently of one another.

Inside facing pages, or page spreads, require a different perspective. Page spreads work in tandem as a single visual unit. It's your goal to direct the reader's eye in a smooth and logical fashion from a primary point of emphasis (a major headline, photo, or illustration) across both pages. Keep in mind that most readers tend to read from the upper left page to the lower right page, and their eyes like to travel in a Z pattern. You can use graphic elements (boxes, rules, or color screens) to divert attention to important items, but try not to interrupt this basic reading flow too much.