Chebbie_SB
Chebbie_SB HalfDork
1/12/10 9:35 p.m.

Does anyone here compose newsletters? I am looking for feedback on software for this.

Thanks, Che

P71
P71 GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
1/12/10 9:44 p.m.

MS Publisher. It's seriously the best software they make and the best for newsletters. Cheap too if you find an old disc.

oldtin
oldtin Reader
1/12/10 9:54 p.m.

I have a creative services business - have done a lot of newsletters.

Adobe Creative Suite (CS4) - not cheap and steep learning curve - may be overkill - stunningly powerful though and multiple support communities. Quark Express - was a top player before adobe took over the creative software market MS Publisher - can get the job done - you won't be making friends with your printer though MS Word - can do in a pinch - results can look amateurish and it's clunky to work with

For work? For yourself or your own business? Buying the software is easy - spending the time to learn design, source graphics, photos and packaging can be time consuming. Will you need to publish for print and the Internets?

EastCoastMojo
EastCoastMojo GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
1/12/10 10:17 p.m.

Microsoft Publisher hands down.

Keith
Keith GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
1/12/10 10:27 p.m.

Adobe InDesign. It's the standard in the printing community for a reason!

petegossett
petegossett GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
1/13/10 4:25 a.m.

I'll add my $0.02 - all of my customers that are churches(about 80 of them) use either Publisher or InDesign. The majority definitely goes Publisher, probably for price and a bit easier learning curve. The more "pro" operations are running InDesign though.

JG Pasterjak
JG Pasterjak Production/Art Director
1/13/10 7:11 a.m.

InDesign is very much the standard these days, but it also comes at a premium price. If you're a legitimate teacher or student, you can get some pretty sweet academic pricing, though.

I'd also look into Adobe's Pagemaker. It was the precursor to InDesign and lives on as their consumer alternative to the pro InDesign. And it's priced accordingly. It can basically do nearly everything InDesign can on the front end (production), but doesn't have a lot of the strengths ID has on the back end (prepress), which is not usually a concern for a home user.

jg

carguy123
carguy123 SuperDork
1/13/10 9:52 a.m.

Nothing MS!!

Most MS stuff won't display as you want on PCs not of the right vintage, with the wrong version of software or on other computer makes. Whenever I get a non performing newsletter in the mail it's always done on Publisher.

You need to ensure that your newsletter requires ZERO thought, software, etc for them to view.

Rob_Mopar
Rob_Mopar HalfDork
3/17/11 6:11 a.m.

For our car club we use MS Publisher. After it's created we generate a PDF of it for the members who want an electronic version and paper for the members who still want it US Postal.

DaveEstey
DaveEstey HalfDork
3/17/11 10:04 a.m.

InDesign, Pagemaker or Quark (If you're a masochist).

Out of all of them I much prefer InDesign. Quark makes me want to crash a burning car into an orphanage full of kittens.

fastEddie
fastEddie SuperDork
3/17/11 1:05 p.m.
JG Pasterjak wrote: InDesign is very much the standard these days, but it also comes at a premium price. If you're a legitimate teacher or student, you can get some pretty sweet academic pricing, though. jg

QFT. We just bought Photoshop CS5 for our daughter for school - on sale via Amazon for $170. MSRP is $999! Thankfully, for us, they have a homeschool friendly student/teacher policy.

Lesley
Lesley SuperDork
3/17/11 5:34 p.m.

Yeah, Quark is a royal pain in the butt... I used it for ten years doing newspaper layout. But I'm so damn familiar with it, that I use it because it's so fast (for me). Its biggest downfall is font conflicts and postscript errors with colour separations, they could cause one to go postal.

bizboy
bizboy New Reader
3/23/11 9:35 p.m.

The company PHPKode supply a good newsletter software and newsletter service. You can add the newsletter program to your own computer and send the email to your subscribers. Or you can choose the newsletter service. Here list three Run on PHPKode: For blogging and personal sites that need a simple newslatter serving solution at low impression levels. All hosting, bandwidth, security costs included.

Personal Edition: For personal, non-commercial use only. That includes email support.

Enterprise Edition: For businesses of all sizes looking for a powerful, easy-to-use newsletter serving solution that includes support.

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