Putting your newsletter on the World Wide Web

Coding

While you can now buy good WYSIWYG web design programs that claim they totally eliminate the need for learning HTML, we're not yet totally sold on a code-free world. If you're going to be doing any serious web design, at least familiarize yourself with HTML, the underlying code to all web pages. While WYSIWYG programs like Dreamweaver, and GoLive are great for building a structure for your page, we've found that things usually crop up that require at least a basic knowledge of HTML. It's kind of like driving - you don't have to be a mechanic to operate an automobile, but it doesn't hurt to know where the spare tire is and how to add oil to your engine if you need to.

E-mail newsletters

Entirely different animals than web based newsletters, e-mail newsletters are increasingly popular, especially with businesses. The principle is simple - you e-mail your newsletter to a list of subscribers. While many e-mailed newsletters are published in text only format, you can also e-mail an HTML version as well, complete with all the graphic bells and whistles.

PDF

If you want your online newsletter to look identical (or almost identical) to your print piece, one option is to create a PDF version of the piece. This will allow users to download the publication from your site and then read it on their screen or print it off using Adobe's Acrobat Reader software. Pagemaker, QuarkXpress, InDesign and many other software packages will allow you to create a PDF version of your document.