Happy New Year, Here is A Green Family Newsletter

 

(this picture will be explained at the bottom of this post..)

Last night while looking at the stack of amazing holiday cards we received I decided it was time... time to (shriek, gasp, choke) do a family holiday newsletter.. The last time we did a printed holiday card was 5 years ago - just after we had the twins. We have been quite busy since. Being a techie, it should be easy to do a holiday email newsletter, right?

Not so....

I went to CNET Downloads because they test the sites they recommend for spyware. I downloaded 4 different free newsletter programs - and none were flexible enough for me. I have Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop - but I needed something quick (it was December 30 and I wanted to send out Dec. 31)..

Then I went back to what I use on a daily basis: Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word has newsletter templates you can download and then add in your own information. With Microsoft 2007 there is an insert tab that allows you to insert pictures and "text boxes" for text. You can change the color of the background with text boxes or shapes.

The first step I did was choose some pictures and use Adobe Photoshop to crop and "convert" the pictures to .jpg that had reasonable pixels to load into one page. For example, I converted one picture that was up at 1380 pixels to 300 pixels.

Next I chose a Microsoft Word newsletter template, inserted pictures and added text. I showed it to TechDaddy and he added his input.

TO SEND OUT:

It is best NOT to send out the Microsoft word file when you email the newsletter to family and friends. I suggest converting the Microsoft Word document to a Adobe "PDF". I did not have the PDF conversion add-on, so I went to the Microsoft website and downloaded it. This enabled me to choose "Save As>PDF" from the main menu, and save my newsletter as a PDF. I then logged onto email and sent the newsletter out to family and friends.

HOLIDAY WISHES

So this is my Happy Holidays and New Years wish to my readers. Instead of displaying my family newsletter, I explained how to make one. I try not to publish any family pictures online (I am a security geek). Instead, I did share with my readers the top picture in our newsletter - with a windblown TechMama and her family cropped out. The location was a family hike in the hills of San Francisco on an unusually clear day.

Have a great New Years!!

PLEASE DO SHARE YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FAMILY NEWSLETTER SOFTWARE OR WEBSITES. It would be great to hear what others are using.