Newspaper distribution at gas stations

> Also, even if you do get a document to look
> the way you want on your computer, it's an
> entirely different thing to have it appear
> that way on someone else's computer
> (particularly your printer's). Most likely,
> if you give a printer a Word doc to print,
> it will come back to you looking very
> different from what you thought.

As far as I can figure, the biggest reason the documents generated in Microsoft products look different is the printer driver.

Change the printer driver on an existing document and see how it looks on the screen. It will look different.

After the printer driver, the next reason it looks different is any body's guess. That is, sometimes, even with the same printer driver and default page and printer set ups, the document can still look different, although, only slightly.

One possible reason could be the slight variation in OS version numbers for the same Main Version. Win98 build 1.0000002 vs Win 98 build 1.0000003.

Mayhaps it is just another one of those things we have grown to accept (under pain and torment) from the beast that is Microsoft. :o)

Michael Ross

> I had to address this point. As background,
> I currently work as a technical writer and
> when I started in this position, our team
> used Word exclusively. We now use FrameMaker
> (not PageMaker, although I am equally
> familiar with both) exclusively and, in all
> seriousness, our productivity has doubled
> over the days when we used Word.

Thank you for your explaination! I guess I will go get pagemaker! It is funny that up until about two years ago I never used Word even though I had it. All of my word proccesing needs were simple and straight forward. Thus I never needed the bloated features of Word. The only reason I switched to word was because I needed the macro making abilities of Word to force a square peg into a round hole so to speak. I used Word to create macros that took text copies of newspaper ads and transformed them into delimited text files so that I could import them into my database.

> If I had to start all over again, I probaly
> would re-think and change just one element
> of my marketing approach....simply from
> angle that I didn't consider before......

What might that change of your marketing approach be?

> What might that change of your marketing
> approach be?

Why, the end result, of course!

I chose to start a golf publication because:

(1) There was not one in my area. There was a

need for one. There was no competition.

(2)It was a profitable niche of sophisticated,

affluent buyers.

(2) I enjoyed playing golf (golf is like sex..

I'm not real good at either one....but I'm

not going to give either up.

Now the benefits of a golf publication is:

(1) I can play golf everyday, absolutely FREE!

(2) I go to 25-30 golf tournaments every

month, eat all the shrimp, steak, BBQ,

they can cook, and flirt with a lot of

very pretty woman who love to have their

photo taken

(Some even suggest modeling:)

(3) I can wear shorts, loud Hawaiian shirts,

& almost anything except a shirt & tie!

BUT....My orginal reason to start a

publication was so that I could advertise

my own 'I Buy Houses" business for FREE!

So,...If I had to do it all over again ,

the only thing that I would change would

be that I would publish a FSBO Magazine!

That way I would be talking with 100-150

folks a month that would be:

(1) Interested in selling their property

(2) Would pay me to help them sell the

properties that I didn't want to add

to my portfolio!

So, osirus, learn from my misguided attempts and kill two birds with one stone.....start a FSBO
publication!

Bobby

Osirus,

I've been thinking about my last post and I feel I should apologize. I've had some negative experiences with Word that I've let get the best of me.

Let me say this: all things being equal, I do feel you're better off using PageMaker or FrameMaker than Word to do your publication. However, all things are almost always not equal.

The most important thing is not which software to use, rather it's to begin taking action as soon as you can. Don't let the software you use become a bottleneck -- if you are comfortable with Word and can get your document to look the way you want with it, then get started with it (but check with your printer first to see what file type they accept). After you have some income coming in from your project, then you can consider upgrading your software. The important thing is to get moving and test your idea as quickly as is reasonable.

Having said that, here are some tips if you do use Word:

• learn a little about styles (if you don't understand them already) and get that feature working for you -- if used well, they will save you a lot of time.
• go and bookmark http://www.mvps.org/word/ -- there you will find the most helpful information on Word I've ever seen anywhere. Check there first if you run into any trouble.
• ask your printer if they accept .ps (for "postscript" -- not .eps or "encapsulated postscript") files. If so, you can generate a .ps file just by printing your Word doc and, before actually printing, checking the "Print to File" option. (I assume here that you have a postscript printer, if not this won't work.)
• Or, another alternative is to pick up a copy of Adobe Acrobat (~$250 new) and use it to convert your Word file to a PDF file -- but check with your printer first to make sure they accept PDF files (most do).

Those are some ideas. I hope that's more helpful than my last post.

Best to you,
Phil

P.S. -- You might get the impression from my last post that I'm against MS Word. Not so -- I think Word is fantastic for composing and manipulating text. It's a great thinking tool. However, I feel it could be much better at document formatting.

> Osirus,

> I've been thinking about my last post and I
> feel I should apologize. I've had some
> negative experiences with Word that I've let
> get the best of me.

No need to apologize! If fact I should be thanking you for the tips on Word. By the way, what were your neagtive experiences with word, if you don not mind me asking?

> Why, the end result, of course!

> I chose to start a golf publication because:

> (1) There was not one in my area. There was
> a

> need for one. There was no competition.

> (2)It was a profitable niche of
> sophisticated,

> affluent buyers.

> (2) I enjoyed playing golf (golf is like
> sex..

> I'm not real good at either one....but I'm

> not going to give either up.

> Now the benefits of a golf publication is:

> (1) I can play golf everyday, absolutely
> FREE!

> (2) I go to 25-30 golf tournaments every

> month, eat all the shrimp, steak, BBQ,

> they can cook, and flirt with a lot of

> very pretty woman who love to have their

> photo taken

> (Some even suggest modeling:)

I got the impression from your use of the word "WE" your earlier posts, in this thread, that you were already spoken for. If so, I hope your significant other does not get pissed with your flirtations;-D

> my own 'I Buy Houses" business for
> FREE!

Actually, you touched on a question of organization. Do I keep my REI business separate from your publication business? Do I have my REI business pay for ads in my publication just like any other advertiser? My personal, uninformed belief is that REI and the publishing should act and behave like to separate businesses. This way way if you have trouble with one (finacial, litigation etc) it will not nescessarily affect the other.I will have to consult professional help about this.

> So,...If I had to do it all over again ,

> the only thing that I would change would

> be that I would publish a FSBO Magazine!

> That way I would be talking with 100-150

> folks a month that would be:

> (1) Interested in selling their property

> (2) Would pay me to help them sell the

> properties that I didn't want to add

> to my portfolio!

> So, osirus, learn from my misguided attempts
> and kill two birds with one stone.....start
> a FSBO
> publication!

That was what I already had in mine! Except I wood also include FRBOs. Anyways why don't you start a FSBO magazine now? Would you be interested in my tenative plans on how to add value to the FSBO publication?

> Bobby

> No need to apologize! If fact I should be
> thanking you for the tips on Word. By the
> way, what were your neagtive experiences
> with word, if you don not mind me asking?

When I began at my current company, I inherited a manual that was about 200 pages in length, done entirely in Word. Everytime we had to print it, we consistently under-estimated how long it would take -- we would always find new things wrong with the manual like the numbering or page-breaking -- and it would be a couple hours before it was finally ready to send to our printer.

Basically, the manual wasn't set up well -- it used a lot of direct, labor-intensive formatting and whenever you inserted or removed a portion of text, you had to check the whole thing page by page to ensure that it was still presentable (and usually it wasn't). It was awful.

The worst part was when we finally got around to cleaning it up -- it would have been less time consuming to start over.

Finally, our group switched to FrameMaker. After a little learning, we started moving the manual to the new software. It took awhile to get it in shape, but once it was set up, it was surprising how much time we had left over. Printing took five minutes max. The pages looked the same regardless of who's computer we used or what printer driver we had. You could put text in, take it out, make it dance on its head, and FrameMaker made sure everything was in it's proper place. It was downright boring (just what I wanted!).

There are all kinds of stories I could give, but, really, your experience may be different from mine. I don't know why, but the questions I'm asked from others who use Word are almost always unique. You might not believe me if told you some of the things I've seen; and you may never see them yourself. (But if you do have any funky trouble, head over to www.mvps.org right away!).

Best,
Phil