Managing Internet Addresses in Your Email Newsletter

Written by Robert F. Abbott


Web and email addresses pose a special challenge for writers and publishers of email newsletters and ezines.

I don’t know about you, but I find it frustrating when I have to copy and paste an address into a browser, or into a separate email window. Especially when I know how easy it is forrepparttar writer or publisher to put in ‘live’ links that allow readers to reach a destination or to create a new email message.

I also object to links that get contaminated by punctuation marks. I’m referring to web and email addresses immediately preceded or followed by a punctuation mark. They mean I have to copy and pasterepparttar 139006 link, then eliminaterepparttar 139007 offending punctuation mark before I can go on.

Let’s deal with that latter issue first: If you plan to include Web addresses and email addresses, use chevron marks, which you may also refer to asrepparttar 139008 less than “<“ and greater than “>” symbols. By putting them aroundrepparttar 139009 addresses, you keep them distinct and easy to copy. It also reducesrepparttar 139010 likelihood you will add a punctuation mark right afterrepparttar 139011 address, and make it non-clickable.

Turning torepparttar 139012 other issue, it’s also easy to make your addresses immediately clickable. Do this by fully writing out URLs of Web pages and by putting “mailto:” before email addresses. For example, rather than writing www.managersguide.com , I would write http://www.managersguide.com . (note how I left a space betweenrepparttar 139013 address andrepparttar 139014 period that endedrepparttar 139015 sentence). This makesrepparttar 139016 URL immediately clickable; all your readers have to do is put their cursors overrepparttar 139017 address and click.

How to Format Your Email Newsletter

Written by Robert F. Abbott


When subscribers’ email readers (programs) receive your text newsletter, they will display it in all kinds of ways. Not only are there different programs, but each one has several customization options.

One ofrepparttar problems arising out of this diversity is line length. In extreme cases, recipients will get one extremely long line for each paragraph, because their email programs have not wrappedrepparttar 138858 lines (ended each line after a specified number of characters and movedrepparttar 138859 text onto a new line). In other cases,repparttar 138860 lines may be too long for comfortable reading.

How do you deal with this? Opinions vary, again. Some publishers recommend you hitrepparttar 138861 RETURN key atrepparttar 138862 end of each line (hard returns), to make surerepparttar 138863 text wraps. Others advocate setting a line length (65 characters or less) inrepparttar 138864 Preferences section of your email program.

If you do use hard returns, use a fixed-space font like Courier or Monaco. That way you can simply set your margins to an appropriate line length and hitrepparttar 138865 return key atrepparttar 138866 end of each line. If you forget and use a variable-space font (like Arial or Times), your readers will get all kinds of variations, since many of them will use different fonts. You can also change your fonts back to something you like again after putting inrepparttar 138867 hard returns.

Apostrophes and quotation marks: Many of us use these symbols liberally when we write, and quite frankly they improverepparttar 138868 reading process. But, be sure you userepparttar 138869 appropriate versions of these marks, which means usingrepparttar 138870 straight foot and inch symbols, rather than curled apostrophes and quotation marks.

If you don’t do this, some of your readers will get a message in which all apostrophes and quotation marks have disappeared. It will look like you don’t know how to spell, or worse. Overcome this problem by usingrepparttar 138871 Find & Replace function in your word processing program to makerepparttar 138872 changes quickly and easily.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use