April, 2001

You have reached the home page of the PAGEMAKR mailing list, an internet resource for desktop publishers, particularly users of Adobe PageMaker software. Our subscription base varies in size from 1,400–2,000, with a core of wonderfully knowledgeable and helpful members. Mail messages can be received as they are posted or once daily as a digest. You will find subscription instructions on the subscription help page, or you can write to a listowner at pagemakr-request@listserv.iupui.edu.

Welcome to Our New Domain!

Regular readers will see at once that this is the first update to the site since last spring. Shortly after publishing my Seybold Boston write-up, I found that I could no longer edit pages, add pages, etc., due to a quota violation, and it wasn't me, it was the whole domain. Nothing I deleted helped, and the kind soul who had originally offered the space for free was no longer available to help. So the search began for a new home. After an exhaustive search I found a reasonably priced web host and an appropriate domain name, and the worst was over. I'm now in the process of converting the old web pages to the new, more streamlined pages and uploading them to the new domain. And just in time! Shortly after I started, the old hypercorp.com domain stopped responding — with only a few weeks until Seybold Boston 2001! Look for my write-up in next month's essay.

Work continues on the design and bug testing the code. As always, I welcome suggestions and corrections. You can use either adamsp@cs.umb.edu or webmaster@makingpages.org to contact me.

How You Can Help

Help can come in two ways: First, and most important, send comments, updates, corrections, and new content. If you'd like to publish whole web pages in HTML, let me know and I'll provide the code to use for the headers, footers, and sidebar. I will also publish PDFs, GIFs, JPGs, and PageMaker files (including scripts).

Second, you can help me pay for this! I paid for the domain and a year of web hosting, and while I don't expect anyone to help with this, I wouldn't say no, either. In fact, I've found an easy way for you to do it. PayPal is an innovative way to send and receive payments via e-mail. Just click a link, type in an amount, and click submit. You and the recipient receive e-mail notification of the transaction, and the money is transferred rapidly. And it doesn't have to be a large amount, either — you can send any amount at all, from one penny to a million euros.

If you are already a PayPal member, you can donate money by clicking the PayPal logo in the left sidebar or the "Donate" link. Donate!

If you are not already a member of PayPal, you can join using the link below and donate a $5 referral fee to me. To be eligible for this referral program, you be a U.S. resident, sign up for PayPal, provide them your e-mail address, confirm with a checking account (i.e. "link" your PayPal account and your checking account for furure transfers), add $100 or more by electronic funds transfer into your PayPal account, and sign up for a money market fund currently earning 4.2% interest. (Anyone in the world can join and use PayPal, of course — the U.S. limitation is only for the referral program.) Join PayPal!

Book of the Month

How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter
by Gordon Woolf
Worsley Press, 168pp B5 paperback, Aus$35.00 (About $18 U.S.). Third edition pub. June 2000.

Buy it online!

Our own Gordon Woolf has updated his book How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter, and the third edition comes with substantial new sections and a web site with updates and information of interest to anyone who produces formatted publications. You can also sign up for a free e-mail newsletter

A magazine need not be expensive to produce. This book looks at what you can do for yourself. It includes general advice on use of computer layout programs, but it covers much more than this, with general advice on collating, binding, and methods of production, from photocopying to many forms of printing — it even has guidelines on working out an economic rate for advertisements! You'll also learn what is required of an editor and what an editor needs to learn, including some general guidelines on copyright and libel. The book abounds with practical, real-world advice on many subjects. Example: "Small hand operated guillotines are on the market for around a thousand dollars or so, though I urge caution — in the haste to get a magazine out, it is very easy to forget how sharp a guillotine blade is. I write from experience — though fortunately I lost only the tiniest fraction off the top of a finger. New guillotines have the safety guards which ensure that the item to be cut is clamped in position before you can lower the blade, but they are not foolproof."

The book is not without flaws, however. For instance, when he writes "laser printer output at 30,000 dots to the square inch," the author probably meant 90,000 (300 x 300), even though a low-end laser printer today is usually 600x600 (360,000 dots to the square inch). Some of the graphics are a little washed out, and the screen shots, in particular, could be cleaned up.

Overall, though, this is a very good book for anyone setting out on the task of publishing for the first time.

Product of the Month

Art Explosion 750,000
Nova Development, $199.95

Buy it online!

If you're just starting out in the business, or you need a wider variety of clip art than you currently have, you could do a lot worse than this massive — 48 CDs, 2 CD cases, and a 2-volume, 1,800 page catalog — collection. Since the demise of more specialized companies like 3G Graphics, Art Explosion has become the top selling brand of Macintosh clip art because of its excellent quality, variety, and organization. The easy-to-use browser lets you drag clip to Photoshop or download it to your hard disk. Primarily clip art in EPS format, the collection also includes a fonts from Agfa and Bitstream, an extensive photo collection, alphabets, and backgrounds.

Note: This product is Mac only. The equivalent product for Windows is Art Explosion 150,000 ($29.95). Another option, Art Explosion 600,000 ($139.94), requires a DVD-ROM drive.