This page describes how to use ClarisWorks to create newsletters.
There are several ways to create newsletters using ClarisWorks. ClarisWorks includes "assistants" that make it fairly easy to create newsletters. There are two problems with this method:
Instead, by following this (somewhat more complicated) process, you will be able to use almost any drawing tool to create a newsletter.
You will create two documents as part of your newsletter. The first document will be a word processing document. This is where you will type your articles. You don't have to worry about formatting or layout in this document. The purpose of this document is to do your writing. Name this document articles.
The second document is a drawing document. This is where you will layout your newsletter. Name this document newsletter because the final layout will actually be the newsletter.
Start by typing a few articles in your articles document. Set your margin controls to indent your paragraphs, but don't worry about anything else. You don't have to type all of your articles before you start the layout. You can type them all and layout the entire newsletter, or you can type and lay them out one at a time.
Once you have at least one article, create your newsletter document.
Be sure to check the spelling of your articles. You can do this in the newsletter document, but it is easier to do in the articles document. Go to the Edit menu, choose Writing Tools, and Choose Check Document Spelling.
Be careful about the width of your page in your newsletter document. You probably want to go into the View menu (Window menu in AppleWorks 6) and select Page View so you can see your margins. You can also go to the Format menu and select Document to adjust the width of your margins. The white space outside the grayish box are your margins. Drawing documents start with very small documents.
The first thing that you will need in the newsletter is a banner. This usually contains the name of the newsletter and some other information (the date of publication, the author, etc.).
To create a banner, choose your TEXT tool (that's the big A) and click toward the top middle of your document. Type the name of your newsletter. You will notice that the name is not large or centered. Click anywhere outside the name, and you will see boxes (called handles) around the name. That means that the text object with the name of your newsletter is selected. Whatever you do now will affect that object. Go to the Format menu, select Size, and choose a large size (probably about 48). You might also go to the Format menu to choose a different font or style. Now your newsletter name should be big and possibly in a fancy font. Since it is still selected, you can drag from the middle of the name to move it toward the center of your page.
The next part of the banner is the other information you might want to include. I like to include a little bit of information between two lines:
This consists of three text objects and two lines. First create the lines using the straight line tool (shaped like a diagonal line). Select the tool and drag the mouse across the page, making sure the line that is being drawn is straight. When the line is about what you want, let go of the mouse. Repeat this just below the first line.
Next, use your text tool to create the text pieces that you want to appear between the lines. Don't worry about where they go, just create the text pieces. When you are done, you can drag them between the lines to the place you want. Creating them and dragging them is the same as what you did for the name of the newsletter.
When you have finished this, be sure to save your newsletter. You wouldn't want to lose it and have to do this again.
You might notice that you have trouble lining up your objects exactly. If you notice in my banner, the text is closer to the top line than the bottom line. That is because, you are constrained to put things at 1/8 inch intervals. You can move the text down, but the smallest amount you can move it down is 1/8 inch and that would put my text too low. There are two things you can do about this. You can turn off the AutoGrid feature. This will allow you to put things exactly where you want. If you want to move the text down just a tiny bit, you can. You can do this by going to the Options menu and choosing Turn Autogrid Off. The problem with this method is that it is now difficult to line things up.
The better method of lining things up gives you more flexibility without making it difficult to get things aligned exactly. You can make the autogrid smaller. You can allow yourself to move things 1/16 inch or 1/32 inch or ... To do this, go to the Format menu and select Rulers (and choose Ruler Settings... in AppleWorks 6). Change the number in the divisions box from 8 to 16 (or maybe 32 for even finer control). Click OK, and you will now be able to move things with more fine control.
Now you are ready to layout your articles. Go back to your articles document (you can select it from the View menu). Highlight your first article by dragging the mouse across it. Go to the Edit menu and select Copy. Go back to the newsletter document (using the View menu again), and go to the Edit menu and select Paste. If all goes well, you should have a text object with your article the width of one column in the middle of the page. You can now move it to the place where you want it (probably under your banner on the left side of the page.
If the article did not show up properly (occasionally, it will not be the width of a column), delete the article and try again. You can delete it by clicking on it (you should then see the handles on the around the text box) and hitting the delete key. It will usually show up properly the second time. If it doesn't, then you can drag any of the handles inward to resize the text object to be whatever size you want.
You should note that the text box that you have created is like a mini-word-processing document. You can do almost anything with that object that you can do with the word processor. The first trick is to get your Text ruler so you will have access to the tools with which you are used to working. Go to the Format menu and choose Rulers (and Ruler Settings in AppleWorks 6). Click on Text under Ruler Type and click OK. You should now see your typical word processing ruler.
To make changes to the formatting of your article, click inside the article (you might have to do this once or twice) until you see a box around the article. You should notice that the ruler at the top of the page has margins set based on the article you have selected, and you should have a flashing cursor somewhere inside your article. This is a mini-word-processing document. You can adjust paragraph indentation, add text, change margins, change fonts and styles, etc.
You will probably want to add a title to your article. Click at the very beginning of your article and hit RETURN to make a blank line at the top of the article. Click in that blank line, and you should see a flashing cursor at the beginning of the blank line. Type the title of the article. Since this is a title, you might want it to be bold and centered. You do this like you would anything in a word processor (center with your center tool, bold by highlighting the text and selecting bold from the Format/Style menu). When you are done with an article, click outside the article, and you will see the four handles on the corner.
You can repeat this process for all of your articles.
To add visual appeal to your newsletter, you should add graphics. Go to the File menu and select Library (Show Clippings in AppleWorks 6) and choose one of the libraries of graphics (arranged by category). A window will pop up, and you can click on a picture name to see what it will look like. If you find a picture you like, you can click on the Use button to insert it into your newsletter (just double-click on the picture in AppleWorks 6). If you decide you don't like it, click on it and hit the delete key. If you want to resize it, click on it, and drag one of the handles in or out. To move it to where you want it, drag it.
Be sure that you are not in the middle of an article when you insert graphics. That is, do not have a box around any text objects with the flashing cursor inside. If you are in the middle of an article, the picture will be part of the article, and it will be harder to move.
You can also create your own graphics by using the draw tools. Anything more than a fancy line, however, will require some artistic ability.
If you want to have more than one page, you can do one of two things. You can create a second newsletter document (newsletter2) for the second page, or you can go to the Format menu and select Document. Type 2 for Pages Down and click OK. If you are in Page View (available by selecting Page View from the View menu), you will be able to see two distinct pages as you scroll down. Be sure to add page numbers if you want them on the second page.
If some of your articles are too long and need to be split across columns, you can do this by creating two separate text objects. Select the text that doesn't fit from the end of the article and go to the Edit menu and select Cut. Click outside the article, and go to the Edit menu and select Paste. You should now have two separate text objects for the two parts of your article. You can put the second part wherever you want. You might want to include a note at the end of the first part, such as "continued on next column." Note that ClarisWorks has some fancy ways for connecting two text objects, so you can have text automatically flow from one to the other. However, this is a little more advanced than what you need right now, but if you want to explore this feature, try Frame Links in the Option menu.
Newsletters are a great way to communicate with students or parents on a weekly or monthly basis. They are not personal, but they help to keep people informed.
It is very important that you make your newsletter look good and that you use correct grammar and spelling. Of course, you will occasionally have typos, but too many typos and grammatical errors make you look unprofessional.
Make sure you line up your columns (autogrid is great for that), and that you fill most of the space on the page. Add pictures between articles for visual appeal.
This will seem a little difficult at first, but with a little practice, you can make excellent looking newsletters with very little effort. In addition, these steps translate fairly easily to most drawing tools. The details will vary, but the ideas are the same.
Most professionals use very fancy (and expensive) layout tools to do newsletters. For most of your purposes, very basic tools (like ClarisWorks) are all you need because you can make professional looking newsletters without fancy tools.
See an Example Newsletter.
This page was prepared by Dr. David M. Marcovitz.
Last Updated: August 23, 2002