Streamlining the NYPC Newsletter with Ventura Publisher
by Allison Moore
When the New York Ventura Publisher User Group affiliated with NYPC, the Gotham New York Personal Computer Corp., we had no idea that we would become involved in NYPC’s 21st Century Plan—an ambitious strategy for overhauling the 1,000-member volunteer organization.
Our involvement began innocently enough when Mary Ginsburg, NYPC’s Vice-President, dropped in on a VPUG meeting while Mike Irwin and Robert Leuze were demonstrating Database Publisher, a unique application bundled with Corel Ventura Publisher. As the demo went on, Mary’s eyes got bigger and brighter until she finally blurted out, “I think this might solve our problem.”
The problem to which she was referring was rethinking the production of NYPC’s monthly event calendar, distributed to the membership as a newsletter. Over the years, the publication of Inside NYPC had evolved into an unwieldy process. Each month, dedicated volunteers cut and pasted class and meeting data from a variety of sources, and sent it off to be laid out in Quark Express. The publisher would then send camera-ready pages to a fulfillment house for shooting, printing and mailing. There were no standards for how the data was supplied, and very little opportunity for proofing or correcting errors. It was also becoming more and more difficult to meet the monthly publication deadline.
Mary wanted to bring the publication back in house. However, the solution had to eliminate data errors without involving a steep learning curve for the volunteers. NYPC’s Board of Directors had already decided to create a database for the event information and then make it available for use both in the newsletter and on their website. Although the data would be collected in a single source with some degree of standardization, it would still have to make its way to the newsletter via cut and paste—just what Mary wanted to eliminate.
Enter Ventura and Database Publisher
Very simply, Database Publisher is a powerful automation vehicle for extracting material from a database, formatting it and importing it into a Ventura publication. The Ventura user group eagerly agreed to set up the newsletter template and the processes, and train the volunteers. Since we all have full schedules with little room for elective projects and we were physically in the same room for only a few hours once a month, the first actual publication via Ventura was targeted for six months from inception.
In a related article found in the September/October 2002 issue of VUEPOINT magazine Robert Leuze reveals the joys and challenges of setting up the Database Publisher connection. I drew the task of creating the template for the newsletter, the destination for the material from the database. Accordingly, I sat down at my computer with several back issues and a ruler, and got to work.
Ventura is designed around the concept of “tags,” usually referred to as “styles” in other applications. For example, a paragraph tag contains specifications for how a paragraph should be formatted, including typeface, alignment, spacing and tabs, to name a few characteristics. Every paragraph to which the tag is assigned is formatted with those characteristics. Not only does tagging save enormous amounts of formatting time, it also quickly and easily provides a consistent look and feel across the publication.
And a consistent look and feel was one thing the publication needed. The underlying structure was sound, with major components presented in a sequence that made sense. However, within sections, the organization was inconsistent and the formatting haphazard. Multiple typefaces, full caps and exclamation points competed loudly and tried to make up for the absence of graphics (see Figure 1). There was no sense of focus or priority. Most importantly, the publication needed to draw the reader in rather than clamor for attention (see Figure 2).
 
As I experimented with various ways of reorganizing the text, it occurred to me that the name of the publication, Inside NYPC, could be taken literally. Why not create a banner that played on the idea of peeking inside?
Using my graphics program, I dug up a clip art page curl, stripped it down to a curve with a couple of shadows, and placed it in front of a black triangle. Then I set up the publication name in white text and laid it on the black, along with a filled circle to serve as a place holder for the existing NYPC logo. After experimenting with the shape and size of the page curl, I exported the combination of elements as a single high-quality tiff.
Each month, the front page of the newsletter comprises a notice for the general meeting. It includes an article on the scheduled presentation and a panel displaying directions and other logistical information. I had already discovered that most of the standard elements in the publication worked best on a three-column grid. The front page was no exception (see Figure 3).
The article naturally fit into the first two columns, and the logistics panel worked well in the third column, anchoring the lower right corner. Placing the banner in the upper right corner pulled the page together. The diagonal sweep of the page curl neatly connected the promotional description of the meeting with the practical details, at the same time drawing the reader’s attention to the least interesting but most important element on the page.
The large black area with bold white text in the banner added energy to the design. Although the newsletter is one color, printed by offset, careful use of bold black & white elements combined with areas of gray can provide the missing “color.”
Taking the reverse text on the publication name as a cue, I set up headers and footers for the inside, using hairline rules to frame the pages (see Figure 4). The self-mailer in the bottom third of the back page got a smaller version of the banner’s black triangle to set off the return address and serve as a visual bookend (see Figures 5 and 6). Other than text, the two triangles and the hairline rules are the only elements specified as 100% black. Even the background in the header and footer elements is only 80%.
  
Aside from the promo on the general meeting and write-ups on individual coming events, the newsletter rarely contains articles. In addition, the major elements are always on the same pages in the 8-page publication. We decided against including a table of contents.
Three sections are created through Database Publisher: the class descriptions (see Figure 7), the special interest group (SIG) directory (see Figure 8), and the monthly event calendar. In setting up the tags for these sections, we agreed on two conventions. One, the name of each tag used in a given section would begin with the name of the section and the sequence number indicating the order in which the tag is used. Two, the name of the tag would describe the type of information in the paragraph (see Figure 9).
  
For example, the tags in the class section are:
- Class 1 name
- Class 2 blurb
- Class 3 dates, price
Likewise, I defined a frame tag for each possible ad size and named it accordingly (Ad half horizontal, Ad 3rd vertical). Since the existing practice was to place each section, notice or ad in a ruled frame, I retained that practice with a couple of variations. The list of officers on page 2 and the class descriptions on page 3 traded rules for a light gray background. The write-ups on page 2 are laid out in frames with no rules, visually separated by a 6pt gray line.
Page tags are also named descriptively: Front page, Inside page 3 cols, Last page w mailer. Snap to columns is turned on to facilitate precise placement. Wherever possible, the size and position of permanent frames are locked. I also moved the banner and mailer elements to their respective page tags to protect their placement and simplify editing on those pages.
Defining a tag for every element that could be tagged provided several advantages:
- The template is modular, so it’s easier to understand and to work with.
- The design is consistent across the publication.
- The initial learning curve is reduced.
To generate a workable publication, the volunteers don’t have to know much more than how to import contents and apply the appropriate tags. As we progress, they can learn more about Ventura at their own pace.
Remember the targeted six-month production date? At the four-month meeting, the template was more or less in order and Robert had just achieved a viable solution for generating the monthly calendar. That’s when Mary said, “Is there any way we can go to production next week?”
And that’s exactly what we did.
By the way, NYPC’s Board liked the design of the newsletter so much that they asked us to redo their collateral material as well. During that same four months, we also produced a new logo and redesigned the letterhead, envelopes, business cards, membership cards, advertising rate card and membership brochure.
Thanks to Ventura and Database Publisher, the publishing components of NYPC’s 21st Century plan are well in hand and ready to move forward.
Allison Moore is the Managing Editor for Meta Health Technology Inc., a company that develops medical record software for healthcare institutions. For the last fifteen years, she has happily used Ventura to publish nearly everything the company needs to print. Currently, she chairs the New York Ventura Publisher User Group, which is affiliated with NYPC.
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