Follow the suggested newsletter formatting rules to ensure that your subscribers will receive a newsletter with a consistent look and feel.
And more important, a newsletter should be formatted so when the subscriber reads the email, the formatted text should look the same as before you mailed it out to your list!
Newsletter Formatting and email format
When emails are sent, the email program normally use 1 of 3 different formats for the text.
1. HTML (the email actually is the same as a webpage) 2. RTF (Rich Text Format, mildy fomatted) 3. ASCII (Clean unformatted text)
1. HTML
Use it only if you know what you are doing. Not only is it more difficult to use as you need special software and/or knowledge to create the formatted message, it is in many cases stopped or refused by antivirus software as well as software firewalls due to the risk of the html code containing some evil code.
2. RTF
Not widely known or used. It is a "in the middle format" of text and has nothing to offer besides the formatting possibilities of colors, bold, italic, underlined and similar.
3. ASCII
In most cases the easiest type of format to use. It is easy to handle, use little space, can be read by all email software, antivirus software can scan the content without problems, and one can not hide anything dangerous inside the message.
So why will your formatting go bad when sending the email out?
It's all built on standards. And that the sender and recipient can agree to what format they will use.
When you use a more complicated format then the recipient has configured his software to use or if it's a more complicated format then his software can handle, then it comes out looking ... like something you shouldn't have sent!
The old rule of the smallest common denominator works here as well, use the oldest, simplest format, and most people will be able to read it!
The Newsletter Formatting Rules
Do not change your newsletter formatting rules.
Use the same newsletter formatting rules, all the time, in all the issues of your newsletter.
Choose proportional (monospaced) fonts like Courier New.
Use a fixed row length of no more then 65 characters per row by entering a hard row break (hitting enter at each line or save time and let specialized software like Ziney/Ziney De Lux/Ziney Pro, do the work for you
Can newsletter formatting be simplified by using the correct software?
Yes it can!
There are many pitfalls when you write and send out a newsletter. And the first one is the program you use for writing the content.
Many say that using software like notepad is the wisest move as notepad will let you type without any formatting at all.
So why bother with a special program you say.
To be able to see how the finished product will look once it reaches your subscriber will you have to go through many steps if you choose to just write the content without formatting, cutting and pasting it sometimes not only once but twice or more until the text ends up in an email ready to be sent to your list. Then you have to test send a copy to yourself just to see how it looks.
And if the formatting is bad ....
Well, I rest my case!
Write it in Ziney and format the row length at once and the content will look the same after you have sent it.
Here you have a list with common reasons and places where the format of your newsletter will be changed or ruined.
Directly in your editor. When you save the text, your software will save it formatted in one way or another.
When you have cut it and pasted into another program for transfer or reformatting, this second program reformats your text.
The email program (local or online service) have row length set to a value not compatible with your choice of row length.
The smtp (or mailservers) can in some cases change the email contents formatting by changing or not supporting the character coding. Ie. iso-8895 can be changed to something not compatible.
Online usage of mailsweepers or virus scanners is common today. Some of them can also in some cases alter your format or even deem you email as possible spam or virus and delete parts of it or in some way alter it.
This list is in no way complete and additions will be made as well as further explanation of some of the terms used above.
Newsletter Formatting is more then what you write
Newsletter formatting is by many considered to be where you put what.
As you have seen above, newsletter formatting is something affected by not only format of your text, content and the use of headlines, subtitles, links and sigs.
It is also affected by external forces, sometimes outside the reach of your power.
Rules for formatting a newsletter
Newsletter formatting is facilitated greatly if you use a fixed set of rules for it.
See this newsletter formatting rules as guidelines and stick to them throughout time.
Not only will you get a cleaner and ore consistent look, you will also find that you save time by doing it.
Conclusion, Newsletter Formatting Rules
Writing a newsletter can be hard work. Planning and setting of rules like the formatting rules will make things easier as you won't have to reinvent the wheel each issue.
Much of the newsletter creation work can and should be automated to save time and the easiest way is to use software like Ziney from The Designed Software Series.
