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When Creating your School Newsletter:
mouse and keyboard

dot How many pages will it be?
dot Create a “story board” a sketch on paper to show the layout of your newsletter. Show how may columns you will use, the width of the margins white space and where you will place the other elements that make up your page or pages.
dot Decide on three fonts; style size and weight.
dot Design a Nameplate which includes the name, the subtitle, the origin of the newsletter and the date.
dot List topics that will be used in each issue of your Newsletter such as:.

dot Monthly meetings such as PTA or club
dot Important dates to remember (listed in a table) Field trips, club meetings, etc.
dot Three great web sites
dot Books to read
dot Math problem of the month
dot Advise to parents
dot Topics that directly involve children
dot Ways to involve students (student artwork, photos)

dot Have all your content ready including information and graphics before you start to create your publication. Type up all of your information first. You will later cut and paste it into a template that you will be making.
dot Decide what tools with in Microsoft Word that you will use to create the newsletter.
dot Use Word to type up the information that will be included in your newsletter. Save it using a descriptive name that you remember. I usually use the name of the month plus the year. Or if you publish one each week, use the date of the publication. For example,may05.doc .You will cut and paste the information from this document into your newsletter template. You will want to do a spell check and a grammar check so that everything is ready for your template.
dotCreate your newsletter template.

Helpful Hints for Newsletter Design and Layout
man and woman working
When creating your layout and design remember to:
dot Stagger the alignment of text and pictures in each column. Don’t make columns move straight across the page.
dot Use white space in equal proportions. Don’t leave large areas of white space in the middle of the newsletter. Images may be used to fill in extra space. It is better to have extra white space at the bottom of the newsletter.
dot Leave enough white space around columns of text. Increase margins if needed or add more white space around text and images.
dot Make sure headlines are considerably larger than the text in the body of your newsletter.
dot When choosing the three fonts for your newsletter make sure they are distinctively different in style, size, and weight.
dot Use bold face text, quotes or other graphic accents rather that underlining. Underlining decreases readability.
dot Make sure you give equal accent to articles with equal importance.
dot Centered type in the body of your newsletter slows down readability.
dot Design your newsletter to attract the intended audience.