Use Word 2003 or 2007 to create attractive email newsletters

Word 2003 users should launch a web browser and visit Microsoft's Office website to get the email newsletter template. When the page loads, click Download to grab the email newsletter template. Accept the agreement on the next screen (if Internet Explorer flashes a warning, left-click the yellow bar and choose ‘Temporarily allow pop-ups’ and try again). After a moment a template will load. In Word 2007, click the Office button, then New, select Newsletter from the Templates list, scroll down the main window to the Business Email newsletter halfway down and click it.

In Word 2003, click the Business Email Newsletter and then at the next page, click the green download button. If using Internet Explorer and it displays a warning, click the flashing yellow bar along the top and choose ‘Temporarily allow pop-ups’, then click Download again. After a moment the template downloads and appears in Word. With Word 2007, select the template from the main window and then click the download button. After a moment, it’ll appear on screen as a Word document.

Although it isn’t particularly suitable for our needs, we need an email template like this so it will be formatted properly when people receive it. Let’s make some changes using Word 2003. First, create some more space by clicking the cross to close the Task Pane on the right. Scroll down to the bottom of the second page and left-click after the final full stop. Use the text cursor to highlight all the text on the second page and then press the Backspace or Delete key to remove it.

Word 2007 users should highlight all the text on the second page and press the Backspace key to remove it. See the remains of the blue left-hand column on the page? Click after it and then press the Backspace key again to remove it. Next, click on the photo of the businesswoman holding a phone and press the Delete button. Then click on the open empty square on the left to select it and hit the Delete key again.

Remove the photo in Word 2003 in the same way. With the empty box, click once to highlight it, then roll the mouse pointer to the hatched edge until it changes into a four-headed cross, then right-click and choose Cut. Now let’s sort out that left-hand column. In both versions of Word, hover the mouse pointer over the left-hand edge of the blue column until it changes into a solid, right-pointing black arrow then left-click. Open the dropdown menu next to the font colour button on the toolbar and choose Automatic.

Right-click on the highlighted column and choose Borders and Shading. At the dialogue box, click the Shading tab. In Word 2003 choose a ‘10%’ grey from the palette; in 2007, open the Fill dropdown menu and choose a light grey. In both, open the dropdown menu next to Pattern Style, scroll back to the top and choose Clear. Click OK in both versions of Word and click anywhere on the document to deselect the left-hand column.

In both versions of Word, highlight the title with the mouse pointer and type in a new name for it. Highlight it again and use Word’s button bar to change the font. Next, left-click where it says YOUR LOGO HERE and then in Word 2003 open the Insert menu and choose Picture and then From File. Find a picture, select it and click Insert. In Word 2007, click the Insert tab, then the Picture button, then find the photo, click to select it and click Insert.

Next, in both versions, highlight the first two paragraphs and then delete them (by pressing Backspace or Delete). With the text cursor blinking in front of the second blue subheading (‘An Article for Everyone’) insert another photograph as in Step 7. If the picture’s too big or small, resize it by hovering the pointer over one of the corners and then clicking the small, square ‘handle’ and dragging and dropping. For neatness, adjust the size of the photo so the newsletter fits on a single page. Then, with the picture still selected, click the Centre button on the toolbar.

Highlight the remaining blue headings and change them into something more suitable, then change the font so it’s the same as the newsletter heading. Next, highlight the main text and replace that with your family news. In this example we’re going to change the last subheading to say ‘Get in touch’ and then, where we’ve typed ‘our family address’, change that to a clickable link to our email address. Highlight the words in the text, right-click and choose Hyperlink.

When the dialogue box opens, click the Email Address button in the left-hand column and then type the address to use into the empty part of the form labelled ‘Email address’. If you want to be fancy, click the Screen Tip button and type in ‘our family email address’ – this is the text that will appear when someone hovers their mouse pointer over the link. Click OK and then OK again to create the link.

We’ve made several more changes here – deleting text from the left-hand column, and editing the bullet points, the links heading and the date. We’ve replaced each ‘Link to a web page’ heading with the name of an actual website, then highlighted each name in turn, right-clicked it, chosen Hyperlink and, at the dialogue box, clicked the Existing File or Web Page button in the left-hand column. We’ve typed in the website address into the Address part of the form; for example, www.youtube.com. Click OK.

With the email finished, in Word 2003, open the File menu and choose Send To and then Mail Recipient. When the email-addressing form opens above the document, click the Bcc (blind carbon copy) button if it’s not already part of the form. In the To field, type your own email address. Then, click the Bcc button to open your email address book. When the Select Recipients dialogue box opens, select the people to whom you’d like to send the newsletter then click the Bcc button to add them to the list. Click OK.

By using the Bcc feature, each person who receives the email newsletter will see their email address but no-one else’s. It’s a good, simple way to make each person feel like they’re the only ones getting the newsletter and it maintains everyone’s privacy. Finish off by typing in a subject and then clicking the Send a Copy button on the button bar. After a moment, the newsletter will be sent. If using Word 2007 on a current version of Windows XP then Word can use the built-in email program, Outlook Express. If using Vista or Windows 7, the full Outlook program is required; this is usually part of the Home & Business or Professional versions of Office. To activate the mail feature, click the Office button, choose Word options, then Customize. Open the dropdown menu on the left and change it to All commands, then scroll to Send to Mail Recipient. Click it, then click Add, then OK to add the command to Word’s Quick Access toolbar – it’s at the top left.

And here’s the finished newsletter received as an email and opened for reading – in this example, it’s in Gmail. The result isn’t flawless because Word doesn’t produce perfect email-friendly files and from time to time something will go slightly amiss – especially if using an unusual font. But everything that counts has come out fine – including the links shown in the screenshot and the email address that’s out of view (you’ll just have to take our word for it).