Email "Send-To" Question

[JW]

Our church office has begun using MS Word 2002 to email a newsletter, using
the File>>Send To>>>Mail Recipient function. So far, no complaints, but I
was asked a couple questions I couldn't answer - What happens if the
recipient does not have Word installed? How about incompatibility between
Word versions? I can't find any incompatibility issues on the computers I've
checked, but I cannot find anybody who does not have Word installed on their
computer. Is this a problem waiting to happen? Thanks very much for your
help.

 

[Terry Farrell]

If you are emailing the document directly rather than as an attachment, then
Word will convert it to an HTML format email which is readable by most
Newsreaders. Word is not needed by the recipient so there is so there is no
version incompatibility to consider.

However, Word is not the world's greatest exponent of HTML coding and I
suggest that you dummy run any newsletters by sending them to a couple of
users who you can ask 'how they look' and report any layout anomalies before
sending it out to too many recipients.

Personally, I would recommend sending the newsletter out as a PDF
attachment, but that requires recipients to have a PDF reader such as the
free Adobe Acrobat Reader. That way you can guarantee the reader sees as you
intend.

 

[JW]

Thanks for the prompt feedback. We're emailing directly so that's great
news. So far, the newsletter is pretty basic - one image header, with the
remainder being text. We've also requested feedback from a number of folks,
and the only comments regarding layout seemed to be when people were using
online email such as yahoo.com. These seemed to insert additional lines
between paragraphs. Also, thanks for the PDF suggestion. I hadn't thought
about that and will look into it. We use them on the website, so the
software's available. Don't the large majority of computers now come with
PDF readers pre-installed? Thanks again for your help.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Certainly the majority of branded new computers usually have Adobe Acrobat
Reader flung in for free (well it is free for anyone to download from Adobe
anyway). My only concern about the Adobe reader is the size of the download
and disproportionate disk space it hogs: it is HUGE. For that reason I use
FoxIt Reader which is a positively slim line by comparison. However,
currently the disadvantage with FoxIt is that it doesn't have a previewer in
Vista Explorer - yet.

Terry