Newsletters: Folds create snakes

If your newsletter uses vertical folds, it probably snakes text from the bottom of one column (or page) to the top of the next -- across the fold. While that's not bad for a printed publication, it's horrible for viewing electronically.

If you offer your newsletter to members by email or at your web site, avoid using a fold format. You will certainly fold the newsletter for mailing. That's not the issue here. It's the vertical fold built into a publication design that makes it hard to read online.

Below are two types of basic formats pulled from an actual newsletter (the tri-fold one) and a more user friendly one (no column snakes).

Vertical fold format

A vertical multi-fold format uses columns in which text must snake from one column to the next. Imagine the frustrating up-and-down scrolling you have to do to read that online. In the actual newsletter tri-fold example below, you also have to scroll horizontally to read the newsletter.

To make matters even worse for on-screen viewing, multi-fold publications, such as the one below, do not read properly from left-to-right. The numbers on the image show the actual publication page sequence.

Tri-fold format (reduced size pages from an actual newsletter):

A no-snakes format

You can use columns and avoid the snaking text and out-of-sequence on-screen viewing if you adopt a different format. The example below uses a two-column design but each column always reads straight down the page -- no snakes. You scroll back up to the top -- once -- to read the second column, but that's it.

This format also means that pages are never out-of-sequence for on-screen viewing.

No-snakes format:
The blue "bars" in the sample below indicate article headline text. The orange ones show placement of section heads. This design uses the wider left column for main articles and the narrower right column for standard sections (message from the Pastor, Calendar items, announcements, birthdays and anniversaries, etc.) Remember -- do not put complete birth or anniversary dates or members' full names online -- protect your members' personal data.

Be nice to your electronic friends ... use a format that has no column snakes. Avoid the vertical fold format whenever possible. You could, of course, convert a vertical fold format to a one-column one that reads straight down and use that for electronic viewing. But that takes time that you could save if the format were one without snaking column text. And that may result in an very wide column of text that's harder (slower) to read.