Where's the free stuff on this website?
Here you'll find some direct links to useful info on all the subjects dealt with on this website.
We've listed everything under the titles of our various books, but there's no obligation to buy to obtain any of this information. You will also find a selection of free articles on our Media page. This is information which can be published freely in newsletters.
Success in Store
This is the general business info:
You can download a substantial section of our guide to running any kind of retail business as a 300kb PDF file
Also lots of links to more general business information.
How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter
Information for periodical publishers, from club and business newsletters up:
There's a PDF of extracts from this book which you can download. (a 720kb file)
Need a stylebook? This is one of the never-finished tasks on most publications. Maybe you just need someone to take the first step and give you a basic stylebook that you can alter as much as you wish. We used to produce this as a book-with-disk. Now it is free and you can download the zip file of the stylebook in many formats.
Publication Production using PageMaker
The info on PageMaker:
Some PageMaker hints. and the PageMakr List FAQ
In addition to the scripts which can be accessed with a password which is in the book we also make available several useful scripts entirely free of charge.
A PDF of advice on the preparation of PDF files produced by Snohomish Publishing of Washington State who gave permission to make it available here (52kb).
Getting graphics out of Powerpoint files: A report on ways to save graphics out of Powerpoint files for use in programs such as PageMaker. This is in PDF format and you can reach it from here
TrueType, Postscript Types or OpenType? TT_PS_OT.pdf, "TrueType, PostScript Type 1 & OpenType: What's the Difference?". Written by Thomas W. Phinney, and made available here with Mr Phinney's permission, this is THE guide to the various font formats. This is Version 2.36 dated December 26, 2004
Using a Web page for file transfer: If you need to transfer files between branch offices, the obvious way is as an email attachment. But some files can get large, and you know that if you send an urgent file, there will be an email ahead of yours with a huge, probably uninvited attachment that may take ages to download. One answer is FTP, but many small service providers don't offer FTP automatically (or cheaply). So why not send your files via a hidden web page? Here are some guidelines as a text file. Dowload or view. Webpage.txt.
Automated layout: A while ago we developed a trial version of a set of scripts which began to automate the layout of newspaper pages through PageMaker 6.5. You have to draw frames on the page to indicate where ads will go, and then draw in frames to indicate the modular areas for editorial. Into all these frames you enter the filenames either of the P65 adfile for the ads or of the text or doc story for editorial. On editorial you'll get a chance to vary the default settings for number of columns, gutter etc. Any other text, boxes, pics etc you have put on the page remain untouched.
There is a 4-page PDF leaflet (requires Acrobat 3 or later) which explains how the set of scripts works. The scripts themselves are available to those who purchase our Newspaper Production using PageMaker 6.5 book. We emphasise they are development scripts but many of them formed the core of later scripts which are operating in working newspaper environments. Open or download "Autolayout" PDF leaflet (151kb)
Our Format email newsletter
Info for all who do publication production:
There's just so much info here in previous issues of the newsletter that you may want to just search for answers to the questions you have.
Publish Your Book
Info for those who want to self-publish:
A substantial extract from this book is available as a 900kb PDF file
Pathway to Publication
Info specifically for those wanting to get fiction published:
See this free extract from this book (614kb PDF) while there are already useful links to other sources of information.
Looking for other books on subjects we deal with? You'll find lists of books we like on retail business, and publishing.
We don't yet publish a book on InDesign, but we do have pages of InDesign hints and a page on InDesign scripting.
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