E-newsletters in IGPro

[bossgard]

I?m sitting here at my computer trying to figure out what do with my e-mails.

These are not my personal e-mails, like those from friends, or the nuisance junk e-mails which I delete immediately upon receipt.

These e-mails are the good, subscription kind of e-mails, mostly related to gardening, and some concerning the various software that I use. Some of the gardening magazines that I subscribe to have some real good, very informative e-newsletters. There are several seed suppliers, and greenhouse suppliers that also offer very good gardening e-newsletters.

I have been putting them in their respective folders, but that does not prove to be satisfactory, because I never get back to them to read them or track them.

I?m considering making hard copies (print-outs) of them and binding them into loose leaf ring binders, one binder for each source. And then treating them as OTHER, INTERNET RESOURCE  or MAGAZINE articles as in the GA007 ARTICLES PROGRAM.. Each issued e-newsletter would bear identification similar to that used for magazines, i.e., the issue date, number, etc. Using that method, I can then link the various articles to a plant or subject, and then go to the proper binder and read them. This method sounds like a good answer to my problem. Is it?

Is anybody doing this? Anything similar? Thanks for the help!

- Toby

[ideasguy]

In my crystal ball, I can forsee a challenge being set here

You can do it the way you've described, if you want to keep hard copies.
But, since those e-Newsletters are already in electronic form, theres a neat alternative using GA007 in IG, IG Pro and Bonsai Genie.

First Toby, are those E-Newsletters sent as attachments in your email?
If not, please forward one to me and we shall proceed from there.

[ideasguy]

Yip, heres a challenge folk! (for IG, IG Pro and Bonsai Genie users)

Toby forwarded me a link to the E-Newsletter.
Heres a copy posted on the forum (for demonstration purposes only):
http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/forum/horticultureemailnewsletter.htm

Heres how to store this sort of thing using the IG Articles program GA007

Click the link (above)
Web page opens
Click File tab on your browser and click Save as

Important No 1
In that Save as dialog box, note the Save as type field
The default should be Web Page Complete (htm, html)
If yes, dont change it
If not, select htm or html as the Save as type

Select a folder to save this document. For this example lets say we take the option (in that save as dialog box) to create a new folder on the c: drive called Gardening
In the File name field, the default appears as Horticulture Email Newsletter (for this document ONLY, of course!)
IMPORTANT No 2
Edit the File name, and REMOVE ALL SPACES
Becomes:
HorticultureEmailNewsletter
You can edit the name as you wish (e.g. to show the Month and Year)
Click Save.

Now open IG, IG Pro or Bonsai Genie
Start the program Articles - GA007
Click the Add other article button
Screen GA007S02 appears
In the Other pop-up, select one of your Sources.

If necessary, use the program Files (tab)  and start Other sources for Articles - GA010 to define an appropriate Source name.

Continuing in screen GA007S02, enter a description in the field with the caption Title for this article
Click the Add button
Now click the Add a Memo document (bottom left of screen)
Screen GA007S11 appears
Give the memo a description (it can be the same as the Title for this article)
Type this (or copy and paste from the line below):
file:///C:/Gardening/HorticultureEmailNewsletter.htm
Save changes.
The data you pasted should be a hyperlink (i.e. a clickable link)
Click the link.
The document on your computer opens.

The advantage now is that all the links on the document are clickable and of course each one in turn goes off to a web page on the appropriate website. Making hard copies of all the pages from those links woudl have been a chore.

Its not the best example, but its something you should try.
The secret is the prefix file:///
You can display any object capable of being shown in a browser using that technique
OK, have a go and let me know how you get on

Heres another useful link to a previous posting on the forum, which explains why I removed the spaces when saving the document, and the file:/// prefix:
http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/ideas/forum/index.php/topic,907.0.html

[bossgard]

Thanks, George.

I can't get to this challenge right away, but I can see many busy rainy days, and rainy nights ahead for me.

The procedure sounds like it would be much, much better than printing all those hard copies and finding space to store them.

I've printed out the procedure and will file it under program GA007, along with its tutorials, etc.

Again, thanks.

- Toby

[ideasguy]

It looks long winded, but its fairly simple, Toby.
Like everything, it takes a lot of text to explain everything step by step.
That file:/// prefix is gold dust!

Perhaps some of our members will have a go and let me know if I need to make any clarifications.

[NightHawk]

Test completed successfully George.

At the stage of the test saying Click File tab on your browser and click Save as I would suggest qualifying what format to save the page as from the drop-down box at this point - i.e.an .htm option (either item 2 or 3 in the list below).

The options presented here are:

• Web Archive, single file (*.mht)
• Webpage, complete (*.htm; *.html)
• Webpage, HTML only (*.htm; *.html)
• Text File (*.txt)

The instructions are otherwise very clear.

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Thanks Laurie. Its great to have a capable proof reader!
Ive edited the original posting to include that step.

You'll need to do a reprint of the instructions Toby.

If you keep a ring binder file of How to's, then that is a good item to add

[bossgard]

Many Thanks, George and Laurie!

Have reprinted corrected instructions and filed them away properly.

And most important; have placed the old printed instructions in my recycle basket to cut up and make scratch notes.

Will start using ASAP.

- Toby

[roiphil]

oh i like that another new toy to play with,  IG PRO just gets better and better 

[Lyn and Malcolm]

I may have missed something here, but can you store a pdf file in IGPro ?

Was hoping to store this   http://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/documents/AGM2008.pdf   

Malcolm

[ideasguy]

You cant actually store a PDF file in IG Pro, Malcolm.

What you've shown here is a link.
You can save that link in data fields which allow free text (Plant Data etc)

-OR-
Save the PDF file on your computer.
Click the link and do File, Save

Save as type in this instance defaults to Adobe PDF Files (*.pdf)
Leave it at that default setting.

The document is called AGM2008.pdf
Save it as that name.

Lets do what we did in Tobys example and save in a folder called gardening on the c drive
Follow the instructions above.

Then, use GA007.
When you get to entering the file name into the Memo field enter this:
file:///c:/gardening/AGM2008.pdf
Note the magic file:/// placed before the full path and file name of the document.

Also works for images, WORD documents etc.

You can put that kind of link in any field in IG, IG Pro,Flower Genie etc which takes a URL - Plant Data fields, etc

Let me know how you get on with that Malcolm, please.

Its another very good example, and a good challenge to other members.
Give it a go folk and post your comments.

[Lyn and Malcolm]

Works a treat George, after entering the path to the document incorrectly several times. You cant alter the link in GA007S11 to the document if entered wrongly, you have to delete it, Correct ?


A happy tester, thanks.

Malcolm

[NightHawk]

I have conducted a thorough test of adding several different file types in IG Pro.

As long as you have an appropriate program installed on your computer, and you have associated their file types with those programs, you will be able to open them.

For example, you may wish to add Video files as clickable link/s with file types of .WMV / .MPG / .ASF.  So, if you have Windows Media Player on your computer then this program will open when the link in IG Pro is clicked.

You may wish to add some Audio / Music files; e.g. .MP3 / .WMA / .RA.  Again the appropriate program will open them, such as Windows Media Player or Jet Audio Media Centre, or any other programs that handle these file types.

Documents in the format of .PDF (opened with Adobe Acrobat Reader) / .DOC (opened with Microsoft Office) / .ODF (opened with MS Office or OpenOffice.org) / .TXT (opened with Notepad or WordPad).

For Image files; e.g. .JPG / .GIF / .BMP.  Programs such as Paint (shipped with Windows) or Photoshop Elements, Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro are some examples.
 
These are just some of the most common file types you'll deal with, so the possibilities are endless.

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Very well explained Laurie, thank you for that very comprehensive summary
I'll add this to documentation when this discussion is finished, so all such info can be included.

RE: (Malcolm)

You cant alter the link in GA007S11 to the document if entered wrongly, you have to delete it, Correct ?

Aha! You've found anther little feature which needs explained, so heres Another Challenge

Before special feature (as in GA007S11)
In GA007, get into GA007S11 as described in this topic.
Hyperlinks (the text you've entered in this exercise) are easy to edit if you know how.
If you click anywhere on the text, off you go to the document - thats what hyperlinks do.
To edit, DONT click directly on the text.
Instead, click somewhere close to the text, and use the Up, Down Left and Right arrow keys to work your way into the text and edit as appropriate
Its the same in Microsoft WORD etc

Special Ideas Genie Feature
Edit a plant using GA004, GA037, GA027 etc.
Plant profile screen GA100S36 appears
Above the region for entering plant data, click the Edit (full screen) button
Screen GA100S09 appears.
Its fairly similar to GA007S11
If you don't have any hyperlinks in it, copy this:
http://www.ideasgenie.co.uk
into the data field
It becomes an active hyperlink (blue, underlined text)
Click on it, and off you go to a very good website
OK, in GA100S09, look for the Links enabled checkbox
Uncheck it.
Note how all the text becomes "dead".
You can click into and edit any text since, of course, links are disabled
Like that?

[NightHawk]

Breezing through this challenge has produced more successful results. 

The process of editing a textual hyperlink is extremely useful.  Ideal solution if you didn't know how to get your cursor into the link to make changes / correct typing errors, etc.

Another masterpiece feature there George. 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Thanks Laurie
Another hidden feature is brought into the limelight
Its great to see these little things being discovered.
I'll add that checkbox to GA007S11 when I get a chance.