Linda's Soapbox
~~ Editorial by Linda Johnson

How Big Is ABC, Anyway?
and a tip for AOL readers

No, I'm not talking about the amount of subscribers, though that is growing all the time (currently we have just under 3800).  What I'm talking about is the actual size of the text version of this monster.  And, I made an interesting discovery about last month's issue.  Not only are we BIG, but we are bigger for some than others.

I noticed this when I mentioned the size of the last issue to Fleet member, Vic Ferri.  I use Outlook to mail the newsletter and when I sent it, the size was 205KB.  However, when I received my copy in my Inbox in Outlook, it had blown up to 345KB, so I asked Vic how big it was when he received it in Outlook Express (which is the email program he uses) and he reported to me that it was 140KB.  I found it amazing that two email programs made by the same company could take the same email and change its size so drastically, so I decided to do some research.  I sent a request to Vic's support group, WinTips&Tricks, and asked the members to please tell me what size the February issue of ABC was when they received it and what email program they were using.  Here's the results I got, from smallest to largest:

• Peter, Eudora 5: 114KB

• Mike, Netscape Communicator, 4.79: 137KB

• Richard, Netscape: 137KB

• Lorraine, Outlook Express 6:  138KB

• Mac, Eudora: 138KB

• Tom, Eudora: 138KB

• Henry, Netscape 3.1: 139KB

• Vic, Outlook Express 5.5, SP2:  140KB

• Mike, Calypso: 140KB

• Mean Drake, The Bat!: 141KB

• Me, MS Outlook 2000: 275KB

• Thomas, MS Outlook 2002: 345KB

• Me, MS Outlook 2002, SP2:  345KB

AOL users did not tell me exactly what size it was, but I did find out that it is so large that AOL converts it into a text attachment which must be opened in WordPad and the links are not clickable.  I did not know this before.  Other AOL users had reported to me, previously, that links weren't clickable, but never told me that they were receiving the newsletter as a text attachment so I didn't know how to help them with the links problem.  Now that I know this, the only thing I can suggest is that you open the file in Word instead of WordPad and the links should then become clickable.  If not, save the file in Word as a .doc instead of a .txt and see if they are clickable.  If not, then click at the end of any URL in the Word doc and hit your spacebar one time and it will be clickable.  I'm so sorry for this inconvenience, but I have no control over how AOL does things.

So, I'm not sure why Outlook is making the newsletter so much larger than the other email programs, but it certainly is significant and I thought I would share this info with you all.

In light of this post, I also want to acknowledge that I receive feedback from some readers telling me the newsletter is too large (though I also receive an equal amount of feedback telling me it's large, but that's what makes it so great).  I just want to remind you all that ABC is a monthly magazine, as opposed to a weekly or daily newsletter and that is why it is so large.  It's also why it works better online instead of in email, but the email version is necessary for two reasons:

1. many readers do not want to have to be online to read it
2. the email version includes ads, which make it possible for me to do for free.  I do not want to clutter up the online version with ads, so I must continue to produce the plain text email version, despite the size.

Thanks so much to all of you, for your feedback...and a special thanks to Vic and his WinTips members for helping me with this study.

Happy Computing!
Linda

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Linda Johnson is a college instructor of all of the Microsoft Office Programs, as well as Adobe PhotoShop and Windows. She also teaches online distance learning classes in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word at Eclectic Academy. She has worked helpdesk and teaches and lectures at many local businesses and tech schools in her area. Support this newsletter by checking out Linda's eBooks, MS Word MAGIC!, Book I: Fonts, Fun & Formats and Book II: Table Wizardry, How To Get Started As a Software Trainer, and her newest series of MSOffice eBook Tutorials and CD