Creating the Church Magazine
These notes provide detail on how I collate and create the church magazine. Also in this section is a Word document which details some of the Word features that were used in creating the magazine - better to explain them inside a Word document, because the reader can then play with the layout to see how the effects work. Of course, you're free to do whatever you see fit with the magazine: the information I give is not prescriptive, but shows how I did what I did.
Daren Allder
Collecting content
The magazine is nothing without content. Some people reliably supply content each month and submit it to the red box which is inside the front doors of the church - i.e. in the foyer or 'vestibule' - to the left of the doors (if you're inside the building, facing out). These contributors include Minnie Grive for information including flowers and coffee mornings, Kath Cheshire for details of the coming month's BMS scheme birthdays, Chris Jacques for all kinds of other information. Rowan Trail receives information by email from our BMS link missionary, so you should make sure she knows who to pass it on to. The link missionary is changing, so we need to update this page soon. David Bass, as a previous magazine editor, often receives contributions by post and will pass them on.
The rest is going to be down to you: you need to be proactive. You'll probably need to remind people to contribute information or articles, and you need to be aware of what's going on in church life. For other information, articles, news etc., you could try online resources such as The Parish Pump.
You should make sure that whoever's editing the magazine has magazine@rickybaptist.org.uk set up to deliver email to them.
Creating the magazine master document
For details on this step, please read this document:
Printing the magazine
The church has a good colour/b&w printer/copier, which can be used as a printer from the PC in the Upper Room, or from your own laptop (once connected to the church's wireless hub, and after installing the printer drivers which are on CD in the Upper Room). I've been using a Mac and the Mac drivers for the printer aren't too great. I found it better to save the finished document as a PDF onto a USB flash drive, then use the Upper Room PC to print out that PDF.
The PC printer drivers allow you to print an A4 document as an A5 booklet, and it handles all the pagination and double-sided printing for you: e.g. for a 16 page magazine, putting pages 1, 2,15 & 16 all onto one sheet. The print job should be set for edge-to-edge printing too, to avoid big page margins.
I print the outer cover on heavier paper (there are stocks of 160 gsm in the copy room). Although tray 2 carries this 160 gsm paper, you can't duplex print straight from tray 2. What I've found I've needed to do is to load tray 1 with 160 gsm, then print pages 1,2,n,n-1 (where n is the total no. of pages in the magazine) as a booklet, using tray 1. The quantity is however many magazines you think you need (I produce around 90), and make sure that Collated is Off. Then, once those covers are printed, swap the 160 gsm paper in tray 1 for the normal stuff, and print pages 2-(n-2) in the same way.
I've generally printed a few large print versions too: simply print these double-sided at full size - i.e. not booklet.
Stapling
There's a long reach stapler and a quantity of staples in the copy room. You should find it easy enough to fold and staple the magazines. It takes a while though!
Distribution
Monica Fews posts magazines to a number of readers - e.g. church members who've moved away. You should check with her how many she needs, and make sure she receives them before the start of the relevant month, so that people will get them in time. Please also check with Kath Cheshire, who gives out copies.
The rest of the stock can be placed in/near the magazine holder in the vestibule, or on tables in the lounge after the Sunday morning service nearest the start of the month. | 