So here (courtesy of Empire State College, NY) is a helpful guide to alleviate a frequently heard question: should one put the period inside or outside the parenthesis?

Short Answer: Punctuate correctly in and around parentheses. If a whole sentence is inside parentheses, then put the period inside the end parenthesis. If only part of the sentence is in parentheses, then the period goes outside of the end parenthesis.

Examples: Parentheses are like polite back seat drivers. (They interrupt to explain additional information that the reader should know.) Parentheses can hold explanations, illustrations, or clarifications forty (Byron was 36; Nathanael West, Rimbaud, and Robert Burns were 37; Thomas Wolfe and Pushkin were 38; and Dylan Thomas was 39). I told him I absolutely believe in marriage (as a cure for the temporary insanity of infatuation). Parentheses are also used to set off dates, provide reference information, and to enumerate a list.

• Angela Merici (1470-1540), an Italian, founded the Ursulines in 1535, an unconventional religious order in which women took vows but lived at home and taught in the community.
• The Chinese poet Li Po (c.700-762), a “lighthearted winebibber,” fell out of a boat and was drowned when he tried to kiss and embrace the moon’s reflection in the water (Hendrickson 111).
• The reason there are so many popular bike trails outside of Washington, D.C., is that the land is mostly flat (see contour map on page 6).
• If your toddler does not sleep through the night there are several questions to ask: (1) Have you developed a soothing bedtime ritual? (2) When checking on your child, do you accidentally wake him or her? (3) Is your toddler afraid of the dark? (4) Is your toddler waking regularly in the night hungry or thirsty? (5) Does your toddler use a pacifier or “cuddly” so he or she is able to comfort himself or herself?

Where was the torment of the wrenching decision by handful of patriots that declared indendence from Britain? Where was the gripping oratory of John Adams?  Where was the story of sacrifice and hardship of Abigail Adams, and the eloquence of Thomas Jefferson’s pen? Why did my classmates have to endure a year that was filled with so little, when America’s history is teeming with gripping stories just waiting to be told.

If you’d like to learn how to write copy for your next newsletter or direct mail letter, just watch HBO. Rent a DVD of John Adams and enter the world of our early patriots. Fear, passion, anger, suffering, laughter and joy; the full scope of human emotion. Tell a real story, and capture the minds of your listeners. It’s genetically coded in the human race.

So much of what arrives in a mailbox these days is devoid of anything a living breathing human being can relate to. Postcards and brochures are often no more interesting than a supermarket shopping list. Newsletters: thinly disguised billboards. Web pages: just add liquid and you’ve got your own website in 30 minutes or less. Nice to look at, but no substance.

Is it any wonder that high and low, folks are clamoring: “stop the spam?”

Our lives are filed with stories. Turn your senses in their direction. Be it lawn service or Attorney at Law, you’ve got a story to tell. People will listen.

For more than the last 100 years its been about yelling the loudest to the largest number of people. Making them notice you. Pushing a business card in their face. Building a restaurant on a street that they pass frequently. Bombarding them with “me-too” direct mail. Making “cheaper” your big selling point. Buying a giant billboard or airtime on a radio station to do any of the above. Guess what: these approaches don’t work nearly as well as they did 20 years ago. Unless you’ve got deep pockets, try something different.

Where to start?

I’ve heard so many folks talk about becoming a complete “solution,” a “relationship” seller and such. All of your real competition claims the the same. It pretty much falls on deaf ears any more. A waste of time and money.

“We’ll do anything to earn your business” doesn’t count. Does top quality mean anything to anyone any more? Great service? Low prices?

To all of the above I say: Big deal! (expletive deleted). Even a recession won’t make low prices the salvation of your brand. So what then?

The answer is uniquely yours, it can’t be something you’ve repackaged. It’s got to come from the inside out.

Get to work. Figure it out. Nobody else can do it for you!

The program has a great feature that collects your document, all needed fonts and linked graphics for print. Using it saves time, and gives you the best results when handing off the files to our graphics department. Here’s the rundown:

In PageMaker, there is a plug-in under Utilities named Save for Service Provider. Using the Save for Service Provider plug-in, the user can copy the publication, all linked image files, fonts, and other files required to print the document. Save for Service Provider also helps resolve broken links by prompting the user to locate the folders containing linked files. Similarly, this plug-in can also check the status of links and fonts in a PostScript file generated by PageMaker 6.5.

Optionally, a concise report of the information we need to print from a PageMaker or PostScript file can also be created. The report includes details about fonts, linked graphics, a summary of the print settings, as well as information about who to contact regarding the publication.

To save files and generate a report using Save for Service Provider:

Choose Utilities > Plug-ins > Save for Service Provider. The Summary dialog box opens. The plug-in works on the active publication if the Check Pub is clicked.

Click Fonts, Links, Printing, or Colors to see a detailed report on that aspect of the publication or PostScript file. Print the status information by clicking Print at any time.

If the Links dialog box shows one or more linked files needing attention, click Relink or
Relink All, and navigate to the correct image files.
To save the publication, click Package, and set options as follows:

From the Report Type pop-up menu, choose Formatted (for a PageMaker publication) or Text only (for an ASCII text-only file).

Select Auto Open Package Report if, after saving the publication and associated files, the user wants to display the summary report in a new window on your desktop.

Select Update Links to bring out-of-date links up-to-date in the original publication before making a package.

For Include, select Copy Fonts to avoid missing fonts at print time, and then select the kind of fonts—All, Type 1 (PostScript), or TrueType.

Click Notes to enter contact information, such as the user’s name and phone number, any comments on printing the publication, and then click OK.

Before you finish, use your normal process to create a PDF version of your Pagemaker document, and include that with the files your send.

Specify a location in which to save all necessary files. Put all of the files in a single folder. Then compress that folder, into a single archive file. In Windows, you can do that by right clicking the folder and selecting “send to..compressed folder.” There’s a similar function on the Macintosh by usiing the control key, while you click on the folder. This will bring up a menu from which you can select compress.

Send your compressed folder as a file attachment, or preferably use the send files feature on our website. That’s it!

The game has changed. The tactics of marketing are different in the internet era. Still, a well conceived company newsletter remains one of the best ways to help grow your professional practice over time.

Join Copies&Ink and BrandOne Marketing over lunch for a fast-paced hour of best practice tactics, including:

• Finding a voice that will resonate with your clients
• Run it like a clock: practical newsletter logistics
• Integrate your print and electronic marketing: a must
• Build good will while growing your list
• Overview of a best in class e-mail campaign tool

To participate in this event visit our events page or call Candace Krell at 909-948-3550 x411

Current promotion: Full Color Business Cards: 1000 for $49. For more info visit our online store.

Full Service Printing Plant: Copies&Ink is a complete print and online marketing resource for businesses in Southern California and beyond. If it’s a full fledged campaign, or just a box of business cards, Copies&Ink offers personalized local service at prices that compete with the internet mega-sites.

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