How to send us text
File formats
Word docs
Most people send us text as Word documents (either Mac or PC format). Please check for changes
and “accept changes” if you have that feature turned on. Word documents are generally small and
are fine to email.
Text editor
Most people have some form of simple ASCII text editor, and these are usually fine – although occasionally they generate odd line endings. You can’t
use “bold” or “italic” in these, so you’ll need to tell us if anything needs particular emphasis.
Excel
You can save text from Excel documents, but this can have very unpredictable results. If this is how
your data is stored, please send us a test document so we can see if it will translate properly.
PDF
Capturing text from pdfs is unpredictable, and can produce jumbled results. Use only as a last resort –
and we’d need to test to see if it’s possible.
How to send us files
There are a variety of ways to send us your text files – the best method depends largely on size of originals. Here’s a quick guide:
Email:
Email is fine for Word docs under about 5Mb. If we are designing a regular publication, you might prefer to send them via an ftp site.
It’s unlikely that you’d be sending fonts but they don’t like being emailed!
FTP:
FTP (file transfer protocol) allows us to set you up a private area on our web server to upload your images. We will give you a password and username, and you will need ftp
software on your computer to access it. For PC you can select from a range of ftp software – we generally suggest considering the following progammes:
www.internet-soft.com/ftpcomm.htm (free)
www.globalscape.com (paid for)
www.ipswitch.com (paid for)
For Mac, try:
www.captainftp.com (paid for – we use this programme)
www.fetchsoftworks.com (paid for)
www.panic.com/transmit (paid for)
These programmes all allow you to upload files. If you are sending a set of files, you can stuff or zip them to reduce the size and make them less prone to corruption.
CD/DVD:
We have sent some very large files via ftp – but we need to be realistic about speed and reliability! If you have more than 100Mb of images it’d probably be
best to send them on a CD or DVD – apart from the time it takes (can be several hours) there is the possibility of things going wrong and one or more files not
transferring over. This can lead to confusion as to exactly what has been transferred.
We can read most CDs and DVDs – it doesn’t matter if they’re made on a Mac or a PC.