Downloadable Newsletter

[Anonymous]

#3632

El Editorro has just recently uploaded the April newsletter to http://bmwor.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-newsletter.html, and if you click on the “Powered by Issuu” link at the bottom of the small reader for the newsletter you will go through to Issuu.com.If you login to Issuu (yeah, means you need a membership: the sign up link is at the top right of the Issuu page) you can download the newsletter and read it whenever you like without having to be online.  This is my preferred option - I never seem to have time to read the paper issue right through before it gets "hidden" amongst the clutter on my desk or on the kitchen table, nor will I read it straight through online, but when I have it saved locally, then I can graze through it at my leisure, bit by bit, 'cos that way I can see all the pictures in colour.p.s.I think having to go to Issuu to download our own newsletter is a nonsense: we have got blinded by bells and bloody whistles.  The newsletter should just be a clickable link to download straight from our website, I reckon.In fact I feel a poll coming on!

[Anonymous]

#15079

I just followed the process and downloaded a copy (plus a copy of last month's as well) and that worked fine, but I agree Bwucie, a lot more steps than should be required. Like you, I have way too much paper in my home already. Having an electronic copy to read and refer back to whenever is ideal.That's my vote in the poll

[Murray]

#15080

You can download the newsletter without going though an Issuu account, that's what the link is for at the bottom of the post. Click it, and you'll get taken to the pdf version, which is the same file that gets sent to the printer each month, without having to sign up to any other hosting accounts.The Issuu file is posted purely a way of displaying the newsletter on the website in a way that simulates reading a magazine, which some people like.

[Anonymous]

#15081

Well that's exactly what people like Rob and I were looking for, I never even saw the link this morning, I've become so used to having to click through to Issuu.  (Rob still would have had to go to Issuu to get the March edition, though, because the direct download link is not on that page.)Anyhoo, the future looks good for those of us that want to save the document locally, well done, thank you, Garry.

[Murray]

#15082

The March issue has the link also  ???

[Anonymous]

#15083

Hi AllIn the interests of saving the register a few dollars I think those of us who choose to would prefer to have electronic copies only anyway......what say you.....?CheersNeil

[Anonymous]

#15084

Woohoo – if I can download a pdf to my desktop within two minutes then any bugger can. Thanks for the tip Malcolm. The weather is improving so may even see you for the run tomorrow. It's on the pdf  😉 but didn't quite make it to the runs calendar ??? Cheers,Herr Baron

[Alan]

#15085

Call me dumb  😮 , but I'm having trouble downloading the Newsletter from the blog site.  This doesn't appear to be a regular link to a PDF file.  Clicking it takes me to Acrobat.com, which complains bitterly that I haven't got the latest Flash Player.  I wouldn't think I need a Flash player to download a PDF?  ???Matthias

[Alan]

#15086

… and something else.The blogsite seems public, i.e. no login etc.  Does this mean that all and sundry can read and - if they are smarter than me - download the Newsletter?  Was that the intention?One less reason to pay their subs for some perhaps...Matthias

[Anonymous]

#15087

The March issue has the link also  ???

So it does, now.This is the old bogey of Web Browsers loading from cache.  It used to be that you could overcome this by telling your browser to delete the cache each time you closed the program, but apparently all seem to have made this nigh on impossible to do now.  So if you beam into a regularly used page at a high traffic time the view you get tends to be hours, days, or even weeks old.  So neither Rob or I saw the links at first because they weren't on our screen to be seen.The only real cure for this, in a country where the big few ISP's regularly get flooded at peak use time, is to force your browser to clear its cache from time to time.  I am already looking for a hack for Firefox versions 3 and 4, and for Chromium and Google Chrome browsers so the cache is deleted when I close the program - whichever one I manage to force to do this will be my default browser.Meantime, when I notice something change on a site I use regularly I must remember to get into my cache folders and empty them manually: even when you use the tool on the browsers "preferences" or "tools" menus they tend to NOT delete everything.  There is no point me explaining where the cache folders are to do this, because the Windows, Mac and Linux versions of the common favourite browsers keep thier caches in different places.  If you want to do it manually, web search for your browser version and operating system combination, and be very careful you only delete the cache contents, not your whole user profile.It's a shame that software developers always think they know more about what the people who use their products than those same end-users think they know!  Because of their blinkers, folk like Garry do a great modification, but it might be weeks before all of us can see the change.

[Anonymous]

#15088

But wait, “There's more”, or “Here's one I prepared earlier.”……………..Quote from Gr82briding:"Hi AllIn the interests of saving the register a few dollars I think those of us who choose to would prefer to have electronic copies only anyway......what say you.....?CheersNeil"Yup, there's a group of people been asking about this for yonks, Neil, seems many would prefer our newsletter that way.  The question is asked often, but until NZ Post make it imperative knotalot seems to happen :D.Quote from the Red Baron:"The weather is improving so may even see you for the run tomorrow. It's on the pdf but didn't quite make it to the runs calendar."We've been down this road before, Alex.  The newsletter is the "official" source for the Register, all us Area Reps labour mightily to get our proposed runs into that publication, which you have posted to you.  Garry and his team (there's a lot of people get involved in folding and posting that newsletter to you) donate more mighty free labour.  If you choose to prefer the electronic world to the paper one, then you would miss out on a lot of runs: only in Auckland are the runs routinely added to the forum calendar, by guess who?  When I have the time.  (We have made provision for the other area reps to do the same, if they wish to use the calendar, but can't access it, or the access was given to another person and we haven't caught up with the change, then they should contact me and I'll sort it for them, also on my time.)Canterbury also put their runs on the web, on their own excellent site.Quote from Mathias:"Call me dumb, but I'm having trouble downloading the Newsletter from the blog site.  This doesn't appear to be a regular link to a PDF file.  Clicking it takes me to Acrobat.com, which complains bitterly that I haven't got the latest Flash Player.  I wouldn't think I need a Flash player to download a PDF?  Matthias"I won't call you dumb, Matthias.  If you hover your mouse over that link and look at the notification area at the bottom of your browser screen you will see that link points to the Acrobat site, not to a file download, so you cannot right click on the link and save the pdf, so you would have to go to Issuu.com until the link is revised.

[Murray]

#15089

The blogsite seems public, i.e. no login etc.  Does this mean that all and sundry can read and – if they are smarter than me – download the Newsletter?

Yes, which is why it's the previous month's newsletters getting posted around the same time BMWOR members receive the current issue. We've been doing that for years. Our previous website had a page for newsletter files that could be downloaded, on our new website it's just more accessible.I doubt there will be a move to HTML newsletters or posting at the same time as memebrs receive thier hardcopy until there is somewhere on this site that has access restricted to current finacial members. Otherwise, I too could be a sad bugger, not pay my membership fee and still get my newsletter.

[Anonymous]

#15090

I woke up in the wee small hours with a cure for the newsletter download links not working on the blogsite, but Garry has again expressed the point that the newsletter is made available online late deliberately.For the life of me I can't understand this philosophy: it's a great publication that he should be very proud of.  If I'd worked as hard as him to publish it I'd be keen to expose it to a wider audience.  It is an excellent advertisement for the Register.But it is the wish of the editor and the Committee of the Register to e-publish late, so that's it, I'll leave my ninja fingers out of it.If the only condition we use to make it available earlier is to create a "financial members only" situation then that's going to make more work for the Membership Secretary and more work for me, and you will all have yet another login name and password to remember.If it ain't broke don't fix it: hard copy still works, even if the labour involved in actually turning the pages is huge.

[Dave Ross]

#15091

I am with Garry on this. If you want the newsletter when it was published,  join up. It still gets exposed to that same wide audience and still serves as an excellent advertisement for the register.  That, and the ferry discount can easily be used to justify a membership. Not taking into account all the other benefits.

[Alan]

#15092

Sorry guys, for being so thick, but I still don't get it.  ???A lot was said about not publishing the e-newsletter early, fair enough.  But whether I click the link for the April (is that early?) or the March issue, I always end up on that nasty Acrobate site, from which I cannot back out.  What is the point of a link that says "Download a PDF version" if it doesn't?Can someone say in as few words as possible, whether those links are broken and I must go via Issuu (and whether one has to have an account with Issuu) or whether I'm just incapable.Matthias

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