Follow these easy steps in Word 2007 to create a sharp eNewsletter or regular newsletter. You could design this in a table in Excel, but you would lose most of your formatting capabilities as well as the (e)mail merge feature. You’re better off working in Word for this project.  The directions will be slightly different if you use Word 2003.

1. Open Word

3. Type in your title in Row 1, Column 1

4. Select the two cells in Row 1

5. Go to Table Tools > Layout > Merge Cells

6. Then Center Align Row 1

7. Insert text in Row 2, Column 1 (text copied from Wikipedia’s entry on Newsletters)

8. Insert two images in Row 2, Column 2

9. Insert signature, or whatever footer information you want, in Row 3, Column 1

10. Merge both cells of Row 3 and center align

11. Select Entire table

12. Go to Table Tools > Design > Borders > No Border

13. Go to Table Tools > Layout > AutoFit > AutoFit Window

14. Looks great! You did a good job!  Your document is now ready to be mail-merged and emailed out!

Now that you have the basics down, you can try expanding on the concept and have a 3×3 cell grid with pictures on both sides, or pictures on one side and other text on the other side (like prayer requests, etc). You can also resize the column width to put more emphasis on one portion than another. Experiment and have fun with it.

For an expanded idea how your newsletter might look, see this sample newsletter. (After creating this letter in a table, I inserted the logo “on top of” the table and moved it to where I wanted it.)

Page by Nick Johnson, a Network Administrator at Life Action Ministries in Buchanan, Mich. He and his wife, Rachel, are also currently raising support to work as missionaries with HCJB Global based out of Colorado Springs, CO. Some of his hobbies include hiking/backpacking, reading, photography, and hockey. Find him on Twitter (picnerd)