TELL US YOUR SECRETS
A run-down of favorite apps/websites your fellow publishers are using.
The theme of our Spring Conference was Mission Possible. In keeping with a spy theme, we asked our members to share the productivity tools they use to keep their espionage skills sharp. Here are a few of the favorites that were shared with the group:
First up is a favorite from Dez Whalen of the Wisconsin-Iowa Shopping News. Dez shared the following:
Adobe Stock https://stock.adobe.com/
Crunch time for me often comes down to being able to efficiently put together a nice ad at the last minute without being able to do it myself. This requires that I supply our design team with the proper elements I need to get things put together in a way that meets my vision for the ad.
Metro is go-to for most ads, but when I am looking for something a bit fresher with cutting edge graphics, images and fonts, I turn to Adobe Stock. Adobe stock offers a library of free and licensed graphics, images, videos, sounds and so much more that can easily be implemented into print layouts and digital projects, alike. There are also ad templates that are available. This is a great resource for stock images or just to find some inspiration as well.
Adobe Stock allows you to download working files in .eps, .ai, .indd, .pdf or .jpeg file format for most layout items. As I mentioned there is an extensive free database as well as licensed stock content.
Deb Patterson of The Land, Mankato, MN shared the following:
At The Land we used a Google doc to keep track of weekly revenue. This helps us with forecasting and helps us make sure all ads are accounted for when we go to dummy the paper.
Amanda Thooft, of Star Publications had two hot tips to share:
https://coolors.co helps with picking a color palette for a design and pretty fun to play with.
https://newspagedesigner.org and pinterest helps when I am having a creative mental block to see different layouts to keep us graphically entertaining.
Kelly Balvanz of iPromote shared her favorite password keeper:
Here is a tool I like to use. It's called LastPass. It's a secure site where you can keep all your passwords gathered in one place. You can separate them out into work sites/passwords, social, personal, etc. Comes in handy when you can never remember those special passwords that require all the letters, numbers and special characters. It will even help you generate passwords for sites if needed.
Joyce Frericks, Star Publications shared the details about a book she’s used for years. You can read all about it here:
The name of the book is: Lifescripts: What to Say to Get What You Want in Life’s Toughest Situations.
Using two-color flowcharts, Lifescripts maps out 109 difficult conversations, guiding you through discussion openers and effective responses reach the desired result. This completely revised and updated edition includes nearly 50 new business-focused scripts covering everything from apologizing for a misdirected email to requesting better meeting manners.
Amazon offers a new copy for just under $25.00. Used copies are available for less than $5.00. Check it out!
So, there you have it! Some great tools that are being used every day by your fellow publishers.
Do you have a favorite that’s not featured above? Let me know the details and I will share it with the rest of the membership.
Lee
The theme of our Spring Conference was Mission Possible. In keeping with a spy theme, we asked our members to share the productivity tools they use to keep their espionage skills sharp. Here are a few of the favorites that were shared with the group:
First up is a favorite from Dez Whalen of the Wisconsin-Iowa Shopping News. Dez shared the following:
Adobe Stock https://stock.adobe.com/
Crunch time for me often comes down to being able to efficiently put together a nice ad at the last minute without being able to do it myself. This requires that I supply our design team with the proper elements I need to get things put together in a way that meets my vision for the ad.
Metro is go-to for most ads, but when I am looking for something a bit fresher with cutting edge graphics, images and fonts, I turn to Adobe Stock. Adobe stock offers a library of free and licensed graphics, images, videos, sounds and so much more that can easily be implemented into print layouts and digital projects, alike. There are also ad templates that are available. This is a great resource for stock images or just to find some inspiration as well.
Adobe Stock allows you to download working files in .eps, .ai, .indd, .pdf or .jpeg file format for most layout items. As I mentioned there is an extensive free database as well as licensed stock content.
Deb Patterson of The Land, Mankato, MN shared the following:
At The Land we used a Google doc to keep track of weekly revenue. This helps us with forecasting and helps us make sure all ads are accounted for when we go to dummy the paper.
Amanda Thooft, of Star Publications had two hot tips to share:
https://coolors.co helps with picking a color palette for a design and pretty fun to play with.
https://newspagedesigner.org and pinterest helps when I am having a creative mental block to see different layouts to keep us graphically entertaining.
Kelly Balvanz of iPromote shared her favorite password keeper:
Here is a tool I like to use. It's called LastPass. It's a secure site where you can keep all your passwords gathered in one place. You can separate them out into work sites/passwords, social, personal, etc. Comes in handy when you can never remember those special passwords that require all the letters, numbers and special characters. It will even help you generate passwords for sites if needed.
Joyce Frericks, Star Publications shared the details about a book she’s used for years. You can read all about it here:
The name of the book is: Lifescripts: What to Say to Get What You Want in Life’s Toughest Situations.
Using two-color flowcharts, Lifescripts maps out 109 difficult conversations, guiding you through discussion openers and effective responses reach the desired result. This completely revised and updated edition includes nearly 50 new business-focused scripts covering everything from apologizing for a misdirected email to requesting better meeting manners.
Amazon offers a new copy for just under $25.00. Used copies are available for less than $5.00. Check it out!
So, there you have it! Some great tools that are being used every day by your fellow publishers.
Do you have a favorite that’s not featured above? Let me know the details and I will share it with the rest of the membership.
Lee