A newsletter is a way to keep your family members, friends, colleagues or customers informed of events and news. For example, if you instruct a dance class, the newsletter can contain updates regarding dance moves and upcoming class dates. Some newsletters can be several pages long, but in many cases brevity is most effective for getting your message across—the reader should finish reading it in about five minutes. There is an easy way to create a simple one-page newsletter using Microsoft Word.
Step 1
Go to Microsoft Word's template website—a link is in the Resources section of this page. Click the "Newsletters" link under "Browse Templates." You may also be able to access the template library directly from Microsoft Word.
Step 2
Download the template design of your choice. Templates come in different sizes, designs and page sizes. For this example, try to find a single page formatted with three columns.
Step 3
Choose about three stories to write about on your newsletter. If each story is about 125 words, this is all you will have room for on one page.
Step 4
Type in the title of your newsletter. For example, "ABC Dance Class Newsletter Brief." Type in the issue number and date of the newsletter in the designated box.
Step 5
Summarize what can be found in the newsletter in the side column, which is usually part of a newsletter template. For example, "In this issue: New Dance Class Offered, Student Teacher Needed, New Lesson Times."
Step 6
Place a descriptive photo underneath the side column or at the top of the main content section.
Step 7
Write your featured story at the top of the content section. It should be about 150 words. Type in a short, catchy headline for the story.
Step 8
List your next two stories in vertical columns underneath the featured story. These sections should be about 100 to 120 words each. Add headlines also.
Step 9
Type a teaser line for the next issue at the very bottom of the newsletter. "In the next issue: An interview with our best student."
Step 10
Save, print and distribute the one-page newsletter to your group.
Tip
Saving or converting the one-page newsletter to a PDF file will make it easy to distribute online.
If you have an email list, you can convert the Word template to HTML format and use it for an email newsletter. Choose "File," then "Save As." Select "Web page" from the "Save as type" drop down list in the dialog box. Open the HTML document in a browser and click "View" then "Page Source" to copy and paste the code into your email newsletter system.