Newsletter tools are very helpful to the average newsletter publisher. They help publishers save time and effort and do their tasks more efficiently. There are dozens of newsletter tools that one can make use of. Each newsletter tool is used for a specific purpose. Which tool to use depends mainly on what task you are going to accomplish; it also depends on what newsletter format you use and at what stage of your newsletter creation you are. The tools used for creating text newsletters are completely different from those involved in the formatting of HTML newsletters, and from those used for PDF newsletters as well.
Text newsletters used to be the most popular format of newsletters. Nowadays, this format appears to be declining. The main feature of text newsletter is that they have no features. There are no advanced formatting features such as colors, fonts, graphics, tables, etc. in order to create a text newsletter, there are a few handy tools that you can employ. Notepad is the best tool for making a text newsletter because it provides only the features that are supported in the text format. Notepad is a free software program which is used mainly for text editing. It usually comes readily available in Windows.
It is also possible to use Microsoft Word, which a word processor. It should be noted, however, that the text newsletter format supports none of the advanced text formatting features of Word and therefore, you should use none of them to avoid incompatibility issues. There are special text editing tools for Mac users as an alternative to Notepad.
In order to create an HTML newsletter, there are a few tools that we need to have at hand. Since HTML is a special formatting language, there are special editors used for working with it. The most popular free HTML editors are Nvu and KompoZer. These two editors are perfect for formatting HTML; they can be equally used for creating websites as well as HTML newsletters. Their paid counterpart is Adobe Dreamweaver which is also popular; it has a few more features than Nvu and KompoZer but you will need none of them when creating a newsletter.
It can take a bit of time before you fully master the use of these tools but it is worth the effort. There are plenty of tutorials in text and video format that can help you learn the ins and outs of these editors. They also have support forums where you can ask questions and get answers.
PDF newsletters stand for the least popular format of newsletters. In order to create a PDF newsletter, you need first to create it in MS Word and then convert it into a PDF format. There are a few tools that will help do just that.PrimoPDF is a free word-to-PDF converter. It enables you to convert files from word into a PDF format. It is the free version of NitroPDF which is one of the most popular PDF converters.
The last tool you need for publishing a newsletter is an autoresponder. This tool helps you manage the subscription process and the sending process of your newsletter. And it costs around $19 per month.