How a month goes
After the first one, a month is mostly carrying last month forward and writing the new articles. Half an hour, most months.
Start from last month
Open TrestleBoard and take Start from last month, the first of the three offers. It copies last month's newsletter, moves the issue on by one, recomputes the dates from your lodge's meeting rule — first Tuesday becomes the right date without anybody counting — and clears last month's articles so this month's can be written.
The officers, the committees and the district table carry across untouched. They are the parts that change once a year, and retyping them every month is exactly the work this program exists to remove.
It is a new newsletter, not last month's with edits. Last month's file is untouched on your computer, and this one is unsaved until you save it — the status bar says so.
Write this month's articles
The cleared articles hold a reminder of what belongs in them. Click in and type over it.
If you keep the same lines every month — a sickness and distress note, a dinner time, a closing word of thanks — save them once with Save these words for next time… and put them back with Use words I saved…. The program keeps your shelf of standing paragraphs between issues.
Update the birthdays
The birthday list knows which month this issue is for and fills itself from the address book. If members have been added since last month, choose the list and take Update the birthday list — it shows you every change before it makes one.
Ask what is left
Click an empty part of the page so nothing is selected. The panel on the right stops offering commands and starts listing what this issue still needs, each with a sentence saying why. When that list is empty, the newsletter is done.
Look it over with me… is the longer version of the same question, and Read it back to me… will read the newsletter aloud, highlighting each sentence as it goes — which catches the things eyes slide over.
Send it
Make the PDF… (Ctrl+E), then Now send it…, which opens your mail program with the PDF attached and the subject line already saying which issue it is. You write the message and press send yourself — the program never sends anything on its own.
Two things worth knowing
- Last year's issue is one command away. Show me last year's… finds the same month from a year ago, which is usually where the wording for an annual event already exists.
- A draft is not the real thing. Make a draft copy… produces the same PDF with DRAFT — not for sending across every page, for circulating to the committee before it goes to the lodge.