[ Quick Win posts – QWs – are brief items to help non-overwhelm your day. Enjoy! ]

 

 

Once upon a time, the world had typewriters.

You typed a page, gave it to a client, and it did not morph into something different.

Then, God created the people … who created computers.

And life has never been the same.

[QW13] How to email a perfect file

One of the strangest things in our tech and text world is the weirdness of emailing a file to a client, and it’s screwed up on their end.

What happened?

The printer attached to their computer took over.

Formatting that made the document look good on your screen went bye-bye.

Make sure this doesn’t happen again

Save the file as a PDF before attaching it to the email.

Your recipient’s copy will look exactly like the one on your computer (where you formatted it to look best with your printer’s setup. See how this works? 😎 ).

If your client plans to edit the document, you’ll also attach the copy from your word processor. Here’s an example from my world:

When I hand a client their Website Usability Audit report, I email it as a PDF.

If this were something they might want to update later – for example, verbiage for their website – I would also provide the MSWord^® file.* I would warn them it may look a little ‘off,’ and I would explain why. 

I always attach the PDF first. Hopefully, they’ll open it first and see my hard work in its best light.

Here is my article with step-by-step instructions for saving your file as a PDF

* Note: Since clients may not have the full Adobe Acrobat program for editing, I make sure they have the Word copy.

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So, there we go!
I remember the day someone told me it was the printer causing the problem with documents.
A big, “Well, DUH!” moment for me.
It’s obvious once you’re told, but before then? Mmmm. Not so much.
It’s a game-changer.

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I promise: NO inbox stuffing or sharing your information in. any. way.

Please leave a comment or email me, especially if you need help PDFing spreadsheets or presentations. (Oh yeah, you can do those, too!) Nooo invoice. 😎

I know you’re busy, and I appreciate your spending part of the day with the Yorkster!

Click to let me know you need help with this Quick Win. I don’t invoice for one quick 15-minute phone call, which may be all you need to get you unstuck.

Hope to talk with you soon,

Kathie
Check out the introductory Quick Win post
Here is the collection of Quick Win posts

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