Better format for cut-and-paste

[eressner]

Now that cut-and-paste is being distributed via the ACS Network, it is time to develop a more web-friendly format. It's just nuts to have to click on a topic to take you to a page to link to a Word document to download the document, only to have to follow links in the document back to the ACS site.

Please, PLEASE, put all the text that was in all the Word docs for one cut-and-paste release in a single html page. That way, we can see the topic summaries all on one page, no document downloads, and single-clicks from the cut-and-paste page to expanded info on any topic.

[kate1dc]

Eric,

Thanks so much for your valuable feedback - I'll investigate your suggestion with the network manager.  Does anyone else feel strongly that the format should change?  We welcome all comments and suggestions.

Best,

Kate

[DonivanPorterfie]

Kate,

My suggestion would be to include in the description field for the uploaded document at least some if not all of the text content.  The current titles leave one wondering if the content in the document may be useful to include.  So I can see Eric’s frustration in having to actually download each and every file to see if the content is useful to include in our respective newsletters.  So seeing some if not all of the text in advance of downloading may make for a quicker decision process.  It may still be useful to have the associated file to download – depends on how different folks are putting their newsletter together.

So for example when I see the title “Cut & Paste: Mentor and ACS Scholars”, I’m not really sure if that is about recruiting mentors for ACS Scholars or what.  It is only after I actually download the associated work file that I see enough to understand and make a decision on whether it is appropriate to include.

I do see having these go up on “Volunteer Support and Engagement” as individual items would allow yall to disseminate information on a much more timely basis.  So I’m not so bothered by not having all items on a single page.

I’d note that even for the graphic content it may be useful to include some information.  For example, I see graphic content for “New ACS Network Features Ad” but no mention of scheduled release.  So do I include that in a newsletter with notation “ACS would like to us to show you the looks of the new ACS Network features but they don’t know when it will be released.”.  So for this graphic it would have been useful to provide some information on the expected release date of the update.  That may be common knowledge within ACS buildings but not to us out here.

[kate1dc]

Terrific suggestion. Hence forth, we will include either a description or the first paragraph of the article.

[eressner]

Thanks, Donivan and Kate, for listening and responding.

When Donivan says "some if not all of the text", I vote for "all." I guess I see the utility of the Word file for putting together a printed newsletter -- although the text could just as easily be captured from the html page -- but for the increasing number of sections publishing web-only newsletters (like my section, the Saint Louis Section), the Word file is of absolutely no use. Forcing me to download it to get links to the actual information is frankly not very friendly, and would really discourage me from using cut-and-paste as a resource.

[kate1dc]

Eric,

In most cases that shouldn't be a problem.  Thanks again for the feedback!

Kate

[eressner]

Kate--

I replied to your email this morning asking for comment on a proposed new format. The reply was bounced back. Apparently communities@acs.org is not an address that can be replied to. Here is what I said:

Yes, this is excellent. I see that the attachment (Word doc) is pretty much a duplicate of the web page. I'm not sure what use that would be to anyone, but users will eventually get used to the fact that there is nothing extra in the Word doc and just bypass it ... so you'll have to be sure to include all pertinent content in the web page.

Now, what do you intend when you have multiple topics to cover in a single release? Last month, each topic was a separate web page,       linking to a separate Word doc, and that is VERY clumsy. You should (IMO) combine all cut-and-paste topics for a certain period, whether that is weekly or monthly, into a single web page and Word doc.

One other suggestion, pertinent to graphics rather than text: when you have a photo to post like https://communities.acs.org/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/2933-102-1-3203/Scholars-promo-high-res... you should store both a high-res and a much lower res version of the file. The high-res is useful for print newsletters but is a total waste of 6.5 MB download for eNewsletters. I'd suggest the low-res version should be no bigger than 512x512 pixels and 100kb in size, and should be a jpg file. At that size, I would still probably downsize it for my eNewsletter, but others might want it that big. The 100kb file size is pretty big for a web graphic.

I really appreciate your responsiveness. I think this is a MAJOR improvement.

--Eric