LangaList is merging with Windows Secrets

LangaList is merging with Windows Secrets

By Brian Livingston I have important news for everyone who uses Windows. The LangaList — a respected e-mail newsletter that’s uncovered the tips and tricks of Microsoft’s operating system for nine years — is merging with the Windows Secrets Newsletter. The first merged issue will be published on Nov. 16, 2006. At that time, our 140,000+ readers will be joined by another 140,000 or so from the LangaList. After eliminating duplicate e-mail addresses, we’ll be sending the combined publication to 272,483 subscribers. That’s more than a quarter million Windows aficionados. Our enlarged reader base will help us bring you even better behind-the-scenes reporting on Windows.

Fred Langa (left) has been the editor of the LangaList since its inception. He’s a hard-working journalist and one of the best-known names in the computer press. You may remember him as editor-in-chief of Byte Magazine until 1991. After that, he was vice president and editorial director of CMP Media, overseeing Windows Magazine and other CMP publications from 1991 to 1997. Fred has agreed to become the editor of the combined publication, beginning on Nov. 16. I’m becoming editorial director. Fred will continue to write his great advice on running Windows, which will appear in every issue of the merged newsletter. I’ll continue to write and will supervise all aspects of the publication. When Chris Pirillo, editor of Lockergnome.com, heard that Fred and I would be working together, he wrote on Oct. 31 that it will create a "publishing powerhouse." We hope to live up to that praise. For more on our joint efforts, see Fred’s Oct. 30 LangaList. And for more on Fred, including the National Magazine Awards he’s won for editorial excellence, see his bio page. I know you’ll enjoy Fred’s work, as thousands of subscribers to the LangaList have for years. But that’s not the end of our improvements.

Scott Dunn (left) is also joining us as a contributing editor. Since 1992, Scott has been a contributing editor of PC World, writing a monthly how-to column and other features for the magazine. He’s also been a senior editor for Adobe Systems and co-author (with Jesse Berst and Charles Bermant) of 101 Windows Tips & Tricks (Peachpit Press). Scott will help Fred and me organize the best tips sent in by our readers, adding his own analysis and diagnosis to the problems and opportunities that you bring to our attention. Our other regular contributing editors — Susan Bradley, Chris Mosby, Ryan Russell, and Woody Leonhard — will continue to write in depth on what you need to know about Windows. In order to fit this all in, we’re planning to switch to weekly from twice-monthly publication (plus our occasional news updates). Issues will be shorter but come out more often. We’ll have more details for you soon.

A temporary logo to smooth the transition

With almost 140,000 new readers joining us, we’ve designed a temporary logo (right) to help them recognize the combined title. You’ll see this image at the top of the newsletter in the months of November and December 2006. During that period, we’ll be known as Windows Secrets & LangaList.

After Jan. 1, 2007, our name will revert to simply the Windows Secrets Newsletter. Our existing logo, which appears at the top of today’s news update, will then return as the permanent masthead.

What to do if you have two subscriptions…

How many people have subscriptions to both Windows Secrets and LangaList? Fred and I found that fewer than 5% of our e-mail addresses were on both lists. We’re truly bringing together two diverse cohorts of readers. We’ve taken care that the transition will go smoothly for all of you.

Those people who do have a subscription to both LangaList and Windows Secrets, however, might need to alter their subscription preferences. If so, here’s what you need to do.

1. If you subscribed to both newsletters using the SAME ADDRESS, do nothing.

If both publications have you signed up, and you used the same address, don’t worry — you won’t receive two copies. We’ve already taken care of this. You’ll receive a single newsletter starting on Nov. 16.

If one of your subscriptions was paid, while the other was free, you’ll continue to receive the paid version of the combined newsletter.

If both of your subscriptions were paid, we’ve automatically extended your expiry date. Any unused days (starting on our merger date of Nov. 16) have been added together to compute your new expiry date. That way, you won’t lose any of the time you’ve paid for.

2. If you subscribed to both using DIFFERENT ADDRESSES, merge the two subscriptions.

If you’re signed up to receive both newsletters using two different e-mail addresses, we have no way of knowing. You need to merge your two subscriptions so you don’t start getting duplicate messages.

We’ve made it easy for you to merge two subs. Just use the following link. Our Merge Subscriptions page will automatically display the details of your current Windows Secrets subscription. Once you’re on that page, enter whatever e-mail address you used when you subscribed to the LangaList:

Use this link to merge two subscriptions

When you merge two subscriptions, any unused paid subscription time you may have will be correctly applied to your subscriber account.

The best is yet to come

Our larger circulation and stronger editorial team will allow us to bring you even more secrets of Windows. All of us who dig up our content for you are looking forward to the possibilities.

I ask for your patience if there are any glitches that you need subscriber help with. I promise you that we’ll work out any kinks that may arise.

Today is an excellent time to check that your delivery address and personal preferences are set the way you want them. Is your alternate address correct, so we can notify you if your primary delivery address develops a problem? Is your locale correct?

These settings are shown at the top and bottom of this issue. Please use the following link to visit your preferences page and change anything you wish:

Use this link to change your preferences

How do you know this isn’t a phishing message, trying (for whatever reason) to get a look at your e-mail preferences? Fred and I have now implemented the same reader-number system. Bulk messages from us will always show this number at the top and/or the bottom. Spammers couldn’t possibly know your number, so look for it to ensure that messages from us are genuine.

We very much appreciate your support. Thanks for helping us to unveil the inner workings of Windows.

News updates have no paid version

Today’s e-mail message is a news update. Our next regular twice-monthly issue will be published on Nov. 16, two days after Microsoft Patch Tuesday.

News updates don’t include our usual columnists or other sections. A news update also has no paid version. The same short message goes out to both our free and our paid subscribers.

LangaList joins with Windows Secrets

By Fred Langa

Here’s my new look! As I announced in the Oct. 30 issue of the LangaList, I’m merging with the Windows Secrets Newsletter to bring you even better content. The combined newsletter will reach more than a quarter million subscribers. And it gives me access to features that my newsletter didn’t previously have.

I’m becoming the editor of the merged publication, and Brian Livingston, the former editor and co-author of 10 Windows Secrets books, is becoming the editorial director. The logo at the top of this message is a temporary design we’ll use until Dec. 31 showing both names. After Jan. 1, 2007, the logo will revert to simply say "Windows Secrets."

The message you see today is a simple format that’s been tested in every kind of e-mail program we could find. It allows me to include interactive features and images that aren’t possible in plain old text.

Allow me to briefly touch on a few things you’ll find in every issue of the combined Windows Secrets & LangaList.

A menu to additional resources

A horizontal bar will stretch across the top of each issue, leading to services at WindowsSecrets.com:

• WinFind, a Windows tips search engine, allows you to search past issues of the LangaList and 14 other sources of trustworthy technical advice.

• Reviews Overviews, a section of links to major test labs, allows you to easily find head-to-head ratings of computer products you may be evaluating. We get nothing from the test labs for linking to them.

• The Prefs tab, which links to your preferences page, makes it easy for you to change your delivery address, your alternate address, your locale, and preferred format. If you didn’t establish your preferences last week when I mentioned this, set your prefs now.

The other links in the menu jump to other resources at WindowsSecrets.com. Sometime in the next month, the material found in past issues of the LangaList will be fully integrated with the new site.

A working table of contents that scrolls

Just below the menu in each issue, you’ll find a table of contents. Hyperlinks enable you to scroll immediately to topics that are of interest to you. (Scrolling doesn’t work in Lotus Notes and some other, older e-mail programs.)

A feature like this has always been available to my paid subscribers who received the complete, HTML version of the LangaList. But it was technically impossible for me to provide in the plain-text version that my free subscribers received.

Features like these are part of the reason that I’m upgrading all of my readers, free and paid, to the complete version of Windows Secrets & LangaList, with images and all. If you’re using a very old e-mail program that isn’t compatible with the format, however — Lotus Notes 5, WebTV, and Pine — you can easily change your preferences so you’ll receive the plain-text, Notify-Only version, as discussed below.

Polls that let you tell me what you like

First, before you change your preferences, I’d like you to try out one of my best new features — polling.

Each issue of the merged newsletter will include not just my own writing, but that of at least three other contributors. You may have heard of PC World contributing editor Scott Dunn, Timesaving Techniques for Dummies author Woody Leonhard, patch guru Susan Bradley, and my other new colleagues. Each article will end with polling buttons so you can give me your rating of each writer.

I’ve said in my last two issues of the LangaList that no reader would be forced to upgrade from plain text to the complete version with images if he or she didn’t want to. To find any problems, I’m running a poll in this test message, asking whether or not this content looks normal in your e-mail program or is somehow messed up. (You can compare this test message with its counterpart on the Web to see what it looks like in a browser.)

• If you’re on a slow dial-up connection, and you never want to download any pictures, you can easily  turn off images in most of today’s e-mail programs. This is your best bet, because it lets you choose to see the images in any particular message that you may feel is important.

• If you don’t like HTML, the Web language that we’re using, a similar solution is available to you. Most modern e-mail programs allow you to force inbound messages to be displayed in plain text. Once again, this puts you in control.

Since my announcement on Oct. 30, more than 35,000 of my 140,000 subscribers have visited the merged publication’s preferences page, according to our server logs. As of Nov. 6, only 655 of my visitors (about 2%) have switched to the plain-text, Notify-Only edition. The other 98% of you have selected the complete version. I feel this reflects the fact that almost everyone’s e-mail program today can handle colors, fonts, and images correctly.

The polling buttons appear only in the complete version of the e-mail newsletter. They don’t appear in the Web version.

If you haven’t already, please use the Prefs link in the menu above to update your preferences page. Or use this link.

The final issue of the LangaList as a separate publication will be e-mailed to you on Nov. 9. Then you’ll receive a short welcome from Brian around Nov. 14 before you receive our first combined issue on Nov. 16. Thanks for your support.