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+%
+% File: NEWSLETTER_SAMPLE.TEX
+%
+% Functional description:
+%
+% This file is a sample TeX file to demonstrate the functionality of the
+% NEWSLETTER_FORMAT macros.
+%
+% It depends on the file NEWSLETTER_FORMAT.TEX.
+%
+% Author: Hunter Goatley
+%
+% Date: August 15, 1991
+%
+\ifx\undefined\eoa\input newsletr \fi % Include macro definitions
+\say{Producing sample newsletter}
+%
+% Define the page headers and footers. Different for even/odd pages.
+%
+\pageheaderlinetrue \pagefooterlinetrue
+\evenpageheader{}{Goat Droppings!}{}
+\oddpageheader{}{My Newsletter}{}
+\evenpagefooter{August\ 1991}{}{Page\ \folio}
+\oddpagefooter{Page \folio}{}{Vol.\ 1\ \ No.\ 1}
+
+\begindoublequotes % Handle double quotes
+
+\ignoreunderfill % Ignore undervfill errors
+\parskip=0pt % Don't skip between paragraphs
+\parindent=18pt % Indent paragraphs 18pt
+\rm % Use tenpoint roman
+
+%
+% Define a few commands to make typing easier.
+%
+\def\RRM{Robert~R. McCammon}
+\edef\TeX{\TeX\null}
+\def\LaTeX{{\rm L\kern-.36em\raise.3ex\hbox{\quoteefont a}\kern-.15em
+ T\kern-.1667em\lower.7ex\hbox{E}\kern-.125emX}}
+%
+% Now define a short verbatim, which can be used for short strings:
+%
+\def\cmd#1{{\tt\string#1}}
+
+%
+% Setup for newsletter page (a little taller and wider, with increased
+% \tolerance, etc.)
+%
+\newspage
+
+%\nullpage % Null page w/ head/foot
+
+%
+% Now start the first article. Do the article in double-column format.
+%
+% The title and by-line are written in a double-box.
+%
+\articletitle{Using \TeX\ to Do A Newsletter}{By Hunter Goatley}
+
+\begincolumns{2} % Begin double-columns
+
+%
+% Reserve boxes for up to 3 pages of figures.
+%
+\definefigs{3}
+
+%
+% Define a quote as a figure in the middle of column 2 on page 1 of this
+% article.
+%
+\definefig{1}{2}{middle}{\Quote{%
+ Nothing beats \TeX\null. Nothing.}{Hunter Goatley}}
+%
+% Now do one that extends across the whole page.
+%
+\definefig{2}{0}{top}{\hsize=\normalhsize%
+\vbox{\centerline{\shadowbox{%
+ \hsize=5in
+ \vsize=.5in
+ \vbox to\vsize{
+ \vfill
+ \centerline{This is inside a \cmd{\shadowbox}.}
+ \vfill
+ } %End vbox
+ } %End shadowbox
+ }} %End vbox
+ \vskip12pt
+ \centerline{This is a figure across the whole page.}
+ } %End definefig
+
+\handlefigures % Necessary, but shouldn't be.
+\noindent
+This document attempts to describe how my plain \TeX\ newsletter format works.
+The documentation is sparse, but I hope to let it speak for itself through
+the use of examples. Will they be meaningful examples? Probably not. But,
+hey, I'll give it a shot.
+
+I started producing {\it Lights Out!---The \RRM\ Newsletter\/}
+in June 1989. For those who don't know, \RRM\ is a very popular author whose
+books have primarily been categorized in the horror genr\'e. His latest,
+\book{Boy's Life}, was published in hardcover by Pocket Books in August 1991.
+\book{Boy's Life} is {\sl not\/} horror---it's a wonderful tale of how 1964
+looked to a 12-year-old boy. There's a mystery, but the book is primarily
+about remembering life when you were young. I urge you to find the book and
+give it a try. Here are quotes from a couple of reviews of McCammon's previous
+novel, \book{Mine}:
+
+%
+% A sample \dotitem'ed list.
+%
+\bgroup % Start a new group to keep \listindent local
+\listindent{10pt}\beginlist
+\dotitem "\book{Mine} grips you tightly by the throat, right at the
+ start, and squeezes\edots" \farright{---\book{The New York Daily
+ News}}
+\dotitem "McCammon at his very best\ \dots\ and then some."
+ \farright{---\book{The Birmingham News}}%
+\endlist
+\egroup
+
+\noindent % Don't indent the paragraph after the quotes.
+Well, enough about \RRM. Even if you don't like horror, I think you'll like
+McCammon's work. Other titles include \book{Swan Song}, \book{Blue World},
+and \book{Mystery Walk}.
+
+I'll now break and we'll start a new sub-article under this main
+article. I used this approach in a regular column entitled "Things Unearthed,"
+which consisted of various news items about new book releases and other
+news items.
+
+%
+% Begin a new sub-article. \coltitle draws a box around the title. This
+% one has two centered lines, with a box around it.
+%
+\articlesep
+%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
+\coltitle{\centerline{Why I Chose \TeX\ Over}\break
+ \centerline{Ventura and PageMaker}}
+
+When I decided I was going to start producing a newsletter, I started looking
+at the options I had available to me. Because I'm a VAX systems programmer,
+I preferred to use something on the VAX. I had had some exposure to \TeX\ and
+knew that it would do the job, but I thought I'd look at PC-based choices.
+
+I played around with PageMaker some, and read about Ventura---and decided that
+they were way too clumsy to do what I wanted. I liked the fact that \TeX\ used
+regular text files with embedded commands---I could use the editor I was
+accustomed to, \TeX\ was available for a variety of platforms, and \TeX\ was
+incredibly flexible.
+
+So I decided on \TeX, I had to decide if I was going to use \TeX\ or \LaTeX.
+But that's another sub-article.
+
+\articlesep % Line to separate arts
+%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
+\coltitle{\centerline{Why I Chose Plain \TeX}\break % Column title box
+ \centerline{Instead of \LaTeX}}
+
+I had originally intended to use \LaTeX, because that's what the technical
+writing group of my employer-at-the-time was using to produce their manuals.
+I knew that I wanted multiple columns and to be able to switch back and forth
+between single- and double-columns on the same page at will. After trying
+many variations of the \LaTeX\ double-column style, I finally decided I
+couldn't easily do it. (This was before Frank Mittelbach's \LaTeX\ macros
+appeared in {\it The TUGboat\/}.)
+
+So, once I decided on \TeX, I decided I better learn about \TeX\ so I could
+write my own macros. Two years later, I still modify the file some, but it
+has been lots of fun and I learned a whole lot about \TeX.
+
+I've since learned that, apparently, not many people use plain \TeX.
+Personally, I don't know why everybody flocks to \LaTeX---plain \TeX\ is
+so much more flexible. It is true that you need a default set of macros
+to get you going, but once they're there, I believe \TeX\ is actually
+easier to use than \LaTeX.
+
+An aside here: if you haven't seen \book{\TeX\ for the Impatient}, by Paul~W.
+Abrahams, I strongly recommend a copy. It's a great reference book for
+plain \TeX, and his {\tt eplain.tex} (Extended Plain \TeX) provides some
+very useful macros. It was published last year by Addison-Wesley.
+
+\articlesep
+%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
+\coltitle{\centerline{Some of the Highlights}\break
+ \centerline{of the Newsletter Format}}
+
+There are variety of commands provided by my newsletter format. Because
+{\it Lights Out!\/} covered a horror author, some of the commands are
+specifically designed to handle books and interviews. While I was developing
+the format, I tried to make sure that I kept things as generic as possible
+so that it could be used to generate other newsletters. It remains to be
+seen if whether or not I was successful.
+
+%The next page features a list of some of the commands that are available
+%and how they're used.
+
+I've included the commands \cmd{\twelvepoint}, \cmd{\elevenpoint},
+\dots, \cmd{\eightpoint} to change font sizes. I didn't do these
+the "official" \TeX\ way (font families) out of laziness. To get the
+eight-point font {\tt cmss8} you simply type: \cmd{\eightpoint\string\ss},
+probably within a group.
+
+My multiple columns command supports up to 6 columns on a page. When you
+increase the number of columns on a page, you usually need to change
+the font size (for three columns, I switched to the {\tt cmss8} font---it
+seemed to work out OK because the sans serif font helped differentiate
+between the "Letters" column and the rest of the newsletter).
+
+One of the things that seems to be hardest in \TeX---especially when multiple
+columns are involved---is the insertion of figures. I like things to be
+very structured---the mathematical side of me, I guess---so when I added
+figure support to my macros, I did it by setting up my multiple column
+output routine to place figures in certain locations on a page. You can
+specify that a figure is inserted across the entire page at the top and
+bottom of the page, or at the top, middle, or bottom of each column.
+Here comes the really kludgy part of my format.
+
+The macro \cmd{\definefigs} must be executed to tell \TeX\ how many pages
+are following that may contain figures. What happens is that a large block
+of boxes is allocated. I tried various combinations to make it more dynamic,
+but had little luck. Because of time constraints, I went with the way that
+worked. This shouldn't really cause a problem, because you define figures
+within an article, and most articles aren't so long that you exceed the number
+of boxes \TeX\ has. The command to define a figure is:
+\vskip\baselineskip
+\centerline{\cmd{\definefig\string{Page\string}\string{Column\string}%
+ \string{Position\string}\string{Box\string}}}
+\vskip\baselineskip
+where \cmd{Box} is a \cmd{\vbox} containing your figure. This can be an empty
+\cmd{\vbox} \cmd{\vfill}'ed to the correct size for later pasting. The quote
+on the previous page was inserted with a \cmd{\Quote} as the argument to
+the \cmd{\definefig} command.
+
+That's all I'm going to say about the commands for now. Notice that when
+you end the double columns, they are automatically balanced.\eoa
+
+\endcolumns % End of double columns
+
+
+\articlesep % Separate the articles w/ rule
+
+%
+% Now do another article in single column format.
+%
+\articletitle{This Is Another Article}{By Me, Of Course}
+
+\begincolumns{3}
+
+This is more just to show that you can also do three-columns on the same page
+with single- and double-column formats without \TeX\ complaining about it.
+I hope this example has been of some use to you.
+
+Note that balancing these columns still has a few glitches---but nothing adding
+or subtracting a few words won't fix. I've been using this format to generate
+five newsletters so far.
+
+\endcolumns
+
+\articlesep
+
+This is more just to show that you can keep both single-, double-, and
+triple-column formats on the same page. \TeX\ won't complain about it
+at all (usually).\eoa
+
+
+\bye