The Times-Gazette newsroom computers are iMacs which were installed in late 1999. They are not up-to-date.

That's one of several factors to keep in mind when sending us information to be included in the newspaper. For example:

Why not plain text? For some strange reason, people insist on sending press releases as Microsoft Word files. We can usually -- I emphasize usually -- open those, although recently a local financial institution sent us a Word file which crashed my computer every time I tried to open it. It's much, much, much simpler to send your information as plain text in the body of your e-mail. Please remember, not everyone has as nice a computer as you do.

Adobe Acrobat (PDF) files are even worse. Newer computers can cut and paste text out of some Acrobat files, but our computers, and the antiquated version of Adobe Reader they run, cannot. So our only option is to print out your Acrobat file (provided we can open it in the first place) and retype it, word-for-word.

Speaking of retyping, it's equally frustrating when someone brings by a computer-printed news release which they could just as easily have e-mailed us. Again, it means we have to retype something which you have already typed.

Do type. Even if your only option is bringing by a printout, please type things out rather than hand-writing them. All but one of our local funeral homes faxes us obituaries as neatly-formatted computer printouts, and it's frustrating to have to read and interpret the last funeral home's hand-written submissions, especially when we're on a tight deadline.

Also, please use a plain, legible typeface. You don't have to impress anyone here at the Times-Gazette, so please don't use some overly-fancy typeface with curlicues which make it difficult to tell one letter from another. Arial will be just fine.

Never, ever, EVER embed your photos into a Word document. It makes it hard for us to retrieve the photos, and it usually means that you have (whether you realized it or not) reduced the size and resolution of the photo in order to fit it onto a page. Send your photos as separate file attachments, preferably in JPEG/JPG file format.

Don't put every photo on a CD. Our computers don't show thumbnails and therefore make it clunky to browse through large numbers of photographs, so if you include dozens of your photos on a CD, as one church did when reporting its recent mission trip, you force us to open each file individually to see what it contains. That's an extreme nuisance. Pick the best five or six photos yourself and put only those on the CD.

Don't assume that web site photos will always work. Frequently, churches with guest speakers or singers will suggest that we pull a photo off the speaker's web site. But those photos are sometimes small, and may not be suitable for reproduction at the size needed. This applies to any newspaper, no matter how new their computer system might be. Ask the speaker or singer about the availability of press photos which are more suited to print reproduction.

Don't use the e-mail address news@t-g.com . That was our general newsroom address back when we only had one newsroom address. It is choked with spam and with out-of-state press releases, and your press release may be overlooked if you send it there. Instead, go to our web site, t-g.com, click on "contact us" and pick the e-mail address of a particular reporter or editor. Don't worry too much if it's the wrong person; if so, they will certainly pass the message along. (On the other hand, I'd be grateful if you don't automatically send everything to me just because I wrote this column.)

Just use some common sense. Keep things simple, and recognize that not everyone has the same make and model of computer as you. You'll be doing us a favor as we attempt to give your group the coverage it deserves.

John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government and other topics. His home page is lakeneuron.com.