Make sure you've have the required software to use Compiler.

Go to the "Check My System" page and walk through the system check. If you're missing any of the components listed there you can download them right from that page.

Select a marketing piece to customize.

Navigate through the web site to the marketing piece that you wish to create. These marketing pieces may be divided into categories such as newspaper ads, direct mail, yellow pages, etc.

After selecting a marketing piece, you may be prompted to make more detailed decisions such as size, theme, color, etc. Once you've made your final decision by clicking on a link, a new window will appear. You may be asked to enter your system user name and password if required.

A preview of the layout you selected is displayed with areas for you to customize (represented by gray boxes).

Buttons on the left correspond to the names of the blank regions.

Point, Click, Customize

To customize your layout, simply click the buttons on the left side of the preview window. A pop-up box will appear prompting you to type in information or select an image for that region. Continue until you've filled in each gray box with copy or an image. You may also make edits to regions you've already filled in by simply clicking the appropriate button on the left and selecting another image or typing new text.

Download or Submit Your Ad

When you've finished customizing your layout, click the "Download" or "Submit" button. If required, the ad will be submitted for approval. You will be notified by email when the ad has been approved. The email message will contain a link for retrieving the approved document. If no approval is required, you may continue with the downloading process.

The default download format is PDF, but you have the option to specify the file format you want (check with the printer or newspaper to see which they prefer). Other available formats are EPS and TIFF.

After downloading the file, it will be zipped, or compressed. You can open the zipped file using a decompression application like WinZip. PDF files may then be opened using Acrobat Reader. EPS and TIFF files require other software to open. You may then email the zipped file to your printer or newspaper or place it on a disk and deliver it.