Before & After magazine

Frequently asked questions

It's not working!
When I click Download, my window goes blank.
I can't open the PDF.
Opening the PDF displays the message _______.
The PDF I've downloaded gives me an error message.
I'm having trouble printing my PDF.
How do I save the PDF to my disk?
The PDF icons don't work.

Subscription questions
What is the current print issue?
When are new articles published?
I haven't been notified of a new article since ______. Have I dropped off the list?
I'm a PDF subscriber. I didn't get the PDF of issue _____.
Is every PDF on your site also in the print magazine?

Buying and upgrading
If I subscribe, do I get free access to back issues?
Can I upgrade my subscription from PDF to print?
How do I send a gift subscription?
Do I have to pay online, or may I pay by check?
Do you offer discounts for educators?
Do you offer discounts for students?
Can I buy Before & After books directly from you?
Can I buy Before & After magazine at a newsstand in _______?

How did you make that?
What software do you use to create your PDFs?

May I distribute your articles?
May I post Before & After articles on my Web site?
May I distribute article _______ to my classroom/seminar/department, etc.?

Other
Do you have an editorial calendar?
Can you make over our _______ for an article in Before & After?
Can I e-mail a current project to Before & After for a critique?
Do you design for hire?
Can you recommend a designer?
Are you hiring?

It’s not working!

When I click Download, my window goes blank.
Our graphics-intense PDFs take a few moments to download, during which you may see no on-screen activity. Please wait for the action to complete.

I can't open the PDFs
The best way to view a PDF is to save the PDF to your disk, then open it in the latest version of Adobe Reader. This always works.

It's possible that your Web browser, not Adobe Reader, is trying to open the PDF. This is normal (but not ideal). If you've clicked Download and your window is blank, please wait a few moments while the action completes; during the download you may see no on-screen activity. Once the PDF is open, you can usually save it to your disk by clicking File>Save. You can also click the floppy-disk icon on the browser bar.

To save a PDF to your disk BEFORE your browser tries to open it, Right-click or Control-click the Download button, then from the menu that pops up, select Save to Disk, Save target as or something similar.

Before & After in PDF can be read in Adobe Reader versions 5 and 6, but to be fully functional you must use version 7. You can get the latest version free from Adobe

Opening (printing, saving, etc.) the PDF displays the message ______.
Adobe has an excellent support site to assist in upgrading, downloading, opening, printing and troubleshooting PDFs.

The PDF I’ve downloaded gives me an error message.
We've seen this happen when site traffic is unusually heavy. Deleting the file and downloading it again will solve the problem.

How do I save the PDF to my disk?
Right-click or Control-click the Download button, then from the menu that pops up, select Save to Disk (or something similar). If the PDF is already open in your browser window, you can usually save it by clicking File>Save.

The PDF icons don’t work
You're probably using an earlier version of Adobe Reader. To be fully functional, Before & After needs Adobe Reader version 7.0 or higher (sorry). The good news is that it's free from Adobe.

Subscription questions

What is the current print issue?
Print issue 47. Our mailing date was 6/19/2008. Issue 47 will continue mailing in smaller batches to new subscribers so their print subscription is synched with the PDFs they’re receiving. The current article on our home page is the sixth of eight for Issue 48, no mail date is available yet.

When are new articles published?
Every other week, or so.

I haven't been notified of a new article since _____. Have I dropped off the list?
Probably not. If you’re not receiving our e-mails, please make sure that your spam blocker or firewall is letting mailbox “at” bamagazine.com through. Also you might try completing the form on our Join our e-list page; confirming the opt-in e-mail message that you receive after you submit the form should fix the problem.

I'm a PDF subscriber. I didn't get the PDF of issue _____.
That's because there are no PDF "issues." Before & After in PDF is published only in individual downloads.

Is every PDF on your site also in the print magazine?
The ones that say Subscriber are in the print magazine; those that say Download are free extras. There is an occasional exception.

Buying and upgrading

Do subscribers get free access to back issues?
No. Back issues in PDF and print may be purchased on our Back issues pages.

Can I upgrade my subscription from PDF to print?
Yes. Please click here.

How do I send a gift subscription?
Please click here.

Do I have to pay online, or may I pay by check?
You may pay by check or money order (U.S. funds, please), and you may use a purchase order. To do this, fill out an order online, mark your payment option, and click "place order." Then print the order page, and mail it with your payment to:
Before & After magazine
323 Lincoln Street
Roseville, CA 95678

Do you offer discounts for educators?
No, we don't. We've priced Before & After in PDF to be affordable for students.

Do you offer discounts for students?
No, we don't; Before & After in PDF is the cheapest design course you will buy. We say skip a pizza and subscribe.

Can I buy Before & After books directly from you?
You can buy our books directly from Peachpit Press (the publisher and distributor) via the link on our Web page.

Can I buy Before & After magazine at a newsstand?
Yes. Before & After has limited availability through Barnes & Noble booksellers.

How did you make that?

What software do you use to create your PDFs?
We use the Adobe Creative Suite—InDesign CS, Photoshop CS, Illustrator CS and Acrobat 7.0 Professional—to create Before & After magazine, and Adobe GoLive CS to create our Web site. The interactive functions of our PDFs are buttons and actions, standard features built with Adobe Acrobat.

May I distribute your articles?

May I post Before & After’s PDFs on my Web site?
No. You may, however, post on your site the cover graphic of a Before & After article and link it to our home page: http://www.bamagazine.com

May I distribute article ______ to my classroom/seminar/department, etc.?
Maybe. Please contact us with what you have in mind.

Other

Do you have an editorial calendar?
No. Before & After carries no advertising.

Can you make over our _______ for an article in Before & After?
Maybe. Keep in mind that our goals are different from yours. You need a unique design for your unique situation, while we need a teachable design for a universal situation. Our makeover, therefore, will not fit your needs as closely as if we were working only for you. Also, if your project is time-sensitive, we can't do it. If you’re still interested, please contact us, and we’ll have a look.

Can I e-mail a project to Before & After for a critique?
Yes, but we will acknowledge your e-mail only if we can use the critique in Before & After.

Do you design for hire?
Thank you for asking, but no.

Can you recommend a designer?
It seems like we could, doesn't it? But we can't. Sorry.

Are you hiring?
We are always on the lookout for outstanding talent. Before & After is a demanding, high-skill, brain-stretching job in visual and verbal communication. Excellent computer skills (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) are essential, but we take them for granted. What we need are smart, analytical designers who can think in stories. You must be able to get into the reader's world, analyze a situation, design beautiful solutions, illustrate what you've designed, write with a real vocabulary about what you’ve illustrated, connect all the parts into a beautiful presentation with simplicity and clarity, and persist. On rare occasions, we'll take in an exceptional, unpaid intern. If any of this sounds like you, write to us. No phone calls, please.