Greetings friends, family, and other readers! I am gearing up for a brand new school year and a fresh, more thorough year of blogging.
I am going to begin my new year of blogging by reviewing a product which I was recently given the opportunity to review, The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine.
I have been a subscriber to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine for years; it is my favorite magazine. In 2007, when The Old Schoolhouse launched their digital magazine, they offered (and still do) a free sample download for people to use to look over the magazine. I downloaded the magazine and looked it over, but did not give it a thorough perusal, because most of my magazine reading occurs where my laptop cannot/does not go. I often find time to read in a short, warm bath, or when I sneak away to a basement bathroom where I might steal a few moments of respite before returning to my responsibilities.
However, recently TOS asked me to review their digital magazine, and to write up my review for others to see. So, receiving a current copy, I immediately looked it over, and this my review.
First, obviously, it is still true that I will not be taking my laptop with me when I take a bath, and it is not with me when I sneak away to that powder room for a few minutes break. The digital copy does not come WITH the hard copy, so if I only subscribe to the digital copy, I do not have that wonderful glossy magazine to enjoy, to touch, to smell, ...you know what I mean...
That being said, here are the things I liked.
TOS Digital Magazine is internally linked. From the moment I saw the front cover, I was amazed. Where the magazine cover tells you some of the articles within the magazine, they are linked! I point my mouse to the topic, I click, and it takes me to the article! Whereas in the hard copy, if I am interested in an article on Charlotte Mason mentioned on the front cover, I then have to flip to the Table of Contents, find the page number of the article, and then find that page. I must be somewhat ADHD when it comes to this, but frequently I never get to the article I was interested in. I'll start flipping pages, but get distracted by a different article or advertisement, and suddenly my time to look at the magazine is gone and I never got to the initial article I was interested in! ::sigh:: So the Digital Magazine helps me because I can quick click to the article and read it.
TOS is also internet linked throughout. If I am reading an ad or an article about a company or product, and there is a line that says "Find us at www.TryOurProduct.com", the website is linked. You just point and click, and you are there.
There are "Selection" buttons across the top of the screen. With a click I can go to the Contents page. With a click I can get thumbnails of all the pages within the magazine. With a click I can search the entire magazine. The settings can also be adjusted, so my poor, aging eyes can be assisted in reading print that might be difficult for me in the hard copy of the magazine. One click to the "Links" button gives me a list of all the links on the page I am looking at. One click to a non-linked spot of any page causes the page to immediately zoom in, so you can get a big view of whatever you are trying to examine, such as specific photos or craft instructions, etc.
There is a series of page turning buttons to turn one page at a time, or to turn to the very first or very last page. Or you can turn each page by clicking on the bottom right corner. I love this way of turning pages on the digital magazine.
Now, one of the most significant reasons I like the Digital Magazine now is that I spend a lot more time on my laptop computer than I spend in my warm bath or in my secret get-away. If my little student is spending 15 minutes finishing his math work for the day, I usually have my laptop open. Any time I want to I can open my magazine and read for a few minutes. That makes it much more accessible than my hard copy magazine. Sad but true confession, I am currently fighting a wave of clutter not only of my own 29 years of wedded parenthood, but clutter inherited from many deceased relatives. Each item of some obscure sentimental value ends up parked for awhile while the decision is being made on whether or not someone can part with it now, and what way to part with it.
My digital magazine is not cluttering my basement desk or coffee table, nor is it in my bathroom getting splashed while the dear child plays the soap-bar game, or sits doing business, reaching for whatever is within reach while sitting there.
So The Old Schoolhouse Digital Magazine gets a big thumbs up in my household, and I am looking forward to jumping back into my latest copy to look more thoroughly into the articles that I haven't yet gotten the opportunity to fully appreciate.
Happy reading, friends. To take a look at the sample TOS Digital Magazine, follow this link:
http://tinyurl.com/3n537f
Or, to subscribe, follow this link:
http://tinyurl.com/5jk6e6
~D
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