Here's a sneak preview for you of just one of the many exciting, new things coming up at CityFood.

Dear Readers;

It’s here. Finally. I know we have been promising you an online magazine since last summer. In fact, in October 2006, I sent out a letter to many of you outlining the project we were working on and exactly how it would work. We had hoped to debut this with our Winter issue (The Pig Issue), but when the final results were in we didn’t think the company we were working with at the time had been able to produce something that was up to our standards, or that of our contributors and advertisers.

So it was back to the drawing boards with a new creative partner, and now we believe we finally have what we have been seeking to offer our readers for the past two years – an online digital magazine that functions smoothly, reads clearly and offers us unlimited scope for future innovation.

The company we will be working with is called NXT Book Media. They were the original designers of this medium and over the past three years have produced similar online publications, catalogues, corporate brochures and flyers for companies all over North America. CityFood will be their first Canadian lifestyle publication client. NXT Book Media are still on the forefront of some very exciting new developments in this field and we are excited about what possibilities these will open up for our publication, which happens to be now going into its 15th year (news on that will be announced shortly.)

What you are seeing in our sneak preview is just the first 20 pages of our last issue. It’s meant to be just a sample of what you can expect to see with the arrival of our next Spring 2007 issue.


HOW IT WORKS


GETTING AROUND

As you can see the CityFood e-Zine is a different (and we think improved) version of online digital magazine than is currently being offered by other magazines. Whereas others are set up like a storyboard of PDFs, ours will present itself to you for reading just like an actual magazine -- with pages you can turn, forwards and backwards -- just the same as when you are flipping through a printed publication. Or you can choose to use the PAGE INDEX or CONTENTS button at the top of the form, to navigate directly to the page you want to read. (Size can be adjusted from window to full screen, so if you have a larger monitor you can see the e-Zine in the same size as the printed tabloid.)

But if you prefer to see the layout in thumbnail format, you can do this too. Just access the TOOLS tab from the tool bar at the top of the page and choose THUMBNAILS from the drop down menu. You can also choose to scroll down the magazine view one page at a time instead of using the double page spread.

MAKE IT BIGGER

Magnification is easy. Just click anywhere on the page to zoom the print up or down, use the ZOOM button on the tool bar to adjust the percentage size of the zoom. Or use the MAGNIFYING GLASS icon (also on the top of the tool bar) to zoom up just a section.

OTHER FEATURES

Other tabs at the top of the page will let you PRINT out a page, EMAIL an article to a friend, find a topic anywhere it is mentioned in the KEYWORD SEARCH, or get additional information with the HELP KEY.

The design is meant to recreate the experience of reading a magazine as faithfully as possible, but if you want to turn off the page turning sound or view the material as a flat screen and without the 3-D effects you can control that too. Just go to the toolbar, click the TOOLS button and choose EFFECTS from the drop down bar. Within the TOOLS drop down menu you will also find functions that will allow you to BOOKMARK A PAGE or make your own NOTES on a page (like using a Post-it note).

Please note: the only function not yet working on this sample mode is the PANIC button which will let you minimize the page to the bottom of your screen so that it is still open but not visible.


LIVE LINKS

Most import, all website addresses on any page, plus the logos on the advertisements are live links. Click your mouse on them and you will go to an advertiser’s website (if the links are on an ad) or to a place where we have stored more information than we could fit on the page of the printed magazine.


DOWNLOAD THE E-ZINE

The e-Zine will always be available from the website, but you won’t have to keep going to the website to access it. Just use the DOWNLOAD key and it will be zipped straight to your desktop for you to store and look at any time you wish.


WHAT THIS MEANS

We hope you enjoy this new format for CityFood. Please remember however, that it is still a work in progress, and that your comments, suggestions and wish lists will be most welcome. Just email us at: contact (at) cityfood (dot) com.

And never fear, the printed magazines will still be available for free pickup at the same locations as before. As well, our CityFood Online website will continue to bring you fresh information on a daily basis. This online e-magazine is but a virtual expansion of the original printed magazine and a forerunner of new and exciting things to come.

We thank you all for your loyalty, enthusiastic support and the many kind words that you have expressed to us over the years about our little home grown publication. We would especially like to thank our advertising supporters, most of whom are located in Vancouver, and many who have been with us since Day One, for standing behind us and making everything we do possible.

Wishing you warm regards and happy adventures in eating and drinking,

Rhonda May