What is Bulletin Digest?
Bulletin Digest is the most powerful tool on the internet for producing sound, engaging church bulletins. We’ve been providing this service for the church for nearly 40 years, and we are proud to continue this effort with this website. This series of articles will tell you all about how to use Bulletin Digest to access a library of thousands of church bulletin articles, poems, quotes, and fillers, all categorized by subject, length, and author. Bulletin editors can easily search and manage these articles, marking them “used” and “bookmarking” others for later. Bible crosswords, word search puzzles, graphics, and clipart round out our collection. Using these tools, you will be able to produce your bulletin faster than ever before, and with high quality, timely, and engaging materials. We have a limited collection of free articles and sample graphics for you to try, but the real power of Bulletin Digest will only be realized with a Monthly or an Annual Membership.
Back to topCreating an Account
Creating an account with Bulletin Digest is easy! There are “register” buttons scattered around the website, but you will always find one on the homepage. Just click on one of these buttons.
You will be taken to Membership Levels page. Here you can choose which membership level is right for you.
If you just want a couple of articles from time to time and you are not really interested in timeliness and applicability to your congregation’s specific needs, a Trial Membership may be right for you.
If you would prefer a full-service membership that includes weekly newsletters with timely articles, the ability to search the archives for articles that address certain topics, and articles that fit specific spaces, you will want to consider an Annual Membership. Included in this membership are poems, fillers, quotes, humor, graphics, puzzles, and more, giving you the tools to make your bulletin effective and attention-getting for your congregation and visitors. Plus you get the weekly Preaching Ideas newsletter, full of sermon seeds, illustrations, thoughts, and other items to spark sermon and lesson creation.
If you are only interested in receiving a weekly package of articles, fillers, poems, quotes, and humor in your email, you might like the Monthly Membership. You also get the weekly Preaching Ideas newsletter! Archive access is not included in this package.
Select your membership level, fill out of the form, agree to the terms of service, and submit the form. You will receive an email confirmation of your registration. If you have chosen to pay by credit card (or if you are registering for a Trial Membership) you will be able to access the materials immediately!
Back to topMembers Homepage
After registering for an account, you will have access to the Members Homepage, the hub and power center for your account.
To log in, click the “Log In” link in the main menu:
After you successfully log in, you will see the Members Homepage:
Here you will find several sections of buttons that will give you access to the materials in various ways. The main section, pictured below, will give you access links to the current and previous month’s articles, as well as direct links to fillers, your bookmarks, humor, quotes, poetry, graphics, word search, crosswords, word scrambles, and clip art.
Below this section you will find the “QuickLinks” section:
Clicked open, these are direct links to popular authors, word lengths, topics, and holiday articles:
The next section is the Archives, which is discussed in more detail in another section of this Help Page.
Finally, you have the Account Management section:
Latest member news, membership details, invoices, and profile information can be found here, as well as a button to clear your “used” article marks. This is discussed further down in the Help Page.
There you have it, a quick rundown of the Members Homepage!
Back to topLost Password
If you cannot remember your password, simply go to the Log In page and click on the Lost Password link. Type in the email address your account is registered to, and click the Get New Password button. Look for the Password Reset email to arrive (sometimes it takes a few minutes), and click the link in the email to reset your password.
Back to topChanging Your Profile Information
You can change your email address, password, and display name from your Members Homepage. Scroll down to the Account Management section and find the link that says, “Edit Profile.” Click this link and change your information, being sure to click the “Update Profile” button when you are done.
If you need to change your password, click the “Click Here to Change Your Password” link at the bottom of the Edit Profile page.
Back to topHow to ‘Cut & Paste’ Articles to Your Bulletin
Cutting and pasting articles into your bulletin just got even easier with the “Copy This Article” button. You will find this button in the upper right hand corner of every article:
When you click this button, the article text will be copied to your clipboard, allowing you to then paste the text into whatever program you use to create your bulletin. Depending upon the program you use, you may have to delete some extra paragraph spaces.
Also, be sure and add the title to your bulletin article, since the “Copy This Article” only copies the main body of the article.
Back to topUsing Graphics and Puzzles
Graphics can be found in several places on your membership page, such as crossword puzzles, word searches, word scrambles, clip art, and original artwork by Bulletin Digest.
When you find a graphic you would like to use, simply click on that graphic, and then “right click” on it to bring up a dialogue box. Select “save as” and then save the graphic where you would like on your computer.
After saving to your own computer, insert the graphic into your bulletin using whatever layout or wordprocessing program you use to create your bulletin.
Back to topAccessing the Archives
Bulletin Digest continues to build our archive of thousands of articles that have been published over the last four decades. The Archives are only available to Annual Members. There are two easy ways to access the archives.
First, you can use the “Search” feature that you can find in the top menu of every page:
Just type a word or sentence and hit return or enter on your keyboard. A results page will pop up that includes articles from the archives.
Second, if you want to see articles that were published on a certain date, use the “Archive” section on your membership page:
Click on one of the tabs of a specific year, and you will then be able to click on individual months in that year to see what was published. Easy!
Building the archives is a long, painstaking process since most articles before 2013 were not saved digitally. We continue to scan, proof, and publish articles on a regular basis.
Back to topFinding Articles of a Specific Length
One of the most powerful functions of Bulletin Digest is being able to find article of a certain length. There are three ways to find articles of a specific lenght.
First, each article has the word count listed at the beginning of the text.
Second, you can click on the tag length at the bottom of an article to bring up a listing of all articles of that length.
Third, you can click on one of the word length links in the QuickLinks section:
Back to topTags: A Powerful Tool for Finding Articles
Tags are another very powerful feature to help you find the right article for your bulletin. At the bottom of every article, you will find the general category of an article, but also a listing of what are known as “tags:”
Notice that a tag can be length, author, speciality topic, or general topic. In the above example, you could click on “100-199 words” to get a listing of that length of article, “Ben Giselbach” to get a listing of other article that author has written, “Fillers” to look into that specialty category, or “Morals,” “Speech,” or “Tongue” to get listings for those.
Try clicking around on tags to see how they can make finding articles so much quicker and easier!
Back to topBookmarking Articles for Later Use
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Back to topUsing Quicklinks
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Back to top