Subject: Annual reports online From: PJacobson@aol.com Date: Fri, 14 Jul 1995 11:03:46 -0400

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Pat.Churchill writes about:
>I am thinking of putting our company's annual report on the WWW ... Have any
of you any experience in moving the likes of the financial
statements into Web pages. I am wondering about the best way of handling all
these tabulated figures. Any su ggestions/ recommendations? <<

Pat: 
   The Chicago Tribune has some experience with posting annual and quarterly
report information on AOL, in our Chicago Online area (keyword COL).  We keep
track of the top 100 Chicago area companies and update these files quarterly,
or as soon as new information is available. 
    The information is in straight text form (ascii) and can be read with any
standard word processor, including the very limited word processor that is
built into the AOL software. The columns are taken care of very simply. A
fixed space font would render them perfectly, but there is a liberal amount
of white space between columns, so the information is readable even if viewed
in some proportionally spaced typeface.
    We store this information in the form of downloadable files and have an
introductory ( help ) file that explains things.
   If your information is already in a spreadsheet form, you might just offer
it as a downloadable file, and let the person downloading it provide their
own spreadsheet program to read it.  Or, you could find a word processing
program that will allow you to import your spreadsheet, and save it as
straight ascii text. That would make translation from one format to the other
very easy.
   Consider what tabular information is really needed, and in what detail. If
 you post summaries of major items, you will cover most people's needs.
Additional information, in printed or electronic spreadsheet form if
necessary, can be sent to those few serious analysts who do not already have
such information.
   
    Pat, I'll send you a copy of one of the files to show you how they look.
It is about 6K, and therefore far too long to post to this list. ( If anyone
else who might not have access to AOL wants to see a sample of how we do
this, I will be happy to send a copy to them to them. Please e-mail me
directly, and not the list, with your requests.)

Paul Jacobson



From owner-online-news-digest@marketplace.com Fri Jul 14 14:17:11 1995
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