will
26fec2fa9d
The guide previously leaned on generic stock photos of strangers for each step, which didn't match reground.org's actual visual identity (color, type, and voice carry the brand everywhere else on the site — no stock imagery appears anywhere but the author's own photo). Removed all stock photos; the only photo left is the real author headshot on the cover and closing page, which also got a real cleanup (tighter crop, better contrast, reduced glasses glare) and a bug fix (it was rendering as an oval instead of a circle since width/height were never equal). Since nothing forces per-step pages anymore, the PDF's h2 sections now flow continuously instead of each getting its own page-break — a short guide with no photos to fill a page reads better as continuous pamphlet-style prose than as a sparse slide-per-page export. Each step keeps a short pull-quote (verbatim line from its own paragraph, styled in the brand blue/teal) for visual rhythm instead. Net effect: 6 pages -> 3 pages, no blank/orphaned space. The pptx keeps one section per slide, since that format is for narrated screen-share recordings where the presenter's voice fills the space a printed page can't. Also rewrote the closing CTA: "Get a Free Strategy Session" was generic coaching-industry boilerplate that could belong to anyone's funnel. The new copy and button use the guide's own vocabulary instead.
95 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
95 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
# Gift Guide
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Source content and build pipeline for "How To Get Your Stories In Front Of The Readers
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Who Need Them" — the lead-magnet PDF given away at reground.org/gift. Kept in its own
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repo because this content changes on its own schedule, independent of the reground-site
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deploys.
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Styled to match reground.org's dark theme (background, heading, and CTA colors are
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pulled directly from that site's CSS).
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## One-time setup
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You need `pandoc` and `weasyprint` on your `PATH`. Both are already used elsewhere on
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this machine; nothing else to install.
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## Building a PDF
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```sh
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make template.pdf # the generic/base version
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make partners/<slug>.pdf # a specific partnership's version
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make # rebuilds template.pdf + every partners/*.md that exists
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make clean # removes generated PDFs (never touches the .md sources)
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```
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`make` finds the source `.md` file automatically from the `.pdf` name you ask for, so
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building any filled-in template is just naming the PDF you want.
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## Building slides
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For recording a screen-share walkthrough of the guide, the same markdown builds
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a PowerPoint deck instead of a PDF:
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```sh
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make template.pptx # slide deck for the base version
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make partners/<slug>.pptx # a specific partnership's deck
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make slides # template.pptx + every partners/*.pptx
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```
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Pandoc turns each `##` heading into its own slide. The PDF no longer mirrors
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this one-section-per-page layout — since the guide has no per-step photography
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to fill a page, its sections flow together into continuous pages instead
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(see Notes below). The slide deck keeps one section per slide on purpose: it's
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built for a narrated screen-share, where your voice fills the space a printed
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page can't. If you want scripted talking points per slide, add a
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`::: notes` ... `:::` fenced div under a heading — pandoc exports those as
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speaker notes rather than slide body text.
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Pandoc's pptx writer doesn't read `style.css` (pptx isn't HTML-based), so the
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slide theme instead comes from `reference.pptx` — a PowerPoint file whose
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slide master carries the colors and fonts, built once by hand-editing its
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theme XML to mirror `style.css`'s dark background, heading blue, body text,
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and accent colors, plus Roboto/Open Sans fonts. Edit it in PowerPoint/Keynote/
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Google Slides (or its `ppt/theme/theme1.xml` and
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`ppt/slideMasters/slideMaster1.xml` directly) if the slide theme ever needs to
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diverge from or resync with the PDF's.
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## Starting a new partnership
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```sh
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cp template.md partners/<slug>.md
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```
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Edit the new file's title (front matter) and rewrite the opening/closing copy to bridge
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your angle with the partner's audience — the 3 Step sections and their pull-quotes are
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generally reusable as-is. Then:
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```sh
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make partners/<slug>.pdf
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```
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## Notes
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- `images/author-photo.jpg` is the only photo in the guide, used on the cover and
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closing page. The guide deliberately doesn't use stock photography anywhere else —
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matching reground.org, which carries its identity through color, type, and voice
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rather than illustrative imagery. Each Step section instead gets a `.pull-quote`
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div (see `style.css`) pulling one line verbatim from that section's own paragraph,
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which gives the page visual rhythm without adding a picture.
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- The PDF's `h2` sections flow continuously (no forced page break) since there's no
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photo to justify each Step having its own page. Only the cover and the closing CTA
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force their own page break — a short guide with unbroken flow reads like a real
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pamphlet rather than a slide deck exported to PDF.
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- `template.html` renders the cover (title + byline + author photo) from the document's
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YAML front matter — you don't need to hand-write that part in the body of each `.md`
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file, just update the front matter.
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- `style.css` is the single source of truth for the visual theme. Edit it once and
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`make all` rebuilds every partner PDF with the change.
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- The closing block's `:::: {.closing .columns}` / `::: {.column} :::` structure
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matters for slides: pandoc's pptx writer silently drops an image if it shares a
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plain div with paragraph text, but keeps it in a two-column div. `.closing .column`
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in `style.css` flattens those columns back to a centered stack for the PDF, so the
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printed page looks the same as before. Keep that structure when editing the
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closing copy — a plain `::: {.closing}` div will make the author photo disappear
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from the slide deck.
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