Set the table

The key is to have a few family members pitch in. To get your newsletter started, you'll need to create the heart of it -- a document -- that everyone can read and add to. There are word processing programs online that give everyone in a group access so you and family members can add a recipe here, tack on a photo there, etc. Access is password-protected and invitation-only (unless you choose to post your document publicly), so strangers won't stumble across your heirloom-in-the-making.

These Web applications have most of the same formatting tricks as Microsoft Word, but they exist online, not on your computer. Students and businesspeople use Web word processors all the time to work on projects jointly. Because these applications save your work as you go, if something gets fouled up, you can check previous versions of the document. Handy.

Writing and editing online do have their drawbacks. Online word processors take a couple of seconds longer to open and save big documents than does the word processor on your computer. Also, if a lot of users are on the site at the same time, you'll be slowed down further, but we're talking a matter of seconds, not minutes. Once the document is open, it's a breeze to type, backspace and add bullets and other formatting. (You can create a table, for instance, to make a seating chart.) With these programs, you'll start out by typing in an editing window, but to see how the finished product will look, you'll have to hit the preview button within the program.

Bring out the ingredients

Open a free account at ThinkFree (thinkfree.com), Zoho (zoho.com) or Google Docs (docs.google.com), then create your word processing document. Next, e-mail the folks who will be pitching in, so they can have the password to edit the document, too. If they aren't comfortable working online, they can create a Microsoft Word document on their Macs or PCs, then use ThinkFree Writer to open those files. Whoosh, your aunt in Arizona just added her sweet potato pie recipe. Zing, your cousin in Connecticut just added a link to her online photo gallery of the twins.