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  Chad Zenisek

  • April 10, 2018 19:14

  Yes. Our company uses Wdesk to create a PDF that we send to our transfer agent Computershare for printing and mailing to shareholders. I like this because I can use roughly the same version for EDGAR that I use for print. Here are some things I learned over the past few years:
  

  1. If you use GIF instead of JPG for graphics, then it renders to PDF with less compression artifacts in the graphics.
  2. Use the style sets in Wdesk for consistent layout.
  3. If you request a custom font (e.g. Helvetica Neue) to be made available to you in Wdesk from your CSM, then that will work for your PDF, but your EDGAR version will default back to Times New Roman and there is no way to specify a font to use for print, and a different fallback font for EDGAR (though I wish there was this feature).
  4. There is no way to wrap text around graphics or tables in Wdesk on a proxy (EDGAR limitation), so your overall layout must be necessarily more simple than what you could do in another program.
     

  In my opinion, the money spent on fancy graphics and layouts for a proxy statement would be better spent on more Wdesk licenses to make collaborating on the content easier. Ultimately, it's about the content.
  

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  Lauren Lee

  • April 10, 2018 19:27

  Thanks for the reply, Chad. If you set your font to Helvetica Nueu for the proxy and EDGAR defaults to Times New Roman, does that mean that no formatting adjustments need to be made by you for to create the different versions of the document? Are there any issues with the look of the EDGAR version when it defaults back to Times New Roman?
  
  A few additional questions: Does Computershare have to make formatting changes to your document before printing? Were there cost savings when you switched to using Wdesk/Computershare for your proxy process vs. using a financial printer? Do you prepare the proxy statement or does your legal team or is it a collaboration?

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  Chad Zenisek

  • April 10, 2018 20:14

  The only formatting adjustment I have to make is to remove the header that includes the TOC hyperlink before I save as a PDF. Then I put that header back before I file with EDGAR. There are no unusual formatting issues when it defaults back to Times New Roman.
  
  Computershare makes a couple modest edits to the PDF by inserting a blank page near the beginning and then at the end, but that's it. There are cost savings with using Computershare as the printer, but more valuable to me is that it gives me a couple extra days to work on the proxy, since it cuts down the time for printing and shipment of proxy materials. I am an attorney and I prepare the proxy in collaboration with our financial reporting team and outside counsel at Sidley Austin in Chicago.
  
  I have looked at competitor proxies on EDGAR to compare how they do their layouts. If you view the HTML source of the proxy within your web browser, there will be a comment near the top that says whether it was created with Wdesk or not. That is sometimes helpful when you find a layout that you might want to emulate.
  

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  Lauren Lee

  • April 11, 2018 01:29

  Thank you! I really appreciate the information.

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