How do you store your information?

[Gordon McLean]

We use structured FrameMaker. We have a mature EDD, we are happy with the
way things are.
 
But it's not really any closer to single source, or modular documentation,
as we still have the content stored in .FM files and organised in books.
However, trying to find out the best way to store the documentation, so it
will be properly modular, is proving tricky (of course, it may just be my
interpretation and understanding that is lacking).
 
Does anyone store their content in a database? Or as XML? How re-usable is
your solution?
 
We have a lot of similar areas of our product, and I want to make the best
use of the existing content but at present it's still a lot of cut-n-paste
which is not good. 
 
Where am I going wrong?
 
Gordon 
 
__
Publications Team
Tel: 01415334164
 


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views represented
within this mail are solely the view of the author and do not reflect the views 
of the organisation
as a whole.

Graham Technology plc
Registered in Scotland company no. SC143434
Registered Office India of Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, Scotland PA4 9LH

http://www.grahamtechnology.com

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Re: How do you store your information?

[Yves Barbion]

Hi Gordon,

you want to take a look at DITA:

- http://dita.xml.org/

- http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita1/index.html

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DITA

- http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/framemaker_ap/

Best regards

--
Yves Barbion
Documentation Architect
Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor

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Re: Distiller 8 PDF job options not showing in FrameMaker

[Bill Swallow]

I've just upgraded to v.8 and even with this additional step I still
cannot seem to get my custom job options to appear when using Save As
from FM 7.2.

Anyone else have major issues with getting FM 7.2 and Acro8 working together?

On 1/12/07, Smith, Terry [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

As has been reported by Adobe, FrameMaker 7 cannot find any custom job
options you create unless you copy the job options to the old default
folder instead of the new one Adobe Distiller uses (see
http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/333453.html in the Adobe Support
database).

* (Additional step needed) However, if you select FilePrintPDF Setup
button, the your custom job options will *not* appear in the PDF Job
Options field. To correct this, you must copy your job options file (for
example, name.joboptions) to a second location:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\Settings


--
Bill Swallow
HATT List Owner
WWP-Users List Owner
Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
STC Single-Sourcing SIG Manager
http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
avid homebrewer and proud beer snob
I see your OOO message and raise you a clue.
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Re: Distiller 8 PDF job options not showing in FrameMaker

[Bill Swallow]

We figured it out... needed to allow write access to C:\Documents and
Settings\All Users\Documents\Adobe PDF\Extras and drop them in there.

On 2/26/07, Bill Swallow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

I've just upgraded to v.8 and even with this additional step I still
cannot seem to get my custom job options to appear when using Save As
from FM 7.2.

Anyone else have major issues with getting FM 7.2 and Acro8 working together?


--
Bill Swallow
HATT List Owner
WWP-Users List Owner
Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
STC Single-Sourcing SIG Manager
http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
avid homebrewer and proud beer snob
I see your OOO message and raise you a clue.
___


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Re: Distiller 8 PDF job options not showing in FrameMaker

[Bill Swallow]

Make that the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\Adobe\Adobe PDF\Settings folder. Sorry, I copied/pasted from the
wrong Explorer window.

On 2/26/07, Bill Swallow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

We figured it out... needed to allow write access to C:\Documents and
Settings\All Users\Documents\Adobe PDF\Extras and drop them in there.


--
Bill Swallow
HATT List Owner
WWP-Users List Owner
Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
STC Single-Sourcing SIG Manager
http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
avid homebrewer and proud beer snob
I see your OOO message and raise you a clue.
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PDF is portrait instead of landscape

[Nantel, Elise]

Hello,

On my new computer (running XP), I installed Acrobat 7.0 (an upgrade from 5.0); 
my FM version is 7.0. I'm having the following problem:

I have a 2-page landscape document. When I print to file with the Adobe PDF 
printer, the result is a portrait file! The content is entirely displayed on 
the page, but rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise! My colleagues, who are 
running Acrobat 8 and 7, do not have this problem. I didn't have this behavior 
with Acrobat 5.0.

If I rotate the page in Acrobat then prints it, the result is a truncated 
portrait file.

When I choose FilePrint in FM, then select Setup for Adobe PDF, the 
orientation says Portrait the first time, then Landscape after a first print 
operation.

I looked on the web and found out that this problem used to happen with older 
Distiller and FM versions. I'm almost convinced that there's a conflict with 
other software on my computer (by the way, I can't use Acrobat 8 because 
pressing Ctrl+P closes the application :-(

Does it ring a bell to anyone?

Please answer me directly because I'm on the digest.

Thanks!
---
Elise Nantel
Rédactrice technique/Technical Writer
Verint Systems Inc.
Phone 450 686-9000 x252
Email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.verint.com

__
This electronic message may contain proprietary and confidential information of 
Verint Systems Inc., its affiliates and/or subsidiaries.
The information is intended to be for the use of the individual(s) or
entity(ies) named above.  If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized 
to receive this e-mail for the intended recipient), you may not use, copy, 
disclose or distribute to anyone this message or any information contained in 
this message.  If you have received this electronic message in error, please 
notify us by replying to this e-mail. (2)
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Re: prevent click zoom in acrobat and reader

[Shlomo Perets]

Further to my earlier reply:

A new option introduced in Acrobat/Reader 8.0 lets you disable the 
activation of article threads when you click with the Hand tool:


Edit  Preferences, General, Basic Tools, turn off the Make Hand tool read 
articles option.




Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006
To: Jon Harvey [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: Shlomo Perets [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: prevent click zoom in acrobat and reader
Cc: Framers@FrameUsers.com

Jon,

You wrote:


One thing that drives me crazy about acrobat and reader is that I get so
many PDF files that zoom in whenever I click in the document window. It
also happens on my own docs that I create. Is there a way to prevent
this from happening? I looked in the acrobat 7.0 pro Help and it only
mentions the zoom toolbar. This occurs without even having the toolbar
open.

How do I prevent docs from zooming in when I click on them?


If you see the down-pointing arrow inside the hand cursor, then this is 
the Article feature. Very often article threads are present in PDFs as a 
result of default settings, and cause more problems than the limited 
benefits they may offer if defined correctly --  see 
http://www.microtype.com/Hmmms.html#0406 (Help! Acrobat article threads!).
[ The limited functionality of articles in Acrobat was made even more 
limited in Acrobat/Reader 7 by the new preference of Enable text 
selection for the Hand tool ]


To prevent articles from being created in PDFs, turn off Articles in the 
Bookmarks tab in FrameMaker's PDF Setup dialog box.


If the article thread is already present in the PDF, you can delete using 
the Article tool in Acrobat.



Shlomo Perets

MicroType, http://www.microtype.com * ToolbarPlus Express for FrameMaker
FrameMaker/Acrobat training  consulting * FrameMaker-to-Acrobat 
TimeSavers/Assistants

Template Design, Single Sourcing, FM-to-PDF  Technical Indexing seminars




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Third-party or "out of the box" plugins [was "re:

[Peter Ring]

With a bit of duct-tape, Excel worksheets, and Python scripts, the 
future is now. We use 'out-of-band' index entries to produce 
back-of-the-book indexes.

The index is authored separately from the body text, using simple Excel 
worksheets as the exchange format, and associated to the body text 
through section numbers or similar identifiers. A script translates the 
index terms and a list of section numbers vs. page numbers into MIF, 
from which FrameMaker generates a beautiful index.

The index terms in the Excel worksheet actually correspond to DocBook 
indexterms (i.e., easy to repurpose). We tried using FrameMaker's 
DocBook application, but the translation to index markers is quite 
buggy, so MIF was the easiest way forward.

Well, the point of this is that wrt. the semantic part of it, we rely on 
completely general tools and formats, and wrt. integration with 
FrameMaker, we rely on MIF and generated lists (to extract section 
numbers vs. page numbers). The process is driven by a Makefile. Better 
FrameMaker scripting would be welcome, but DZbatcher [1] goes a long way
when you want to drive the process no-hands.

Kind regards
Peter Ring

[1] http://www.datazone.com/dzbatcher2.html


mcarr at allette.com.au wrote:
> Eric Dunn wrote:
> 
>> Now what exactly is the difference between "hunt and peck" and "drill".
> 
> Drilling through a graphical user interface would involve pointing at hot
> spots to get to the subsystem of interest, then working from a list of
> commonly required process - Servicing, Repair Procedures, etc. Hunt and
> peck would involve someone typing into a search form on a keyboard. Is
> that really your question, or are you asking what the advantages are of
> each?
> 
>> And how is a toughened and oil covered touch-screen and more elegant than
>> a toughened keyboard? It's poor form to use derogatory terminology for one
>> option we don't support and positive terminology for the one we do. The
>> statements also unveil a certain snobbery of IT superiority by denigrating
>> those that work in other fields. Denigrate anything linked to the awful
>> old hands-on industry and try to enlighten it with beautiful IT derived
>> terms and symbology.
> 
> My apologies if it sounds like snobbery - it was not intended to. When I
> was young I spent 7 years on an assembly line (http://www.travelaire.com/)
> and a year digging ditches (sorry, no URL). When I leave IT, my next
> career will be much more hands-on - I like factories and equipment. I
> accept that it may have sounded like snobbery, but I don't think it was,
> really.
> 
> As for whether a touch-screen is more elegant than a toughened keyboard,
> frankly, you're missing the point. I don't know or care what the devices
> will look like in ten years, but the discussion isn't predicated on that.
> It's the data and the ways of accessing it efficiently that we're talking
> about.
> 
>> Drop the prejudice against indices as a hardcopy only issue and recognise
>> that index information is useful metadata, regardless of how it is
>> ultimately searched and presented.
> 
> I don't think you've been reading this discussion properly and given your
> tone, I'm not inclined to explain it again. I haven't been advocating the
> abolition of indexes, I have been noting that an index is most useful when
> it has been created based on the view of the data that the user will see.
> As the trends toward syndication and purpose-driven republishing of
> components increases, conventional indexing tools begin to show a
> weakness, as there is no "final" view of a document. How do you decide
> whether to direct a user to an occurrence of a term in one fragment or
> another when you don't know which fragments may ultimately be combined, or
> whether this fragment will be combined with an as yet unknown and
> altogether different publication? Obviously, you cannot know how best to
> index a publication that does not yet exist.
> 
> Alternate ways of collecting and presenting metadata are precisely what I
> was arguing is necessary. My point was that metadata organisation and
> presentation has to be carried out *after* the publication has been
> assembled. If you want to pull those derived publications into FrameMaker
> and index them with an improved version of what FrameMaker already offers,
> well, knock yourself out. Most organisations will be looking to replace
> you with software though, and Adobe will presumably be only too keen to
> facilitate them.
> 
> 
> Marcus Carr
> ___
> 
> 
> You are currently subscribed to Framers as pri at ddf.dk.
> 
> Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
> 
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> framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
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> 
> Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
> http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
> 

How do you store your information?

[Gordon McLean]

We use structured FrameMaker. We have a mature EDD, we are happy with the
way things are.

But it's not really any closer to single source, or modular documentation,
as we still have the content stored in .FM files and organised in books.
However, trying to find out the best way to store the documentation, so it
will be properly modular, is proving tricky (of course, it may just be my
interpretation and understanding that is lacking).

Does anyone store their content in a database? Or as XML? How re-usable is
your solution?

We have a lot of similar areas of our product, and I want to make the best
use of the existing content but at present it's still a lot of cut-n-paste
which is not good. 

Where am I going wrong?

Gordon 

__
Publications Team
Tel: 01415334164



This email (and any attachments) is private and confidential, and is intended 
solely for the
addressee. If you have received this communication in error please remove it 
and inform us via
telephone or email. Although we take all possible steps to ensure mail and 
attachments
are free from malicious content, malware and viruses, we cannot accept any 
responsibility
whatsoever for any changes to content outwith our administrative bounds. The 
views represented
within this mail are solely the view of the author and do not reflect the views 
of the organisation
as a whole.

Graham Technology plc
Registered in Scotland company no. SC143434
Registered Office India of Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, Scotland PA4 9LH

http://www.grahamtechnology.com

How do you store your information?

[Yves Barbion]

Hi Gordon,

you want to take a look at DITA:

- http://dita.xml.org/

- http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita1/index.html

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DITA

- http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/framemaker_ap/

Best regards

-- 
Yves Barbion
Documentation Architect
Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor

How do you store your information?

[Gordon McLean]

Thanks Yves, I'm well aware of DITA.

So let's take a step forward. Let's presume I have all my content properly
chunked. What then? Is it living on a file system? How do I work with it in
FrameMaker, do I NEED FrameMaker? Do I pull content from a database? I'm not
worried about the low-level technical details of XML, DITA and so on. I'm
learning those, and will understand them better as time goes on. 

When I first looked at DITA I suggested that one big stumbling block would
be the lack of "ease-into-ability" that switching to that kind of system
would imply. Any subsequent discussions along these lines veers between the
business reasons of WHY you would want to go down the single source route,
or heads off into techie-land discussing the details of how you get it done
at an XML level. Surely we are missing a level in-between?

Or, again, is it just me? 

Yes, I know why my current situation suggests single source is something we
need to be embracing. 
Yes I know that DITA is the upcoming player in this space. 
Yes, we already have an EDD but the content is still stored in FM. 
Yes, I know I have some work converting things to use DITA as the basis of
the structure.

I guess what I'm asking for is an inbetween message that says something
like: You should save all your files to XML, store them in a database (we
suggest product XYZ), then use FrameMaker and...??? to build books and
generate PDFs as you normally would.

I've used AuthorIT in the past, and that level of re-use is simple and
efficient, would I be better switching products?? Is there really not any
FrameMaker based solution that can match it? 

Or does this information simply not yet exist? If not, then I'm curious as
to how everyone is managing their content.

Yours, still somewhat befuddled,

Gordon


  _  

From: Yves Barbion [mailto:yves.barb...@gmail.com] 
Sent: 26 February 2007 13:40
To: Gordon McLean
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Re: How do you store your information?


Hi Gordon,

you want to take a look at DITA:

- http://dita.xml.org/

- http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-dita1/index.html
 

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DITA

- http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/framemaker_ap/

Best regards

-- 
Yves Barbion 
Documentation Architect
Adobe-Certified FrameMaker Instructor
 


This email (and any attachments) is private and confidential, and is intended 
solely for the
addressee. If you have received this communication in error please remove it 
and inform us via
telephone or email. Although we take all possible steps to ensure mail and 
attachments
are free from malicious content, malware and viruses, we cannot accept any 
responsibility
whatsoever for any changes to content outwith our administrative bounds. The 
views represented
within this mail are solely the view of the author and do not reflect the views 
of the organisation
as a whole.

Graham Technology plc
Registered in Scotland company no. SC143434
Registered Office India of Inchinnan, Renfrewshire, Scotland PA4 9LH

http://www.grahamtechnology.com

Distiller 8 PDF job options not showing in FrameMaker

[Bill Swallow]

I've just upgraded to v.8 and even with this additional step I still
cannot seem to get my custom job options to appear when using Save As
from FM 7.2.

Anyone else have major issues with getting FM 7.2 and Acro8 working together?

On 1/12/07, Smith, Terry  wrote:
> As has been reported by Adobe, FrameMaker 7 cannot find any custom job
> options you create unless you copy the job options to the old default
> folder instead of the new one Adobe Distiller uses (see
> http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/333453.html in the Adobe Support
> database).
>
> * (Additional step needed) However, if you select File>Print>PDF Setup
> button, the your custom job options will *not* appear in the PDF Job
> Options field. To correct this, you must copy your job options file (for
> example, .joboptions) to a second location:
> C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\Settings

-- 
Bill Swallow
HATT List Owner
WWP-Users List Owner
Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
STC Single-Sourcing SIG Manager
http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
avid homebrewer and proud beer snob
"I see your OOO message and raise you a clue."

Distiller 8 PDF job options not showing in FrameMaker

[Bill Swallow]

We figured it out... needed to allow write access to C:\Documents and
Settings\All Users\Documents\Adobe PDF\Extras and drop them in there.

On 2/26/07, Bill Swallow  wrote:
> I've just upgraded to v.8 and even with this additional step I still
> cannot seem to get my custom job options to appear when using Save As
> from FM 7.2.
>
> Anyone else have major issues with getting FM 7.2 and Acro8 working together?

-- 
Bill Swallow
HATT List Owner
WWP-Users List Owner
Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
STC Single-Sourcing SIG Manager
http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
avid homebrewer and proud beer snob
"I see your OOO message and raise you a clue."

PDF is portrait instead of landscape

[Nantel, Elise]

Hello,

On my new computer (running XP), I installed Acrobat 7.0 (an upgrade from 5.0); 
my FM version is 7.0. I'm having the following problem:

I have a 2-page landscape document. When I print to file with the Adobe PDF 
printer, the result is a portrait file! The content is entirely displayed on 
the page, but rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise! My colleagues, who are 
running Acrobat 8 and 7, do not have this problem. I didn't have this behavior 
with Acrobat 5.0.

If I rotate the page in Acrobat then prints it, the result is a truncated 
portrait file.

When I choose File>Print in FM, then select Setup for Adobe PDF, the 
orientation says Portrait the first time, then Landscape after a first print 
operation.

I looked on the web and found out that this problem used to happen with older 
Distiller and FM versions. I'm almost convinced that there's a conflict with 
other software on my computer (by the way, I can't use Acrobat 8 because 
pressing Ctrl+P closes the application :-(

Does it ring a bell to anyone?

Please answer me directly because I'm on the digest.

Thanks!
---
Elise Nantel
R?dactrice technique/Technical Writer
Verint Systems Inc.
Phone 450 686-9000 x252
Email elise.nantel at verint.com
www.verint.com

__
This electronic message may contain proprietary and confidential information of 
Verint Systems Inc., its affiliates and/or subsidiaries.
The information is intended to be for the use of the individual(s) or
entity(ies) named above.  If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized 
to receive this e-mail for the intended recipient), you may not use, copy, 
disclose or distribute to anyone this message or any information contained in 
this message.  If you have received this electronic message in error, please 
notify us by replying to this e-mail. (2)