Bug: em space in variable in FrameMaker 8

[Reng, Dr. Winfried]

Hi,

In my header I have a variable which also contains an
em space. I notice that in FrameMaker 8 in files in
FrameMaker 7 format this em space is replaced by ? on
body pages. In the variable definition only a thick
vertical bar is shown instead of my em space.
(In FrameMaker 7 this was displayed correctly as: \sm)
When I replace this bar with \sm the em space, in the
definition is still a thick vertical bar, but in the
header of this file and in all files into which I
import the variable definitions, the em space is
displayed correctly.

However, after some other changes the em space is replaced
again by a ?. I did not test this thoroughly enough to
know when the em space is replaced again by a ?. I guess
it's something like import of page layout or variables or
something like that.

Best regards

Winfried
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RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Rene Stephenson]

One workable solution is to let the TW teleconference into the meeting, 
regardless of whether the TW is in cubicle or offsite. Then, the TW can keep 
their end on mute and listen for useful tidbits while making use of the time 
most effectively. That has worked very well for me at several companies, 
including my current one. If for whatever reason I have to be IN the conference 
room for a meeting that I know will only be partially relevant, I take my 
laptop along, sit at an angle to the rest of the group, have one window open 
for notetaking, and work in FM in a pane beside my notetaking window.
   
  My 2¢
  Rene Stephenson

Chris Borokowski [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
  You really hit the nail on the head. Meetings are brain-sapping enough
when important information is actually being conveyed, but most people
who are on the CC: list for meetings are being given a free hourlong
zone-out. Keep the poor TWs out of the unnecessary meetings, or they'll
become office shooters. Instead, put them to use in usability
(currently dominated by glorified photoshop jockeys in too many places)
or another capacity suited to their abilities.

--- Leslie Schwartz wrote:

 My view and experience is that it definitely helps to get the TW
 involved early on, but it’s a waste of time for them to sit all the
 way through each meeting, and for the entire duration of each
 meeting.


http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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Re: FM Book to PDF issue

[Art Campbell]

Try turning Tagged PDF ON in your settings, and make sure that all
files are open on your desktop.

Also, SaveAs may not be the best way to generate it. I would Print to
the PDF logical  printer...

Art

On 10/29/07, Gutierrez, Dorianne [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I cannot generate a PDF from a FrameMaker 8.0 book, although I can PDF
 the individual files with or without bookmarks. I am using Windows
 Vista, Adobe Acrobat 8.0, Distiller 8.0, and I set the printer to Adobe
 PDF before saving as PDF. The distiller tries the first file in the
 book, then chokes. Any suggestions?

 Thanks,
 Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez
 Senior Technical Writer
 Polaris Library Systems
 PO Box 4903
 Syracuse NY 13221-4903
 (direct) 315-634-4519
 800-272-3414
 http://www.polarislibrary.com
 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

-- 
Art Campbell [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  ... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent
   and a redheaded girl. -- Richard Thompson
 No disclaimers apply.
 DoD 358
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RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Technical Writer]

The experience of one person, or even a handful, do not in any way negate an 
obvious and growing trend in the software industry--directly related to agile 
development--to consider TW involvement as pointless until the final iteration. 
 
Yes, there are organizations that still do business as they did 20 or 30 years 
ago, just as there are still organizations using COBOL, SNOBOL, and other odd 
applications. If their system works, more power to them, and to the TWs they 
employ.
 
The difference is in whether or not the organization is developing software, or 
creating an application that implements the vision of a handful of movers and 
shakers at the top. That handful can do as they please, whether or not it is of 
long-term benefit to the organization. For software developed in a competitive 
marketplace, the role of the TW is rapidly changing to a diminished involvement.
 
http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and 
Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites


From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]: RE: radical 
revamping of techpubsDate: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:14:18 -0500






This may be your experience, in my experience in fact there is no IF about it, 
I just put it that way to be gentile.
 
Our documents pre-sage multi-mullion dollar contracts (at each stage of the 
project) and there is always plenty of fuzzy concepts to go around at the early 
stages. No documents, no contracts. 
 
TWs and in particular the directors, managers are involved at these stages. 
Documentation is a 100% necessary adjunct to business development from the 
outset.
 


From: Technical Writer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 
8:29 PMTo: Leslie H Schwartz; [EMAIL PROTECTED]: RE: radical revamping of 
techpubs
 
That is a very big if. A full partner participant-stakeholder, or more likely 
the department manager? It is more likely that the software developers, 
business analysts, and the project manager are collaborating to get a decent 
set of requirements down. At that stage, TWs have no place, whether department 
managers, full partner participant-stakeholders, or something else. When the 
requirements are determined, and possibly after several iterations, possibly 
after a prototype is up and running, TWs might be brought in. Even at that 
stage, it is early, because the GUI crew may not have the interface coded, the 
developers might not have the functionality carved in stone, and everything is 
still uncertain (in regards to exactly what the final product will be and do). 
TWs complete a very necessary task; creating user assistance. Until the final 
iteration, until all the requirements have been met, until there is little or 
no possibility of changes to the end product, there is little point in 
generating documentation that might become obsolete at the next iteration. 
http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and 
Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites



Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:26:46 -0700From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: radical 
revamping of techpubsTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: framers@lists.frameusers.com


Actually, I disagee, if the TW is a full partner participant - stakeholder, or 
more likely the department manager in the scenario you are discussing, they 
should also participate early on to get the sense of the uncertainty and what 
those issues are, at the very least these issues are going to affect their 
scheduling and the expectations they have to deal with.

- Original Message From: Technical Writer [EMAIL PROTECTED]To: Leslie 
Schwartz [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Monday, October 29, 2007 
8:44:16 AMSubject: RE: radical revamping of techpubsI agree wholeheartedly. 
That is not the issue. The issue goes back to the BA interpretation of (and 
translation of) the software requirements. If there is a high level of 
certainty on the client side about what the finished product should be, TWs 
should start early. If not, and it is essentially a fishing expedition with 
ambiguous outcome, TWs are only useful at the last. Unfortunately, the agile 
methodologies strongly sell the sense of control to executives, pushing the 
idea that they can develop on the fly, adding and removing requirements as 
the executives see fit. http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, 
Development, and Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - 
Enterprise Websites From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL 
PROTECTED]; framers@lists.frameusers.com Subject: RE: radical revamping of 
techpubs Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:04:10 -0500  I belong to several message 
- interest groups and I am used to hearing people give their opinions in a 
bombastic manner. So its no big deal to see that happening here. But if this 
discussion is to have any real value it will be to share our perspectives with 
others and learn something 

RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Technical Writer]

I did not categorically state that TWs have no place at any point in a project. 
To so state is misleading, and implies that I said TWs are useless. I said that 
in an ambiguous, undefined software project (which many, including 
multi-million dollar, tend to be), it is pointless to create documentation of 
an application that may--and probably will--change at the next iteration.
 
The fault is not with TWs; the fault is with agile developers who cater to the 
egos of senior management, charging dearly to maintain the illusion that 
management can have whatever toy they happen to think of, at anytime in the 
development process. Because that type of development is becoming more and more 
mainstream, it seriously affects TWs. 
 
From the standpoint of an agile developer, it all pays the same. What is 
presented as control and involvement to management is a ploy to curry 
favor and extend the development period. It is immensely profitable, and 
management, in general, seems to believe the almost obsequious demeanor of 
agile developers preferable to the old-style you can't have this even if you 
are the CEO, because it was not filed in triplicate as an initial requirement.
 
Ultimately, the situation is a response to the developer as hostage holder 
mentality that considered management as only useful to pay the bills. 
Management wants (at least the illusion of) control, and agile developers have 
learned to play to that weakness. In so doing, they are diminishing the role of 
TWs. Pretty simple stuff, not particularly my opinion, nor representative of 
one or three cases of personal involvement in projects. Like it or not, it is 
the future.
 
 
http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and 
Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites


Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:46:00 -0700From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: RE: radical 
revamping of techpubsTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 
framers@lists.frameusers.com
TW dept managers or directors in particular do have a place in developmental 
stages. They provide user advocacy in the initial stages, when the development 
is most nebulous, providing direction and focus toward the common goal of the 
team: happy customers who like the product and want to buy more. From the TW 
perspective, the TW mgr/dir gathers info about headcount impact, resource 
allocation dynamics, etc.  
 
You simply cannot categorically state that TWs have no place at any point in a 
project, because there are too many successful use cases that prove to the 
contrary, at least 3 of my previous gigs being examples thereof.  It depends on 
the pace of development and the length of the product life cycle, among other 
things. The faster the products develop and the shorter the product life cycle 
is, the more critical it is to have TW integration at the earliest phase.
 
Creating user assistance is indeed a necessary task, but it is only one of many 
that TWs perform. User advocacy — getting the user expectations back up the 
chain into the ears of those who can impact what the users end up getting — is 
at least as important as the more common task of user assistance. If all the 
user needs is assistance, they'll just ring off the hook with tech support or 
customer service. User advocacy ensures higher quality products that lower call 
volume to tech support and customer service. Writing good, usable Help in terms 
that the user understands is another way to drop the call volume. But, rely on 
either without the other and you don't reap the maximum benefit of TW staff.
 
Rene StephensonTechnical Writer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
That is a very big if. A full partner participant-stakeholder, or more likely 
the department manager? It is more likely that the software developers, 
business analysts, and the project manager are collaborating to get a decent 
set of requirements down. At that stage, TWs have no place, whether department 
managers, full partner participant-stakeholders, or something else.When the 
requirements are determined, and possibly after several iterations, possibly 
after a prototype is up and running, TWs might be brought in. Even at that 
stage, it is early, because the GUI crew may not have the interface coded, the 
developers might not have the functionality carved in stone, and everything is 
still uncertain (in regards to exactly what the final product will be and 
do).TWs complete a very necessary task; creating user assistance. Until the 
final iteration, until all the requirements have been met, until there is 
little or no possibility of changes to the end product, there is little point 
in generating documentation that might become obsolete at the next 
iteration.http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and 
Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise 
WebsitesDate: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:26:46 -0700From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: 
radical revamping of techpubsTo: [EMAIL 

RE: Spacing table footnotes

[TEPLITZ Ronald]

Diane, 

For space between tables and footnotes, create a graphic frame on your
reference page. When prompted for a name, call it TableFootnote. The
height of the frame determines the space between the bottom of the table
and the top of the footnote area. 

Ron

--

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:20:41 -0400
From: Diane Schaefer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Spacing table footnotes
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Message-ID:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Content-Type: text/plain;   charset=us-ascii

Hello,

 

I have several tables in my document that contain footnotes, and I
haven't been able to figure out .how to create a space between the table
and the footnote so that the footnote doesn't touch the table. (I'm
using FrameMaker 7.2.) Could someone please help me?



Also, I noticed that one of my table footnotes consistently made my
document crash when generating a PDF file and wondered whether this is a
FrameMaker bug. The footnote in question was for a conditional row in
the table and contained a cross-reference to another file (which isn't
included in the document in question). I recreated the table, which
contains several conditional rows, some of which also contain
conditional text. The PDF generation crashed every time, until I deleted
the footnote.

 

TIA,

Diane

 

Diane Schaefer

Senior Technical Writer

Sandvine Technologies Ltd.

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

tel. 972-2-540-090, ext. 125
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RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

Luckily, that isn't all they do. Many are employed writing policies and
procedures and internal business documentation. Any function that
requires explaining concepts understood within a certain skill set that
is a minority role in a company is a TW role.

Personally, I find it hard to separate the different roles. A
well-organized business produces a well-organized product, which can
then be easily introduced to the user. If a TW is able to give that
feedback during development, and make the product better, the doc gets
simpler and bottom line goes up. This is why I see the role of TWs as
expanding, not decreasing, in the future.

--- Technical Writer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 TWs complete a very necessary task; creating user assistance. Until
 the final iteration, until all the requirements have been met, until
 there is little or no possibility of changes to the end product,
 there is little point in generating documentation that might become
 obsolete at the next iteration.


http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

For any project that size, won't it take some months for it to
complete, as it will for the docs to be done, which means that the TW
is first going to be assembling information and writing known parts of
the doc, and then expanding to write as parts of the software become
formalized?

--- Technical Writer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 I said that in an ambiguous, undefined software project
 (which many, including multi-million dollar, tend to be), it is
 pointless to create documentation of an application that may--and
 probably will--change at the next iteration.


http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Rene Stephenson]

I neither inferred nor implied that you say TWs have no place at any  point in 
a project. You did, however, clearly state that in response to  comments about 
involvement of TW or doc mgr early in the product  development, At that stage, 
TWs have no place, whether department  managers, full partner 
participant-stakeholders, or something else. 
  
  Your assumption is that if a TW is involved, it is for the purpose of  
creating a document. While it is often true that creating documents  early in 
product development simply creates files to obsolete/trash due  to sidelined 
ideas, you are completely missing the intent. The  involvement of TW/doc mgr 
early on is not initially for writing the doc  as muc as it is for user 
advocacy, sanity checks of UIS or other specs  from a user-driven perspective, 
as well as getting buy-in and resource  allocation far enough in advance that 
creating a remotely usable  document is at all feasible. The later the TW is 
inserted into the  process, the harder it is to create anything better than 
basic  functionally-driven documents. Several others have echoed this same  
point, and it is well-documented. It's not just a one or three personal  
experience basis. There are a lot more use cases out there - a survey  of books 
from leaders in our industry like Hackos and others clearly  reveals
 this. Look also at the breadth of comments in response from  other listers 
here, too.
  
  FWIW, *all* of the companies where I worked and where TWs were involved  
early on in the product life cycle, Agile is the software used for  managing 
product development. Having a doc listed by part number on the  BOM of a 
product (and in the case of Help, as a part number for the  software build 
list) ensured earlier integration of TWs and ultimately  produced higher 
quality documents. Use of Agile and early involvement  of TW resources are not 
mutually exclusive. Now, whether some companies  using Agile as the governance 
of product life cycle choose to use that  as an *excuse* NOT to include TWs 
until late in the game may be your  personal experience, but that does not 
necessarily mean it's the way of  the future, or that Agile implementation 
would be causal to the effect  of late involvement of writers. Bringing in a 
hired gun writer late  in the project as almost an afterthought is a trend, 
yes, but it has a  lot more to do with the bottom line (dollars, pounds,
 euros, yens,  etc.) than it does with whether the company uses Agile. If there 
aren't  multiple products with ongoing development and overlapping product life 
 cycles, it's simply cheaper to pay a contractor twice as much for a  couple of 
months than keep writers on staff longterm in some industries  and/or RD 
environments, depending on the company dynamics, market  forces, and product 
life cycles.
  
  Rene Stephenson
  

Technical Writer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:.hmmessage P  {  margin:0px; 
 padding:0px  }  body.hmmessage  {  FONT-SIZE: 10pt;  FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma  }
I did not categorically state that TWs have no place at any point in a  
project. To so state is misleading, and implies that I said TWs are  useless. I 
said that in an ambiguous, undefined software project  (which many, including 
multi-million dollar, tend to be), it is  pointless to create documentation of 
an application that may--and  probably will--change at the next iteration.
   
 The fault  is not with TWs; the fault is with agile developers who cater to 
the  egos of senior management, charging dearly to maintain the illusion  that 
management can have whatever toy they happen to think of, at  anytime in the 
development process. Because that type of development is  becoming more and 
more mainstream, it seriously affects TWs. 
   
  From the standpoint of an agile developer, it all pays the same. What  is 
presented as control and involvement to management is a ploy to  curry 
favor and extend the development period. It is immensely  profitable, and 
management, in general, seems to believe the almost  obsequious demeanor of 
agile developers preferable to the old-style  you can't have this even if you 
are the CEO, because it was not filed  in triplicate as an initial requirement.
   
 Ultimately,  the situation is a response to the developer as hostage holder  
mentality that considered management as only useful to pay the bills.  
Management wants (at least the illusion of) control, and agile  developers have 
learned to play to that weakness. In so doing, they are  diminishing the role 
of TWs. Pretty simple stuff, not particularly my  opinion, nor representative 
of one or three cases of personal  involvement in projects. Like it or not, it 
is the future.
   
   
  

http://www.tekwrytrs.com/
Specializing in the Design, Development, and Production of:
Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites



-
  Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:46:00 -0700
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

As users become more technically savvy, they become less dependent on
vague manuals and more interested in software with a smooth, intuitive,
powerful interface and reliable function. See blog post on this issue:

http://user-advocacy.blogspot.com/2007/10/users-replacing-specialists-in-it-and.html

--- Rene Stephenson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 The  involvement of TW/doc mgr early on is not initially
 for writing the doc  as muc as it is for user advocacy, sanity checks
 of UIS or other specs  from a user-driven perspective, as well as
 getting buy-in and resource  allocation far enough in advance that
 creating a remotely usable  document is at all feasible. The later
 the TW is inserted into the  process, the harder it is to create
 anything better than basic  functionally-driven documents.




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technical writing | consulting | development

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RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

This is a good idea, and I'll try it. I end up attending most because
in my little world, seeing the gestures and facial expressions can tell
me a lot, but often most of that knowledge shouldn't go in the docs
anyway :)

--- Rene Stephenson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 One workable solution is to let the TW teleconference into the
 meeting, regardless of whether the TW is in cubicle or offsite. 

http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

This statement makes the most sense when considered in the light of how
the technology industry has expanded. We now have many small roles
contributing to a project or part of one, but what's missing is people
who can glue it all together according to some consistent idea. Making
the product work for the user is one such idea, and TWs are the best
suited toward that role.

Coincidentally, manuals are decreasing in importance as users know more
about the technology. WTFM (write the fine manual) isn't going to cut
it any more, and there's new ground to conquer. It'll be fun, honest.

--- Rene Stephenson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

   Creating user assistance is indeed a necessary task, but it is only
 one of many that TWs perform. User advocacy — getting the user
 expectations back up the chain into the ears of those who can impact
 what the users end up getting — is at least as important as the more
 common task of user assistance. If all the user needs is assistance,
 they'll just ring off the hook with tech support or customer service.
 User advocacy ensures higher quality products that lower call volume
 to tech support and customer service. 

http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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Questions on viewing conditional text

[Brad Simmons]

Hello fellow FM users,

I'm delving into the world of conditional text for the first time since
I started using FrameMaker, and I've encountered a couple of unforseen
problems. I'm wondering if someone knows how to work around these?

1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text. 

First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?

2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.

Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
to be included with the conditional text?

Thanks,

Brad Simmons
Technical Writer
Ag-Leader Technology
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RE: Questions on viewing conditional text

[Charles Beck]

Hi Brad,

OK, in answer to your first question: Before you go to print it, you
must change the Show/Hide settings. From the Conditional Text dialog
box, click Show/Hide (in the lower right corner). In the Show/Hide
Conditional Text dialog box that opens, select only the conditional text
you want to show in the left pane, and then-and this is the important
part-make sure that you CLEAR the Show Condition Indicators check box.
This will make the text display in its default color, not the
conditional color. (Note that it will also display on screen in the
selected option, the same as it will print. Make this check box your
friend.)

In answer to your second question: Make sure you have applied the
conditional text to the entire paragraph, not just the text in the
paragraph. If you select only the text and apply it, then you will see
what you are describing. Make sure that when you select the paragraph,
the selection block extends all the way to the margins on both sides.
This will give you the results you want. 

HTH,
Chuck Beck

Sr. Technical Writer | Infor | Office: 614.523.7302 |
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 




-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Brad Simmons
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 12:37
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Questions on viewing conditional text

Hello fellow FM users,

I'm delving into the world of conditional text for the first time since
I started using FrameMaker, and I've encountered a couple of unforseen
problems. I'm wondering if someone knows how to work around these?

1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text. 

First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?

2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.

Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
to be included with the conditional text?

Thanks,

Brad Simmons
Technical Writer
Ag-Leader Technology
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Re: Questions on viewing conditional text

[Rene Stephenson]

1. Before you make the PDF, at the book window select all the files,  and then 
choose View  Show/Hide Indicators. Turn off the condition  indicators there, 
and the conditioned text will have the same  formatting as unconditional text 
(provided that you didn't apply the  colors as character overrides).
  
  2. View  Text Symbols. When you apply a condition tag to a bulleted  item, 
if you don't include the paragraph end marker, the text will be  hidden, but 
the bullet will still show.
  
  HTH
  Rene Stephenson

Brad Simmons [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:  Hello fellow FM users,

I'm delving into the world of conditional text for the first time since
I started using FrameMaker, and I've encountered a couple of unforseen
problems. I'm wondering if someone knows how to work around these?

1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text. 

First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?

2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.

Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
to be included with the conditional text?

Thanks,

Brad Simmons
Technical Writer
Ag-Leader Technology
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RE: Questions on viewing conditional text

[Combs, Richard]

Brad Simmons had two conditional text questions:
 
 First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the 
 colors are viewed on the screen only, and not in the final 
 outputted document?

In the Show/Hide Conditional Text dialog, uncheck Show Condition
Indicators. Or, at the book level, select all the files in the book
window and then select View  Hide Conditional Text Indicators. 
 
 Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the 
 bullets have to be included with the conditional text?

Select the entire paragraph instead of just the text in it. 

HTH!
Richard


--
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
--
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
--




 
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RE: Questions on viewing conditional text

[Fred Ridder]

Brad Simmons ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) asked:
 
 1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
 colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
 printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
 find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
 that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text. 

 First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
 viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?
 
To print (either hard copy or PDF) without colored conditions, you need
to globally set the files in the book to turn off the Show Condition 
Indicators in the Show/Hide Conditional Text dialog. One way to do this 
is to set it manually in one file and then use FileImportFormats to 
import *only* the Conditional Text Settings from that one file into all
the other files in the book. (You can also set up pair of otherwise empty 
template files to alternately set the conditions to the colored, on-screen
view or the plain view for printing.   
 
 2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
 text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
 ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
 the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.
 
 Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
 to be included with the conditional text?
 
The bullet (or autonumber) is a property of the paragraph and is therefore 
contained in the end-of-paragraph symbol (which is only visible if you 
have the View Text Symbols option turned on). When you conditionalize 
an entire paragraph, you need toi conditionalize the *entire* paragraph, 
including the non-printing end-of-paragraph character or else you will
still get the vertical space and any paragraph-level presentational items
such as a bullet or autonumbering graphic frame above or below even.
The easiest way to do this is to triple-click anywhere in the paragraph
to select the entire paragraph before applying the condition.
 
Fred Ridder 
 
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Re: Questions on viewing conditional text

[Peter Gold]

On 10/30/07, Brad Simmons [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Hello fellow FM users,

 I'm delving into the world of conditional text for the first time since
 I started using FrameMaker, and I've encountered a couple of unforseen
 problems. I'm wondering if someone knows how to work around these?

 1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
 colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
 printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
 find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
 that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text.



First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
 viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?


Thanks for the question. I tried setting a condition tag's color to
non-printing in View  Color  Color Definitions, but I didn't realize after
all these years using FM that condition tags are immune to this non-printing
setting. Normal text and graphics that use the same color do respect the
non-printing setting. I didn't print to paper, just PDF. However, I also
learned that not only does the color not print, the colored text in my test
is deleted! I was expecting no-color (white or paper) text. Hmmm...

Perhaps this is because the standard way to avoid conditional markings in
output is to disable Show Condition Indicators in the Conditional Text 
Show/Hide dialog box. It's a step you have to remember before creating
output.

2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
 text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
 ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
 the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.

 Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
 to be included with the conditional text?



Triple-click the paragraphs to be conditionalized, or, with View  Text
Symbols ON, select across the paragraph marks of the paragraphs, then apply
the condition tag. You've probably just selected text IN the paragraphs, but
not the paragraphs themselves.

HTH


Regards,

Peter
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Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices
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Can HTML Help Display in Other Languages (like Russian)?

[Ed Lightle]

Hi, Framers.

 

After spending the morning Googling this topic with not much to show for
my efforts, I realized I should have checked with the brethren to start
with.  I don't know all the details yet (the project is just beginning)
but I'm hearing that they'll want HTML Help displayed in Spanish and
Russian, and maybe Chinese.  Will FrameMaker 7.0 and WebWorks 9.2 handle
all the different characters and number, currency, and date formats
associated with these languages?  And can these languages be displayed
okay in HTML Help?

 

Thanks!

Ed Lightle
Sr. Technical Writer
Command Alkon
614-799-0600 ext. 5225
www.commandalkon.com
outbind://160-4F674D983274F44DB728ECC7702687A607005939B5FCA0AB5
E47BE45F5D06BAAD4570006D8CBB55F2A482771FC41AB74F6ACA4037AFF0
405058C/www.commandalkon.com  

 

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RE: Can HTML Help Display in Other Languages (like Russian)?

[Combs, Richard]

Kelly McDaniel wrote:
 
 The brethren and cistern, you mean.

I don't think you really mean cistern. 

Richard


--
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
--
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
--




 
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RE: Can HTML Help Display in Other Languages (like Russian)?

[Gagne, Bernard (Bolton)]

WebWorks 9.2's inability to handle Russian and Chinese (among many
others) was the chief reason my company abandoned it as a solution for
HTML Help. It worked just fine with standard Latin character based
languages, but we also needed a solution that worked with Cyrillic,
Greek, and Asian languages.
I would not recommend it.

Berny Gagne
Lead Writer
Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd.
Bolton, Ontario, Canada



-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
Of Ed Lightle
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 2:48 PM
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Can HTML Help Display in Other Languages (like Russian)?

Hi, Framers.

 

After spending the morning Googling this topic with not much to show for
my efforts, I realized I should have checked with the brethren to start
with.  I don't know all the details yet (the project is just beginning)
but I'm hearing that they'll want HTML Help displayed in Spanish and
Russian, and maybe Chinese.  Will FrameMaker 7.0 and WebWorks 9.2 handle
all the different characters and number, currency, and date formats
associated with these languages?  And can these languages be displayed
okay in HTML Help?

 

Thanks!

Ed Lightle
Sr. Technical Writer
Command Alkon
614-799-0600 ext. 5225
www.commandalkon.com
outbind://160-4F674D983274F44DB728ECC7702687A607005939B5FCA0AB5
E47BE45F5D06BAAD4570006D8CBB55F2A482771FC41AB74F6ACA4037AFF0
405058C/www.commandalkon.com  

 

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RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Technical Writer]

Exactly. And that is in the province of the developer, the programmers, and the 
GUI designers. Using TW to cover up poor design and inadequate programming is 
not particularly useful for anyone.http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the 
Design, Development, and Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content 
- Enterprise Websites Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:08:58 -0700 From: [EMAIL 
PROTECTED] Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]; framers@lists.frameusers.com  As users become more 
technically savvy, they become less dependent on vague manuals and more 
interested in software with a smooth, intuitive, powerful interface and 
reliable function. See blog post on this issue:  
http://user-advocacy.blogspot.com/2007/10/users-replacing-specialists-in-it-and.html
  --- Rene Stephenson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:   The involvement of 
TW/doc mgr early on is not initially  for writing the doc as muc as it is for 
user advocacy, sanity checks  of UIS or other specs from a user-driven 
perspective, as well as  getting buy-in and resource allocation far enough in 
advance that  creating a remotely usable document is at all feasible. The 
later  the TW is inserted into the process, the harder it is to create  
anything better than basic functionally-driven documents. 
http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/ technical writing | consulting | 
development  __ Do You 
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Re: FM Book to PDF issue

[Valerie Lipow]

Setting the Tagged PDF feature to ON in the Acrobat Settings dialog will
solve the problem. I verified this with Adobe Tech Support. The failure to
distill a book to PDF is a known issue with FM 8, which occurs regardless of
whether the book is created in Structured or Unstructured FM. It is
recommended that everyone use this work-around, or distill each file in the
book individually, until Adobe releases a patch.

-- 
Valerie Lipow
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

On 10/30/07, Art Campbell [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Try turning Tagged PDF ON in your settings, and make sure that all
 files are open on your desktop.

 Also, SaveAs may not be the best way to generate it. I would Print to
 the PDF logical  printer...

 Art

 On 10/29/07, Gutierrez, Dorianne [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 wrote:
  I cannot generate a PDF from a FrameMaker 8.0 book, although I can PDF
  the individual files with or without bookmarks. I am using Windows
  Vista, Adobe Acrobat 8.0, Distiller 8.0, and I set the printer to Adobe
  PDF before saving as PDF. The distiller tries the first file in the
  book, then chokes. Any suggestions?
 
  Thanks,
  Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez
  Senior Technical Writer
  Polaris Library Systems
  PO Box 4903
  Syracuse NY 13221-4903
  (direct) 315-634-4519
  800-272-3414
  http://www.polarislibrary.com
  mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
 --
 Art Campbell
 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
   ... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent
and a redheaded girl. -- Richard Thompson
  No disclaimers apply.
  DoD 358
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RE: radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

A product can have good design, and good programming, and still be
inadequate for users.

How can that be, you ask?

Technically speaking, it may be doing what its creators think it
should, and it may be well-created. It may be disorganized, and it may
not address the user's needs, and that's where TWs come in.

We are the only group who sees the application, from start to finish,
from a user perspective. Therefore we are able to offer sanity checks:

- This interface doesn't make sense.
- Although the app is well-designed, in this context it becomes slow or
crashes, and in our view, users will come this way often.
- The task we're designing this for is too narrow/too broad.

--- Technical Writer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

 Exactly. And that is in the province of the developer, the
 programmers, and the GUI designers. Using TW to cover up poor design
 and inadequate programming is not particularly useful for
 anyone.

http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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Re: radical revamping of techpubs

[Leslie H Schwartz]

There is no such trend. Signing off on this conversation. Your welcome to the 
last word on it.


- Original Message 
From: Technical Writer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Leslie Schwartz [EMAIL PROTECTED]; framers@lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 8:52:21 AM
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs

The experience of one person, or even a handful, do not in any way negate an 
obvious and growing trend in the software industry--directly related to agile 
development--to consider TW involvement as pointless until the final iteration. 
 
Yes, there are organizations that still do business as they did 20 or 30 years 
ago, just as there are still organizations using COBOL, SNOBOL, and other odd 
applications. If their system works, more power to them, and to the TWs they 
employ.
 
The difference is in whether or not the organization is developing software, or 
creating an application that implements the vision of a handful of movers and 
shakers at the top. That handful can do as they please, whether or not it is of 
long-term benefit to the organization. For software developed in a competitive 
marketplace, the role of the TW is rapidly changing to a diminished involvement.
 


http://www.tekwrytrs.com/
Specializing in the Design, Development, and Production of:
Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites





From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:14:18 -0500


This may be your experience, in my experience in fact there is no IF about it, 
I just put it that way to be gentile.
 
Our documents pre-sage multi-mullion dollar contracts (at each stage of the 
project) and there is always plenty of fuzzy concepts to go around at the early 
stages. No documents, no contracts. 
 
TWs and in particular the directors, managers are involved at these stages. 
Documentation is a 100% necessary adjunct to business development from the 
outset.
 
From: Technical Writer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 8:29 PM
To: Leslie H Schwartz; framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs
 
That is a very big if. A full partner participant-stakeholder, or more likely 
the department manager? It is more likely that the software developers, 
business analysts, and the project manager are collaborating to get a decent 
set of requirements down. At that stage, TWs have no place, whether department 
managers, full partner participant-stakeholders, or something else.
 
When the requirements are determined, and possibly after several iterations, 
possibly after a prototype is up and running, TWs might be brought in. Even at 
that stage, it is early, because the GUI crew may not have the interface coded, 
the developers might not have the functionality carved in stone, and everything 
is still uncertain (in regards to exactly what the final product will be and 
do).
 
TWs complete a very necessary task; creating user assistance. Until the final 
iteration, until all the requirements have been met, until there is little or 
no possibility of changes to the end product, there is little point in 
generating documentation that might become obsolete at the next iteration.
 


http://www.tekwrytrs.com/
Specializing in the Design, Development, and Production of:
Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites





Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:26:46 -0700
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: radical revamping of techpubs
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CC: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Actually, I disagee, if the TW is a full partner participant - stakeholder, or 
more likely the department manager in the scenario you are discussing, they 
should also participate early on to get the sense of the uncertainty and what 
those issues are, at the very least these issues are going to affect their 
scheduling and the expectations they have to deal with.
- Original Message 
From: Technical Writer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Leslie Schwartz [EMAIL PROTECTED]; framers@lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 8:44:16 AM
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs

I agree wholeheartedly. That is not the issue. The issue goes back to the BA 
interpretation of (and translation of) the software requirements. If there is a 
high level of certainty on the client side about what the finished product 
should be, TWs should start early. If not, and it is essentially a fishing 
expedition with ambiguous outcome, TWs are only useful at the last. 
Unfortunately, the agile methodologies strongly sell the sense of control to 
executives, pushing the idea that they can develop on the fly, adding and 
removing requirements as the executives see fit. 


http://www.tekwrytrs.com/
Specializing in the Design, Development, and Production of:
Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites

 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 

Re: radical revamping of techpubs

[Susan Modlin]

I've followed this thread with interest, even though it has precious little to 
do with FrameMaker. 

My perspective differs somewhat from what I've seen so far in the discussion. 
I've been working in and with agile development groups as a writer or doc 
manager since late in the last century. When I first heard about agile, I 
thought it was the devil's spawn, but it hasn't turned out that way at all. In 
my experience, a writer in a well-run agile environment can be involved from 
day one of the first iteration all the way through to delivery of a final 
product -- and not just writing and rewriting the same stuff over and over 
again. In fact, I find that I don't spend as much time
writing as I once did. However, as an integral part of the development
organization, I have no shortage of interesting and impactful (terrible
word) tasks on my plate. 

As a side note, I'm a certified (and very interested) scrum master. 

...Susan 

- Original Message snipped 
From: Technical Writer [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: Leslie Schwartz [EMAIL PROTECTED]; framers@lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 8:52:21 AM
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs

The experience of one person, or even a handful, do not in any way
 negate an obvious and growing trend in the software industry--directly
 related to agile development--to consider TW involvement as pointless
 until the final iteration. 
 




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Re: radical revamping of techpubs

[Rene Stephenson]

Agreed.
Rene

Susan Modlin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've been working in and with agile 
development groups as a writer or doc manager since late in the last century. 
When I first heard about agile, I thought it was the devil's spawn, but it 
hasn't turned out that way at all. In my experience, a writer in a well-run 
agile environment can be involved from day one of the first iteration all the 
way through to delivery of a final product -- and not just writing and 
rewriting the same stuff over and over again. In fact, I find that I don't 
spend as much time
writing as I once did. However, as an integral part of the development
organization, I have no shortage of interesting and impactful (terrible
word) tasks on my plate. 

...Susan 

- Original Message  
From: Technical Writer 
To: Leslie Schwartz ; framers@lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 8:52:21 AM
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs

The experience of one person, or even a handful, do not in any way
 negate an obvious and growing trend in the software industry--directly
 related to agile development--to consider TW involvement as pointless
 until the final iteration. 
 

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framescript query

[Surbhi Singhal]

Hi Framers

There is an option available in Framescript to SAVE a document to pdf.
Is there any option available to PRINT  a document to pdf format??  Any
pointers would be appreciated.

Also, is there any way to define the bookmark settings and other document
settings while printing a document to pdf through Framescript  code.

Please advise.

Looking forward to your replies.

Thanx a lot
Surbhi
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radical revamping of techpubs

[Sean Pollock]

I previously worked at a company where the tech writer, in collaboration with 
development, was responsible for designing and writing the RS and the FS. The 
docs were highly detailed (about 3000 printed pages per year for a single 
writer), and were used to not only output and update specifications, but also 
online help and QA test cases--from a single source. It was initially difficult 
to maintain and design, but the beauty of it was that any change went through 
the tw, since all levels in the process were absolutely dependent on it. The 
writer never missed a trick.

Following a single rigid methodology is like being stuck in a box. There is no 
single process that anyone should absolutely follow--we should constantly 
strive for new ideas if the results support them.

S. Pollock
Siemens PLM Software



> From: tekwrytr at hotmail.com> To: lhs_emf at pacbell.net; framers at 
> lists.frameusers.com> Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:29:15 -0400> CC: > Subject: 
> RE: radical revamping of techpubs> > > That is a very big if. A full partner 
> participant-stakeholder, or more likely the department manager? It is more 
> likely that the software developers, business analysts, and the project 
> manager are collaborating to get a decent set of requirements down. At that 
> stage, TWs have no place, whether department managers, full partner 
> participant-stakeholders, or something else.> > When the requirements are 
> determined, and possibly after several iterations, possibly after a prototype 
> is up and running, TWs might be brought in. Even at that stage, it is early, 
> because the GUI crew may not have the interface coded, the developers might 
> not have the functionality carved in stone, and everything is still uncertain 
> (in regards to exactly what the final product will be and do).> > TWs 
> complete a very necessary task; creating user assistance. Until the final 
> iteration, until all the requirements have been met, until there is little or 
> no possibility of changes to the end product, there is little point in 
> generating documentation that might become obsolete at the next iteration.> > 
> http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and 
> Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites> 
> > > Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:26:46 -0700From: lhs_emf at pacbell.netSubject: 
> Re: radical revamping of techpubsTo: tekwrytr at hotmail.comCC: framers at 
> lists.frameusers.com> > > > > Actually, I disagee, if the TW is a full 
> partner participant - stakeholder, or more likely the department manager in 
> the scenario you are discussing, they should also participate early on to get 
> the sense of the uncertainty and what those issues are, at the very least 
> these issues are going to affect their scheduling and the expectations they 
> have to deal with.> - Original Message From: Technical Writer 
> To: Leslie Schwartz ; 
> framers at lists.frameusers.comSent: Monday, October 29, 2007 8:44:16 
> AMSubject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs> > I agree wholeheartedly. That 
> is not the issue. The issue goes back to the BA interpretation of (and 
> translation of) the software requirements. If there is a high level of 
> certainty on the client side about what the finished product should be, TWs 
> should start early. If not, and it is essentially a fishing expedition with 
> ambiguous outcome, TWs are only useful at the last. Unfortunately, the 
> "agile" methodologies strongly sell the sense of control to executives, 
> pushing the idea that they can develop on the fly, adding and removing 
> "requirements" as the executives see fit. 
> http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and 
> Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites> 
> From: lhs_emf at pacbell.net> To: tekwrytr at hotmail.com; bhechter at 
> objectives.ca; framers at lists.frameusers.com> Subject: RE: radical 
> revamping of techpubs> Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:04:10 -0500> > I belong to 
> several message - interest groups and I am used to hearing people give their 
> opinions in a bombastic manner. So its no> big deal to see that happening 
> here. But if this discussion is to have any real value it will be to share 
> our perspectives with> others and learn something about points of view's 
> entirely different than our own, which requires some tolerance and mutual 
> respect.> > > My view and experience is that it definitely helps to get the 
> TW involved early on, but it?s a waste of time for them to sit all the> way 
> through each meeting, and for the entire duration of each meeting.> > 
> Marketing requirements documents and engineering specification documents, if 
> they are adequately written will help the TW formulate> the user 
> documentation at a fairly early stage, but the bulk of the documentation 
> effort comes towards the end of the development> cycle. And ideally the 
> writer of the user guide if 

Bug: em space in variable in FrameMaker 8

[Reng, Dr. Winfried]

Hi,

In my header I have a variable which also contains an
em space. I notice that in FrameMaker 8 in files in
FrameMaker 7 format this em space is replaced by ? on
body pages. In the variable definition only a thick
vertical bar is shown instead of my em space.
(In FrameMaker 7 this was displayed correctly as: \sm)
When I replace this bar with \sm the em space, in the
definition is still a thick vertical bar, but in the
header of this file and in all files into which I
import the variable definitions, the em space is
displayed correctly.

However, after some other changes the em space is replaced
again by a ?. I did not test this thoroughly enough to
know when the em space is replaced again by a ?. I guess
it's something like import of page layout or variables or
something like that.

Best regards

Winfried

radical revamping of techpubs

[Rene Stephenson]

One workable solution is to let the TW teleconference into the meeting, 
regardless of whether the TW is in cubicle or offsite. Then, the TW can keep 
their end on mute and listen for useful tidbits while making use of the time 
most effectively. That has worked very well for me at several companies, 
including my current one. If for whatever reason I have to be IN the conference 
room for a meeting that I know will only be partially relevant, I take my 
laptop along, sit at an angle to the rest of the group, have one window open 
for notetaking, and work in FM in a pane beside my notetaking window.

  My 2?
  Rene Stephenson

Chris Borokowski  wrote:
  You really hit the nail on the head. Meetings are brain-sapping enough
when important information is actually being conveyed, but most people
who are on the CC: list for meetings are being given a free hourlong
zone-out. Keep the poor TWs out of the unnecessary meetings, or they'll
become office shooters. Instead, put them to use in usability
(currently dominated by glorified photoshop jockeys in too many places)
or another capacity suited to their abilities.

--- Leslie Schwartz wrote:

> My view and experience is that it definitely helps to get the TW
> involved early on, but it?s a waste of time for them to sit all the
> way through each meeting, and for the entire duration of each
> meeting.


http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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FM Book to PDF issue

[Art Campbell]

Try turning Tagged PDF ON in your settings, and make sure that all
files are open on your desktop.

Also, SaveAs may not be the best way to generate it. I would Print to
the PDF logical  printer...

Art

On 10/29/07, Gutierrez, Dorianne  
wrote:
> I cannot generate a PDF from a FrameMaker 8.0 book, although I can PDF
> the individual files with or without bookmarks. I am using Windows
> Vista, Adobe Acrobat 8.0, Distiller 8.0, and I set the printer to Adobe
> PDF before saving as PDF. The distiller tries the first file in the
> book, then chokes. Any suggestions?
>
> Thanks,
> Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez
> Senior Technical Writer
> Polaris Library Systems
> PO Box 4903
> Syracuse NY 13221-4903
> (direct) 315-634-4519
> 800-272-3414
> http://www.polarislibrary.com
> mailto:dorianne.gutierrez at polarislibrary.com
>
-- 
Art Campbell art.campbell at 
gmail.com
  "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent
   and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson
 No disclaimers apply.
 DoD 358

Adjusting table column widths in a two column layout

[Eric Dunn]

Use Framescript, or a plug-in from Rick.

> From: "Jon Harvey" 
> Is there a way to configure table column widths in either FrameMaker or
> Flare so that, when the document is imported into Flare, the table
> expands to the width of the surrounding text?

radical revamping of techpubs

[Technical Writer]

The experience of one person, or even a handful, do not in any way negate an 
obvious and growing trend in the software industry--directly related to "agile" 
development--to consider TW involvement as pointless until the final iteration. 

Yes, there are organizations that still do business as they did 20 or 30 years 
ago, just as there are still organizations using COBOL, SNOBOL, and other odd 
applications. If their system works, more power to them, and to the TWs they 
employ.

The difference is in whether or not the organization is developing software, or 
creating an application that "implements the vision" of a handful of movers and 
shakers at the top. That handful can do as they please, whether or not it is of 
long-term benefit to the organization. For software developed in a competitive 
marketplace, the role of the TW is rapidly changing to a diminished involvement.

http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and 
Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites


From: lhs_emf at pacbell.netTo: tekwrytr at hotmail.com; 
framers@lists.frameusers.comSubject: RE: radical revamping of techpubsDate: 
Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:14:18 -0500






This may be your experience, in my experience in fact there is no IF about it, 
I just put it that way to be gentile.

Our documents pre-sage multi-mullion dollar contracts (at each stage of the 
project) and there is always plenty of fuzzy concepts to go around at the early 
stages. No documents, no contracts. 

TWs and in particular the directors, managers are involved at these stages. 
Documentation is a 100% necessary adjunct to business development from the 
outset.



From: Technical Writer [mailto:tekwrytr at hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, October 
29, 2007 8:29 PMTo: Leslie H Schwartz; framers@lists.frameusers.comSubject: RE: 
radical revamping of techpubs

That is a very big if. A full partner participant-stakeholder, or more likely 
the department manager? It is more likely that the software developers, 
business analysts, and the project manager are collaborating to get a decent 
set of requirements down. At that stage, TWs have no place, whether department 
managers, full partner participant-stakeholders, or something else. When the 
requirements are determined, and possibly after several iterations, possibly 
after a prototype is up and running, TWs might be brought in. Even at that 
stage, it is early, because the GUI crew may not have the interface coded, the 
developers might not have the functionality carved in stone, and everything is 
still uncertain (in regards to exactly what the final product will be and do). 
TWs complete a very necessary task; creating user assistance. Until the final 
iteration, until all the requirements have been met, until there is little or 
no possibility of changes to the end product, there is little point in 
generating documentation that might become obsolete at the next iteration. 
http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and 
Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites



Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:26:46 -0700From: lhs_emf at pacbell.netSubject: Re: 
radical revamping of techpubsTo: tekwrytr at hotmail.comCC: framers at 
lists.frameusers.com


Actually, I disagee, if the TW is a full partner participant - stakeholder, or 
more likely the department manager in the scenario you are discussing, they 
should also participate early on to get the sense of the uncertainty and what 
those issues are, at the very least these issues are going to affect their 
scheduling and the expectations they have to deal with.

- Original Message From: Technical Writer To: 
Leslie Schwartz ; framers at lists.frameusers.comSent: 
Monday, October 29, 2007 8:44:16 AMSubject: RE: radical revamping of techpubsI 
agree wholeheartedly. That is not the issue. The issue goes back to the BA 
interpretation of (and translation of) the software requirements. If there is a 
high level of certainty on the client side about what the finished product 
should be, TWs should start early. If not, and it is essentially a fishing 
expedition with ambiguous outcome, TWs are only useful at the last. 
Unfortunately, the "agile" methodologies strongly sell the sense of control to 
executives, pushing the idea that they can develop on the fly, adding and 
removing "requirements" as the executives see fit. 
http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the Design, Development, and 
Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites> 
From: lhs_emf at pacbell.net> To: tekwrytr at hotmail.com; bhechter at 
objectives.ca; framers at lists.frameusers.com> Subject: RE: radical revamping 
of techpubs> Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:04:10 -0500> > I belong to several 
message - interest groups and I am used to hearing people give their opinions 
in a bombastic manner. So its no> big deal to see that happening here. But if 
this discussion is 

radical revamping of techpubs

[Technical Writer]

I did not categorically state that TWs have no place at any point in a project. 
To so state is misleading, and implies that I said TWs are useless. I said that 
in an ambiguous, undefined software project (which many, including 
multi-million dollar, tend to be), it is pointless to create documentation of 
an application that may--and probably will--change at the next iteration.

The fault is not with TWs; the fault is with agile developers who cater to the 
egos of senior management, charging dearly to maintain the illusion that 
management can have whatever toy they happen to think of, at anytime in the 
development process. Because that type of development is becoming more and more 
mainstream, it seriously affects TWs. 

Spacing table footnotes

[TEPLITZ Ronald]

Diane, 

For space between tables and footnotes, create a graphic frame on your
reference page. When prompted for a name, call it TableFootnote. The
height of the frame determines the space between the bottom of the table
and the top of the footnote area. 

Ron

--

Message: 3
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:20:41 -0400
From: "Diane Schaefer" 
Subject: Spacing table footnotes
To: 
Message-ID:

Content-Type: text/plain;   charset="us-ascii"

Hello,



I have several tables in my document that contain footnotes, and I
haven't been able to figure out .how to create a space between the table
and the footnote so that the footnote doesn't touch the table. (I'm
using FrameMaker 7.2.) Could someone please help me?



Also, I noticed that one of my table footnotes consistently made my
document crash when generating a PDF file and wondered whether this is a
FrameMaker bug. The footnote in question was for a conditional row in
the table and contained a cross-reference to another file (which isn't
included in the document in question). I recreated the table, which
contains several conditional rows, some of which also contain
conditional text. The PDF generation crashed every time, until I deleted
the footnote.



TIA,

Diane



Diane Schaefer

Senior Technical Writer

Sandvine Technologies Ltd.

dschaefer at sandvine.com

tel. 972-2-540-090, ext. 125

radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

One role I've found myself in is that of documentation manager, or the
person who keeps track of business process, finds what must be
organized, and then documents it and finds a sensible hierarchy for
those docs, as well as varied delivery methods.

It's a fun role. You get to see almost all that goes on, learn a lot,
and don't have that unhealthy feeling of waiting around the periphery
for an SME to decide to tell you something. They get to know you on a
day-to-day basis instead.

--- Leslie Schwartz  wrote:

> TWs and in particular the directors, managers are involved at these
> stages. Documentation is a 100% necessary adjunct to business
> development from the outset.


http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

Luckily, that isn't all they do. Many are employed writing policies and
procedures and internal business documentation. Any function that
requires explaining concepts understood within a certain skill set that
is a minority role in a company is a TW role.

Personally, I find it hard to separate the different roles. A
well-organized business produces a well-organized product, which can
then be easily introduced to the user. If a TW is able to give that
feedback during development, and make the product better, the doc gets
simpler and bottom line goes up. This is why I see the role of TWs as
expanding, not decreasing, in the future.

--- Technical Writer  wrote:

> TWs complete a very necessary task; creating user assistance. Until
> the final iteration, until all the requirements have been met, until
> there is little or no possibility of changes to the end product,
> there is little point in generating documentation that might become
> obsolete at the next iteration.


http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

For any project that size, won't it take some months for it to
complete, as it will for the docs to be done, which means that the TW
is first going to be assembling information and writing known parts of
the doc, and then expanding to write as parts of the software become
formalized?

--- Technical Writer  wrote:

> I said that in an ambiguous, undefined software project
> (which many, including multi-million dollar, tend to be), it is
> pointless to create documentation of an application that may--and
> probably will--change at the next iteration.


http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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radical revamping of techpubs

[Rene Stephenson]

I neither inferred nor implied that you say TWs have no place at any  point in 
a project. You did, however, clearly state that in response to  comments about 
involvement of TW or doc mgr early in the product  development, "At that stage, 
TWs have no place, whether department  managers, full partner 
participant-stakeholders, or something else." 

  Your assumption is that if a TW is involved, it is for the purpose of  
creating a document. While it is often true that creating documents  early in 
product development simply creates files to obsolete/trash due  to sidelined 
ideas, you are completely missing the intent. The  involvement of TW/doc mgr 
early on is not initially for writing the doc  as muc as it is for user 
advocacy, sanity checks of UIS or other specs  from a user-driven perspective, 
as well as getting buy-in and resource  allocation far enough in advance that 
creating a remotely usable  document is at all feasible. The later the TW is 
inserted into the  process, the harder it is to create anything better than 
basic  functionally-driven documents. Several others have echoed this same  
point, and it is well-documented. It's not just a one or three personal  
experience basis. There are a lot more use cases out there - a survey  of books 
from leaders in our industry like Hackos and others clearly  reveals
 this. Look also at the breadth of comments in response from  other listers 
here, too.

  FWIW, *all* of the companies where I worked and where TWs were involved  
early on in the product life cycle, Agile is the software used for  managing 
product development. Having a doc listed by part number on the  BOM of a 
product (and in the case of Help, as a part number for the  software build 
list) ensured earlier integration of TWs and ultimately  produced higher 
quality documents. Use of Agile and early involvement  of TW resources are not 
mutually exclusive. Now, whether some companies  using Agile as the governance 
of product life cycle choose to use that  as an *excuse* NOT to include TWs 
until late in the game may be your  personal experience, but that does not 
necessarily mean it's the way of  the future, or that Agile implementation 
would be causal to the effect  of late involvement of writers. Bringing in a 
"hired gun" writer late  in the project as almost an afterthought is a trend, 
yes, but it has a  lot more to do with the bottom line (dollars, pounds,
 euros, yens,  etc.) than it does with whether the company uses Agile. If there 
aren't  multiple products with ongoing development and overlapping product life 
 cycles, it's simply cheaper to pay a contractor twice as much for a  couple of 
months than keep writers on staff longterm in some industries  and/or R 
environments, depending on the company dynamics, market  forces, and product 
life cycles.

  Rene Stephenson


Technical Writer  wrote:.hmmessage P  {  
margin:0px;  padding:0px  }  body.hmmessage  {  FONT-SIZE: 10pt;  
FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma  }I did not categorically state that TWs have no place 
at any point in a  project. To so state is misleading, and implies that I said 
TWs are  useless. I said that in an ambiguous, undefined software project  
(which many, including multi-million dollar, tend to be), it is  pointless to 
create documentation of an application that may--and  probably will--change at 
the next iteration.

 The fault  is not with TWs; the fault is with agile developers who cater to 
the  egos of senior management, charging dearly to maintain the illusion  that 
management can have whatever toy they happen to think of, at  anytime in the 
development process. Because that type of development is  becoming more and 
more mainstream, it seriously affects TWs. 

  From the standpoint of an agile developer, "it all pays the same." What  is 
presented as "control" and "involvement" to management is a ploy to  curry 
favor and extend the development period. It is immensely  profitable, and 
management, in general, seems to believe the almost  obsequious demeanor of 
agile developers preferable to the old-style  "you can't have this even if you 
are the CEO, because it was not filed  in triplicate as an initial requirement."

 Ultimately,  the situation is a response to the "developer as hostage holder"  
mentality that considered management as only useful to pay the bills.  
Management wants (at least the illusion of) control, and agile  developers have 
learned to play to that weakness. In so doing, they are  diminishing the role 
of TWs. Pretty simple stuff, not particularly my  opinion, nor representative 
of one or three cases of personal  involvement in projects. Like it or not, it 
is the future.




http://www.tekwrytrs.com/
Specializing in the Design, Development, and Production of:
Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites



-
  Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:46:00 -0700
From: rinn...@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: radical revamping of 

radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

As users become more technically savvy, they become less dependent on
vague manuals and more interested in software with a smooth, intuitive,
powerful interface and reliable function. See blog post on this issue:

http://user-advocacy.blogspot.com/2007/10/users-replacing-specialists-in-it-and.html

--- Rene Stephenson  wrote:

> The  involvement of TW/doc mgr early on is not initially
> for writing the doc  as muc as it is for user advocacy, sanity checks
> of UIS or other specs  from a user-driven perspective, as well as
> getting buy-in and resource  allocation far enough in advance that
> creating a remotely usable  document is at all feasible. The later
> the TW is inserted into the  process, the harder it is to create
> anything better than basic  functionally-driven documents.




http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

This is a good idea, and I'll try it. I end up attending most because
in my little world, seeing the gestures and facial expressions can tell
me a lot, but often most of that knowledge shouldn't go in the docs
anyway :)

--- Rene Stephenson  wrote:

> One workable solution is to let the TW teleconference into the
> meeting, regardless of whether the TW is in cubicle or offsite. 

http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

This statement makes the most sense when considered in the light of how
the technology industry has expanded. We now have many small roles
contributing to a project or part of one, but what's missing is people
who can glue it all together according to some consistent idea. Making
the product work for the user is one such idea, and TWs are the best
suited toward that role.

Coincidentally, manuals are decreasing in importance as users know more
about the technology. WTFM (write the fine manual) isn't going to cut
it any more, and there's new ground to conquer. It'll be fun, honest.

--- Rene Stephenson  wrote:

>   Creating user assistance is indeed a necessary task, but it is only
> one of many that TWs perform. User advocacy ? getting the user
> expectations back up the chain into the ears of those who can impact
> what the users end up getting ? is at least as important as the more
> common task of user assistance. If all the user needs is assistance,
> they'll just ring off the hook with tech support or customer service.
> User advocacy ensures higher quality products that lower call volume
> to tech support and customer service. 

http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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Questions on viewing conditional text

[Brad Simmons]

Hello fellow FM users,

I'm delving into the world of conditional text for the first time since
I started using FrameMaker, and I've encountered a couple of unforseen
problems. I'm wondering if someone knows how to work around these?

1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text. 

First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?

2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.

Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
to be included with the conditional text?

Thanks,

Brad Simmons
Technical Writer
Ag-Leader Technology

Questions on viewing conditional text

[Charles Beck]

Hi Brad,

OK, in answer to your first question: Before you go to print it, you
must change the Show/Hide settings. From the Conditional Text dialog
box, click Show/Hide (in the lower right corner). In the Show/Hide
Conditional Text dialog box that opens, select only the conditional text
you want to show in the left pane, and then-and this is the important
part-make sure that you CLEAR the Show Condition Indicators check box.
This will make the text display in its default color, not the
conditional color. (Note that it will also display on screen in the
selected option, the same as it will print. Make this check box your
friend.)

In answer to your second question: Make sure you have applied the
conditional text to the entire paragraph, not just the text in the
paragraph. If you select only the text and apply it, then you will see
what you are describing. Make sure that when you select the paragraph,
the selection block extends all the way to the margins on both sides.
This will give you the results you want. 

HTH,
Chuck Beck

Sr. Technical Writer | Infor | Office: 614.523.7302 |
Charles.Beck at infor.com 




-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces+charles.beck=infor@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+charles.beck=infor.com at lists.frameusers.com] On
Behalf Of Brad Simmons
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 12:37
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Questions on viewing conditional text

Hello fellow FM users,

I'm delving into the world of conditional text for the first time since
I started using FrameMaker, and I've encountered a couple of unforseen
problems. I'm wondering if someone knows how to work around these?

1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text. 

First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?

2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.

Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
to be included with the conditional text?

Thanks,

Brad Simmons
Technical Writer
Ag-Leader Technology
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Questions on viewing conditional text

[Rene Stephenson]

1. Before you make the PDF, at the book window select all the files,  and then 
choose View > Show/Hide Indicators. Turn off the condition  indicators there, 
and the conditioned text will have the same  formatting as unconditional text 
(provided that you didn't apply the  colors as character overrides).

  2. View > Text Symbols. When you apply a condition tag to a bulleted  item, 
if you don't include the paragraph end marker, the text will be  hidden, but 
the bullet will still show.

  HTH
  Rene Stephenson

Brad Simmons  wrote:  Hello fellow FM users,

I'm delving into the world of conditional text for the first time since
I started using FrameMaker, and I've encountered a couple of unforseen
problems. I'm wondering if someone knows how to work around these?

1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text. 

First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?

2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.

Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
to be included with the conditional text?

Thanks,

Brad Simmons
Technical Writer
Ag-Leader Technology
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Questions on viewing conditional text

[Combs, Richard]

Brad Simmons had two conditional text questions:

> First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the 
> colors are viewed on the screen only, and not in the final 
> outputted document?

In the Show/Hide Conditional Text dialog, uncheck Show Condition
Indicators. Or, at the book level, select all the files in the book
window and then select View > Hide Conditional Text Indicators. 

> Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the 
> bullets have to be included with the conditional text?

Select the entire paragraph instead of just the text in it. 

HTH!
Richard


--
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
--
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
--

Questions on viewing conditional text

[Fred Ridder]

Brad Simmons (bsimmons at agleader.com) asked:
> 
> 1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
> colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
> printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
> find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
> that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text. 
>
> First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
> viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?

To print (either hard copy or PDF) without colored conditions, you need
to globally set the files in the book to turn off the "Show Condition 
Indicators" in the Show/Hide Conditional Text dialog. One way to do this 
is to set it manually in one file and then use File>Import>Formats to 
import *only* the Conditional Text Settings from that one file into all
the other files in the book. (You can also set up pair of otherwise empty 
template files to alternately set the conditions to the colored, on-screen
view or the plain view for printing.   

> 2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
> text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
> ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
> the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.
> 
> Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
> to be included with the conditional text?

The bullet (or autonumber) is a property of the paragraph and is therefore 
"contained in" the end-of-paragraph symbol (which is only visible if you 
have the View Text Symbols option turned on). When you conditionalize 
an entire paragraph, you need toi conditionalize the *entire* paragraph, 
including the non-printing end-of-paragraph character or else you will
still get the vertical space and any paragraph-level presentational items
such as a bullet or autonumbering graphic frame above or below even.
The easiest way to do this is to triple-click anywhere in the paragraph
to select the entire paragraph before applying the condition.

Fred Ridder 

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Questions on viewing conditional text

[Peter Gold]

On 10/30/07, Brad Simmons  wrote:
>
> Hello fellow FM users,
>
> I'm delving into the world of conditional text for the first time since
> I started using FrameMaker, and I've encountered a couple of unforseen
> problems. I'm wondering if someone knows how to work around these?
>
> 1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
> colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
> printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
> find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
> that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text.



First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
> viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?


Thanks for the question. I tried setting a condition tag's color to
non-printing in View > Color > Color Definitions, but I didn't realize after
all these years using FM that condition tags are immune to this non-printing
setting. Normal text and graphics that use the same color do respect the
non-printing setting. I didn't print to paper, just PDF. However, I also
learned that not only does the color not print, the colored text in my test
is deleted! I was expecting no-color (white or paper) text. Hmmm...

Perhaps this is because the standard way to avoid conditional markings in
output is to disable Show Condition Indicators in the Conditional Text >
Show/Hide dialog box. It's a step you have to remember before creating
output.

2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
> text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
> ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
> the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.
>
> Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
> to be included with the conditional text?



Triple-click the paragraphs to be conditionalized, or, with View > Text
Symbols ON, select across the paragraph marks of the paragraphs, then apply
the condition tag. You've probably just selected text IN the paragraphs, but
not the paragraphs themselves.

HTH


Regards,

Peter
___
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

Can HTML Help Display in Other Languages (like Russian)?

[Ed Lightle]

Hi, Framers.



After spending the morning Googling this topic with not much to show for
my efforts, I realized I should have checked with the brethren to start
with.  I don't know all the details yet (the project is just beginning)
but I'm hearing that they'll want HTML Help displayed in Spanish and
Russian, and maybe Chinese.  Will FrameMaker 7.0 and WebWorks 9.2 handle
all the different characters and number, currency, and date formats
associated with these languages?  And can these languages be displayed
okay in HTML Help?



Thanks!

Ed Lightle
Sr. Technical Writer
Command Alkon
614-799-0600 ext. 5225
www.commandalkon.com
  

Can HTML Help Display in Other Languages (like Russian)?

[Kelly McDaniel]

The brethren and cistern, you mean.

-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces+kmcdaniel=pavtech@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+kmcdaniel=pavtech.com at lists.frameusers.com] On
Behalf Of Ed Lightle
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 1:48 PM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Can HTML Help Display in Other Languages (like Russian)?

Hi, Framers.



After spending the morning Googling this topic with not much to show for
my efforts, I realized I should have checked with the brethren to start
with.  I don't know all the details yet (the project is just beginning)
but I'm hearing that they'll want HTML Help displayed in Spanish and
Russian, and maybe Chinese.  Will FrameMaker 7.0 and WebWorks 9.2 handle
all the different characters and number, currency, and date formats
associated with these languages?  And can these languages be displayed
okay in HTML Help?



Thanks!

Ed Lightle
Sr. Technical Writer
Command Alkon
614-799-0600 ext. 5225
www.commandalkon.com
  



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Can HTML Help Display in Other Languages (like Russian)?

[Combs, Richard]

Kelly McDaniel wrote:

> The brethren and cistern, you mean.

I don't think you really mean cistern. 

Richard


--
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
--
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
--

Can HTML Help Display in Other Languages (like Russian)?

[Gagne, Bernard (Bolton)]

WebWorks 9.2's inability to handle Russian and Chinese (among many
others) was the chief reason my company abandoned it as a solution for
HTML Help. It worked just fine with standard Latin character based
languages, but we also needed a solution that worked with Cyrillic,
Greek, and Asian languages.
I would not recommend it.

Berny Gagne
Lead Writer
Husky Injection Molding Systems Ltd.
Bolton, Ontario, Canada



-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces+bgagne=husky...@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+bgagne=husky.ca at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf
Of Ed Lightle
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 2:48 PM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Can HTML Help Display in Other Languages (like Russian)?

Hi, Framers.



After spending the morning Googling this topic with not much to show for
my efforts, I realized I should have checked with the brethren to start
with.  I don't know all the details yet (the project is just beginning)
but I'm hearing that they'll want HTML Help displayed in Spanish and
Russian, and maybe Chinese.  Will FrameMaker 7.0 and WebWorks 9.2 handle
all the different characters and number, currency, and date formats
associated with these languages?  And can these languages be displayed
okay in HTML Help?



Thanks!

Ed Lightle
Sr. Technical Writer
Command Alkon
614-799-0600 ext. 5225
www.commandalkon.com
  



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radical revamping of techpubs

[Technical Writer]

Exactly. And that is in the province of the developer, the programmers, and the 
GUI designers. Using TW to cover up poor design and inadequate programming is 
not particularly useful for anyone.http://www.tekwrytrs.com/Specializing in the 
Design, Development, and Production of:Technical Documentation - Online Content 
- Enterprise Websites> Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:08:58 -0700> From: athloi at 
yahoo.com> Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs> To: rinnie1 at 
yahoo.com; tekwrytr at hotmail.com; framers at lists.frameusers.com> > As users 
become more technically savvy, they become less dependent on> vague manuals and 
more interested in software with a smooth, intuitive,> powerful interface and 
reliable function. See blog post on this issue:> > 
http://user-advocacy.blogspot.com/2007/10/users-replacing-specialists-in-it-and.html>
 > --- Rene Stephenson  wrote:> > > The involvement of 
TW/doc mgr early on is not initially> > for writing the doc as muc as it is for 
user advocacy, sanity checks> > of UIS or other specs from a user-driven 
perspective, as well as> > getting buy-in and resource allocation far enough in 
advance that> > creating a remotely usable document is at all feasible. The 
later> > the TW is inserted into the process, the harder it is to create> > 
anything better than basic functionally-driven documents.> > > > > 
http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/> technical writing | consulting | 
development> > __> Do You 
Yahoo!?> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > 
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FM Book to PDF issue

[Valerie Lipow]

Setting the Tagged PDF feature to "ON" in the Acrobat Settings dialog will
solve the problem. I verified this with Adobe Tech Support. The failure to
distill a book to PDF is a known issue with FM 8, which occurs regardless of
whether the book is created in Structured or Unstructured FM. It is
recommended that everyone use this work-around, or distill each file in the
book individually, until Adobe releases a patch.

-- 
Valerie Lipow
vallipow at gmail.com

On 10/30/07, Art Campbell  wrote:
>
> Try turning Tagged PDF ON in your settings, and make sure that all
> files are open on your desktop.
>
> Also, SaveAs may not be the best way to generate it. I would Print to
> the PDF logical  printer...
>
> Art
>
> On 10/29/07, Gutierrez, Dorianne 
> wrote:
> > I cannot generate a PDF from a FrameMaker 8.0 book, although I can PDF
> > the individual files with or without bookmarks. I am using Windows
> > Vista, Adobe Acrobat 8.0, Distiller 8.0, and I set the printer to Adobe
> > PDF before saving as PDF. The distiller tries the first file in the
> > book, then chokes. Any suggestions?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Dorianne Elitharp Gutierrez
> > Senior Technical Writer
> > Polaris Library Systems
> > PO Box 4903
> > Syracuse NY 13221-4903
> > (direct) 315-634-4519
> > 800-272-3414
> > http://www.polarislibrary.com
> > mailto:dorianne.gutierrez at polarislibrary.com
> >
> --
> Art Campbell
> art.campbell at gmail.com
>   "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent
>and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson
>  No disclaimers apply.
>  DoD 358
> ___
>
>
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>
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>
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>
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> http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
>

radical revamping of techpubs

[Chris Borokowski]

A product can have good design, and good programming, and still be
inadequate for users.

How can that be, you ask?

Technically speaking, it may be doing what its creators think it
should, and it may be well-created. It may be disorganized, and it may
not address the user's needs, and that's where TWs come in.

We are the only group who sees the application, from start to finish,
from a user perspective. Therefore we are able to offer sanity checks:

- This interface doesn't make sense.
- Although the app is well-designed, in this context it becomes slow or
crashes, and in our view, users will come this way often.
- The task we're designing this for is too narrow/too broad.

--- Technical Writer  wrote:

> Exactly. And that is in the province of the developer, the
> programmers, and the GUI designers. Using TW to cover up poor design
> and inadequate programming is not particularly useful for
> anyone.

http://technical-writing.dionysius.com/
technical writing | consulting | development

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radical revamping of techpubs

[Leslie H Schwartz]

There is no such trend. Signing off on this conversation. Your welcome to the 
last word on it.


- Original Message 
From: Technical Writer 
To: Leslie Schwartz ; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 8:52:21 AM
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs

The experience of one person, or even a handful, do not in any way negate an 
obvious and growing trend in the software industry--directly related to "agile" 
development--to consider TW involvement as pointless until the final iteration. 

Yes, there are organizations that still do business as they did 20 or 30 years 
ago, just as there are still organizations using COBOL, SNOBOL, and other odd 
applications. If their system works, more power to them, and to the TWs they 
employ.

The difference is in whether or not the organization is developing software, or 
creating an application that "implements the vision" of a handful of movers and 
shakers at the top. That handful can do as they please, whether or not it is of 
long-term benefit to the organization. For software developed in a competitive 
marketplace, the role of the TW is rapidly changing to a diminished involvement.



http://www.tekwrytrs.com/
Specializing in the Design, Development, and Production of:
Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites





From: lhs_...@pacbell.net
To: tekwrytr at hotmail.com; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:14:18 -0500


This may be your experience, in my experience in fact there is no IF about it, 
I just put it that way to be gentile.

Our documents pre-sage multi-mullion dollar contracts (at each stage of the 
project) and there is always plenty of fuzzy concepts to go around at the early 
stages. No documents, no contracts. 

TWs and in particular the directors, managers are involved at these stages. 
Documentation is a 100% necessary adjunct to business development from the 
outset.

From: Technical Writer [mailto:tekwr...@hotmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 8:29 PM
To: Leslie H Schwartz; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs

That is a very big if. A full partner participant-stakeholder, or more likely 
the department manager? It is more likely that the software developers, 
business analysts, and the project manager are collaborating to get a decent 
set of requirements down. At that stage, TWs have no place, whether department 
managers, full partner participant-stakeholders, or something else.

When the requirements are determined, and possibly after several iterations, 
possibly after a prototype is up and running, TWs might be brought in. Even at 
that stage, it is early, because the GUI crew may not have the interface coded, 
the developers might not have the functionality carved in stone, and everything 
is still uncertain (in regards to exactly what the final product will be and 
do).

TWs complete a very necessary task; creating user assistance. Until the final 
iteration, until all the requirements have been met, until there is little or 
no possibility of changes to the end product, there is little point in 
generating documentation that might become obsolete at the next iteration.



http://www.tekwrytrs.com/
Specializing in the Design, Development, and Production of:
Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites





Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:26:46 -0700
From: lhs_...@pacbell.net
Subject: Re: radical revamping of techpubs
To: tekwrytr at hotmail.com
CC: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Actually, I disagee, if the TW is a full partner participant - stakeholder, or 
more likely the department manager in the scenario you are discussing, they 
should also participate early on to get the sense of the uncertainty and what 
those issues are, at the very least these issues are going to affect their 
scheduling and the expectations they have to deal with.
- Original Message 
From: Technical Writer 
To: Leslie Schwartz ; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 8:44:16 AM
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs

I agree wholeheartedly. That is not the issue. The issue goes back to the BA 
interpretation of (and translation of) the software requirements. If there is a 
high level of certainty on the client side about what the finished product 
should be, TWs should start early. If not, and it is essentially a fishing 
expedition with ambiguous outcome, TWs are only useful at the last. 
Unfortunately, the "agile" methodologies strongly sell the sense of control to 
executives, pushing the idea that they can develop on the fly, adding and 
removing "requirements" as the executives see fit. 


http://www.tekwrytrs.com/
Specializing in the Design, Development, and Production of:
Technical Documentation - Online Content - Enterprise Websites

> From: lhs_emf at pacbell.net
> To: tekwrytr at hotmail.com; 

radical revamping of techpubs

[Susan Modlin]

I've followed this thread with interest, even though it has precious little to 
do with FrameMaker. 

My perspective differs somewhat from what I've seen so far in the discussion. 
I've been working in and with agile development groups as a writer or doc 
manager since late in the last century. When I first heard about agile, I 
thought it was the devil's spawn, but it hasn't turned out that way at all. In 
my experience, a writer in a well-run agile environment can be involved from 
day one of the first iteration all the way through to delivery of a final 
product -- and not just writing and rewriting the same stuff over and over 
again. In fact, I find that I don't spend as much time
writing as I once did. However, as an integral part of the development
organization, I have no shortage of interesting and impactful (terrible
word) tasks on my plate. 

As a side note, I'm a certified (and very interested) scrum master. 

...Susan 

- Original Message  
From: Technical Writer 
To: Leslie Schwartz ; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 8:52:21 AM
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs

The experience of one person, or even a handful, do not in any way
 negate an obvious and growing trend in the software industry--directly
 related to "agile" development--to consider TW involvement as pointless
 until the final iteration. 





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radical revamping of techpubs

[Rene Stephenson]

Agreed.
Rene

Susan Modlin  wrote: I've been working in and with agile 
development groups as a writer or doc manager since late in the last century. 
When I first heard about agile, I thought it was the devil's spawn, but it 
hasn't turned out that way at all. In my experience, a writer in a well-run 
agile environment can be involved from day one of the first iteration all the 
way through to delivery of a final product -- and not just writing and 
rewriting the same stuff over and over again. In fact, I find that I don't 
spend as much time
writing as I once did. However, as an integral part of the development
organization, I have no shortage of interesting and impactful (terrible
word) tasks on my plate. 

...Susan 

- Original Message  
From: Technical Writer 
To: Leslie Schwartz ; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 8:52:21 AM
Subject: RE: radical revamping of techpubs

The experience of one person, or even a handful, do not in any way
 negate an obvious and growing trend in the software industry--directly
 related to "agile" development--to consider TW involvement as pointless
 until the final iteration. 

Questions on viewing conditional text

[Tammy Van Boening]

Brad,

Make sure to turn off your condition indicators before printing to PDF
(an option in the Show/Hide Conditional Text dialog box).

Make sure to apply the conditional text setting to the entire paragraph
tagged as a bullet, including the paragraph indicator/marker itself.

TVB

Tammy Van Boening
Senior Technical Writer 
Health Language, Inc. 
Office: +1 (303) 307-4400 x254 
www.healthlanguage.com 


-Original Message-
From:
framers-bounces+tammy.vanboening=healthlanguage.com at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+tammy.vanboening=healthlanguage.com at lists.frameu
sers.com] On Behalf Of Brad Simmons
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 10:37 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Questions on viewing conditional text

Hello fellow FM users,

I'm delving into the world of conditional text for the first time since
I started using FrameMaker, and I've encountered a couple of unforseen
problems. I'm wondering if someone knows how to work around these?

1. First, I've marked the two versions of my manual with two different
colors. This is quite handy when I'm working with my file before I've
printed it. However, when I went to make the .PDF, I was surprised to
find that it preserved these colors in the PDF! I didn't want it to do
that - I want my conditional text to look like regular text. 

First Question: Is there any way I can specify that the colors are
viewed on the screen only, and not in the final outputted document?

2. Second, I've specified a number of bulleted items as conditional
text. FM had no problem making the text conditional, but it completely
ignored the bullets themselves, and thus I have bullets hanging out on
the page with no text after them. This looks pretty weird.

Second question: Is there a way to specify to FM that the bullets have
to be included with the conditional text?

Thanks,

Brad Simmons
Technical Writer
Ag-Leader Technology
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