Odd cross-ref substitution 7.2

[David Kuhn]

Generally I sing the praises about how much more stable Frame's
cross-references are than Word.

I just had a really odd occurrence, though, which I need to understand.

I removed a heading which was the link destination of several
cross-references.

When I searched for broken cross-references, none were found.

Instead the cross-reference retained it's old label (expected) but
linked to a nearby heading instead.

This is obviously dangerous.

Any ideas about what could cause this and how to prevent it?



David Kuhn
Technical Writer, PBG


+1.972.9.776.1956 (desk)
+1.972.54.307.8987 (mobile)

AMDOCS > CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SYSTEMS INNOVATION




This message and the information contained herein is proprietary and 
confidential and subject to the Amdocs policy statement,
you may review at http://www.amdocs.com/email_disclaimer.asp

Odd cross-ref substitution 7.2

[Rick Quatro]

Hi David,

I assume you are working with unstructured FrameMaker. Apparently, when you 
removed the heading, you did not remove the Cross-Ref marker that was in the 
heading paragraph. The marker ended up in the hearby heading. Thus, the 
cross-reference was not unresolved, but still pointed to that marker.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing Inc
585-659-8267
www.frameexpert.com


> Generally I sing the praises about how much more stable Frame's
> cross-references are than Word.
>
> I just had a really odd occurrence, though, which I need to understand.
>
> I removed a heading which was the link destination of several
> cross-references.
>
> When I searched for broken cross-references, none were found.
>
> Instead the cross-reference retained it's old label (expected) but
> linked to a nearby heading instead.
>
> This is obviously dangerous.
>
> Any ideas about what could cause this and how to prevent it?
>
> David Kuhn
> Technical Writer, PBG
>
> +1.972.9.776.1956 (desk)
> +1.972.54.307.8987 (mobile)
>
> AMDOCS > CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SYSTEMS INNOVATION

Odd cross-ref substitution 7.2

[Combs, Richard]

David Kuhn wrote: 

> I removed a heading which was the link destination of several
> cross-references.
> 
> When I searched for broken cross-references, none were found.
> 
> Instead the cross-reference retained it's old label (expected) but
> linked to a nearby heading instead.
>
> This is obviously dangerous.
> 
> Any ideas about what could cause this and how to prevent it?

By "nearby," you mean adjacent, right? Rick explained about the marker,
but permit me to make a larger point. 

I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the reason you didn't know about the
marker is because you work with View > Text Symbols turned off. Many
Framers seem to work that way. 

*That*, IMHO, is obviously dangerous. It's far too easy to delete
something you didn't intend to -- or, as in your case, fail to delete
something you did intend to. 

I can't _imagine_ editing without being able to see everything I'm
editing (x-ref markers, index markers, pilcrows, etc). The only time I
turn off Text Symbols and Borders (with one click, thanks to my
Microtype-enhanced toolbar) is when I want to see how the page will look
when printed/PDFed.

"It's my opinion and it's very true." ;-)

Richard


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

Odd cross-ref substitution 7.2

[David Kuhn]

I do actually work with Text Symbols showing except, as you do, for a
Print preview. (I suppose it's possible that I couldn't resist an edit
in this mode, however.)

The cross-reference markers tend to overlap the first character in a
heading and I find it very difficult to believe that I selected the
section and text under it, but missed the marker. Though it must have
happened as a fluke of cursor positioning. 

But even with the text symbols showing, this would have been difficult
to see, a marker that overlaps a character jumping to the next heading.

I do have a larger issue, though with the symbols. 
Sometimes I find it very difficult to tell what they are doing there.
The upside down T is conditional text.
The right-side up T is a cross-reference marker.
(I forget about the index.)
But other than that, aren't there some additional functions of markers
in which the same symbol can be used for different things?
How do you distinguish?

There was a document that I couldn't identify what purpose particular
markers served. The writer decided, then, to delete all the markers in
the document. I couldn't believe it (even more that he reported no
problems with cross-references afterward.)

In short, is there a way to select a marker and find out what it is
doing?



David Kuhn
Technical Writer, PBG


+1.972.9.776.1956 (desk)
+1.972.54.307.8987 (mobile)

AMDOCS > CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE SYSTEMS INNOVATION


-Original Message-
From: Combs, Richard [mailto:richard.co...@polycom.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 5:26 PM
To: David Kuhn; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Odd cross-ref substitution 7.2

David Kuhn wrote: 

> I removed a heading which was the link destination of several
> cross-references.
> 
> When I searched for broken cross-references, none were found.
> 
> Instead the cross-reference retained it's old label (expected) but
> linked to a nearby heading instead.
>
> This is obviously dangerous.
> 
> Any ideas about what could cause this and how to prevent it?

By "nearby," you mean adjacent, right? Rick explained about the marker,
but permit me to make a larger point. 

I'll bet dollars to doughnuts that the reason you didn't know about the
marker is because you work with View > Text Symbols turned off. Many
Framers seem to work that way. 

*That*, IMHO, is obviously dangerous. It's far too easy to delete
something you didn't intend to -- or, as in your case, fail to delete
something you did intend to. 

I can't _imagine_ editing without being able to see everything I'm
editing (x-ref markers, index markers, pilcrows, etc). The only time I
turn off Text Symbols and Borders (with one click, thanks to my
Microtype-enhanced toolbar) is when I want to see how the page will look
when printed/PDFed.

"It's my opinion and it's very true." ;-)

Richard


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







This message and the information contained herein is proprietary and 
confidential and subject to the Amdocs policy statement,
you may review at http://www.amdocs.com/email_disclaimer.asp

Reference graphic to Character format

[Grinnell Larry-ELG001]

I've used custom fonts developed by my organization, originally in
Fontographer and now Asia FontStudio (owned by FontLab, who also now
owns Fontographer--being marketed as an entry-level product), and want
to say it's a very slippery slope. One one hand, the custom fonts make
it really easy for the writers to place inline graphics in their
documents, and as long as they have been properly authored, they work
great with our printers. We've been doing this for about 18 years, and
it is really a great solution for print/PDF oriented content. We like
the solution so much that we have developed almost 250 of these custom
fonts. 

The slippery slope factor comes in when you:

1. Have to deal with the huge quantity of fonts you have to install in
your system, bogging it down and making a naturally unstable environment
(Windows) even more unstable.
2. Have to manage all these custom fonts in a structured publishing
environment (like Structured FrameMaker)where each new font requires
editing of the DTD and EDD.
3. Need to repurpose your content for HTML or other like formats. Custom
(vector) fonts don't work in a rasterized online world. You need to find
a way to substitute back in either a vector-based graphic which can be
auto-scaled in products like ePublisher or even FrameMaker's very flawed
Save-As-HTML function, or substitute a raster file (JPEG) for each
occurrence of a custom font character. We are looking at several very
expensive solutions to permit us to offer HTML and similar deliverables
(you don't want to know what we do and how much we currently spend to
convert a document to HTML).

Larry Grinnell
954.723.8914

-
Message: 27
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:13:03 -0700
From: "Matt Sullivan" 
Subject: RE: Reference graphic to Character format
To: "'Robert Rogge'" ,   "'Framer's List'"

Message-ID: <20080912211302.CA9311CAC147 at smtp-b.omnis.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;   charset="iso-8859-1"

A common solution would be to create a font (Fontographer, etc.) that
contains your graphics assigned to individual characters. Use the
appropriate letter, apply the character format, and you are done.
(assuming
you can output the font wherever needed...)

-Matt Sullivan
GRAFIX Training, Inc.
714 960 6840

Acrobat displays only B/W

[Stuart Rogers]

Win XP SP2
Acrobat Pro 6.0
Dell Precision 360, Pentium 4, 3 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, 14GB free disk space
on C: drive

All of a sudden my Acrobat Pro 6 has lost the ability to display colour.
  All PDFs I open, whether created on my PC or downloaded from other
sources (and known to be colour documents), display in black and white
only.  Printing these docs from Acrobat works fine -- colour as expected.

Cold or warm reboot does not help.

Have I accidentally hit a keyboard shortcut that turned off colour?  Any
other ideas?  I looked through all the Preferences, but I don't see 
anything that looks likely.  Other than that, I don't know where to 
start  :-(

Thanks for any suggestions...

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap
between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were
instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish
squirting out ink."

? George Orwell

Odd cross-ref substitution 7.2

[Combs, Richard]

David Kuhn wrote: 

> In short, is there a way to select a marker and find out what it is
> doing?

You can select one just like a single character, but it's a bit
trickier, and there may be multiple markers "on top of each other." So
do it this way: 

1) Open the Marker dialog (Special > Marker). 

2) In the document, put the cursor somewhere before the marker(s) in
which you're interested.

3) Open the Find/Change dialog, set Find to Any Marker, and click Find.
The first marker found is selected, and the Marker dialog shows you the
Marker Type and Marker Text. 

4) Click Find again to advance to the next marker. Rinse and repeat. 

HTH!
Richard


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

Odd cross-ref substitution 7.2

[martin.sm...@golehtek.com]

This discussion got me thinking.

It would be fairly easy to write a FrameScript plugin that detects  
whether or not you are about to kill off a marker when you delete or  
replace text. A dialog box could give you the option of deleting or  
keeping the marker.

I think I'm going to take a crack at coding that and will post it on  
my web site in a week or so, along with the other freely-available  
scripts posted there.

Best regards,

Martin

Martin R. Smith
www.golehtek.com

Acrobat displays only B/W

[Dov Isaacs]

Stuart,

Ironically, Acrobat has never had any "black and white display mode."
Congratulations, you've invented a new feature for an old product.

However, Acrobat does have an "accessibility" display feature (although
I don't recall how many versions back that went - Acrobat 6 is over 5
years old now - current version is Acrobat 9). CTRL-K and then go for the
accessibility pane or if there isn't one, wander through the various
preferences to see if you somehow toggled the accessibility display feature
on. This feature allows customization of Acrobat's display screen for users
with vision problems and one or more of those modes could be monochromatic.
Let us know if that was it.

- Dov

> -Original Message-
> From: Stuart Rogers
> Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 8:07 AM
>
> Win XP SP2
> Acrobat Pro 6.0
> Dell Precision 360, Pentium 4, 3 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, 14GB free disk space
> on C: drive
>
> All of a sudden my Acrobat Pro 6 has lost the ability to display colour.
>   All PDFs I open, whether created on my PC or downloaded from other
> sources (and known to be colour documents), display in black and white
> only.  Printing these docs from Acrobat works fine -- colour as expected.
>
> Cold or warm reboot does not help.
>
> Have I accidentally hit a keyboard shortcut that turned off colour?  Any
> other ideas?  I looked through all the Preferences, but I don't see
> anything that looks likely.  Other than that, I don't know where to
> start  :-(
>
> Thanks for any suggestions...
>
> --
> Stuart Rogers

SOLVED Re: Acrobat displays only B/W

[Stuart Rogers]

Art Campbell wrote:
> Have you checked your video card drivers lately, to make sure they're
> up to date?
> 
> Art
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 
> 2008/9/15 Stuart Rogers :
>> Win XP SP2
>> Acrobat Pro 6.0
>> Dell Precision 360, Pentium 4, 3 GHz, 1.5 GB RAM, 14GB free disk space
>> on C: drive
>>
>> All of a sudden my Acrobat Pro 6 has lost the ability to display colour.
>>  All PDFs I open, whether created on my PC or downloaded from other
>> sources (and known to be colour documents), display in black and white
>> only.  Printing these docs from Acrobat works fine -- colour as expected.
>>
>> Cold or warm reboot does not help.
>>
>> Have I accidentally hit a keyboard shortcut that turned off colour?  Any
>> other ideas?  I looked through all the Preferences, but I don't see
>> anything that looks likely.  Other than that, I don't know where to
>> start  :-(
>>
>> Thanks for any suggestions...
>>


Thanks Art, I tried your suggestion and indeed found a newer driver, but 
that did not fix the problem.  Then I tried Detect and Repair from the 
Help menu, and that did not fix the problem.  However, it made me pull 
out my installation CD, and while the "repair" was being carried out, I 
glanced idly through the Getting Started Guide.  And there I saw a 
mention of Preflight and CMYK separations (stuff I never use), and I 
thought hm, maybe I'm somehow seeing just the K separation???

Turns out that at some point I had attempted a Redo command by using 
Control-Y -- the opposite of Control-Z in most applications, but NOT in 
Acrobat.  Control-Y toggles "Proof Colors" and when you turn it ON, your 
colours go OFF.  Really intuitive, Adobe, thanks ;-)

Seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses once again,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap 
between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were 
instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish 
squirting out ink."

? George Orwell

Odd cross-ref substitution 7.2

[Rick Quatro]

Hi David,

One small tip that may be helpful: when you triple-click a paragraph, you 
are sure to select the entire paragraph, including any markers that it may 
contain. If you hold down the shift key and click any additional paragraphs, 
you will be selecting entire paragraphs as well.

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing Inc
585-659-8267
www.frameexpert.com

> The cross-reference markers tend to overlap the first character in a
> heading and I find it very difficult to believe that I selected the
> section and text under it, but missed the marker. Though it must have
> happened as a fluke of cursor positioning.

Total Page Count on Title Page

[Hales-Crotchett, Nicole]

Hi all,



My manager requested that I add a total page count on the title page for
a book and I'm running into a hitch. FM help file shows a way to do this
with consecutive numbering for each chapter, but we use modified
MIL-Spec here - i.e., each page number consists of a chapter and the
page number, and restarts for each chapter. Any suggestions? I'm using
Frame 7.1 if that matters.



-Nicole 

Total Page Count on Title Page

[David Spreadbury]

Nicole,
I haven't done it, but, according to the book, the Page Count variable 
(<$lastpagenum>), without the parens, should work.
?
Try putting that in your footer, or wherever on the cover, and see what it 
gives you.
?
You should be able to put it anywhere, except on a Master Page.

--- On Mon, 9/15/08, Hales-Crotchett, Nicole  wrote:

From: Hales-Crotchett, Nicole 
Subject: Total Page Count on Title Page
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Date: Monday, September 15, 2008, 1:24 PM

Hi all,



My manager requested that I add a total page count on the title page for
a book and I'm running into a hitch. FM help file shows a way to do this
with consecutive numbering for each chapter, but we use modified
MIL-Spec here - i.e., each page number consists of a chapter and the
page number, and restarts for each chapter. Any suggestions? I'm using
Frame 7.1 if that matters.



-Nicole 





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InDesign as a replacement for Framemaker

[mulholland4]

Hi Peter,
 I sent an email to Art and received a very good reply which I think answers
all of my questions (I have pasted them in the lower section of this email.)
 My original reason for asking about InDesign as a replacement for
Framemaker was that I have been asked by a new manager to dispose of
Framemaker and transfer all writing tasks, 700 page User Guides, and various
other docs to InDesign. The problem I am worried about is that we use a lot
of cross references throughout the chapters and books and have a large
fairly comprehensive Index. I also use conditional text to output several
versions of the same doc. Can this be done in InDesign? And what about
generating a help system for InDesign, is it possible?

I believe that Art answered all of these questions, but feel free to make
any other comments or suggestions.

Thanks for the help
Mulholand

Here are Art's comments:
<< I've moved books & files from FM to InDesign CS3, and unless there's
something else going on that the manager didn't share with you or you
didn't present in your email, this is going to be a Bad Idea of large
tarbaby proportions...

InDesign is great for short docs, or even books, that require a lot of
individual formatting and exceptions to the base template or master
pages. It was designed as a PageMaker replacement, and it fulfills
that role very nicely. It's a nice program.

Frame was designed to handle large books, multiple documents, and doc
sets that basically use the same type or set of page layouts in order
to produce a uniform look and feel. Essentially the 700 page User
Guide scenario that you present.

You can do the conversion (maybe -- depends on the input) by using a
third party plug in, or by writing out FM files as RTF and importing
them into ID. And you're unlikely to be able to bring in graphics
transparently.

But you're going to lose lots of functionality that's going to be made
up by vastly increasing man hours. You mentioned a few: conditional
text, inter-book cross refs, decent indexing, especially indexing that
spans books or volumes, and the ability to go to online help. Some of
this may have changed since I last had to do this about 6 months ago,
but it'd only change because a third party brought out a better ID
plug in. Which would cost money and be another company to deal with
for support and updates and integration.

Unless you guys have money and manpower to burn, I'd try to find out
the reasoning behind the proposed switch before you try to
implement There's a chance that the manager is way behind the
times and still listening to the FM is dead rumors... which were bogus
a few years or so ago and are more so now. FM is Adobe's XML editor
choice, and they're pouring resources into it.

>From what you've mentioned, implementing the Tech Comm Suite would be
a better solution than ID. >>

Fin

Total Page Count on Title Page

[Hales-Crotchett, Nicole]

Hi David,



Tried that - it only reflects a page count for that individual file, not
for the entire book. 



-Nicole





From: David Spreadbury [mailto:dspre...@yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 11:45 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com; Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
Subject: Re: Total Page Count on Title Page



Nicole,

I haven't done it, but, according to the book, the Page Count variable
(<$lastpagenum>), without the parens, should work.



Try putting that in your footer, or wherever on the cover, and see what
it gives you.



You should be able to put it anywhere, except on a Master Page.

--- On Mon, 9/15/08, Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
 wrote:

Total Page Count on Title Page

[David Spreadbury]

Nicole,
You are right. I totally missed that.
?
If you are delivering PDFs, you could put a footer on the PDF that includes the 
total page count.
?
I just tried it and the only limitation is you can put the current page number 
or current page number of x pages, where x is the total page count of the PDF, 
i.e., Page 1 of 104 or 1/104. There are three different variants, 1/104, Page 1 
of 104, or 1 of 104.
?
This is using Acrobat Professional 8.1.2.
?


--- On Mon, 9/15/08, Hales-Crotchett, Nicole  wrote:

From: Hales-Crotchett, Nicole 
Subject: RE: Total Page Count on Title Page
To: dspreadb at yahoo.com, framers at lists.frameusers.com
Date: Monday, September 15, 2008, 1:58 PM








Hi David,
?
Tried that ? it only reflects a page count for that individual file, not for 
the entire book. 
?
-Nicole
?




From: David Spreadbury [mailto:dspre...@yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 11:45 AM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com; Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
Subject: Re: Total Page Count on Title Page
?





Nicole,

I haven't done it, but, according to the book, the Page Count variable 
(<$lastpagenum>), without the parens, should work.

?

Try putting that in your footer, or wherever on the cover, and see what it 
gives you.

?

You should be able to put it anywhere, except on a Master Page.

--- On Mon, 9/15/08, Hales-Crotchett, Nicole  wrote:
 ?
?

Total Page Count on Title Page

[Art Campbell]

On the last page of the book, create a unique tag.

Where you want the last page count/number to display, insert a
cross-ref to the tag, using the Page building block.
Update the book

Art


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



On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 2:24 PM, Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
 wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>
>
> My manager requested that I add a total page count on the title page for
> a book and I'm running into a hitch. FM help file shows a way to do this
> with consecutive numbering for each chapter, but we use modified
> MIL-Spec here - i.e., each page number consists of a chapter and the
> page number, and restarts for each chapter. Any suggestions? I'm using
> Frame 7.1 if that matters.
>
>
>
> -Nicole
>

Total Page Count on Title Page

[Combs, Richard]

Art Campbell wrote:

> On the last page of the book, create a unique tag.
> 
> Where you want the last page count/number to display, insert a
> cross-ref to the tag, using the Page building block.
> Update the book

Nope. Nicole said this is a folio-numbered book (chapter-page). If by
Page building block, you mean <$pagenum>, that will just give you the
number of the last page in the last file -- "4" if it's a 4-page index.
If you're thinking of an xref format named Page, in a folio-numbered
book that's probably defined as <$chapnum>-<$pagenum> -- maybe "IX-4"
for that index.

For a quick solution, David's idea of adding it in Acrobat will work.
Or, heck, use Acrobat to determine the page count, then add it in FM and
re-PDF. 

A longer-term, more extensible solution probably involves a script or
plugin. In fact, I vaguely recall there being a FrameScript script to do
this, but don't have time to track it down at the moment. 

HTH!
Richard


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

Total Page Count on Title Page

[Art Campbell]

I'm sorry -- I didn't comprehend what I was reading in your initial
message. Mondays 

Look at the Rick Quatro's BookPageCount plugin. (www.frameexpert.com)

Art

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



On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 3:31 PM, Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
 wrote:
> Seems to only capture the number of pages in that file, not the total
> page count of the book.
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Art Campbell [mailto:art.campbell at gmail.com]
> Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 12:16 PM
> To: Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
> Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Subject: Re: Total Page Count on Title Page
>
> On the last page of the book, create a unique tag.
>
> Where you want the last page count/number to display, insert a
> cross-ref to the tag, using the Page building block.
> Update the book
>
> Art
>
>
> 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
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 2:24 PM, Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
>  wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>>
>>
>> My manager requested that I add a total page count on the title page
> for
>> a book and I'm running into a hitch. FM help file shows a way to do
> this
>> with consecutive numbering for each chapter, but we use modified
>> MIL-Spec here - i.e., each page number consists of a chapter and the
>> page number, and restarts for each chapter. Any suggestions? I'm using
>> Frame 7.1 if that matters.
>>
>>
>>
>> -Nicole
>>
>

Total Page Count on Title Page

[Hales-Crotchett, Nicole]

Thanks Richard, yes, this helps. I'll be going the PDF route most
likely.

Cheers,
Nicole

-Original Message-
From: Combs, Richard [mailto:richard.co...@polycom.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 12:43 PM
To: Art Campbell; Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Total Page Count on Title Page

Art Campbell wrote:

> On the last page of the book, create a unique tag.
> 
> Where you want the last page count/number to display, insert a
> cross-ref to the tag, using the Page building block.
> Update the book

Nope. Nicole said this is a folio-numbered book (chapter-page). If by
Page building block, you mean <$pagenum>, that will just give you the
number of the last page in the last file -- "4" if it's a 4-page index.
If you're thinking of an xref format named Page, in a folio-numbered
book that's probably defined as <$chapnum>-<$pagenum> -- maybe "IX-4"
for that index.

For a quick solution, David's idea of adding it in Acrobat will work.
Or, heck, use Acrobat to determine the page count, then add it in FM and
re-PDF. 

A longer-term, more extensible solution probably involves a script or
plugin. In fact, I vaguely recall there being a FrameScript script to do
this, but don't have time to track it down at the moment. 

HTH!
Richard


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

Total Page Count on Title Page

[Charlie Kyle]

Here a shortcut for the PDF if you have Acrobat Professional. In FM put
some placeholder text on the cover such as Page count: 999. Open the PDF
in Professional, select Tools \ Advanced Editing \ Touchup Text Tool,
and change 999 to the correct page count. Sometimes there are problems
with fonts, but its worth a shot.

Charlie Kyle 

-Original Message-
From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of
Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 12:52 PM
To: Combs, Richard; Art Campbell
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Total Page Count on Title Page

Thanks Richard, yes, this helps. I'll be going the PDF route most
likely.

Cheers,
Nicole

-Original Message-
From: Combs, Richard [mailto:richard.co...@polycom.com]
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 12:43 PM
To: Art Campbell; Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Total Page Count on Title Page

Art Campbell wrote:

> On the last page of the book, create a unique tag.
> 
> Where you want the last page count/number to display, insert a 
> cross-ref to the tag, using the Page building block.
> Update the book

Nope. Nicole said this is a folio-numbered book (chapter-page). If by
Page building block, you mean <$pagenum>, that will just give you the
number of the last page in the last file -- "4" if it's a 4-page index.
If you're thinking of an xref format named Page, in a folio-numbered
book that's probably defined as <$chapnum>-<$pagenum> -- maybe "IX-4"
for that index.

For a quick solution, David's idea of adding it in Acrobat will work.
Or, heck, use Acrobat to determine the page count, then add it in FM and
re-PDF. 

A longer-term, more extensible solution probably involves a script or
plugin. In fact, I vaguely recall there being a FrameScript script to do
this, but don't have time to track it down at the moment. 

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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Total Page Count on Title Page

[Hales-Crotchett, Nicole]

Great tip, thanks!

-Original Message-
From: Charlie Kyle [mailto:charlie.k...@attachmate.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 1:06 PM
To: Hales-Crotchett, Nicole
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Total Page Count on Title Page

Here a shortcut for the PDF if you have Acrobat Professional. In FM put
some placeholder text on the cover such as Page count: 999. Open the PDF
in Professional, select Tools \ Advanced Editing \ Touchup Text Tool,
and change 999 to the correct page count. Sometimes there are problems
with fonts, but its worth a shot.

Charlie Kyle 

InDesign as a replacement for Framemaker

[Peter Gold]

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 1:51 PM, mulholland4  wrote:
> Hi Peter,
>  I sent an email to Art and received a very good reply which I think answers
> all of my questions (I have pasted them in the lower section of this email.)
>  My original reason for asking about InDesign as a replacement for
> Framemaker was that I have been asked by a new manager to dispose of
> Framemaker and transfer all writing tasks, 700 page User Guides, and various
> other docs to InDesign. The problem I am worried about is that we use a lot
> of cross references throughout the chapters and books and have a large
> fairly comprehensive Index.

I reviewed the DTP Tools Cross-Reference plug-in for InDesign CS2 and
CS3 for InDesign Magazine around last December's issue. You'd have to
buy the issue to see the whole review, but very briefly: It's on par
with FM's cross-reference ability, and in some ways a little better.

There's also a free cross-reference script that creates
page-number-only references, and a commercial cross-reference tool
from Virginia Systems that I didn't test.

> I also use conditional text to output several
> versions of the same doc. Can this be done in InDesign?

ID CS3 has no conditional text, and I'm not aware of a third-party
tool that offers it. The usual workaround is to create the different
versions of content on different layers, and show or hide them as
needed. It's not a good solution for content, product, or audience
variations in a single language, because you really are maintaining
multiple copies of the common content, and have to be careful to avoid
introducing unwanted differences when editing. This is much the same
effort as maintaining one separate file for each version.

For multiple languages, where all content, or at least all text
content, is translated in each variation, layers can work. Text wrap
(FM's Text Runaround object property) is smart about working through
layers, so showing/hiding different language layers with careful
planning may simplify handling graphics in each language) and, BTW, ID
wraps text around all sides of an object if you want, not just three
sides as FM does.

However, another approach is to use ID's XML ability to filter
marked-up XML content. Mostly XML is being used with ID for
variable-data publishing, and other automated production.

There's no dedicated DITA support in ID.

> And what about
> generating a help system for InDesign, is it possible?

There's no tightly-bound partner for help from ID, though again its
XML export is one way to implement help coupled with other third-party
tools. RTF export may be another possibility. I haven't heard anyone
claim to be doing this. Yet.

>
> I believe that Art answered all of these questions, but feel free to make
> any other comments or suggestions.
>
> Thanks for the help
> Mulholand
>
> Here are Art's comments:
> << I've moved books & files from FM to InDesign CS3, and unless there's
> something else going on that the manager didn't share with you or you
> didn't present in your email, this is going to be a Bad Idea of large
> tarbaby proportions...
>
> InDesign is great for short docs, or even books, that require a lot of
> individual formatting and exceptions to the base template or master
> pages. It was designed as a PageMaker replacement, and it fulfills
> that role very nicely. It's a nice program.
>
> Frame was designed to handle large books, multiple documents, and doc
> sets that basically use the same type or set of page layouts in order
> to produce a uniform look and feel. Essentially the 700 page User
> Guide scenario that you present.

ID has running header/footer variables, user-defined variables, master
pages (even master pages based on other master pages), multiple
numbering streams (1.1.1.1, and 1,A,ii,b, etc) for lists, figure
captions, etc, as FM has. Page and chapter numbering, footnotes, and
across-file numbering in books, are the same, but ID also can make
multi-page spreads with appropriate page numbers on left and right (or
on spreads of as many as ten pages) - FM can't. This isn't a common
need in technical docs, so it's not a biggie.

ID CS3 books are better than FM's in some ways, the same in some
others, and worse in a few others. ID book files are lists of files,
and instructions for processing them, like FM books. FM's cool feature
of showing filename or first paragraph content in the book list is a
good tool that ID lacks, but ID's Pages panel (like PageMaker's, if
you know PM) shows thumbnail views of the pages in the current file,
as well as identifying the master pages used on each page; you can
identify chapter-opener page thumbnails easily, which is mostly what
showing the first paragraph feature does. You can rearrange ID pages
by drag and drop (which isn't a good thing to do with one single long
text flow, but is useful for page-by-page layouts that need frequent
rearranging).

>
> You can do the conversion (maybe -- depends on the input) by using a
> third party plug in, or 

CORRECTION Re: InDesign as a replacement for Framemaker

[Peter Gold]

Ooops! I just caught a typo, an omission that reverses the meaning.
It's embedded in the body below, marked with *



>Thanks Peter!

You're welcome.

> i'll take some time to go over this carefully, but this will be a great help 
> to me!
> cheers
> Mulholland




On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 4:32 PM, Peter Gold  wrote:
On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 1:51 PM, mulholland4  wrote:
> Hi Peter,
>  I sent an email to Art and received a very good reply which I think answers
> all of my questions (I have pasted them in the lower section of this email.)
>  My original reason for asking about InDesign as a replacement for
> Framemaker was that I have been asked by a new manager to dispose of
> Framemaker and transfer all writing tasks, 700 page User Guides, and various
> other docs to InDesign. The problem I am worried about is that we use a lot
> of cross references throughout the chapters and books and have a large
> fairly comprehensive Index.

I reviewed the DTP Tools Cross-Reference plug-in for InDesign CS2 and
CS3 for InDesign Magazine around last December's issue. You'd have to
buy the issue to see the whole review, but very briefly: It's on par
with FM's cross-reference ability, and in some ways a little better.

There's also a free cross-reference script that creates
page-number-only references, and a commercial cross-reference tool
from Virginia Systems that I didn't test.

> I also use conditional text to output several
> versions of the same doc. Can this be done in InDesign?

ID CS3 has no conditional text, and I'm not aware of a third-party
tool that offers it. The usual workaround is to create the different
versions of content on different layers, and show or hide them as
needed. It's not a good solution for content, product, or audience
variations in a single language, because you really are maintaining
multiple copies of the common content, and have to be careful to avoid
introducing unwanted differences when editing. This is much the same
effort as maintaining one separate file for each version.

For multiple languages, where all content, or at least all text
content, is translated in each variation, layers can work. Text wrap
(FM's Text Runaround object property) is smart about working through
layers, so showing/hiding different language layers with careful
planning may simplify handling graphics in each language) and, BTW, ID
wraps text around all sides of an object if you want, not just three
sides as FM does.

However, another approach is to use ID's XML ability to filter
marked-up XML content. Mostly XML is being used with ID for
variable-data publishing, and other automated production.

There's no dedicated DITA support in ID.

> And what about
> generating a help system for InDesign, is it possible?

There's no tightly-bound partner for help from ID, though again its
XML export is one way to implement help coupled with other third-party
tools. RTF export may be another possibility. I haven't heard anyone
claim to be doing this. Yet.

>
> I believe that Art answered all of these questions, but feel free to make
> any other comments or suggestions.
>
> Thanks for the help
> Mulholand
>
> Here are Art's comments:
> << I've moved books & files from FM to InDesign CS3, and unless there's
> something else going on that the manager didn't share with you or you
> didn't present in your email, this is going to be a Bad Idea of large
> tarbaby proportions...
>
> InDesign is great for short docs, or even books, that require a lot of
> individual formatting and exceptions to the base template or master
> pages. It was designed as a PageMaker replacement, and it fulfills
> that role very nicely. It's a nice program.
>
> Frame was designed to handle large books, multiple documents, and doc
> sets that basically use the same type or set of page layouts in order
> to produce a uniform look and feel. Essentially the 700 page User
> Guide scenario that you present.

ID has running header/footer variables, user-defined variables, master
pages (even master pages based on other master pages), multiple
numbering streams (1.1.1.1, and 1,A,ii,b, etc) for lists, figure
captions, etc, as FM has. Page and chapter numbering, footnotes, and
across-file numbering in books, are the same, but ID also can make
multi-page spreads with appropriate page numbers on left and right (or
on spreads of as many as ten pages) - FM can't. This isn't a common
need in technical docs, so it's not a biggie.

ID CS3 books are better than FM's in some ways, the same in some
others, and worse in a few others. ID book files are lists of files,
and instructions for processing them, like FM books. FM's cool feature
of showing filename or first paragraph content in the book list is a
good tool that ID lacks, but ID's Pages panel (like PageMaker's, if
you know PM) shows thumbnail views of the pages in the current file,
as well as identifying the master pages used on each page; you can
identify chapter-opener page thumbnails easily, which is 

FM8 HTML output

[Matt Sullivan]

If, along with FM, you have a need to keep Acrobat, Captivate or RoboHelp
licenses current then the TCS is hard to beat.

Along with the 4 apps is extra integration beyond HTM or Help outputs. Put
Flash movies & simulations along with working 3D models into FM and output
to the needed PDF or Help format.

TCS 1.x is a bit finicky in setup and can have a 5-10 hour learning curve on
the first project, but has a huge return on investment after setup. 

Currently there are only a few folks who can help with support outside
Adobe. If you need help, let me know. If anyone else out there is working at
a high level in this, let me (& Adobe) know and we can trade notes.

-Matt Sullivan

-Original Message-
From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Combs, Richard
Sent: Saturday, September 13, 2008 1:53 PM
To: bruce.macarthur at vsea.com; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: FM8 HTML output

bruce.macarthur at vsea.com wrote: 

> Hello All,
> I am new to the Framers group.
> I develop the templates for the tech pubs group at my work. I have
spent a
> lot of time creating and maintaining templates and macros for
WebWorks.
> Several of our writers need to upgrade FM. I can't purchase FM7.2.
This
> would require the writers to upgrade to FM8. I purchased an upgrade to
FM8
> and can't figure out how to generate the HTML (or XML) outputs that
would
> look like what I produced with WebWorks. Since FM8 does not come with
WW
> standard, we would have to purchase a WW seat from Quadralay at great
> expense. This forces us to make a decision on whether to stay with FM
or
> change to another application.
> 
> Is there a way to import templates and macros from WW?
> Is there a way to define the HTML / XML page layout to include the
banners
> and navigation that WW created?

OK, I've got bad news, worse news, and then better news for you. :-)

Bad: WebWorks Publisher is long dead. You'd have to switch to its
replacement, ePublisher Pro. 

Worse: ePublisher Pro is very different from WWP -- an xml-based
solution with a non-trivial learning curve. Your WWP macro language
skills don't transfer. Old WWP licenses no longer qualify for an upgrade
price. And it costs an arm and a leg. 

Better: If you have to buy new FM licenses anyway, you should seriously
consider the Adobe Technical Communication Suite instead. It includes
versions of FM and RoboHelp that are tightly integrated (or so I'm told;
we're still looking into it here, but are likely to upgrade to the suite
soon).

IMHO, YMMV, etc. 

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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InDesign as a replacement for Framemaker

[Matt Sullivan]

If the material is tech in nature, leave it in Frame!!!

If the material is marketing collateral, (fully) enjoy the flex and
sophisticated typography that ID will give you.

-Matt

-Original Message-
From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Alan Litchfield
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 2:18 PM
To: peter at knowhowpro.com
Cc: framers
Subject: Re: InDesign as a replacement for Framemaker

Gotta say, after Peter's run through, that I am considering trying out  
CS3 on an existing project that is mostly gnarly tables, cross  
references, and list and index markers.

While it sounds great that ID is now able to perform most core  
functions it is with concern that some are only available with the  
addition of plug-ins. How will this affect backward compatibility for  
old and archived files?

The backward compatibility in FM is one of its greatest strengths, for  
instance I have in the last couple of days been doing stuff with FM  
files I have not seen for 8 years. FM has no problem with working with  
these but I doubt that ID+various plug-ins would behave as nicely. One  
of the great pleasures of flicking QuarkXPress off the system was also  
saying good bye to the incessant problems I had with Xtensions'  
missing warnings, I would not want to put myself back into that  
situation with ID. On the other extreme, that is why I also produce a  
fair amount in LaTeX - for the fact that if all else fails, it is only  
text but ID is not.

Cheers
Alan

--
Alan Litchfield MBus(Hons), MNZCS
AlphaByte
PO Box 1941, Auckland, NZ. 1140
http://www.alphabyte.co.nz




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InDesign as a replacement for Framemaker

[Matt Sullivan]

Yes, we all specialize...

And of all the "A" personalities I know (including myself) we're all
indispensable and unique.

If you are documenting or teaching-FM
If you are selling or worried about how it looks on a frame on the wall-ID

-Original Message-
From: Alan Litchfield [mailto:a...@alphabyte.co.nz] 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 2:43 PM
To: Matt Sullivan
Cc: peter at knowhowpro.com; 'framers'
Subject: Re: InDesign as a replacement for Framemaker

Neither ;)

Education, policy and government planning documentation. Remember  
there are many types of documentation to which FM is applied beyond  
tech writing and marketing.

Cheers
Alan


On 16/09/2008, at 9:31 AM, Matt Sullivan wrote:

> If the material is tech in nature, leave it in Frame!!!
>
> If the material is marketing collateral, (fully) enjoy the flex and
> sophisticated typography that ID will give you.
>
> -Matt
>
> -Original Message-
> From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
> [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Alan  
> Litchfield
> Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 2:18 PM
> To: peter at knowhowpro.com
> Cc: framers
> Subject: Re: InDesign as a replacement for Framemaker
>
> Gotta say, after Peter's run through, that I am considering trying out
> CS3 on an existing project that is mostly gnarly tables, cross
> references, and list and index markers.
>
> While it sounds great that ID is now able to perform most core
> functions it is with concern that some are only available with the
> addition of plug-ins. How will this affect backward compatibility for
> old and archived files?
>
> The backward compatibility in FM is one of its greatest strengths, for
> instance I have in the last couple of days been doing stuff with FM
> files I have not seen for 8 years. FM has no problem with working with
> these but I doubt that ID+various plug-ins would behave as nicely. One
> of the great pleasures of flicking QuarkXPress off the system was also
> saying good bye to the incessant problems I had with Xtensions'
> missing warnings, I would not want to put myself back into that
> situation with ID. On the other extreme, that is why I also produce a
> fair amount in LaTeX - for the fact that if all else fails, it is only
> text but ID is not.
>
> Cheers
> Alan
>
> --
> Alan Litchfield MBus(Hons), MNZCS
> AlphaByte
> PO Box 1941, Auckland, NZ. 1140
> http://www.alphabyte.co.nz
>
>
>
>
> ___
>
>
> You are currently subscribed to Framers as matt at grafixtraining.com.
>
> Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
> or visit
>
http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/matt%40grafixtraining.co
> m
>
> Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
> http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.

--
Alan Litchfield MBus(Hons), MNZCS
AlphaByte
PO Box 1941, Auckland, NZ. 1140
http://www.alphabyte.co.nz

FM8 HTML output

[Charlie Kyle]

I am in the midst of hooking up a FM8 book to RH7. I'm following the
instructions from RJ Jacquez demo at
https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a295153/p13101233/ This seems to be the
only source of information from Adobe on how to do this.

I'm importing the book by reference into an existing RH7 project and
then going thru a reiterative process to fine tune stuff like style maps
and xref styles. I was completely baffled by how get the FM TOC and
Index associated with the Help project. As I was writing this email, I
remembered a presentation by Kevin Siegal that I downloaded from the STC
2008 Conference web site. In there, I just found out that the TOC and
Index have to be assigned to a RH layout. 

Caution! Small Digression: This process is reminding me of when I used
to try to play Dungeons and Dragons from a VAX command line prompt. This
was BI (Before Internet) when we had more time for such things and Games
weren't part of the GNP :-)

Does anyone know of a source for some information about hooking up FM8
books to RH7?

Thanks,
Charlie Kyle



-Original Message-
From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Matt Sullivan
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 2:29 PM
To: 'Combs, Richard'; bruce.macarthur at vsea.com;
framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: FM8 HTML output

If, along with FM, you have a need to keep Acrobat, Captivate or
RoboHelp licenses current then the TCS is hard to beat.

Along with the 4 apps is extra integration beyond HTM or Help outputs.
Put Flash movies & simulations along with working 3D models into FM and
output to the needed PDF or Help format.

TCS 1.x is a bit finicky in setup and can have a 5-10 hour learning
curve on the first project, but has a huge return on investment after
setup. 

Currently there are only a few folks who can help with support outside
Adobe. If you need help, let me know. If anyone else out there is
working at a high level in this, let me (& Adobe) know and we can trade
notes.

-Matt Sullivan

FM8 HTML output

[Matt Sullivan]

Kevin and I presented that 2-day session together...the FM to RH details
were on my day (day 2)

I give a 2-day class on the process, but actually do more initial setup for
clients to refine mappings & get the CSS in order.

RJ, Kevin, me. Those are the only resources the 3 of us know of right
now...anyone else out there?

-Matt Sullivan

-Original Message-
From: Charlie Kyle [mailto:charlie.k...@attachmate.com] 
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 4:29 PM
To: Matt Sullivan; Combs, Richard; bruce.macarthur at vsea.com;
framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: FM8 HTML output

I am in the midst of hooking up a FM8 book to RH7. I'm following the
instructions from RJ Jacquez demo at
https://admin.adobe.acrobat.com/_a295153/p13101233/ This seems to be the
only source of information from Adobe on how to do this.

I'm importing the book by reference into an existing RH7 project and
then going thru a reiterative process to fine tune stuff like style maps
and xref styles. I was completely baffled by how get the FM TOC and
Index associated with the Help project. As I was writing this email, I
remembered a presentation by Kevin Siegal that I downloaded from the STC
2008 Conference web site. In there, I just found out that the TOC and
Index have to be assigned to a RH layout. 

Caution! Small Digression: This process is reminding me of when I used
to try to play Dungeons and Dragons from a VAX command line prompt. This
was BI (Before Internet) when we had more time for such things and Games
weren't part of the GNP :-)

Does anyone know of a source for some information about hooking up FM8
books to RH7?

Thanks,
Charlie Kyle



-Original Message-
From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Matt Sullivan
Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 2:29 PM
To: 'Combs, Richard'; bruce.macarthur at vsea.com;
framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: FM8 HTML output

If, along with FM, you have a need to keep Acrobat, Captivate or
RoboHelp licenses current then the TCS is hard to beat.

Along with the 4 apps is extra integration beyond HTM or Help outputs.
Put Flash movies & simulations along with working 3D models into FM and
output to the needed PDF or Help format.

TCS 1.x is a bit finicky in setup and can have a 5-10 hour learning
curve on the first project, but has a huge return on investment after
setup. 

Currently there are only a few folks who can help with support outside
Adobe. If you need help, let me know. If anyone else out there is
working at a high level in this, let me (& Adobe) know and we can trade
notes.

-Matt Sullivan

Reference graphic to Character format

[Jeremy H. Griffith]

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:59:14 -0400, "Grinnell Larry-ELG001"  wrote:

>Need to repurpose your content for HTML or other like formats. Custom
>(vector) fonts don't work in a rasterized online world. You need to find
>a way to substitute back in either a vector-based graphic which can be
>auto-scaled in products like ePublisher or even FrameMaker's very flawed
>Save-As-HTML function, or substitute a raster file (JPEG) for each
>occurrence of a custom font character. We are looking at several very
>expensive solutions to permit us to offer HTML and similar deliverables
>(you don't want to know what we do and how much we currently spend to
>convert a document to HTML).

You don't need an expensive solution for that.  Mif2Go, at
$295 per seat, lets you map any character in any font, or 
group of fonts, to a graphic, or indeed to any HTML or XML 
code you please.  See the User's Guide, par. 20.5.6, "Mapping 
characters in a special font", for the details.  For example:

[MacroFonts]
; Frame font name = section to use for mapping chars in that font
Wingdings = WingChars

[WingChars]
; char n maps to a square bullet, char p to a graphic:
n = x25a0
p = 

You can download the free unlimited demo version of Mif2Go,
and the User's Guide in numerous formats, from:
  http://www.omsys.com/dcl/download.htm

HTH!
-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
http://www.omsys.com/

Odd cross-ref substitution 7.2

[Jeremy H. Griffith]

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 17:49:19 +0300, "David Kuhn" 
 wrote:

>I do have a larger issue, though with the symbols. 
>Sometimes I find it very difficult to tell what they are doing there.
>The upside down T is conditional text.
>The right-side up T is a cross-reference marker.

Nope!  *All* the right-side-up T's are markers.  If you have
two in a row, the T's are superimposed, so you can never
see how many you really have.  To avoid this, some folks
make a point of separating markers by at least one printable
char, so you may get something like this:

  MyT HeTadTinTgT

Conditional text markers display like any other marker type.

The upside-down T's are *anchors*, like for a ship.  ;-)
They appear where you have inserted a table or an anchored
frame; the table or image itself may well be elsewhere on
the page, or even on the next page.  But if you select the 
anchor, you'll see the corresponding table or image selected.
Anchors overlap like markers, so you may want to use the
same trick as for markers to keep them separated.

The reason they overlap, BTW, is because Frame needs to keep
the line breaks and positioning accurate to the printed doc;
if the markers and anchors took up space, the rendering would
be thrown off.

HTH!

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
http://www.omsys.com/

SOLVED Re: Acrobat displays only B/W

[Lea Rush]

Yikes - as a frequent user of Windows shortcut keys, I really appreciate
knowing that. Thanks!

-Original Message-


Turns out that at some point I had attempted a Redo command by using 
Control-Y -- the opposite of Control-Z in most applications, but NOT in 
Acrobat.  Control-Y toggles "Proof Colors" and when you turn it ON, your 
colours go OFF.  Really intuitive, Adobe, thanks ;-)

Seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses once again,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325


_

Lea Rush
Software and Documentation Specialist
Astoria-Pacific International
PO Box 830 Clackamas OR 97015
PH: 800-657-3010
FAX:  503-655-7367