date:20130709

Okay, I'll start from the assumption that DITA or Docbook as standards are
the way to go if you don't want to spend all kinds of time and money on
development. Of course changing to DITA or Docbook will cost time and money,
too. Just less of both.

 

So which: DITA or Docbook

 

DITA is much more restrictive. The topics are formed from a very finite set
of elements which your crew can learn to use adroitly with a little study
and practice.  Docbook has everything plus the kitchen sink thrown in as
elements because it is meant to do, well, just about everything. For my
money DITA makes a lot more sense, but your writers have to understand the
conceptual framework and work within that relative simplicity. Don't imagine
that you can do things like four levels of nested lists. Docbook, by
contrast, let's you do just about anything you've been doing in unstructured
FrameMaker, you just have to learn which of the many many elements lets you
go ahead and do that.

 

For my money, DITA is the way to go .

 

Craig

 

From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of rebecca officer
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 2:06 AM
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Subject: DITA/docbook vs your own schema

 

Does anyone know of a nice, clear list of what you save by using
DITA/docbook instead of developing your own schema? 


The content maps reasonably well to DITA, but not perfectly. I'm trying to
figure out whether we're better off working within the limitations of DITA,
or whether we should take the DIY approach. A clear list of what you save by
using DITA would be really helpful.

 

Many thanks!

Rebecca


NOTICE: This message contains privileged and confidential
information intended only for the use of the addressee
named above. If you are not the intended recipient of
this message you are hereby notified that you must not
disseminate, copy or take any action in reliance on it.
If you have received this message in error please
notify Allied Telesis Labs Ltd immediately.
Any views expressed in this message are those of the
individual sender, except where the sender has the
authority to issue and specifically states them to
be the views of Allied Telesis Labs.

 

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Cleaning Character Formats

I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct
ones. I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file so I
know which ones are in each document of my book. I choose Character
Format... in the Find/Change palette, type the character format name in
the entry field, check the Consider Case checkbox, check the Document
radio button to check only the open document, and click Find.

Usually, the Find Character Format dialog appears. I can't possibly
remember all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and
certainly wouldn't know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that I
didn't create. I just want to find the format by the name assigned to it.
Shouldn't those names appear in the scrollable entry field of the
Find/Change palette, the same way paragraph styles do? (Not even default
character styles show up.) Must I generate a long CT report on all styles
to get the properties to complete this dialog?

If I close this dialog and try again, a Specify the character format to
find alert appears.

My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm looking
for would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in an unanchored
box, for example, that doesn't explain all styles not being available or
found.

I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Karen
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Re: Cleaning Character Formats

2013-07-09 Thread Stuart Rogers


On 2013-Jul-09 3:15 PM, Karen Robbins wrote:
I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct 
ones. I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file 
so I know which ones are in each document of my book. I choose 
Character Format... in the Find/Change palette, type the character 
format name in the entry field, check the Consider Case checkbox, 
check the Document radio button to check only the open document, and 
click Find.




Don't choose Character Format..., choose Character Tag:

HTH,

--
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
3781 Victoria Park Avenue, Unit 3
Toronto, ON, Canada  M1W 3K5
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

http://www.phoenix-geophysics.com

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RE: Cleaning Character Formats

You don't indicate what version of FrameMaker you are using, so I'll try to 
keep my answers as generic and universal as possible.

If you're trying to find named character styles, you should be choosing 
Character Tag rather than Character Format in the Find box. You will have 
to type the name of the tag, though, the same way you have to when searching 
for paragraph tags.

If you're trying to find instances of manually applied character formatting 
(format overrides), you'll either have to search for Character Format and 
deal with each item in the format dialog individually, or else get yourself a 
script or plug-in that finds overrides and generates a hyperlinked report. Once 
you have the report you can jump to each override and either remove the 
formatting or apply it via named styles (tags). For years I've used the hunt 
overrides plug-ins from CudSpan (Chris Despopoulis) and they work just fine.

BTW, if you're searching for tags or formatting, you should not be checking the 
Consider Case option, since that is intended for use when searching for a 
text string in the document's content. I don't know whether it affects tag or 
formatting searches or whether it is completely ignored (as it should be), but 
why select it if it's irrelevant?

-Fred Ridder

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2013 12:15:10 -0700
Subject: Cleaning Character Formats
From: karendes...@gmail.com
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com

I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct ones. 
I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file so I know which 
ones are in each document of my book. I choose Character Format... in the 
Find/Change palette, type the character format name in the entry field, check 
the Consider Case checkbox, check the Document radio button to check only 
the open document, and click Find. 


Usually, the Find Character Format dialog appears. I can't possibly remember 
all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and certainly wouldn't 
know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that I didn't create. I just 
want to find the format by the name assigned to it. Shouldn't those names 
appear in the scrollable entry field of the Find/Change palette, the same way 
paragraph styles do? (Not even default character styles show up.) Must I 
generate a long CT report on all styles to get the properties to complete this 
dialog?


If I close this dialog and try again, a Specify the character format to find 
alert appears. 

My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm looking for 
would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in an unanchored box, 
for example, that doesn't explain all styles not being available or found.


I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Karen


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Re: Cleaning Character Formats

2013-07-09 Thread Mike Wickham

If I'm reading your message right, you should be choosing Character 
Tag: in the Find dialog, rather than a Character Format. The former 
searches for text with the assigned character style. The latter finds 
text with specific attributes, which may or may not have been assigned a 
character style.


Mike Wickham

On 7/9/2013 2:15 PM, Karen Robbins wrote:
I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct 
ones. I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file 
so I know which ones are in each document of my book. I choose 
Character Format... in the Find/Change palette, type the character 
format name in the entry field, check the Consider Case checkbox, 
check the Document radio button to check only the open document, and 
click Find.


Usually, the Find Character Format dialog appears. I can't possibly 
remember all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and 
certainly wouldn't know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that 
I didn't create. I just want to find the format by the name assigned 
to it. Shouldn't those names appear in the scrollable entry field of 
the Find/Change palette, the same way paragraph styles do? (Not even 
default character styles show up.) Must I generate a long CT report on 
all styles to get the properties to complete this dialog?


If I close this dialog and try again, a Specify the character format 
to find alert appears.


My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm 
looking for would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in 
an unanchored box, for example, that doesn't explain all styles not 
being available or found.


I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Karen


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Re: Cleaning Character Formats

2013-07-09 Thread Lin Sims

And as of Frame 10, you can also search for Character Format Override and
Paragraph Format Override, so you don't even need to search for a specific
tag.

If you do search for a specific tag, remember that the first time you find
it, you can reapply the tag to clear the override, then Copy Special the
Character Format and do a search and replace for the rest of the book.

HTH,

Lin

On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 3:49 PM, Mike Wickham i...@mikewickham.com wrote:

  If I'm reading your message right, you should be choosing Character
 Tag: in the Find dialog, rather than a Character Format. The former
 searches for text with the assigned character style. The latter finds text
 with specific attributes, which may or may not have been assigned a
 character style.

 Mike Wickham


 On 7/9/2013 2:15 PM, Karen Robbins wrote:

 I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct
 ones. I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file so I
 know which ones are in each document of my book. I choose Character
 Format... in the Find/Change palette, type the character format name in
 the entry field, check the Consider Case checkbox, check the Document
 radio button to check only the open document, and click Find.

 Usually, the Find Character Format dialog appears. I can't possibly
 remember all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and
 certainly wouldn't know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that I
 didn't create. I just want to find the format by the name assigned to it.
 Shouldn't those names appear in the scrollable entry field of the
 Find/Change palette, the same way paragraph styles do? (Not even default
 character styles show up.) Must I generate a long CT report on all styles
 to get the properties to complete this dialog?

 If I close this dialog and try again, a Specify the character format to
 find alert appears.

 My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm looking
 for would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in an unanchored
 box, for example, that doesn't explain all styles not being available or
 found.

 I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?

 Thanks,
 Karen


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-- 
Lin Sims
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Re: Cleaning Character Formats

Thanks, Fred, maybe I was confusing format and tag. I guess I do want both
overrides and tags, though--I can use Silicon Prairie's Character Tools to
find both. As it happens, there are instances of bad practices like
Italic and italic, so case would be relevant in some instances. Thanks,
Lin, for jogging my memory, too. I'll see if CudSpan tools can help as well.

--Karen

On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Fred Ridder docu...@hotmail.com wrote:

 You don't indicate what version of FrameMaker you are using, so I'll try
 to keep my answers as generic and universal as possible.

 If you're trying to find named character styles, you should be choosing
 Character Tag rather than Character Format in the Find box. You will
 have to type the name of the tag, though, the same way you have to when
 searching for paragraph tags.

 If you're trying to find instances of manually applied character
 formatting (format overrides), you'll either have to search for Character
 Format and deal with each item in the format dialog individually, or else
 get yourself a script or plug-in that finds overrides and generates a
 hyperlinked report. Once you have the report you can jump to each override
 and either remove the formatting or apply it via named styles (tags). For
 years I've used the hunt overrides plug-ins from CudSpan (Chris
 Despopoulis) and they work just fine.

 BTW, if you're searching for tags or formatting, you should not be
 checking the Consider Case option, since that is intended for use when
 searching for a text string in the document's content. I don't know whether
 it affects tag or formatting searches or whether it is completely ignored
 (as it should be), but why select it if it's irrelevant?

 -Fred Ridder

 --
 Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2013 12:15:10 -0700
 Subject: Cleaning Character Formats
 From: karendes...@gmail.com
 To: framers@lists.frameusers.com

 I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct
 ones. I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file so I
 know which ones are in each document of my book. I choose Character
 Format... in the Find/Change palette, type the character format name in
 the entry field, check the Consider Case checkbox, check the Document
 radio button to check only the open document, and click Find.

 Usually, the Find Character Format dialog appears. I can't possibly
 remember all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and
 certainly wouldn't know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that I
 didn't create. I just want to find the format by the name assigned to it.
 Shouldn't those names appear in the scrollable entry field of the
 Find/Change palette, the same way paragraph styles do? (Not even default
 character styles show up.) Must I generate a long CT report on all styles
 to get the properties to complete this dialog?

 If I close this dialog and try again, a Specify the character format to
 find alert appears.

 My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm looking
 for would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in an unanchored
 box, for example, that doesn't explain all styles not being available or
 found.

 I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?

 Thanks,
 Karen

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RE: Cleaning Character Formats

I just confirmed that Consider Case really is active in tag 
searches--peculiar but true. 

But since this is actually the case, you'd probably want to leave it OFF if 
you've got the kind of bad naming practices you mention. 

If you tell FrameMaker to consider case, then you'd have to do *separate* 
searches for italic and Italic (and for ITALIC or any camel-case 
variations). But with Consider Case inactive, searching for italic return 
results for *any* instance of those 6 letters in that order *regardless of 
case*. Covering all permutations of upper-case and lower case letters in the 
name of a 6-letter tag would take 64 (2^6) separate searches with consider 
case ON, but only one search with consider case OFF.  

-Fred Ridder

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2013 13:44:35 -0700
Subject: Re: Cleaning Character Formats
From: karendes...@gmail.com
To: docu...@hotmail.com
CC: framers@lists.frameusers.com

Thanks, Fred, maybe I was confusing format and tag. I guess I do want both 
overrides and tags, though--I can use Silicon Prairie's Character Tools to find 
both. As it happens, there are instances of bad practices like Italic and 
italic, so case would be relevant in some instances. Thanks, Lin, for jogging 
my memory, too. I'll see if CudSpan tools can help as well.


--Karen


On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Fred Ridder docu...@hotmail.com wrote:





You don't indicate what version of FrameMaker you are using, so I'll try to 
keep my answers as generic and universal as possible.

If you're trying to find named character styles, you should be choosing 
Character Tag rather than Character Format in the Find box. You will have 
to type the name of the tag, though, the same way you have to when searching 
for paragraph tags.



If you're trying to find instances of manually applied character formatting 
(format overrides), you'll either have to search for Character Format and 
deal with each item in the format dialog individually, or else get yourself a 
script or plug-in that finds overrides and generates a hyperlinked report. Once 
you have the report you can jump to each override and either remove the 
formatting or apply it via named styles (tags). For years I've used the hunt 
overrides plug-ins from CudSpan (Chris Despopoulis) and they work just fine.



BTW, if you're searching for tags or formatting, you should not be checking the 
Consider Case option, since that is intended for use when searching for a 
text string in the document's content. I don't know whether it affects tag or 
formatting searches or whether it is completely ignored (as it should be), but 
why select it if it's irrelevant?



-Fred Ridder

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2013 12:15:10 -0700
Subject: Cleaning Character Formats
From: karendes...@gmail.com
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com



I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct ones. 
I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file so I know which 
ones are in each document of my book. I choose Character Format... in the 
Find/Change palette, type the character format name in the entry field, check 
the Consider Case checkbox, check the Document radio button to check only 
the open document, and click Find. 




Usually, the Find Character Format dialog appears. I can't possibly remember 
all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and certainly wouldn't 
know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that I didn't create. I just 
want to find the format by the name assigned to it. Shouldn't those names 
appear in the scrollable entry field of the Find/Change palette, the same way 
paragraph styles do? (Not even default character styles show up.) Must I 
generate a long CT report on all styles to get the properties to complete this 
dialog?




If I close this dialog and try again, a Specify the character format to find 
alert appears. 

My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm looking for 
would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in an unanchored box, 
for example, that doesn't explain all styles not being available or found.




I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Karen
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Re: Cleaning Character Formats

2013-07-09 Thread Scott Prentice

While we're on the subject .. an unfortunate tag searching issue happens 
if your tag names contain hyphens, and you try to use the Whole Word 
option. FM will match on partial tag names where search string matches a 
hyphen-delimited word in your tag name. For example, if you have tags 
named head1 and task-head1 .. and you search for head1, it will 
match on both of the tags.


Cheers,

...scott

On 7/9/13 2:37 PM, Fred Ridder wrote:
I just confirmed that Consider Case really is active in tag 
searches--peculiar but true.


But since this is actually the case, you'd probably want to leave it 
OFF if you've got the kind of bad naming practices you mention.


If you tell FrameMaker to consider case, then you'd have to do 
*separate* searches for italic and Italic (and for ITALIC or any 
camel-case variations). But with Consider Case inactive, searching 
for italic return results for *any* instance of those 6 letters in 
that order *regardless of case*. Covering all permutations of 
upper-case and lower case letters in the name of a 6-letter tag would 
take 64 (2^6) separate searches with consider case ON, but only one 
search with consider case OFF.


-Fred Ridder
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RE: DITA/docbook vs your own schema

This distinction between a narrative and topics is a good one. 

 

I just worked through a series of manuals that were written as narratives. 
There was a lot of repeated content and procedures that were actually four or 
five procedures mixed together and then occurring later with the mixture 
slightly varied at other points in the manual.

 

For the content of these operator manuals, the focus on topics both reduced the 
need for repetition and allowed breaking things down procedures into units were 
both stand-alone AND understandable. The links to stand-alone topics allowed 
redefining confusing procedures by allowing the operator to focus on the big 
picture.

 

For this particular situation, DITA was a logical choice. 

 

BTW: The previous approach had created a maintenance nightmare since changing 
anything resulted in having to find all the other places where the same or 
similar text had to change as well. The conversion process uncovered numerous 
places where such changes had been not been done or was done incompletely.

 

Craig 

 

snipped-

IMHO, Docbook vs DITA is a choice between ecosystems. While Docbook is leaning 
towards the narrative, and DITA towards topics, the differences are getting 
less pronounced. E.g., DITA is slowly leaving DTDs behind, and Docbook is 
slowly getting assemblies (maps).

 

 

 

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RE: DITA/docbook vs your own schema

This is a really good book for getting experience in using DITA 1.2. I found 
that the sample application that is developed was very straightforward to 
implement in FrameMaker. It won't teach you everything you need to know about 
DITA, but all the basics are there.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-DITA-Second-Edition-Architecture/dp/0977863433

 

An Arbortext specific version of this book also exists. (The one above is not 
FM specific, but it really doesn't need to be.)  

 

Craig

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RE: DITA/docbook vs your own schema

Amen to that!
Craig

-Original Message-

And unless you're very clever, it's easy to paint yourself into a corner with 
an in-house system. It might be simple to develop something for what your 
needs are now, but you neglect to make it open-ended or scalable for whatever 
changes you need to make in the future.

And then there's portability...

Nadine


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PDF Job Options - Standard versus High Quality Print

2013-07-09 Thread Melissa Clark

Hi,

I'm writing today to query others about the Standard versus High Quality Print 
options under the PDF Setup in Adobe FrameMaker and Distiller.



The various PDF job options are being evaluated internally.  In particular (and 
what I'm asking about now), in PDF Setup - Settings - PDF Job Options, some 
use Standard, while others use High Quality Print (same setting in 
Distiller).  Based on what I have been told, there is no reason (benefit) to 
using High Quality Print (versus Standard) even in docs that use more 
screenshots and/or pictures, and my understanding is that High Quality Print 
results in a larger file size.  (I have been using High Quality Print for 
years.)



My question is whether using Standard (instead of High Quality Print) results 
in any detrimental effect.



For reference, here is some information from Adobe:

Standard

* For desktop printers or digital copiers, published on CD or sent to client as 
publishing proof * Uses compression/downsampling to reduce file size * Embeds 
subsets of fonts, converts colors to sRGB, prints medium resolution, windows 
font subsets not embedded by default * Opened in Acrobat and Reader 6.0 and 
later High Quality Print * Quality printing on desktop printers and proofing 
devices * Downsamples color and grayscale images to 300ppi and monochrome to 
1200ppi * Embeds subsets of fonts, leaves colors unchanged, does not flatted 
transparency * Opened in Acrobat and Reader 5.0 and later



For what it's worth, I am using Adobe FrameMaker 9 and 10 and Distiller 8.



Any feedback on what others have found while using High Quality Print versus 
Standard would be greatly appreciated.



Thanks,

Melissa Clark

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Re: Cleaning Character Formats

2013-07-09 Thread Grant Hogarth


It will also match head, head.1, head.2, 
Grant

On 7/9/2013 3:47 PM, Scott Prentice wrote:
While we're on the subject .. an unfortunate tag searching issue 
happens if your tag names contain hyphens, and you try to use the 
Whole Word option. FM will match on partial tag names where search 
string matches a hyphen-delimited word in your tag name. For 
example, if you have tags named head1 and task-head1 .. and you 
search for head1, it will match on both of the tags.


Cheers,

...scott
On 7/9/13 2:37 PM, Fred Ridder wrote:
I just confirmed that Consider Case really is active in tag 
searches--peculiar but true.


But since this is actually the case, you'd probably want to leave it 
OFF if you've got the kind of bad naming practices you mention.


If you tell FrameMaker to consider case, then you'd have to do 
*separate* searches for italic and Italic (and for ITALIC or 
any camel-case variations). But with Consider Case inactive, 
searching for italic return results for *any* instance of those 6 
letters in that order *regardless of case*. Covering all permutations 
of upper-case and lower case letters in the name of a 6-letter tag 
would take 64 (2^6) separate searches with consider case ON, but 
only one search with consider case OFF.


-Fred Ridder


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Custom Ruling and Shading of Tables via xml and EDD rules

2013-07-09 Thread Ed Nodland

I have XML files that include tables.  Some cells include a class such as:
td class=cheader Centered text with gray shading
td class=header Left justified text with gray shading
td class=cbody Centered text not shaded
td class=body Left justified text not shaded

I want to be able to open the XML file using FM10 and have the cells
formatted.

I do not see a Custom Ruling and Shading EDD Rule that allows ruling and
shading to be defined for a cell based on a Context Rule such as
[class=cheader].

*Am I missing something?*

It appears that using the table format styles are limited to an orderly set
of rulings and shadings rather than being totally custom or XML attribute
driven for specific rows or cells.

I can change the markup or take a totally different approach but I nered
the format to be driven by the XML data not manual activity in Framemaker
aftrer opening the XML file..

*Any suggestions?*
*
*
 Ed Nodland
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Re: DITA/docbook vs your own schema

2013-07-09 Thread Writer

Agreed. That has been my go to book since I started using DITA.

Nadine


This is a really good book for getting experience in using DITA 1.2. I found 
that the sample application that is developed was very straightforward to 
implement in FrameMaker. It won't teach you everything you need to know about 
DITA, but all the basics are there.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-DITA-Second-Edition-Architecture/dp/0977863433
 
An Arbortext specific version of this book also exists. (The one above is not 
FM specific, but it really doesn't need to be.)  
 
Craig

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Re: DITA/docbook vs your own schema

2013-07-09 Thread Alan T Litchfield


Unfortunately, that book cannot be sold internationally by Amazon. :(

Alan

On 10/07/13 2:19 PM, Writer wrote:

Agreed. That has been my go to book since I started using DITA.

Nadine



This is a really good book for getting experience in using DITA 1.2. I found 
that the sample application that is developed was very straightforward to 
implement in FrameMaker. It won't teach you everything you need to know about 
DITA, but all the basics are there.

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-DITA-Second-Edition-Architecture/dp/0977863433

An Arbortext specific version of this book also exists. (The one above is not 
FM specific, but it really doesn't need to be.)

Craig




--
AlphaByte
PO Box 1941, Auckland
http://www.alphabyte.co.nz
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Re: PDF Job Options - Standard versus High Quality Print

2013-07-09 Thread Mike Wickham

There are definitely differences between Standard and High Quality Print 
options. For starters, Standard does NOT embed all fonts. If you use 
Distiller to check the settings of the .joboptions files, you'll see 
that Standard embeds most fonts, but NOT those that are commonly 
installed on computers-- such as Arial, Times New Roman, etc. It marks 
those as NEVER embed. This may or may not cause reformatting of the PDF 
on the viewing end (due to different font versions on the user's 
computer) or complete font substitution (due to uninstalled fonts on the 
user end). If you don't embed all fonts, you take a risk that your 
document won't look the same on every computer-- which is the purpose of 
PDF.


Standard also downsamples graphics to 150 dpi(ppi), where High Quality 
Print downsamples to 300 dpi. 300 dpi is usually what you want for 
printing press. 150 dpi is usually OK for desktop printer-- though many 
use 300 dpi there, too. 150 dpi is actually higher resolution than 
necessary for Web  viewing-- where 72 or 96 ppi is more common. So it's 
increasing the image data by up to 4.34x to make an unnecessarily large 
file for the Web. Still the 150 dpi higher resolution lets a user zoom 
into a PDF for a better view of a photo. (And 300 ppi would let the user 
zoom in even more for a clearer image.)


So, the option you want to choose depends on the purpose of your output 
and whether you want users to be able to zoom in for a better view.  If 
the output is going to printing press, you want High Quality Print, but 
if it's only for screen or desktop printer, Standard may be okay. Or 
Smallest File Size may be an even better choice for Web display.


Mike Wickham

On 7/9/2013 1:40 PM, Melissa Clark wrote:


Hi,

I'm writing today to query others about the Standard versus High 
Quality Print options under the PDF Setup in Adobe FrameMaker and 
Distiller.


The various PDF job options are being evaluated internally.  In 
particular (and what I'm asking about now), in PDF Setup -- Settings 
-- PDF Job Options, some use Standard, while others use High 
Quality Print (same setting in Distiller).  Based on what I have been 
told, there is no reason (benefit) to using High Quality Print (versus 
Standard) even in docs that use more screenshots and/or pictures, and 
my understanding is that High Quality Print results in a larger file 
size.  (I have been using High Quality Print for years.)


My question is whether using Standard (instead of High Quality Print) 
results in any detrimental effect.


For reference, here is some information from Adobe:

Standard

. For desktop printers or digital copiers, published on CD or sent to 
client as publishing proof . Uses compression/downsampling to reduce 
file size . Embeds subsets of fonts, converts colors to sRGB, prints 
medium resolution, windows font subsets not embedded by default . 
Opened in Acrobat and Reader 6.0 and later High Quality Print . 
Quality printing on desktop printers and proofing devices . 
Downsamples color and grayscale images to 300ppi and monochrome to 
1200ppi . Embeds subsets of fonts, leaves colors unchanged, does not 
flatted transparency . Opened in Acrobat and Reader 5.0 and later


For what it's worth, I am using Adobe FrameMaker 9 and 10 and Distiller 8.

Any feedback on what others have found while using High Quality Print 
versus Standard would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks,

Melissa Clark



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DITA/docbook vs your own schema

2013-07-09 Thread Yves Barbion

Hi Rebecca

I don't think any content maps perfectly to DITA, which is logical. But
then again, you can specialize DITA to make it match your content. Some
will even say that DITA must be specialized.

Others have already given you some good arguments in favor of DITA or
DocBook. With DITA, you will also get:

If you develop your own schema, you will also have to document it. You get
this for free with DITA:

http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/v1.2/spec/DITA1.2-spec.html

This may help too (source:
http://www.scriptorium.com/2009/12/assessing-dita-as-a-foundation-for-xml-implementation/):

Implementing DITA versus implementing custom XML architecture

With a basic understanding of DITA, it?s time to tackle the $64,000
question: Should you use DITA for your content? First, you need to
determine whether XML in general makes sense for your content requirements.
If you decide that XML is appropriate, take a look at DITA. The following
table outlines a few possible scenarios.

*Scenario*

*Recommendation*

Content must conform to a specific standard, such as S1000D (manufacturing
and aerospace), SPL (Structured Product Labeling, pharmaceuticals), or
NewsML (newspaper articles).

Use the required standard.

DITA, out of the box, meets all requirements.

Use DITA.

A customer or business partner requires you to deliver DITA content.

Use DITA.

Content contains lengthy narratives that cannot be broken into reasonable
modular chunks.

DITA is probably not a good fit. Consider a different standard, perhaps
DocBook, or build your own.

Single sourcing is a requirement. No existing content. Can be flexible with
markup requirements in exchange for quicker implementation.

DITA is a good fit.

DITA is not an exact match; customization would be required.

Compare the cost of DITA customization to the cost of custom implementation.

Markup requirements are industry-specific, complex, and strict.

Look for an existing standard in your industry or build a custom structure.

Kind regards

--
Yves Barbion
www.scripto.nu
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Cleaning Character Formats

I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct
ones. I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file so I
know which ones are in each document of my book. I choose "Character
Format..." in the Find/Change palette, type the character format name in
the entry field, check the "Consider Case" checkbox, check the "Document"
radio button to check only the open document, and click "Find."

Usually, the "Find Character Format" dialog appears. I can't possibly
remember all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and
certainly wouldn't know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that I
didn't create. I just want to find the format by the name assigned to it.
Shouldn't those names appear in the scrollable entry field of the
Find/Change palette, the same way paragraph styles do? (Not even default
character styles show up.) Must I generate a long CT report on all styles
to get the properties to complete this dialog?

If I close this dialog and try again, a "Specify the character format to
find" alert appears.

My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm looking
for would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in an unanchored
box, for example, that doesn't explain all styles not being available or
found.

I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Karen
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Cleaning Character Formats

2013-07-09 Thread Stuart Rogers

On 2013-Jul-09 3:15 PM, Karen Robbins wrote:
> I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct 
> ones. I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file 
> so I know which ones are in each document of my book. I choose 
> "Character Format..." in the Find/Change palette, type the character 
> format name in the entry field, check the "Consider Case" checkbox, 
> check the "Document" radio button to check only the open document, and 
> click "Find."
>

Don't choose "Character Format...", choose "Character Tag:"

HTH,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
3781 Victoria Park Avenue, Unit 3
Toronto, ON, Canada  M1W 3K5
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

http://www.phoenix-geophysics.com

Cleaning Character Formats

You don't indicate what version of FrameMaker you are using, so I'll try to 
keep my answers as generic and universal as possible.

If you're trying to find named character styles, you should be choosing 
"Character Tag" rather than "Character Format" in the Find box. You will have 
to type the name of the tag, though, the same way you have to when searching 
for paragraph tags.

If you're trying to find instances of manually applied character formatting 
(format overrides), you'll either have to search for "Character Format" and 
deal with each item in the format dialog individually, or else get yourself a 
script or plug-in that finds overrides and generates a hyperlinked report. Once 
you have the report you can jump to each override and either remove the 
formatting or apply it via named styles (tags). For years I've used the hunt 
overrides plug-ins from CudSpan (Chris Despopoulis) and they work just fine.

BTW, if you're searching for tags or formatting, you should not be checking the 
"Consider Case" option, since that is intended for use when searching for a 
text string in the document's content. I don't know whether it affects tag or 
formatting searches or whether it is completely ignored (as it should be), but 
why select it if it's irrelevant?

-Fred Ridder

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2013 12:15:10 -0700
Subject: Cleaning Character Formats
From: karendes...@gmail.com
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com

I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct ones. 
I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file so I know which 
ones are in each document of my book. I choose "Character Format..." in the 
Find/Change palette, type the character format name in the entry field, check 
the "Consider Case" checkbox, check the "Document" radio button to check only 
the open document, and click "Find." 


Usually, the "Find Character Format" dialog appears. I can't possibly remember 
all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and certainly wouldn't 
know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that I didn't create. I just 
want to find the format by the name assigned to it. Shouldn't those names 
appear in the scrollable entry field of the Find/Change palette, the same way 
paragraph styles do? (Not even default character styles show up.) Must I 
generate a long CT report on all styles to get the properties to complete this 
dialog?


If I close this dialog and try again, a "Specify the character format to find" 
alert appears. 

My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm looking for 
would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in an unanchored box, 
for example, that doesn't explain all styles not being available or found.


I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Karen


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Cleaning Character Formats

2013-07-09 Thread Mike Wickham

If I'm reading your message right, you should be choosing "Character 
Tag:" in the Find dialog, rather than a "Character Format." The former 
searches for text with the assigned character style. The latter finds 
text with specific attributes, which may or may not have been assigned a 
character style.

Mike Wickham

On 7/9/2013 2:15 PM, Karen Robbins wrote:
> I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct 
> ones. I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file 
> so I know which ones are in each document of my book. I choose 
> "Character Format..." in the Find/Change palette, type the character 
> format name in the entry field, check the "Consider Case" checkbox, 
> check the "Document" radio button to check only the open document, and 
> click "Find."
>
> Usually, the "Find Character Format" dialog appears. I can't possibly 
> remember all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and 
> certainly wouldn't know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that 
> I didn't create. I just want to find the format by the name assigned 
> to it. Shouldn't those names appear in the scrollable entry field of 
> the Find/Change palette, the same way paragraph styles do? (Not even 
> default character styles show up.) Must I generate a long CT report on 
> all styles to get the properties to complete this dialog?
>
> If I close this dialog and try again, a "Specify the character format 
> to find" alert appears.
>
> My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm 
> looking for would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in 
> an unanchored box, for example, that doesn't explain all styles not 
> being available or found.
>
> I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?
>
> Thanks,
> Karen
>
>
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Cleaning Character Formats

2013-07-09 Thread Lin Sims

And as of Frame 10, you can also search for Character Format Override and
Paragraph Format Override, so you don't even need to search for a specific
tag.

If you do search for a specific tag, remember that the first time you find
it, you can reapply the tag to clear the override, then Copy Special the
Character Format and do a search and replace for the rest of the book.

HTH,

Lin

On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 3:49 PM, Mike Wickham  wrote:

>  If I'm reading your message right, you should be choosing "Character
> Tag:" in the Find dialog, rather than a "Character Format." The former
> searches for text with the assigned character style. The latter finds text
> with specific attributes, which may or may not have been assigned a
> character style.
>
> Mike Wickham
>
>
> On 7/9/2013 2:15 PM, Karen Robbins wrote:
>
> I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct
> ones. I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file so I
> know which ones are in each document of my book. I choose "Character
> Format..." in the Find/Change palette, type the character format name in
> the entry field, check the "Consider Case" checkbox, check the "Document"
> radio button to check only the open document, and click "Find."
>
> Usually, the "Find Character Format" dialog appears. I can't possibly
> remember all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and
> certainly wouldn't know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that I
> didn't create. I just want to find the format by the name assigned to it.
> Shouldn't those names appear in the scrollable entry field of the
> Find/Change palette, the same way paragraph styles do? (Not even default
> character styles show up.) Must I generate a long CT report on all styles
> to get the properties to complete this dialog?
>
> If I close this dialog and try again, a "Specify the character format to
> find" alert appears.
>
> My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm looking
> for would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in an unanchored
> box, for example, that doesn't explain all styles not being available or
> found.
>
> I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?
>
> Thanks,
> Karen
>
>
> ___
>
>
> You are currently subscribed to framers as info at mikewickham.com.
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Cleaning Character Formats

Thanks, Fred, maybe I was confusing format and tag. I guess I do want both
overrides and tags, though--I can use Silicon Prairie's Character Tools to
find both. As it happens, there are instances of bad practices like
"Italic" and "italic", so case would be relevant in some instances. Thanks,
Lin, for jogging my memory, too. I'll see if CudSpan tools can help as well.

--Karen

On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Fred Ridder  wrote:

> You don't indicate what version of FrameMaker you are using, so I'll try
> to keep my answers as generic and universal as possible.
>
> If you're trying to find named character styles, you should be choosing
> "Character Tag" rather than "Character Format" in the Find box. You will
> have to type the name of the tag, though, the same way you have to when
> searching for paragraph tags.
>
> If you're trying to find instances of manually applied character
> formatting (format overrides), you'll either have to search for "Character
> Format" and deal with each item in the format dialog individually, or else
> get yourself a script or plug-in that finds overrides and generates a
> hyperlinked report. Once you have the report you can jump to each override
> and either remove the formatting or apply it via named styles (tags). For
> years I've used the hunt overrides plug-ins from CudSpan (Chris
> Despopoulis) and they work just fine.
>
> BTW, if you're searching for tags or formatting, you should not be
> checking the "Consider Case" option, since that is intended for use when
> searching for a text string in the document's content. I don't know whether
> it affects tag or formatting searches or whether it is completely ignored
> (as it should be), but why select it if it's irrelevant?
>
> -Fred Ridder
>
> --
> Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2013 12:15:10 -0700
> Subject: Cleaning Character Formats
> From: karendesign at gmail.com
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
>
> I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct
> ones. I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file so I
> know which ones are in each document of my book. I choose "Character
> Format..." in the Find/Change palette, type the character format name in
> the entry field, check the "Consider Case" checkbox, check the "Document"
> radio button to check only the open document, and click "Find."
>
> Usually, the "Find Character Format" dialog appears. I can't possibly
> remember all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and
> certainly wouldn't know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that I
> didn't create. I just want to find the format by the name assigned to it.
> Shouldn't those names appear in the scrollable entry field of the
> Find/Change palette, the same way paragraph styles do? (Not even default
> character styles show up.) Must I generate a long CT report on all styles
> to get the properties to complete this dialog?
>
> If I close this dialog and try again, a "Specify the character format to
> find" alert appears.
>
> My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm looking
> for would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in an unanchored
> box, for example, that doesn't explain all styles not being available or
> found.
>
> I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?
>
> Thanks,
> Karen
>
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Cleaning Character Formats

I just confirmed that "Consider Case" really is active in tag 
searches--peculiar but true. 

But since this is actually the case, you'd probably want to leave it OFF if 
you've got the kind of bad naming practices you mention. 

If you tell FrameMaker to consider case, then you'd have to do *separate* 
searches for "italic" and "Italic" (and for "ITALIC" or any camel-case 
variations). But with "Consider Case" inactive, searching for "italic" return 
results for *any* instance of those 6 letters in that order *regardless of 
case*. Covering all permutations of upper-case and lower case letters in the 
name of a 6-letter tag would take 64 (2^6) separate searches with "consider 
case" ON, but only one search with "consider case" OFF.  

-Fred Ridder

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2013 13:44:35 -0700
Subject: Re: Cleaning Character Formats
From: karendes...@gmail.com
To: docudoc at hotmail.com
CC: framers at lists.frameusers.com

Thanks, Fred, maybe I was confusing format and tag. I guess I do want both 
overrides and tags, though--I can use Silicon Prairie's Character Tools to find 
both. As it happens, there are instances of bad practices like "Italic" and 
"italic", so case would be relevant in some instances. Thanks, Lin, for jogging 
my memory, too. I'll see if CudSpan tools can help as well.


--Karen


On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Fred Ridder  wrote:





You don't indicate what version of FrameMaker you are using, so I'll try to 
keep my answers as generic and universal as possible.

If you're trying to find named character styles, you should be choosing 
"Character Tag" rather than "Character Format" in the Find box. You will have 
to type the name of the tag, though, the same way you have to when searching 
for paragraph tags.



If you're trying to find instances of manually applied character formatting 
(format overrides), you'll either have to search for "Character Format" and 
deal with each item in the format dialog individually, or else get yourself a 
script or plug-in that finds overrides and generates a hyperlinked report. Once 
you have the report you can jump to each override and either remove the 
formatting or apply it via named styles (tags). For years I've used the hunt 
overrides plug-ins from CudSpan (Chris Despopoulis) and they work just fine.



BTW, if you're searching for tags or formatting, you should not be checking the 
"Consider Case" option, since that is intended for use when searching for a 
text string in the document's content. I don't know whether it affects tag or 
formatting searches or whether it is completely ignored (as it should be), but 
why select it if it's irrelevant?



-Fred Ridder

Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2013 12:15:10 -0700
Subject: Cleaning Character Formats
From: karendes...@gmail.com
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com



I want to remove rogue character formats and replace them with correct ones. 
I've used Character Tools to generate a list of formats by file so I know which 
ones are in each document of my book. I choose "Character Format..." in the 
Find/Change palette, type the character format name in the entry field, check 
the "Consider Case" checkbox, check the "Document" radio button to check only 
the open document, and click "Find." 




Usually, the "Find Character Format" dialog appears. I can't possibly remember 
all the properties I assigned to every format I created, and certainly wouldn't 
know the properties of a rogue or legacy style that I didn't create. I just 
want to find the format by the name assigned to it. Shouldn't those names 
appear in the scrollable entry field of the Find/Change palette, the same way 
paragraph styles do? (Not even default character styles show up.) Must I 
generate a long CT report on all styles to get the properties to complete this 
dialog?




If I close this dialog and try again, a "Specify the character format to find" 
alert appears. 

My documents have only an A flow. I doubt the character format I'm looking for 
would be on a master page. Even if a style or two were in an unanchored box, 
for example, that doesn't explain all styles not being available or found.




I'm sure this is a case of user error. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Karen

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Cleaning Character Formats

2013-07-09 Thread Scott Prentice

While we're on the subject .. an unfortunate tag searching issue happens 
if your tag names contain hyphens, and you try to use the "Whole Word" 
option. FM will match on partial tag names where search string matches a 
hyphen-delimited "word" in your tag name. For example, if you have tags 
named "head1" and "task-head1" .. and you search for "head1", it will 
match on both of the tags.

Cheers,

...scott

On 7/9/13 2:37 PM, Fred Ridder wrote:
> I just confirmed that "Consider Case" really is active in tag 
> searches--peculiar but true.
>
> But since this is actually the case, you'd probably want to leave it 
> OFF if you've got the kind of bad naming practices you mention.
>
> If you tell FrameMaker to consider case, then you'd have to do 
> *separate* searches for "italic" and "Italic" (and for "ITALIC" or any 
> camel-case variations). But with "Consider Case" inactive, searching 
> for "italic" return results for *any* instance of those 6 letters in 
> that order *regardless of case*. Covering all permutations of 
> upper-case and lower case letters in the name of a 6-letter tag would 
> take 64 (2^6) separate searches with "consider case" ON, but only one 
> search with "consider case" OFF.
>
> -Fred Ridder
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DITA/docbook vs your own schema

This distinction between a narrative and topics is a good one. 



I just worked through a series of manuals that were written as narratives. 
There was a lot of repeated content and procedures that were actually four or 
five procedures mixed together and then occurring later with the mixture 
slightly varied at other points in the manual.



For the content of these operator manuals, the focus on topics both reduced the 
need for repetition and allowed breaking things down procedures into units were 
both stand-alone AND understandable. The links to stand-alone topics allowed 
redefining confusing procedures by allowing the operator to focus on the big 
picture.



For this particular situation, DITA was a logical choice. 



BTW: The previous approach had created a maintenance nightmare since changing 
anything resulted in having to find all the other places where the same or 
similar text had to change as well. The conversion process uncovered numerous 
places where such changes had been not been done or was done incompletely.



Craig 



snipped-

IMHO, Docbook vs DITA is a choice between ecosystems. While Docbook is leaning 
towards the narrative, and DITA towards topics, the differences are getting 
less pronounced. E.g., DITA is slowly leaving DTDs behind, and Docbook is 
slowly getting assemblies (maps).







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DITA/docbook vs your own schema

This is a really good book for getting experience in using DITA 1.2. I found 
that the sample application that is developed was very straightforward to 
implement in FrameMaker. It won't teach you everything you need to know about 
DITA, but all the basics are there.



http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-DITA-Second-Edition-Architecture/dp/0977863433



An Arbortext specific version of this book also exists. (The one above is not 
FM specific, but it really doesn't need to be.)  



Craig

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DITA/docbook vs your own schema