Framers Digest, Vol 25, Issue 4

[David Artman]

Hi, all; long time no post!

I have an unusual question about PDF generation that I hope this list
can answer.

For a gaming product (role-playing, not computer), we want to be able to
embed ad banners which are refreshed every time the PDF is opened, every
time a page is turned, in the footer of the book. Those refreshes would
pull the banners from a standard ad revolver (like Google Ads), thereby
generating an ad view with a unique IP (per user/reader), thereby
generating ad revenue to pay for the free PDF hosting (with maybe some
left over for the author).

The first idea I had is much more limited: have the PDF distilled by the
server for each download, which would embed whatever ads are queued in
the ad revolver, BUT the ads would then be static and fixed PLUS the ad
request would always be from the server doing the distillation (i.e.
worth less revenue; possibly even none).

The second idea is more "active," but it doesn't solve the sever-only ad
request problem: I thought of having the footer contain an embedded,
URL-referenced image on the server, which is refreshed (server-side)
after each HTTP request, thus changing the ad every page (good) but
which would result in the requests always being made from the same
server (bad to worthless).

In summary: I need a way to embed active, URL-referenced content which
causes an HTTP request for an ad banner FROM the end-user machine IP,
tagged such that it credits the PDF-hosting author (for payment), EVERY
page turn (i.e. every page render in Reader).

Impossible?
David Artman

RE: Framers Digest, Vol 25, Issue 4

[David Artman]

Hi, all; long time no post!

I have an unusual question about PDF generation that I hope this list
can answer.

For a gaming product (role-playing, not computer), we want to be able to
embed ad banners which are refreshed every time the PDF is opened, every
time a page is turned, in the footer of the book. Those refreshes would
pull the banners from a standard ad revolver (like Google Ads), thereby
generating an ad view with a unique IP (per user/reader), thereby
generating ad revenue to pay for the free PDF hosting (with maybe some
left over for the author).

The first idea I had is much more limited: have the PDF distilled by the
server for each download, which would embed whatever ads are queued in
the ad revolver, BUT the ads would then be static and fixed PLUS the ad
request would always be from the server doing the distillation (i.e.
worth less revenue; possibly even none).

The second idea is more "active," but it doesn't solve the sever-only ad
request problem: I thought of having the footer contain an embedded,
URL-referenced image on the server, which is refreshed (server-side)
after each HTTP request, thus changing the ad every page (good) but
which would result in the requests always being made from the same
server (bad to worthless).

In summary: I need a way to embed active, URL-referenced content which
causes an HTTP request for an ad banner FROM the end-user machine IP,
tagged such that it credits the PDF-hosting author (for payment), EVERY
page turn (i.e. every page render in Reader).

Impossible?
David Artman

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Single file used in two BOOKs, Xref between the BOOKs

[David Artman]

Hi, again, all; especially Rick! I'll try to be brief

FM8, could go to FM9, but NOT FM10. Unstructured. Mixed Win7/WinXP
environment.

I'm making a pair of pubs: a Checklist (CHKL) pub which needs to xref to
an Implementation (IMPL) pub that shows all details of a given step in
the Checklist... if there are any! Not every step in the CHKL/IMPL has
substeps! So don't say "LOP". LOP won't cut it, for usability
requirements. ;)

Example:
CHKL

2.5 ...
2.6 Get the foo out of the box.
2.7 Insert the foo into the bar. (Details)
2.8 ...

IMPL

2.5 ...
2.6 Get the foo out of the box.
2.7 Insert the foo into the bar.
 2.7.1 Hold the foo.
 2.7.2 Carefully approach the bar.
 2.7.3 Insert the foo through the opening in the bar.
   [picture of bar opening with approaching foo]
2.8 ...

SO, initial plan is as follows:
* Single-file sourcing (for the sake of example; this will actually be
done to several hundred small files which are "modules" of a very
complex, multi-variable-dependent process)

* When PDFing the IMPL: The substeps (e.g., 2.3.1) are made visible by a
condition (Show IMPLonly); and the "Details" xref links are hidden (Hide
CHKLonly).

* When PDFing the CHKL: The substeps are hidden (Hide IMPLonly); and the
"Details" xref links are made visible (Show CHKLonly).

And the theory is that, when a Details link is clicked in the Checklist,
it jumps to the Implementation pub, which shows all of the substeps but
NOT the Details link.

(I'm sure you are already anticipating the failure mode)
First attempt: Of course, the Details links self-link to the Checklist
itself, at the same step, NOT to the Implementation pub's step with all
the substeps. Leading to...

MY QUESTION:
---
Is there any way to force FrameMaker to consider the BOOK file AND the
Document file, when making an xref to a marker in the Document? At the
least, can I force it to explicitly reference the Document file name as
the xref source file, rather than "Current"?

Looking at MIF, the Details xrefs all read:
 [link to self]

As a workaround, they could read:
Module101.fm'> [link to explicit file name]

...That way, I can do all the work in the Implementation (all conditions
visible), then just Ctrl+drag to make copies, which get the "- Copy"
suffix added to the file name, use those Copy files in the Checklist
BOOK, and VOILA! The xrefs point at the file names without "- Copy" in
them, thus pointing to the full substeps spelled out in the
Implementation, NOT self-referencing inside the Checklist.

But ideally, they would read (something like):
CHKL.bookModule101.fm'> [link to explicit BOOK
and file name]

...This way, I'd just need a separate BOOK file, with the SAME Document
files--FM will go look for the xrefs in ONLY a CHKL.BOOK-wrapped
Document file, even though the xref target is in the Document file
itself.

I am currently resigning myself to the workaround, by saving the files
to MIF and running a script across them to replace:

...with:
.fm'>

So that the MIFs can be used to build the Checklist BOOK, and they will
all "aim" at the Implementation pub.

But that's SUCKY, if you'll pardon my French. The save-to-MIF-and-script
process after each file update should be fast enough (assuming I can
write one to walk across all MIF files in the folder in which the script
resides, storing the current file name in a variable, to rewrite the
XrefSrcFile attributes). But, really, it's repetitive grind work, and
computers are supposed to be really good at that sort of stuff, they
tell me!

So... HOW? What should I do differently? Where's the setting in FM8 or
FM9 that says, "Hey, link to this EXACT BOOK and Document file, not
'Current'"?

Thanks a million, y'all;
David Artman

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RE: Hello (FM 11 Documentation)

[David Artman]

 Original Message 
From: Robert Lauriston 

...
Things like that. The current state of the FrameMaker docs is the
result of them being updated with new features release after release.
You should rewrite from scratch with a task-oriented focus.

--
While I'm inclined to agree--and as I acknowledge that 'cobblers wear no
shoes' and we'll never have perfect documentation about documenting with
FM--it is no mean feat to address every "task" that one might attempt in
FM. I'm not sure how I would begin, and I've used if for quite a while
(though not so long as many here).

What I think gives more "bang for the buck"--again, assuming we can't
have it all--is doing more and better work on the provided templates.

I should be able to open a template and:
* See every style applied somewhere, in "real" applications (with lorum,
if necessary) not just a word or two so you can click it, and DEFINITELY
not blank.
* See usage _explained_ when a non-obvious technique is employed (e.g.,
2pt height, -2pt above anchor lines; resetting numbering on list intro
headings NOT on stupid "List 1/A" styles!). [Yes, I know: it's high time
I insisted upon clients Structured FM!]
* See even more info on the Reference pages--would it kill you to
explain the all of the building blocks for Index or TOC tagging in a
text box on those Ref pages?!
* Compare and contrast with other templates with the same deliverables
goals, but different major style elements (e.g., step-level indentation,
which calls for TONS more List styles; or
Chapter-Page(-Figure/-Table/-etc) numbering which calls for use of
BOOK-level tools and/or Running H/Fs)

And so forth: A DITA project that I can immediately deploy, if I'm none
too picky about appearance yet. Maybe a structured application or five
that actually DO what 90% of all software and hardware companies need
(HTML Help, PDF-for-print, PDF-for-screen, ePub).

And I think you can save yourself the effort of delivering "business"
templates anymore, which will free up development time for those really
awesome, thorough, real-world-case templates. I mean, does anyone really
use FM for that, with Open/Libre/MSOffice totally dominating that
content generation space?

(TL;DR:)
I would rather learn by reading explications of actual, working template
files that are already 80% of the way to being what I need for any
publication, than reading "empty" instructions in a user guide. And when
I'm ready to use those working template files to build up content,
Ctrl+A, Delete removes all of the "learning tools" and samples, leaving
only clean pages (with H/Fs). And I'm not having to add fifty styles to
deal with real-world cases going forward.

David
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RE: Re: Template for four-page brochure?

[David Artman]

You have answered your own question--see below:

> I neglected to add that we will distribute this document in two ways:
> 
> 1. Physically along with the hardware product
> 
> 2. In PDF form from the web site

The (2) means you should build it as Letter and have the printer impose
it into a "2-Up, Duplex" booklet on 11x17. End users that pull it off of
the web (a) won't know WHAT to do with a pre-imposed booklet and (b)
easily can MAKE it a booklet (or a single-side 4-Up, or a four-page
stack) as they see fit with most modern printers' driver settings.

Relative file size of the two deliverables is managed simply by having
one print-to-PDF setting for the booklet's printer (high DPI; maximal
font embedding; overprint/undercolor settings; etc) and one for the
print-to-PDF setting for the web (compressed, maybe a little lossy,
maybe 150 DPI max, strip special printer control codes, add bookmarks
and tagging, etc).

If you are attempting to deliver a single PDF file for both media
(printer and web) then you've got some tough decisions to make
surrounding print quality versus file size online (and customer
bandwidth). I would advise against trying to do it that way at
all--that's what PDF Settings on BOOK files in FM is FOR! ;)

HTH;
David
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RE: Batch Update of FM file templates

[David Artman]

I, too, would like a (known-safe) DLL or batch file or script that will
make all FM files save to MIF!

I've kind of dreaded that stage of the complex project on which I'm
working (making a checklist link to a full guide, using one file set and
conditional text and MIF to build the checklist half).

Thanks!
David Artman
 Original Message 
From: Nancy Allison 
Date: Fri, August 03, 2012 9:36 am
...
1. Open your FM book.
2. Use a .dll function, not native to Frame, to save all the book files
to .mif at once.
...
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Running H/F "Looking Backwards" or "Current open para"

[David Artman]

Hi, all--FM8 Unstructured on Win7.

GOAL: Trying to use a Running H/F to show readers the "major step" in
which they are *currently* working.

ISSUE: The Running H/F picks up the first major step para on the current
page, *NOT* the major step in which they are working.

EXAMPLE: User began step "20.5" several pages earlier, and he or she is
currently viewing the final step, "20.5.h", with step "20.6" appearing
next para down on the page. The Running H/F shows "20.6" because that is
the first para of type "step" to appear on the page; *BUT* I want it to
show the *most-recent, current* "step" number: "20.5".

I suspect this is not possible in unstructured FM 8

Thanks, if you got a method!
David
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Re: Directed arrows

[David Artman]

> use Wingdings
> Alt+0216 for a stylized arrow in procs. For example, "Click Start >
> SomethingElse > SomethingElse."

> I'm trying to define this as a Character style but all I can seem to
> accomplish is the font family, not the decimal symbol character code
> Alt+0216.

I would define your character style ("ding") and make it bold or
whatever you're doing to the surround text in such a menu path.

Then create a variable ("arrow" or some other name whose first letter is
unique amongst your variable names) for inserting the arrow using Ctrl+0
(zero). Define it as:

Ø

[Heck... might as well put the spaces in there, too, to save two
keystrokes--I'd go non-breaking for readability, at least for the
leading space. So:]

 Ø 

So now, when you need to type it, you press: Ctrl+0, then A, then Enter.

That should be tons faster than pressing: Alt+0216, Shift+Left Arrow,
F8, D, Enter.

And should you decide to return to the very popular standard of using an
angle bracket, you can just edit the variable to " > " and it will all
change at once.

HTH;
David
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RE: Hyperlink or cross reference to another book

[David Artman]

Richard is right on all counts:

* You must have the target FM file open, and select it in the "Document"
drop-down.
* Then, your "Source Type" is "Paragraphs", and you select the
appropriate para tag.
* Select the target paragraph from "Source Text".

FM insert an xref marker in the target doc and the xref in the format
you select.

That format could be anything, but a good "To Some Book" xref format for
a heading xref is:
  <$paranum> <$paratext> in Title_of_the_target_publication

Or, for a page xref:
  <$pagenum> in Title_of_the_target_publication

["Publication Title" is a character format that applies
italics/oblique.]

You could experiment with pulling the book title from its para tag:
  ... in <$paratext[Title]>

But you might not be able to target that text; i.e., it might only
actually appear on the title page of the doc and in headers/footers,
which will mean you have to place it into each xrefed file as, for
example, 2pt white text hidden on the first or last page of each FM
file. Or probably some other trick, as doing it that way means the text
is still there and searchable/highlightable in the PDF.

Finally, the two PDFs must keep the same relative location as the two
xref-linked FM files, upon delivery and throughout their use (i.e., to
click the xref and have it jump). In practice, this means you will
likely have all of them (a) in the same CMS repository or (b) in the
same folder in a production environment (and, thus, the same folder on
the web or delivery media).

HTH;
David

 Original Message 
Subject: RE: Hyperlink or cross reference to another book
From: "Combs, Richard" 
Date: Fri, August 24, 2012 11:19 am
To: Pam Harper , "framers@lists.frameusers.com"



Pam Harper wrote:
 
> Can I add a link in one book to another book? How would I do it in
> Frame 10. I want to reference a specific section in a another book and
> am not sure how to do it, despite searching for answers on this. 

I only vaguely remember how to do this, but I don't see any responses.
Assuming your deliverables are PDF, I think using a cross-reference in
FM will work if (1) both books and all the files in them are open when
you create the two PDFs, and (2) in their final destinations, the
relative path between the PDFs is the same as the relative path between
the FM books. 

> If I
> use a cross reference, what would I select for a Building Block in the
> list?

The good news: You don't need to define a new cross-reference format.
Presumably you already have a cross-reference format for pointing to a
numbered section heading (using the <$paranum> building block). The bad
news: I'm pretty certain there's no way to include the title of the
other PDF in the cross-reference format (how would FM know what it's
going to be?). I guess you could insert a second cross-reference to the
<$paratext> of the book's title paragraph. 

You can include the <$filename> (name minus extension) or
<$fullfilename> building block, but that's the FM chapter file name. It
may or may not get translated into the PDF file name when you create the
PDFs of the two books as specified above -- I'm not sure. Try it. Or
create a cross-reference format specifically for xrefs to a particular
book, with a definition something like: "section <$paranum> in
MyOtherBook" 

HTH, and sorry for the vagueness and uncertainty. Maybe somebody else
can confirm, clarify, or correct as needed. :-)

Richard G. Combs
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RE: OT - Using a Defect Tracking System to Create a Glossary

[David Artman]

I might be the only one confused... but what is the point of a defect
tracker to develop a glossary? Are you trying to use the tracker as a
means of handling review and edit? I mean... there's TONS of ways to
handle such a workflow, if the goal is merely:
* Someone comes up with a new term for the glossary, and defines it.
* The term and definition is shopped around various SMEs and interested
parties, for comments/edits.
* The term is added to some kind of FM file/book and the deliverable
(CHM file?) is re-generated and re-published.

Hell, it could be done with an Outlook task or an email chain; it could
be done on an internal, developmental wiki; it could be done in a
regular (e.g., weekly, monthly) meeting for all new term additions at
once.

I guess... uh, I guess I just don't understand why this is even a
question? Can you provide further details about tools limitations,
contributor requirements/restrictions, or other business needs that
might be impacting your choice of workflows, which is leading you to
reach out for advice...?
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Automatic PDF Form

[David Artman]

Goal: Upon generating a PDF, checkboxes appear next to each paragraph of
a particular type, aligned right against the page margin. Can not use
autonumbering, because the paragraph tag already has numbers. Can not
manually create them in the PDF post-distillation, because we're talking
about hundred of steps needing checkboxes--WAY too time-consuming.

I am currently considering this method, using only FM 8 and Acrobat 9
Pro:

  1) Manually place a checkbox glyph into a text frame within an anchor
frame that is set to "Run Into Paragraph" and aligned right.
  2) Add some kind of label within the text frame (e.g., "Y", "OK" or
"Done").
  3) Copy-and-paste the anchor for that frame at then end of every a new
para of that type.
  4) Distill to PDF.
  5) Open PDF in AcroPro.
  6) Let the Form Wizard detect the labelled checkboxes and auto-create
them.

Works, but error-prone in many ways:

  a) Writers forget to add the manually-placed frame.
  b) TONS of other stuff can be detected as "form fields"; and their
auto-created fields have to be deleted (could be more work than adding
fields manually post-PDFing!).

Ideas? I suspect there's a plug-in that will automatically do this, if
setup right initially (or will do it wherever a special type of marker
is placed--"half automatic" so to speak).

Thanks in advance;
David Artman
david artman designs
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RE: Is there a video demonstrating Word vs Framemaker?

[David Artman]

FYI, your link isn't Scriptorium. :)

http://www.techknowledgecorp.com/

That said, Scriptorium has TONS of stuff online for content creators:

http://www.scriptorium.com/resources/

David

 Original Message 
Subject: Re: Is there a video demonstrating Word vs Framemaker?
From: "Carol J. Elkins" 
Date: Sun, September 23, 2012 3:35 pm
To: 

...

In addition, Scriptorium Publishing outlines a great Frame vs Word 
demo at http://www.techknowledgecorp.com/demo.html

...
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RE: copying Save as HTML settings from one FM10 file to another

[David Artman]

 Original Message 
From: John Sgammato 
Date: Tue, September 25, 2012 12:37 pm

  Does anyone know if there is a way to copy the Save as HTML settings
from one unstructured FM10 file to another? I don’t want to go through
the whole procedure again for every document!

I don't have FM10, but I thought I'd investigate for you in FM 8.

My basic notion was "save source as MIF, find its HTML Output settings,
and copy them over the target file (also saved as MIF)."

From what I can tell, then HTML settings are "baked into" every Pgf
Format that has relevant settings (ex: page break at heading levels X;
indent levels of list pgf formats, etc.). So you'd either have to find
each added line in the Pgf formatting in the source MIF and add it to
the target MIF (at the appropriate point in the markup)... or just redo
them in the FM GUI.

My big question: could you use a common template, set the HTML settings
on the template, then import the relevant elements (pgf, char, tables,
footnotes) to any doc that needs it? Perhaps your styles are not
consistent between source and target docs? If so... you gotta do the GUI
setup for each differently-styled doc, ideally in a template from which
you can import formats to any/all affected docs with the same styles.

Good luck!
David
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RE: copying Save as HTML settings from one FM10 file to another

[David Artman]

Or, yeah... do what Rick said. *blush*

But even THAT only works if you have consistent style names between
source and target.

*sheepishly shuffle away*
David


 Original Message 
Subject: RE: copying Save as HTML settings from one FM10 file to
another
From: "Rick Quatro" 
Date: Tue, September 25, 2012 1:09 pm
To: "'John Sgammato'" ,


Hi John,
 
The information is stored on a document's reference pages, so you should
be able to use File > Import Formats to import the reference pages from
one document to another.
 
Rick
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RE: Buying an old copy of FrameMaker

[David Artman]

>  Original Message 
> From: "Jeremy H. Griffith" 
> I did think 8 was an improvement, but the road
> after that turned so sharply downhill it resembled
> falling off a cliff... IMNSHO.  I still use 8;
> we have the later ones for testing with Mif2Go,
> but do not use them for any other purpose.

And THAT is perhaps the most damning assessment I could read, of
post-FM8. Wow...

As much as I love the old darling... I don't think that I'm going to be
using it after the next year or so (barring certain types of clients).
It's got too far to go to even catch up with current, top-notch XML
editor standards; and it doesn't seem to be moving the bar very far for
multiple modern output formats.

(FWIW, that's why I was off-list for almost six years: working long-term
for a client that's on DITA and uses a seriously robust editor.)
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RE: Buying an old copy of FrameMaker

[David Artman]

 Original Message 
Subject: RE: Buying an old copy of FrameMaker

>David said: "that's why I was off-list for almost six years: working long-term
>for a client that's on DITA and uses a seriously robust editor.

>Please tell me What Editor you were using for DITA ?
>(Maybe I missed the Punch Line ??? )

I can't say without a high probability of revealing the client and,
thus, confidential aspects of their workflow. But the editor is a Major
One that is pretty thoroughly customized for the client's environment,
deliverables, and workflow (e.g., translation; shipping).

If I had to pull the trigger now, to get one for freelance work (my
clients tend to own the tools, whether I recommend them or not) then I'd
probably go with oXygen (with a SVN CMS).

It just makes me drool :P
David
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Checklists with AutoForm Radio Buttons

[David Artman]

Hi, again, all--still working a checklist template concept. ALMOST got
it all working in Frame+Acrobat... I'll be brief:

Unstructured FM8, Acrobat 9 Pro ONLY on Win7 64bit

I want radio buttons to appear to the right of a line with a specific
paragraph tag that already has autonumbering:
1) Manually set anchor frame on the in-flow line, outside of column,
which contains a text frame.
2) Text frame contains a "ChecklistLabel" para tag, on which "Yes" and
"No" are followed by Wingding circles (the latter set within "Checklist"
character tags).
3) Print to PS, distill, open in Acrobat9
4) Let Form Wizard detect fields automatically.

OK, so the PDF MOSTLY ends up with "Yes" and "No" fields followed by
circle Wingdings. However:
X) If more than one appear on the same page, they lose their 'pairing'
side-to-side and INSTEAD they pair vertically. So instead of the Yes/No
pair on the top line being together, with the Yes/No on the paragraph
below it also paired, it instead has the Yes/Yes as a pair of vertically
associated radio buttons and the No/No as another vertical pair.

I have tried every sort of alignment trick I could think of, in FM:
N) Making sure the Yes and No are much closer together than the rows of
Yes/No pairs - failed.
N) In fact, the above fails EVEN IF the Yeses are not in vertical
alignment; so long as the Noes are, they get paired and then,
automagically, the Yeses 'leftward' get paired!?
Y) The only thing that got them to break the vertical association and
pair horizontally is if BOTH the Yeses AND the Noes are out of vertical
alignment. Obviously, this isn't a viable solution: having the visual
alignment of these radio buttons drift left and right like a lazy river.

This leads me to believe (hope!) that some setting in Acrobat will make
the Forms Wizard scan left-to-right and proceed downward (like, you
know, how English is read?!?) instead of scan top-to-bottom and proceed
left-to-right.

OR, it might be that they are out of frame, and if they were inline and
floated right, they'd better-associate? (Trying that now--just thought
of it!)

Thanks for any ideas/tricks!
David

PS: I have NO budget for pluins at this site; so please save both our
times and consider only those solutions that are possible within FM and
Acro.
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RE: Checklists with AutoForm Radio Buttons

[David Artman]

>I wrote [edited]:
OR, it might be that they are out of frame, and if they were run into
para and
floated right, they'd better-associate? (Trying that now--just thought
of it!)
---
NOPE! As I figured, the PDF doesn't 'know' where these circles are; it
just knows that they are vertically aligned; and seems not to care that
it is splitting up one of a handful of 'canonical' auto-pairings (Y/N,
Yes/No, M/F, Male/Female, Jr/Sr).

I'm totally stumped; and this opposite-of-documented behavior is the
LAST hurdle of this months-long organization and design project. My best
reference so far, sadly, is a BLOG at Adobe!
http://blogs.adobe.com/loridefurio/files/loridefurio/DesigningForms-UE.pdf

And it just plain don't work like it says there, vis a vis Yes/No pairs
(refer to pg.2)

Oh, and final insult: I changed the dings in one pair to boxes instead
of circles... and the damned fool application STILL groups the No/No
pairs! I have, right now on my screen, a "radio button" pairing made of
a circle No and a square No about 3" above each other pairing, instead
of pairing with the Yeses on their own lines less than 1" away! With
different dings!!

There ain't enough exclamation marks in the wold, for this hoopty BS
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RE: Checklists with AutoForm Radio Buttons

[David Artman]

OK, additional news/breakthrough! (And a sheepish apology for not
providing full details--I didn't think that the following mattered.)

OK, so this checklist is intended to be viewed on a tablet, so the page
layout is 7.5 x 5.5 (i.e., "Custom").
Apparently, "Custom" leads FM to decide that I'm in landscape
orientation.
BUT, if I don't check the "Auto-rotate Pages" option in Distiller (PDF
Settings) then it actually ends up "portrait" (narrowest edge top; i.e.,
rotated 90° CCW). So I'm NOT in "landscape" according to FM, actually;
I'm in CW-rotated portrait with my text all CCW-rotated to read
right-to-left. Yeah, that's the ticket... SURELY that's what I meant
with that page size! *rollseyes*

If I auto-form the unrotated ("portrait"; CCW-rotated) output, no fields
are recognized.

SO... Somewhere between my Custom 7.5 x 5.5 being perceived as
pseudo-landscape by FM and Distiller auto-rotate and Acrobat thinking
the page is re-rotated... it's confused. (More so than I am, apparently!
A relief!) I discovered this when I randomly changed a checkbox to use
checks instead of squares, and the check mark was rotated 90° CW.

So now, my question has evolved to:
---
How and where do I establish that 7.5 x 5.5 is what I want, the top is
the top, and nothing should be "rotated" per se, as it all is oriented
the way I want. Acrobat form wizard should scan right-to-left, then
top-down.
---

SOMEWHERE in that application/processing chain, Adobe products decide
that I didn't *really* mean that the top of my page is actually the top,
due to this page size; and so *surely* I meant rotated landscape pages
with counter-rotated text so it can be read.

... Save as PDF has same problem.
... And if I make the Page Size US Letter... it STILL mis-pairs Yes/Yes
and No/No... and yet the check mark is oriented correctly!?! So the form
wizard actually has conceded that, yes, this page is portrait
orientation... but it still scans and pairs top-down, left-to-right.

*sigh*

Am I screwed? Is this just plain a bug in the form wizard and I'm going
to have to manually recreate all the mis-pairing (which, in production,
could be scores)?
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RE: Checklists with AutoForm Radio Buttons

[David Artman]

On the one hand, you're right, Rick... if I'd known in advance that I
was going to trip over some obscure bug in the Acrobat form wizard.

But, on another hand, you're unaware of the whole situation. A more
accurate assessment is: "they will be spending several tens of thousands
of dollars on a DITA+XML solution, and on a VM server for screen
captures, and on new hires; and so an application-specific plugin that
will be used for at most six months is a bad investment". When this
solution works, it will be used by anywhere from four to ten others, so
it's not just a one-off--now we're over a few hundred and into a few
thousand (and no, I don't think they like the idea of a single seat
being the gateway for all production--I wouldn't).

Further, Adobe claims all this IS possible with my tools, but it doesn't
actually do what it says on the tin (or it's so kerfluffled by the
notion of a "portrait" 7.5 x 5.5 that it stops working right--same
diff).

Finally, if there's coding/scripting to be done, I'd rather work on the
XSL transform to do this instead of an add-on. Again, moving forward
with their future system, not "patching" a system being sunsetted.

So sometimes, it's not as simple as dropping a few hundred dollars and
shrugging. Sorry if I came off harsh or whatever.. but, yes, I know
there's three or four different add-on products that can do it (I'm told
every time I ask a question on this list).

David

 Original Message 
Subject: RE: Checklists with AutoForm Radio Buttons
From: "Rick Quatro" 

It's too bad that they have budget for you to spin your wheels doing
this
"by hand" instead of using an inexpensive automation solution.

Rick

Rick Quatro
Carmen Publishing Inc.
585-283-5045
r...@frameexpert.com


PS: I have NO budget for pluins at this site; so please save both our
times
and consider only those solutions that are possible within FM and Acro.


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RE: Checklists with AutoForm Radio Buttons

[David Artman]

OK, so if this is my goal, what is my best FM setup:
1) 7.5 x 5.5, with 7.5 the width of the page, to view on a
landscape-oriented tablet.
2) Either FM or Acro (or both?) acknowledge that the source FM
orientation is "correct" and it does not require an "Auto-Rotate Pages"
setting in the PDF Settings.
3) Acrobat Form Wizard scans the resulting PDF left-to-right, then
top-down.

[
As a reminder--or perhaps my third post hadn't gone through yet--even if
I set the page to 8.5 x 11, regenerate, and auto-form, Acrobat scans
top-to-bottom then left-to-right anyway. I can verify the behavior by
making one of the boxes a check (not square):
A) In 7.5 x 5.5 "pseudo-rotated": the check is rotated 90° CW (i.e., it
would be upright, if I was, in fact, making a portrait document and
rotating it to landscape).
B) In 8.5 x 11, "portrait": the check is upright (i.e., Acrobat
acknowledges the 8.5 wide page top) but it doesn't seem to matter--Form
Wizard still mis-pairs Y/Y and N/N on pages with two pairs).

Which is my my last post asked if I've found some kind of terminal bug
and have to take a different (or manual) route. Or maybe there's
something I can do to the PDF (or PS?) to fix (hack?) the assumed
orientation prior to running the Form Wizard? Like I said: I'm totally
stumped. This would be the first time for me that a fundamental property
of a document is assumed (page orientation is rotated landscape with
counter-rotated text) and completely inaccessible.
]

Thanks in advance for any further advice anyone can offer;
David

 Original Message 
Subject: RE: Checklists with AutoForm Radio Buttons
From: "Combs, Richard" 

David Artman wrote:
 
> OK, so this checklist is intended to be viewed on a tablet, so the page
> layout is 7.5 x 5.5 (i.e., "Custom").
> Apparently, "Custom" leads FM to decide that I'm in landscape
> orientation.

No, specifying the size as 7.5 x 5.5 does. If you want a portrait
orientation, specify the size as 5.5 x 7.5. 

Richard G. Combs
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RE: astrological symbols as fonts

[David Artman]

Twelve Zodiac signs are in Wingdings:
^_`abcdefghi

But you probably want a font that specializes in all of it, so:
http://www.astrosense.net/downloads.html

Specifically:
http://www.astrosense.net/fonts/starfont.zip

I wouldn't bother to make Frame drawing objects (on Ref pages or
wherever) if I was hoping to use the symbols in an equation or otherwise
manipulate them with styles. Conversely, if you want multi-color icons
or some-such, you'll have to make drawings (anywhere) and import them as
necessary (Ref Pages, for style calls; in Background frames, for headers
and footers; in Anchor Frames, for ad hoc usage; etc.).

HTH;
David

 Original Message 
From: "William W. Saylor, PE" 
Date: Tue, October 30, 2012 11:33 am
Traditionally there are several symbols used to represent the planets,
earth, sun, moon, Ares, etc that are basically astrological symbols. I
could use these symbols in FM directly if I could find / make them.
1.  Does anyone know of a font that includes these symbols?

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Horror Story!

[David Artman]

One dark, stormy day, I began a new contract.

In short order, I was in charge of a six-dimensional array of
Conditional Text, in multi-reuse Text Insets, with two different
deliverable aspect ratios, one of which becomes an active PDF Form
integrated with a could-based Contact Management System... that is
accessed almost exclusively via iPad.

I only have to customize this Dread Packet of Potentiality three or four
times *a week* to customize the source to a given site and client (and
OS version, and software version, and hardware installed, and particular
networking foibles and requirements, and whatever Sales promised that
client that month).

*boo*
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
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RE: Problem with Save as PDF (FM-10, Acro 9.5) - solved

[David Artman]

> Finally i have managed to get a correct PDF 
> (font, links) with the image on page 48:

Glad we could help! ;)

[FWIW, I do the same thing all the time: continually try to solve a
problem and post updates to the list, hoping I won't cause someone to
repeat my own failed attempts. Just poking some fun on a Friday...] 

> I have converted the jpg to a pdf - and that 
> solved the issue.

As a data point: I have all kinds of problems with JPGs in FM8, if I
save straight from Photoshop without using "Save for Web & Devices". No
idea why... and little time to experiment with color space crap.

I just favor PNGs, now, unless I *must* have a photo, then I use
Photoshop's "Save For Web & Devices" and it works like a charm.

This hppens on an inheritent business machine on which the previous
user(s?) installed all sort of other applications (OpenOffice, GIMP,
GhostView, etc, etc). As such, I'm sure Windows is half-crazed with
color profiles and file filters and such... and I don't blame it

David
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What is a "PI marker" or "programming instruction marker"

[David Artman]

Hi, all--FM8p277 on Win7. This is a long post, but I want to be thorough
and to show that I've done my due diligence to solve this by myself.
 
Trying to use DITA2Go (D2G) to produce Compiled HTML Help (CHM) with
context-sensitivity.
 
According to D2G Help, I must "Place a 'TopicAlias' PI marker in the
text of [my] document where [I] want to display context-sensitive help."
[D2G Help 18.11.1]

OK, new marker type named "TopicAlias": no problem.
Contents of a marker of that type "IDH_about": no problem.
(I inspect the XML in an editor, and the '' is within the TITLE tag. I'd *kind of* prefer it to be
before the tag... but I can not figure out how I would place there using
the FM interface; and there's *no way* I'm going to place/move hundreds
of these markers manually!)

Project is setup as much as I possibly could in D2G Project Manager--I
mean, I've checked *everywhere*: every INI file in the stack and every
tab in the UI. I've added every line of code to the project INI file
that the D2G Help says is needed for alias files (i.e.,
'MakeAliasFile=Yes' and 'AliasPrefix=IDH_' and 'UseAliasAName=Yes').

Press "Start" button... Lo! A CHM file, which opens showing the page to
which I want it to default. And I go to check in the output folder,
because "When you use PI markers for CSH destinations, by default
DITA2Go generates an alias file for you, named after your document, with
extension '.hha'...". [D2G Help 18.11.4].

Um, nope. No HHA file in the project folder (nor even on my entire hard
drive--yes, I searched). So I'm having some doubts that the CHM would
work, if delivered to the development team, because "If you use PI
markers for CSH destinations, you need both a map file and an alias
file". [D2G Help 18.11.2]

Additional note: there is no '#include "My_Project.hha"' line under the
'[ALIAS]' section of the project's HHP file. I could add one easily; but
lacking the file to which it refers, it seems pointless at the moment.

So I wonder... what is a PI marker, if not what I'm placing? I've tried
showing every possible element, including invalid ones for the location
at which I want the marker (before the TITLE element), but I see no "PI"
element that I could use.

Any help? I'd check on the DITA2Go forums, but they seem a bit on the
dead side. So I'm turning to my fellow Framers because, if nothing else,
I need to be able to do it consistently in FM, not by hacking away with
a text editor.

Help me with HELP!
David Artman
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RE: What is a "PI marker" or "programming instruction marker"

[David Artman]

Thanks for replying, Jeremy--I did not expect such support, given I'm
trying to save every penny for the client and using the free version.

If it is any consolation, you've given me sufficient ammo to get them to
crack loose on MIF2Go. ;)

[By way of some background: We're in an odd spot where we're between
budgets AND about to shift to 'native' DITA using oXygen; so they're
trying hard not to invest further in Frame-specific products. But this
requirement for Help (in am month!) is gonna mean one last tool goes in
that box.]

A few more replies, inline:
 
 Original Message 
From: "Jeremy H. Griffith" 
Date: Wed, November 28, 2012 5:01 pm

>>Hi, all--FM8p277 on Win7. This is a long post, but I want to be thorough
>>and to show that I've done my due diligence to solve this by myself.

>Thank you for that!

I try! :)

> There is no DITA element for CSH.

I figured as much, in my searching... and I admit I find that
surprising! One would think, given it's parents (IBM, Cisco, etc) they'd
have been looking to include that early and thoroughly. *shrugs* Guess
they figured "extensible" covers such 'odd' applications as help (even
though help and software have gone hand-in-hand, like, forever). Maybe
it's a not-so-subtle nudge to an integrated help standard (which I've
already advised and had shot down).

>And what we expected, the normal XML form, is:

>

>The ones you have would be ignored, since we
>don't recognize the target "FM", and use a
>different syntax in the body of it. An example
>of our usage is in the D2G User's Guide, in
>par. 16.10.2, "Specifying CSH mappings", 
>in the first step.

Durn it... I searched, but it didn't find any "PI marker"
reference--something wrong with my IE settings, I reckon. Should have
just kept reading

>What does it do when you 
>have more than one item in one marker?

No idea, but I wouldn't need more than one for this application, I don't
think. OR if I did, I'd place additional markers, I suppose. (I *think*
I read something along those lines in the D2G Help... or MIF2Go Help...
or somewhere. This hasn't been a direct journey for me; more like
panicky flailing!)

>>I'd *kind of* prefer it to be
>>before the tag...

>No, it isn't a good idea to put it before 
>the . That's where it belongs.

You lost me, there? ("isn't"?)

But it sounds like, if they just don't budge on MIF2Go, then I'll be
doing it in a text editor instead of FM, after all updating is complete.
But...

...Yep, curséd Frame removes it if I open in FM and then save it again!
Nope, that will not work at all. :(

Game, set, match... I'm advising MIF2Go or no CSH this release.

Unless...

>We use the HH_DISPLAY_TOPIC command 
>where you pass the filename within the CHM
>instead, and that does not need those files.

SO I could tell the devs my IDs and have them use that command in the
HtmlHelp() API? Hmmm...

Nah. Coner to DITA just to use that call, instead of using MIF2Go and
staying in FM as long as possible seems a smarter way to go. It might
still be a while before we have a fully armed and operational
DITAstation

>>Any help? I'd check on the DITA2Go forums, but they seem a bit on the
>>dead side. 

>We do respond ourselves to posts there.

Apologies--no disparagement intended. But the last post _was_ 17 weeks
ago, ya gotta admit. ;)

And, honestly, I hadn't hoped to get your support, as I said above,
because we're trying to squeak by using the free version.

Much obliged, sir;
David
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RE: What is a "PI marker" or "programming instruction marker"

[David Artman]

Sure... once we own it. ;) 

It's a big enough team that procurement would want to negotiation for
multiple licenses. And that mean Q1.

---

Thanks to Jeremy's generous help and instruction, I now know what I
would have to do to deliver with D2G: maintain two file sets. I tried
adding the necessary code using a programmer's text editor, opened the
XML in FM, saved it again... and dear old Frame removed the "offending"
code. So, yeah... kind of 'not the point' of using DITA, if you have to
maintain it in parallel with FM binaries (we don't have adequate PDF
transforms, yet, to match our corporate style).

---

I'm enjoying the side discussion I've sparked--keep it up! Every little
bit I can learn about transforms and such will be of value, going
forward. We have a ... diverse... set of deliverables, and so I suspect
a lot of backend hackery will be in my near future.

David
 
 Original Message 
Subject: Re: What is a "PI marker" or "programming instruction marker"
From: Writer 
Date: Thu, November 29, 2012 7:24 pm
To: David Artman , "Jeremy H. Griffith"
, Framers 


> [By way of some background: We're in an odd spot where we're between

> budgets AND about to shift to 'native' DITA using oXygen; so they're
> trying hard not to invest further in Frame-specific products. But this
> requirement for Help (in am month!) is gonna mean one last tool goes in
> that box.]


Can't you output to CHM using oXygen?

Nadine
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RE: Cross-reference to a previous file

[David Artman]

|From: Lin Sims 
|Date: Tue, December 11, 2012 8:20 pm
|
|Where I work, we have a sort-of-similar issue, and we solved it by
|using cross-references. It means you'll have to remember to check that
|you're pointing to the right files if you add any new ones in, but it
|beats typing everything in (and you'd have to manually update that
|way, too).

Lin, wouldn't that make it into a link, after PDFing? I'm assuming that
one wants other xrefs to be live links and so one leaves that option
checked in PDF Settings. If xrefs aren't automatically being made into
links, that would work fine.

Roger, can't you use the Volume value at the book level on the files(s)
and then use that building block in the H/F? Or have you already used
that building block for other purposes?

As a final, hacky solution, you could make a super-stripped file (I use
MIF editing to kill, like, EVERY catalog I can) and then have one of
those files for each part, in which you define a Variable to carry the
H/F text? That way, you could still use book-wide variables (in another
blank file or in your main template) to apply "major" Variables and the
part-level blank file to apply "minor" variables afterwards. Kind of
manual, but not nearly so much as other methods.

[I don't have/use FM9+, but it seems like setting the parts up as
books-in-a-book would let you access other Numbering properties
(Section, Sub-Section). So your 'part' text would be the "Chapter"
values--with their para styles handling numbering via autonumbering--and
then "Section" would handle your 'chapter' numbering in the
book-in-book.]

HTH;
David
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RE: How to force capital letters in a generated Index?

[David Artman]

Short answer: no; there's no way to use paragraph styles to enforce initial captals. You could force all caps, as a quick hack.
 
More-relevant answer: You shouldn't do this, anyway. I feelt that indexes should use capitalizattion as driven by tthe indexed terms. So, proper nouns and such get capitalized; plain-old terms don't; and maybe your special terms (e.g., GUI elements) follow capitalization of the user interface.
 
David

 Original Message Subject: How to force capital letters in a generated Index?From: Studio Smalbro Date: Tue, December 18, 2012 1:55 pmTo: framers@lists.frameusers.comI am generating an Index in FrameMaker 11, but the index words have been inserted in the markers with a mix of capital letters and small letters. It's a big index and I would like to be able to force all words to have the first character as a capital letter. Can I somehow tweak the paragraph style into doing this or is there any other kind of FrameMaker magic which will do the trick?regardsBjørn Smalbro___You are currently subscribed to framers as da...@davidartman.com.Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com.To unsubscribe send a blank email toframers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.comor visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/david%40davidartman.comSend administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visithttp://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
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RE: Cross-reference to a previous file

[David Artman]

Why can't you use this technique: 

> As a final, hacky solution, you could make a super-stripped file (I use
> MIF editing to kill, like, EVERY catalog I can) and then have one of
> those files for each part, in which you define a Variable to carry the
> H/F text? That way, you could still use book-wide variables (in another
> blank file or in your main template) to apply "major" Variables and the
> part-level blank file to apply "minor" variables afterwards. Kind of
> manual, but not nearly so much as other methods.

So you'd apply the "minor" Variable format--essentially a single
Variable which is embedded in the Running H/F--to each part, after you
handle whatever is done book-wide with the "major" Variables (in your
template or another stripped blank).


...Or this one, if you're on FM9:

> [I don't have/use FM9+, but it seems like setting the parts up as
> books-in-a-book would let you access other Numbering properties
> (Section, Sub-Section). So your 'part' text would be the "Chapter"
> values--with their para styles handling numbering via autonumbering--and
> then "Section" would handle your 'chapter' numbering in the
> book-in-book.]

David
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RE: Sorting paragraphs

[David Artman]

What's your use case? I'm having trouble imagining why one would ever do
this...

I suppose that, if I needed to sort paragraphs, I'd use an Index of
References.
David

 Original Message 
From: Shmuel Wolfson 
Date: Thu, January 03, 2013 9:53 am

Is there a way to sort paragraphs in Frame without changing the text to 
a table?

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RE: Sorting paragraphs

[David Artman]

Ah, OK... that's an Index of References application, for sure. Indexes
are alphabetically sorted, lists are in order of occurrence.
1) Add > Index of > References
2) "Include References": Imported Graphics
3) Click "Add".

You get an alphabetical file of all your graphics (I believe it
alphabetizes by full path; i.e., what would appear on the  line for
that element, in MIF).

I actually use an IOR on imported graphics so that I can find all of the
images in a document in a file system and pack them up for archiving.
Routine

HTH;
David

 Original Message 
Subject: Re: Sorting paragraphs
From: Shmuel 
Date: Thu, January 03, 2013 2:31 pm
To: David Artman 
Cc: Framers 


Any sort of list that's not in a table. My particular case was a list
of referenced graphics that I generated that I wanted sorted
alphabetically.
-----

On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 9:20 PM, David Artman 
wrote:
> What's your use case? I'm having trouble imagining why one would ever do
> this...
>
> I suppose that, if I needed to sort paragraphs, I'd use an Index of
> References.
> David
>
>  Original Message 
> From: Shmuel Wolfson 
> Date: Thu, January 03, 2013 9:53 am
>
> Is there a way to sort paragraphs in Frame without changing the text to
> a table?
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RE: Pagination FM 11

[David Artman]

I set Adobe PDF as my default system printer, as I generate PDFs far
more often than I print to dead trees. Try that, maybe?

Also, be sure to uncheck "Remember missing font names" in the FM
Preferences, and you should be able to "strip" all legacy font info from
your files as you open them and save them in the course of normal
revision and production.

Lastly... this should be a sign to reassess your template design(s), to
look into using typefaces that aren't muddled in the mess of Type 1 ->
PS -> TTF -> OT (i.e., not "Times" and "Helv" and "Courier"). All those
old, canonical typefaces are basically a tarbaby, these days (not to
mention aesthetically bereft, but that's another story!). Why even wade
in those waters, if your output is primarily PDF, in which you can embed
fonts? (Sadly, there's still good cause to stick with "web fonts" if you
do a lot of online deliverables.) Why not find a lovely typeface to make
your company's own and bring a little life into your pubs? :)

That said, if you begin with ANY of Adobe's templates, be prepared to
MIF-and-strip (to kill Adobe's stubborn use of ill-distinguished
typefaces!). Even with the "blank" template, you'd do well to begin by
MIFing it, opening in a programmer's text editor, and stripping out all
the Catalogs (FM will put back the built-in Color Defs and Variables
automatically, but you'll have NO table, para, char, etc styles).

And even THEN, you will  probably have to open it, let font substitution
happen, and save the substitution--Reference page junk, most likely!

Bon chance...
David

 Original Message 
From: "Judy Bragg" 
Date: Fri, February 01, 2013 10:38 am
...
 In the past, I think I'd used a handy little utility someone had posted
that automatically set my printer to Adobe PDF when I opened Framemaker.
That was when I was in FM10 so I wouldn't have had this problem then,
but I recently upgraded so FM 11 is not set that way.  
...
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RE: Vertical Alignment Bottom

[David Artman]

A couple of hacky ideas (I'm also copying others' ideas, to centralize
them):

1) Run-in para (2 pit, -2pt space below) followed by a "push-down" para
with Space Above Pgf equal to line height minus text frame height.
1a) Additional "push-down" paras to accommodate two, three, and more
lines of text (fiddly).

2) Single-cell table the size of the text frame, containing a para with
Cell Vertical Alignment "Bottom".

3) Anchored Frame placed [wherever] with Anchoring Position set to "At
Bottom of Column", shrinkwrapped around a text frame with [whatever]
para(s). Use the size and position of the text frame in the anchored
frame, to control para(s)'s positioning relative to the main text frame.
Set object properties to run around square.

4) Redesign the master pages with two Flows: one for the top-of-page
contents and one for the bottom-of-page contents.

5) Typeset the bottom-of-page contents as footnotes without footnoting
symbols (or with invisible-color symbols).

Hell... maybe more ways, but one of those should cover you.
David

 Original Message 
Subject: Vertical Alignment Bottom
From: jddav...@mmm.com
Date: Mon, February 11, 2013 2:55 pm
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com

I'm hoping this email hits the list.  My last few email have not. 
 
Does anyone know how to force texts to vertically align with the bottom
of the text frame?   
 
Thanks, 
Jess 

  Jessica Davis | Technical Writer
 Motor Vehicle Systems & Services
 3M Company, 28100 Cabot Dr | Novi, MI 48377
 Office: 248 374 9652
 jddav...@mmm.com | www.3M.com

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Cannot find the file named...

[David Artman]

Hi, all;

Latest, out-of-the-blue functional bug on FM8.0p277, Win 7:

1) Navigate to working folder for project [just like every day].
2) Double-click BOOK file.
   FrameMaker opens, them immediately displays the following message:
   "Cannot find the file named __. Make sure that the file exists.
3) Click OK on that message.
4) On the FrameMaker menu, click File > 1 [file_name].
   FrameMaker immediately displays the same error message as in step 2, 
   then FrameMaker displays the Open dialog, at the project folder root 
   (i.e., last folder to which I wrote files).
5) Double-click the BOOK file in the Open dialog.
   The BOOK file opens in FrameMaker.

Same behavior if I try to do the above with a standalone FM file.

I have, over the course of days, installed software that does various
things to interface with the hardware that I am documenting, so it's
possible something went pear-shaped with Windows. I'm *inclined* to
blame FM because (a) Windows knows the BOOK should open Frame, and sends
it to Frame, and only THEN does Frame claim not to find it; and (b) it's
FrameMaker 8. By Adobe. So, yeah

Any ideas what I could do to repair whatever's gone wrong? I'm comfy
manipulating INI file and the Windows Registry. But I can't reinstall
FM8, though I *have* rolled back and reapplied all patches (p266 is 155
MB, so I imagine it's pretty thoroughly updating everything). This
problem persists through daily reboots.
Thanks in advance;
David
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RE: Cannot find the file named...

[David Artman]

Update: Ad, when I resumed work after lunch (no reboot) it worked to
double-click the BOOK file to open it.

Suspicious, I rebooted my system... and it doesn't work again (same
sequence as in previous email, below).

It's off a network file share, but that shouldn't be the problem because
(a) I open a folder on the share to find the BOOK file to double click
it without a problem, and (b) I've worked the exact same way for over a
year, on the same network, share, and files without a hiccup.

I got NO clue what to do
David

 Original Message 
Subject: Cannot find the file named...
From: "David Artman" 
Date: Mon, February 25, 2013 10:33 am
To: "Framers" 

Hi, all;

Latest, out-of-the-blue functional bug on FM8.0p277, Win 7:

1) Navigate to working folder for project [just like every day].
2) Double-click BOOK file.
 FrameMaker opens, them immediately displays the following message:
 "Cannot find the file named __. Make sure that the file exists.
3) Click OK on that message.
4) On the FrameMaker menu, click File > 1 [file_name].
 FrameMaker immediately displays the same error message as in step 2, 
 then FrameMaker displays the Open dialog, at the project folder root 
 (i.e., last folder to which I wrote files).
5) Double-click the BOOK file in the Open dialog.
 The BOOK file opens in FrameMaker.

Same behavior if I try to do the above with a standalone FM file.

I have, over the course of days, installed software that does various
things to interface with the hardware that I am documenting, so it's
possible something went pear-shaped with Windows. I'm *inclined* to
blame FM because (a) Windows knows the BOOK should open Frame, and sends
it to Frame, and only THEN does Frame claim not to find it; and (b) it's
FrameMaker 8. By Adobe. So, yeah

Any ideas what I could do to repair whatever's gone wrong? I'm comfy
manipulating INI file and the Windows Registry. But I can't reinstall
FM8, though I *have* rolled back and reapplied all patches (p266 is 155
MB, so I imagine it's pretty thoroughly updating everything). This
problem persists through daily reboots.
Thanks in advance;
David
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RE: Cannot find the file named...

[David Artman]

Yes, I get the error with FM and BOOK files (but I won't work FMs
without opening them from a BOOK, so...).

No, I don't get the error with local FM or BOOK files.

I see no changes in behavior based on time, though I haven't tried to
completely error-trap (i.e., once I have the BOOK open, I get to work
and generally don't close it until end of day).

...So it would seem that it's FrameMaker's fault, still; but it is only
related to network drives. I'm wondering, now, if it has to do with the
path name(s) containing a space or an exclamation mark (!). Or if it
somehow has to do with the difference between the share name and the
mapped drive name.

Anyway, thanks for the follow-up... but FrameMaker is still the only
product (even the only Adobe product) doing this to me; everything else
I use day-to-day functions just like it has in networked Windows
environments since, oh, 1997...?

Maybe I should roll back to v5.5? ;)
David

 Original Message 
From: "Reng, Dr. Winfried" 
Date: Tue, February 26, 2013 2:26 am

Hi David,

When you mention that the files are o a network, did you also
test when the files are on your local hard drive?
What happens when you double-click on regular FrameMaker
files (not books)? Do you get the error message as well?
Does your boot process take longer and you get differing results
when you try to open directly after restarting Windows and half an hour
later?

Best regards

Winfried

> -Original Message-
> Sent: Monday, February 25, 2013 7:41 PM
>
> Update: Ad, when I resumed work after lunch (no reboot) it worked to
> double-click the BOOK file to open it.
>
> Suspicious, I rebooted my system... and it doesn't work again (same
> sequence as in previous email, below).
>
> It's off a network file share, but that shouldn't be the problem because
> (a) I open a folder on the share to find the BOOK file to double click
> it without a problem, and (b) I've worked the exact same way for over a
> year, on the same network, share, and files without a hiccup.
>
> I got NO clue what to do
> David
>
>  Original Message 
> From: "David Artman" 
> Date: Mon, February 25, 2013 10:33 am
>
> Hi, all;
>
> Latest, out-of-the-blue functional bug on FM8.0p277, Win 7:
>
> 1) Navigate to working folder for project [just like every day].
> 2) Double-click BOOK file.
> FrameMaker opens, them immediately displays the following message:
> "Cannot find the file named __. Make sure that the file exists.
> 3) Click OK on that message.
> 4) On the FrameMaker menu, click File > 1 [file_name].
> FrameMaker immediately displays the same error message as in step 2,
> then FrameMaker displays the Open dialog, at the project folder root
> (i.e., last folder to which I wrote files).
> 5) Double-click the BOOK file in the Open dialog.
> The BOOK file opens in FrameMaker.
>
> Same behavior if I try to do the above with a standalone FM file.
>
> I have, over the course of days, installed software that does various
> things to interface with the hardware that I am documenting, so it's
> possible something went pear-shaped with Windows. I'm *inclined* to
> blame FM because (a) Windows knows the BOOK should open Frame, and
> sends
> it to Frame, and only THEN does Frame claim not to find it; and (b) it's
> FrameMaker 8. By Adobe. So, yeah
>
> Any ideas what I could do to repair whatever's gone wrong? I'm comfy
> manipulating INI file and the Windows Registry. But I can't reinstall
> FM8, though I *have* rolled back and reapplied all patches (p266 is 155
> MB, so I imagine it's pretty thoroughly updating everything). This
> problem persists through daily reboots.
> Thanks in advance;
> David

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RE: Cannot find the file named...

[David Artman]

Thanks, Heiko, but I don't understand how the OS or network gets
fingered when ALL other applications that I use work normally. Even
Adobe applications.

If Frame is too impatient, that's a BUG, not a 'problem' with the
ever-so-slow network. I was hoping to learn about some kind of INI file
setting (make it more patient, perhaps?) or known conflicts with other
applications, which can bork up the automatic application launching.

If the gods are good, I won't be using FM any more in a quarter or two,
so I'll just bull along with the broken beast until then. I don't have
the bandwidth to rebuild my work machine to try to blindly ferret out
some conflict or screwed up FM DLL or whatever

Thanks anyway;
David

 Original Message 
From: Heiko Haida 
Date: Tue, February 26, 2013 2:06 pm

 Hello David,
 lately I have a similar problem: double-clicking takes vey long to
start the application and to open the file, whereas the normal Open
dialog from within the application works as usual.
 This is not always the case, but if, then it happens with any
application, also MS Word, Excel and so on. 
Here it helped to uncheck the DDE option for those file-types (which is
not possible for Frame-files), but today I saw that the option is
checked again mysteriously.
 So my guess about this would be that its rather a problem with the OS
or with the network, not necessarily with FrameMaker.
FM seems to expect a quick answer from the OS and handles the delay as
file error (my interpretation, only a guess).
 I am using Windows XP here, by the way.
If someone has an explanation to this problem, I would also be very
glad.
 Best regards
 Tino H. Haida, Berlin
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SOLVED: Cannot find the file named...

[David Artman]

Ah, Windows 7 It's always Windows, innit?
In this case, it's the much-maligned User Access Control settings. 
 
1) Navigate to Control Panel > System and Security > Action Center.
2) Click "Change User Access Control settings".
3) Set the slider to Never Notify and click OK.
 
Double-click your BOOK file on your network share and watch it open in
FM8.0p277.

I have *no* idea how my UAC got tweaked--probably because of driver
installations to communicate over a USB Serial Port.
 
HTH;
David Artman
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RE: What is the recommended way of having a TOC appear in multiple places of a book?

[David Artman]

In Structured FrameMaker:

* Put all the files in one "super book"
* Set the Pagination and Numbering settings, particularly the Volume
settings
* Generate a single TOC and Index for the super book
* Place TOC and Index in both sub-books
* Print to PDF
* Split into separate PDFs in Acrobat

You'll probably want to money with the Index specification, as
multi-book indexing references can be... trying.

This will work in any version of FrameMaker that supports Volume naming
and numbering (7.0+, IIRC).

The Structured method is totally different (and I only know IBMIDDOC's
method, not DITA/FM-XML).

HTH;
David

 Original Message 
Subject: What is the recommended way of having a TOC appear in multiple
places of a book?
From: john.x.pos...@us.hsbc.com
Date: Thu, March 14, 2013 3:53 pm
To: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" 

Hi, guys...

I have a 1,500+ FM11 book that is divided into two volumes. The book has
a
TOC and Index with both volumes. Both Volume 1 and 2 have covers and the
pagination starts at 1 for each volume. Everything good. It's also
conceivable that I'll eventually have Volumes 3, 4, 5, and 6.

Now, I want to put the same TOC in the front of both Volumes and the
Index
at the end of both volume.. What is the suggested approach?

Thanks

John Posada
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RE: OT: Book Suggestion - Fonts

[David Artman]

I'm more into *typefaces*--I need multiple sizes. ;)
David

 Original Message 
Subject: OT: Book Suggestion - Fonts
From: Alison Craig 
Date: Thu, April 25, 2013 5:11 pm
... 
As technical writers, many of you will be interested in fonts.
...
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RE: Can a variable be used in a numbering scheme in Frame V8?

[David Artman]

This is a commonly wished for feature that FrameMaker doesn't support.

If you describe the actual details, we might be able to kludge a method
(e.g., run-in heading containing a Ref Page placement of the variable in
a text box plus some leading tricks, followed by the autonumbered format
using "Next Pgf").

Details?
David
 Original Message 
Subject: Can a variable be used in a numbering scheme in Frame V8?
From: Lisa Freeman 
Date: Fri, May 03, 2013 7:52 am
To: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" 

  Hello All,
  
 I have structured books in FrameMaker version 8 (customer requirement)
and am having difficulties when trying to create a numbering scheme.
Here’s the situation:
  
 The incoming data is xml given to me as Sections. My read/write rules
and EDD create a book at the Section level and FM files for each
SubSection within. 
  
 I have an attribute at the SubSection level that I am using as a
variable running header/footer on my master pages. This works
wonderfully for the headings, page numbers, etc. 
  
 I am trying to figure out how to use that same variable on the Body
pages within an autonumbering format. I am finding lots of ways to use
the variable within the text of the body pages but nothing about using
it in the autonumber format.
  
 Is this even possible? If so, can someone please point me in the right
direction?
  
 FYI – I do have control of the EDD, read/write rules etc., and can
ask for changes in the xml tagging scheme provided to me.
  
 Thank you in advance for any ideas you may have!
  
 Sincerely,
 Lisa Freeman
 Publication Support Analyst
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RE: Catalog definitions ... fonts not available

[David Artman]

You could save the template(s) as MIF and search for the offending font. It's probably on some Reference page or tucked on a Master Page or some-such. Change the missing font name to the name of an available font (or just use the MIF to investigate where it's occurring, and use FrameMaker on its FM file to make the changes).Alternately, disable "Remember Missing Fonts" in Preferences, open the template(s), let font substitution do its thing, and then re-save. Shouldn't bother you any more.David


 Original Message 
Subject: Catalog definitions ... fonts not available
From: Alastair Dent 
Date: Tue, August 06, 2013 5:08 am
Ok, I’ve inherited some Frame docs that use Helvetica, Times and Courier. Those fonts aren’t on my system.   I’m using these docs to create a template.   I’ve opened the book and all documents, then used the Fonts pod to locate missing fonts and replace with an existing font. I’ve saved the documents, closed and re-opened them.   I still get the ‘missing fonts’ message. The error log says that the catalog contains fonts that aren’t on my system.   Obviously the styles catalog has styles using the missing fonts (but those styles aren’t used in my documents).   What is the best way of tackling this?   Alastair Dent



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RE: Autonumbering Puzzle for an Ordered List Numbering Scheme

[David Artman]

Your centering problem is easily solved by having a new style called "Bullet Number 10+" that you use for enumeration above 9, with slightly different tab stops than "Bullet Number". That's a bit of a hack in modern FM autonumbering strategies; but you're already using  (rather than an introductory heading that resets with "N:< =0>") so I guess you're cool with more-manual style selection.As for the bizarre enumeration sequence... I got nuthin'--never seen such a thing in 15 years. Do you have some kind of character style applied to the autonumber that could (somehow?!?) be rendering backwards? Hmmm... or maybe the first "\t" is a right-aligned tab stop and it is setup weird (like, with line height and space below = 0) and so what you're seeing is a line wrap? That would cause this "left-to-right reading number"... maybeAs an experiment, I'd try my creation of "Bullet Number 10+" and see if the problem goes away...? Or MAYBE make a "Bullet Number 10" which forces "N:\t\t" with the new, slightly-more-to-the-right tab stop position; and then use "Bullet Number 11+" to increment further? *shudder*Kneejerk Response #13: Any chance of refactoring content not to run over 9 items? Like, if these are callouts to a diagram, can you start with an 'overview' set of callouts, and then cross-reference to more-specific 'sub-callouts' in subsequent diagrams? For example:"Diagram overview"1 FOO region of the WIDGET. See "FOO region" below2 BAR region of the WIDGET. See "BAR region" below. "FOO region"1 ...2 ...3 ..."BAR region"1 ...2 ...3 ...That would buy you 99 potential callouts (or steps, whatever) without needing to solve either the centering problem or the bizarre enumeration bug.HTH;DavidAs shown below, the autonumbering works fine up to "9," but then goes to "01," "11," "21," and so forth. (As you can see, we also have centering issues to eventually resolve.)What you are looking at is a glyph in "Bullet" Paragraph Tag (autonumber = B:●\t). "Bullet" is a run-in paragraph.  The next tag is "Bullet Number" (autonumber = N:\t\t) or (N:\t\t). This is a non-run-in paragraph.  We've experimented with resets and changes to series designations between the run-in and the non-run-in paragraphs, but nothing we've tried so far has worked. The best we've managed is to produce a "10," but the "10" appears at the beginning of the list, followed by numbers 1 through 9, and then numbers that increment in 10s, as before; that is,  "01," "11," "21," and so forth. 


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RE: Unavailable fonts message - incorrect?

[David Artman]

Excellent summary from Fred!I'll just add the (very minor) point that SVG graphics can have font information in them, too. If the font's glyphs used in the SVG's aren't embedded, that would trigger this FM error.


 Original Message 
Subject: RE: Unavailable fonts message - incorrect?
From: Fred Ridder ... They can even be hiding in certain types of graphic objects that contain font specifications (PDF, EPS, WMF, EMF).



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RE: FrameMaker: Is any version URL-aware?

[David Artman]

 Original Message 
From: "VLM TechSubs" 
Date: Sun, September 29, 2013 11:26 pm
... 
Guess FrameMaker is a bit behind the curve when it comes to the
Internet, eh? And … it will work, so that’s just grand!
...

In defense of FrameMaker; it doesn't assume the mere text of a URL
should be active; it makes that your prerogative. In that sense, it's
much more like an HTML editing environment than a word processor. There
are many cases in which one would very much NOT want a URL to be
auto-hyperlinked (e.g., a code snippet intended to be copied).
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RE: Insert image as H/F variable

[David Artman]

Can you provide more details or an actual use case?We toggle between B&W and color product logos in H/Fs using conditions on the anchor frames the images. But that's book-wide, not 'reactive' or variable based on chapter-specific content (i.e., paratext of a paratag).


 Original Message 
Subject: Insert image as H/F variable
From: Wim Hooghwinkel - idtp 
Date: Fri, October 18, 2013 4:29 am
To: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" 

Hi,one of my clients wants to use images as (in) H/F variables.  This can not be done using default FM functions, as a variable can not contain an image.Has anyone handled this kind of formatting and can give me some suggestions? Or may be someone has a script available to replace H/F with an image - I guess an image that should be taken from the content, just like a H/F takes the heading text from the content.Note: this is structured FM (XML, not DITA) and currently moving tom FM7 to FM10/11.thanks, Vriendelijke groet / Kind regards, Wim HooghwinkelInformation Energy 2013 – Leading Conference on Innovation in Knowledge and Information ExchangeIEn2013 tel. +31652036811Skype wimhooghwinkelTwitter @idtp @ien2013i...@idtp.eu www.idtp.eu FrameMaker support: framema...@idtp.eu   ___


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RE: Insert image as H/F variable - script

[David Artman]

So you need a graphic to change in the H/F on a continuous, page-by-page basis, driven by a single manual marker insertion which then dictates the value of a header variable until a new marker is inserted? Hmm...Without scripting, I got nothin'. VERY tricky problem, with vanilla Framemaker.Good luck with the scripting solution that I see you pursuing in later posts.Sorry that I couldn't help more;David


 Original Message 
Subject: Re: Insert image as H/F variable - script
From: Wim Hooghwinkel - idtp <w...@idtp.eu>
Date: Wed, October 23, 2013 10:18 am
To: David Artman <da...@davidartman.com>
Cc: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" <framers@lists.frameusers.com>

Well, I guess the current use case is fairly simple. Suppose we use a marker in the text: Header/Footer $1. This marker has as content the name of the image, let's say Pict0001. The Running H/F will display the text (Pict0001). So what we need is an extend script that replaces the H/F text with the actual image: Pict0001.jpg.As I'm still not able to write scripts - too busy with other things I guess - can someone advise me on such a script, would it be very difficult? In the workflow it should be automatically triggered once the XML is opened in FM (10), so that the use experiences it as 'real' H/F. We'll need a manual 'reload' action of course in case of repagination and content change. For ease of use we can put the complete path of the image in the marker of course, or use a relative path. Vriendelijke groet / Kind regards, Wim Hooghwinkel  Op 18 okt. 2013, om 19:13 heeft David Artman <da...@davidartman.com> het volgende geschreven:Can you provide more details or an actual use case?We toggle between B&W and color product logos in H/Fs using conditions on the anchor frames the images. But that's book-wide, not 'reactive' or variable based on chapter-specific content (i.e., paratext of a paratag).    Original Message  Subject: Insert image as H/F variable From: Wim Hooghwinkel - idtp <w...@idtp.eu> Date: Fri, October 18, 2013 4:29 am To: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" <framers@lists.frameusers.com>  Hi,one of my clients wants to use images as (in) H/F variables.  This can not be done using default FM functions, as a variable can not contain an image.Has anyone handled this kind of formatting and can give me some suggestions? Or may be someone has a script available to replace H/F with an image - I guess an image that should be taken from the content, just like a H/F takes the heading text from the content.Note: this is structured FM (XML, not DITA) and currently moving tom FM7 to FM10/11.thanks, Vriendelijke groet / Kind regards, Wim Hooghwinkel


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RE: batch import formats

[David Artman]

I'd just make a single-use BOOK file, drag them all in, and apply across the book.Get coffee.Then destroy the (now-pointless) book.Writing a FrameScript would take long, I imagine, but YMMVDavid


 Original Message 
Subject: batch import formats
From: Anneke von den Hoff 
Date: Fri, November 08, 2013 2:51 am
To: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" 

Hello Framers, I have about 6,000 unstructured  framemaker (FM9) documents that need an update of the template formats.The files are in different folders on a filesystem.We could open all these files and import the formats manually, but maybe there is a less time consuming way to do this.Does anyone know if this could this be done with FrameScript?  Thanks, Anneke Von den Hoff ___


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RE: Choosing a Help Format

[David Artman]

 Original Message 
From: Fei Min Lorente 
Date: Fri, November 22, 2013 10:53 am

And we weren't worried about OmniHelp losing files; we are worried about
users going in and messing with them. Is there any way to lock them
down?

> Security through obscurity: how in the heck will anyone FIND the file that 
> they want to edit? :)
> More seriously, you could try applying read-only attribute tot he files after 
> generation (or as part of generation, with a script?). Doesn't guarantee no 
> tampering, but makes those folks who would try have to think twice.
> Also, perhaps your overall help system footer should have a "feedback" 
> button, which allows someone to email a suggestion for edit, tagged with the 
> topic ID/heading? Give folks a chance to pass the buck back to you, and you 
> should be able to mitigate any tendencies to hack/'fix' content outside of 
> normal change control.
> THAT said... doesn't your company have management who can say, "Hey, don't 
> hack the content! Contact Documentation"? If you have folks bypassing normal 
> change control, that fundamentally an operational breakdown, not something 
> you should have to programatically prevent.
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RE: What is the current fm version...

[David Artman]

Rather than merely give John a fish:http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=22&platform=Windows(and for up to v7:)http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=22&platform=Macintosh(and for up to v8:)http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=22&platform=unixDavid
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Durham, NC Job Listing

[David Artman]

We have an opening at my company for a Senior Tech Writer:https://parata.applicantpro.com/jobs/62162.html
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RE: OT: looking for a font designer

[David Artman]

FontCreator is a LOT cheaper than contracting a font designer, if you already have the art and just need it put into a font file. (It's tantamount to hiring an architect just to do drafting... or hiring a technical writer just to copy & paste between two applications. ;) )DIY, I sayDavid


 Original Message 
Subject: OT: looking for a font designer
From: Yves Barbion 
Date: Mon, January 20, 2014 10:56 am
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com

Hi groupI've got Illustrator EPS vector graphics which I use as icons for notes, warnings, tips etc. I'd like to create a custom (OpenType) font for these icons, so I can create a character format and use that in my autonumbering. So, I'm looking for a professional font designer/developer who can do this. Any ideas/suggestions/recommendations?Thanks-- Yves Barbionwww.scripto.nu



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RE: FrameMaker 12 Cloud

[David Artman]

If Google Ngrams is to be believed, it was first coined around 1824:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=wordmonger&year_start=1800&year_end=2000


 Original Message 
From: Steve Rickaby 
Date: Tue, May 20, 2014 2:05 pm

>Ps. Word Mongers - hmm, nice name. I've been called a Word Carver. I hope it 
>was a compliment!

I thought I'd invented the term 'wordmonger' (in 1995, during a bout of
more than usually furious concentration), as in 'one who sells words',
but years later I discovered that the word already existed, and meant 'a
writer who uses words for show or without particular regard for
meaning'.

Sigh. Such is life.
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RE: Question about formats for files in book

[David Artman]

Personally, I prefer global MPs, RPs, and catalogs. Trying to keep styles separated is a mugs game, especially if you are tasked to change (for example) the baseline body or procedure styles' fonts or what-not. Doing it all in one file and Importing Formats across the whole document set is a lot faster than doing it in X different files and carefully applying selectively. Sure, you might make your files a tad bulkier than necessary (especially if you have a lot of Ref Pages or your book style uses tons of Master Pages), but storage is all-but free these days, so who cares?Also, it makes it easier to see what you've got going, structurally--for example, enforcing a consistent style-naming convention (ahh... I remember those halcyon days...).Pro Tip: preface manually applied style names with a two- or three-letter code, so that F8 and F9 can be used very quickly. Examples:B1 Body FirstBC Body ContinuedS1 Step FirstSX Step ExampleSI Step ImageSS1 Substep FirstSSE Substep Example...Also, you'll thank yourself if you align your style names as closely to DITA XML (or S1000 or whatever applies in your industry), for later migration and for (mild) structure enforcement.I miss making templates :(HTH;David


 Original Message 
Subject: Question about formats for files in book
From: Theresa de Valence 
Date: Fri, May 30, 2014 10:46 am
To: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" 

Hi Framers,

Perhaps this is a philosophical question but it has been my habit to 
make a book with ONE master page set and ONE paragraph catalogue and ONE 
character catalogue. Over the course of building the document, I import 
changes into other files in the same book.

Somehow, I had the idea that this was the way it was done.

With the Frame 12 templates created by Bernard Aschwanden, it seems that 
each template second has only those paragraph and character catalogues 
as are required for that section (e.g. Cover, Legal and Contacts). Of 
course, I might not be quite understanding what's going on yet...

What are your ideas?



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RE: More about characters

[David Artman]

http://www.fileformat.info/tip/microsoft/enter_unicode.htm 
 
Specifically:
"
This method works regardless of any of your language settings, but is the most cumbersome to type.

Press and hold down the Alt key.
Press the + (plus) key on the numeric keypad.
Type the hexidecimal unicode value.
Release the Alt key.
Alas, this appears to require a registry setting. It was already set on my computer, but some readers report that this method didn't work for them, and this is probably why. If you don't know what the registry is, please don't try this. Under HKEY_Current_User/Control Panel/Input Method, set EnableHexNumpad to "1". If you have to add it, set the type to be REG_SZ. 
"
 
Works almost always... sometimes certain applications will get lost on the Alt+A (or B, C, D, E, or F) and trigger a menu shortcut. But FrameMaker's Find/Replace dialog does not.
 
HTH;
David

 Original Message Subject: More about charactersFrom: Theresa de Valence Date: Mon, August 04, 2014 11:22 amTo: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" In a text box, I know how to insert an ascii character, e.g. ALT+0169. How do I insert a unicode character?Using Find/Replace, how do I search and replace with unicode characters?
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RE: Consistent Conditional Text

[David Artman]

Yes, you must always turn on View > Text Symbols when you are performing conditional markup (and troubleshooting).
 
The 'gotcha' in FrameMaker is that if you are typing inside of a condition and press Enter for a new paragraph, FM does NOT conditionalize the pilcrow.
 
[I do not know why this is the default behavior; I've always considered it a significant bug, but maybe there's a logical reason for it to default to that behavior and have no way to change it...?]
 
David

 Original Message You need to include the paragraph marker at the end of the bulleted or non-bulleted paragraph in the conditional text. That is not a rule of thumb, it is simply telling Frame which portion of content (visible or non-visible) to make conditional. It might help to switch on the display of hidden characters, such as paragraph endings and tabs, so you can see when they are included in your conditional sections.> Does anyone have a list of rules of thumb when using conditional text ? I When I mark the text the results that I get when I turn the conditions on or off are inconsistent. For example if I have a bulleted list and I only want certain bullets to appear under certain conditions when I hide the condition the bullet remains (i.e., I am left with a bullet and no text) when I want both the text and the bullet to be removed if the bulleted item is not supposed to show up. Another such occurrence is if I select a paragraph that is conditional and I hide the condition the paragraph is removed but the spacing between the preceding and following paragraphs is not adjusted properly.
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RE: Consistent Conditional Text

[David Artman]

Thanks for the FM7 advice, Fred; but it seems to have been undone by FM8.0(p277). 
 
Interestingly, while I was testing whether it still worked like that, I found a bigger gotcha for folks who edit conditional text without condition indicators or text symbols visible:
* [FM8.0] If you are in the middle of conditional text and you press Enter, then immediately press Backspace (to 'undo' the paragraph break), and then continue typing... the text that you type is no longer conditional(!). The automatically-unconditional paragraph break—even when deleted—creates a sort of 'seam' between what is now *two* conditional-markup ranges; and you end up typing 'between' the seam edges and not in the conditional markup.
 
As I wrote before: this behavior is completely counterintuitive for me; and I cannot think of a single use case in which one would prefer to have a typed paragraph break inside a condtional-markup range *automatically* become unconditional. [I *can* think of use cases where one choose to make the pilcrow of a conditional paragraph unconditional... but they're degenerate/weird cases and certainly not something I'd do by *default*.]
 
David
 

 Original Message From: Fred Ridder Date: Mon, November 10, 2014 11:02 am


There is a fairly easy workaround that I used to use in FM7, when I was using conditional text *a lot*. It's been a while since I've used conditional text more than occasionally, so I can't guarantee it still works. Basically, if you press Enter in the middle of a conditionalized paragraph, the new pilcrow *will* be conditional. The problem is only wen the insertion point immediately precedes the pilcrow. So the workaround it to enter a space and then use the cursor key to move to the left of the space before you press Enter. That way, there is conditinal content on both sides of the IP, and the new pilcrow will have the condition applied to it.-Fred Ridder
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RE: Wildcard search

[David Artman]

Roger, do you have many instances where a hyphen *is* intended? If not,  you could brute-force replace all then go back and tune those you didn't want replaced (e.g., if they're, say, part numbers in a handful of tables).
 
Alternately, export to MIF and use any programmer's text editor (e.g., Notepad++) to do a regular _expression_ search and replace, similar to your Word example. Then open MIF and re-save as FM.
 
HTH;
David
 

 Original Message From: Roger Shuttleworth Date: Mon, December 29, 2014 9:23 amHello AllI'm using FrameMaker 11.I have a document containing a lot of number ranges that use a hyphen instead of an en-dash; for example, 1-3. I'd like to replace the hyphen while preserving the preceding and following numbers.In Word I'd use a wildcard search for ([0-9])-([0-9]) and replace with \1-\2, where \1 and \2 represent the values in the parentheses (and sorry, I can't type an en-dash in this message). When I try this with FM it doesn't find anything.How do you preserve the values in FM?Thanks.Roger Shuttleworth
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RE: Customizing anchored frames in FM12 (unstructured)

[David Artman]

THAT, is a clever hack, Pat! As soon as I read "one-cell" I was smacking my forehead. 
 
DCA

 Original Message From: "Christenson, Pat" Date: Fri, January 09, 2015 2:51 pmHere's a workaround for underlining the screen cap (if I understand the problem correctly):Create a one-cell table.Place the image & anchored frame in the cell.Use Custom Ruling & Shading to set a custom ruling on the bottom border of the cell.Use Table Designer to adjust the Bottom Cell Margin to move the bottom border closer or further from the frame.Pat Christenson
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RE: Setup has detected . . .

[David Artman]

Hopefully I'm not too late to help!
 
I actually got a new system at work today and fully rebuilt my production environment before lunch (FM8 + CS5 & AcroPro9 & oXygen & all updates across the system).
 
As it wasn't my first rodeo with Frame and the terrible PDF support, I knew to do the following:
1) Install FM8 but DO NOT install "PDF Creation" from the FM disk (8 prompts; later it might be a checkbox).
2) Install all FM8 updates, in order, from the web. 
3) Install PhotoShop and Illustrator ONLY from CS5.
4) Install Acrobat Pro 9, full (even all language support).
5) Install all my other helpers and oXygen (we are in transition to DITA/XML).
6) Run Windows Update. Twice.
7) Update Java (incidental; we use vCloud Director).
8) THEN run Adobe Updater.
 
Done. The critical step, as your friend deduced, is not to let FrameMaker do ANYTHING to setup Acrobat, Distiller, PDF Printer, etc: nothing. And only install Acrobat Pro after ALL other Adobe products are installed: let it do it's thing without any chance of something dumber coming along and "fixing" it.
 
HTH;
David
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RE: Cannot import graphics

[David Artman]

Another note about file types: If you are using EPS files that DO NOT have embedded TIFF 'previews', then there's nothing for FrameMaker to show (IIRC; and if that hasn't been changed post-FM8).
 
HTH;
David

 Original Message From: David Spreadbury Date: Thu, January 22, 2015 11:48 am

...

Could this be related to the graphic format? I know that a vector graphic would require more resources than a bit-mapped graphic. If you are loading vector graphics, i.e., .eps, you might just be seeing a lag during the import.
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RE: Basic question: Book revision best practices

[David Artman]

HUGE subject, but I'll just note one element: 
 
>> Now I want to make changes, so it will become version 1.1. What do best practices say to do? I assume save all content, TOC, and title files as new "v1-1" files. Should I create a new "v1-1" book file into which the v1-1 content goes? Or should the book file itself be version agnostic?I'd recommend eactly the opposite:
* Do NOT use any version-specific text in FM file names.
* DO use version-specific names in the BOOK files (as that's what the PDF will eventually be called; and renaming a PDF post-generation breaks inter-document links). Just make a copy of the previous BOOK file, rename it to the next version, and archive the old BOOK file (or not, whatever).
* Control ALL references to version in FM files with variables, that you can easily change them BOOK-wide with Import Formats (Variables only).
* OPTIONAL: Use Conditions to maintain version-specific changes: "Deprecated" and "New" are sufficient for most stuff and allow for highlighting changes in review; and if you need to note when/why, add a "Release" Condition in which you note (e.g., "[Removed in v1.1 per John Doe]" or "[Workaround no longer needed; fixed in v1.1]).
A more-complex Conditional version-tracking would require you to manage a lot more (i.e., you could end up with a nightmare of overlapping conditionality for persistent features with minor tweaks each release). If you are already doing something to archive (ZIP up and stow away, even) each version's full set of working files, it's trivial to roll back, and you do not reeally need such 'always-visible' deltas fwith a single, canonical set of working files.
 
Again, HUGE subject, and I onl touched on the simplest method of maintining version history and simplify review for your SMEs.
 
HTH;
David
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RE: Basic question: Book revision best practices

[David Artman]

One note:> If needed, I simply rename the output PDF filename if I want to have the version number in the name.
 
Doing this breaks inter-document links, if you generated a set of PDFs while all of their BOOK files were open (the easiest way to do it). I firmly advicate naming your BOOK to match your final PDF; and only using letters, numbers, underscores (_) and hyphens (-) in the file names (mainly for OS interoperability and clean-looking URLs).
 
YMMV:
David
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RE: NOT a "How Do I". Query re conditionaling table columns

[David Artman]

While we're talking underlying theory/structure: I suspect many tables in which one wants to conditionalize a column could be refactored so that the columns were instead rows, which are conditionable.
 
Thoughts?


Yes, theoretically, if you didn't have spanned cells, you could hide/show the cells that make up a column, but since there is no "column" object, there's no place to assign that data. You can conditionalize rows, but cells are a bit of a different beast.It would be possible to make a plugin or script that would assign a condition to the content of all cells in a column, but you'd have to actually delete the cells that make up that column to "hide" it.The closest thing to a column object that you could assign a property to for this purpose would be the "colspec" element in DITA. But in looking, that doesn't allow the outputclass attribute (or other likely attributes) where you'd assign a value that you could check for during some publishing process to hide/delete that column.If I were to want to do this, I'd probably set a marker in the column header to indicate a hide/show property, then set up some sort of process during publishing.
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Adobe Shared Review methods

[David Artman]

Since it's come up, I've had one niggling issue with Adobe SHare Review at our site that I just work around, but it's bugging me. I'll try to be brief, assuming anyone who can answe knows the basics.
 
* Using a network share, same share every time.
* Each development draft is saved with a suffix: "Initial Draft", "Review Draft", "Verify Draft".
* Shared review isn't send by email but rather manually: I email a hyperlink to the single, saved draft.
* When ended, I archive to a sub-folder of the reviews folder, for legacy (and permissions control, so no one 'rewrites history').
 
SO.. EVERY time I make a review, it wants to name it. My question: WHAT is saved in a named review type? My process never changes, but my file names always change; and so I'm concerned about using the same saved review type in the event it renames the PDF.
 
It has seemed to me that the saved review type function 'assumes' you are always cycling the same file/filename...?
 
Thanks;
David
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RE: Conditional text by paragraph tag?

[David Artman]

0) Save all files in book.
1) Get condition onto your Clipboard (right-click text with the condition, Copy Special > Conditional Text Format). 
2) Find: Paragraph Style [name of paragraph].
3) Replace: By Pasting.
4) Find and Change for one or two, then fire Replace All when you see that it's going to work out.
5) Generate output and peruse. DO NOT save FM files yet! If it boked a couple of times, fix thm; if it borked a ton; rollback to your backup.fm files (you DO automatically save backup.fm files every save, rght? ;) )
 
HTH;
David

 Original Message Subject: Conditional text by paragraph tag?From: Tim Pann Date: Wed, February 11, 2015 3:59 pmTo: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" 



Hello,
 
In Frame 9, is it possible for me to set all text of a given paragraph tag to a particular conditional text format in a single step?
 
For example, I want to assign the condition “Lisa Info” to all paragraph tags b1 Body1 and bu1 Bullet1, but not to paragraph tag followUp, without going through and selecting each paragraph.
 
Thank you,
 
Tim Pann Senior Technical Trainer TeleCommunication Systems, Inc. c: (206) 549-1022
w: (206) 792-2710
 

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RE: User's manual vs. User manual

[David Artman]

We avoid this issue by naming books after their functional scope:
'Widget' Installation
'Widget' Operation
'Widget' Administration
(etc)
 
The thinking being (a) we avoid this whole thread, (b) we don't have to superfluous terms like "manual" or "guide" that state the obvious, and (c) end users typically have a functional domain and, as such, only want/need content that addresses their work. Installation is typically one-time, perhaps not even done by the customer; Operation is day-to-day routines; Administration is typically one-time plus regular maintenance and infrequent adjustments (e.g., new regulations) or additions (e.g., new users due to new employees). Also, a given site might require several Operation manuals but only one Admin manual.
 
I realize this is more than you asked for, but there's more to consider than just (bad) use of possessive.
David

 Original Message Subject: User's manual vs. User manualFrom: hessiansx4 Date: Fri, March 13, 2015 6:10 pmTo: Framers 

  Any thoughts on which is preferable for hardware products?


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RE: post-processing a PDF with FM markers

[David Artman]

 I concur with Robert, unless you're facing other issue that you didn't mention in your post.
 
Have all the BOOK files open when you print to PDF; and esure that the resulting PDFs are located in the same relative file structure as the BOOK files. [If I were you, I'd put all BOOK files in one folder, for simplicity of access, regardless of where you let choose to locate your working FM-type and graphics files.]
 
Barring that, you could do something with Named Desitnations I reckon... but that's just a major pain: as you noted, you won't know the base location to make aboslute/hyperlink references in the FM files. But if it's your company's system to setup and install, it should be trivial just to make a docs folder on it somewhere and plop all your PDFs in that (and a shortcut to the 'master' document, perhaps, on the All Users Desktop). Done deal.
 
David
 

 Original Message Subject: Re: post-processing a PDF with FM markersFrom: Robert Lauriston Date: Mon, March 23, 2015 12:05 pmTo: John Sgammato , "framers@lists.frameusers.com" I've defined cross-references between FrameMaker files that workedacross generated PDFs, provided the PDFs were in the same positionsrelative to each other in the directory structure (e.g. all in thesame directory) as the FrameMaker books were.It used to be that all the files in all the books had to be open whengenerating the PDFs for that to work, but it has been a few yearssince I did that.On Sun, Mar 22, 2015 at 5:58 AM, John Sgammato wrote:>> I generate a library of PDFs that are delivered to the customer inside a server that we sell and install for them. Some of our customers are in secure facilities with no outside internet access, so I can't just point them to our knowledge base.>> I need a way to link from one PDF to another, when they are all served from that customer server.___You are currently subscribed to framers as da...@davidartman.com.Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com.To unsubscribe send a blank email toframers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.comor visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/david%40davidartman.comSend administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visithttp://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
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RE: post-processing a PDF with FM markers

[David Artman]

If you find a solution to maintining cross-document links when a user emails the file to another system... publish and patent it and wait for your Nobel in Physics!  ;-)
 
Shlomo's method will work, too, of course... but not if moved to where the satellite PDF can't resolve the host domain/IP (same Impossible Thing Beore Breakfast as above, just with path types: relative v absolute). But the draw back of that method is (a) you can't just use 'quick' FM xrefs but have to insert 'slow' hyperlink markers and (b) it adds yet-another implementation step when someone sets up the server--and in my experience, when the Doc Team asks for other to do work to implement their functionality, folks get irritable. :-)  [I also suspect it might not future-proof well, should you begin to deliver to multiple output types and devices. But having never actually done doc cross-links that way in 20 years of FM use... I wold have to test thoroughly to be confident.]
 
It's your boat to ffloa, but I've done 10-document sets with a team of 15 writers without the least hassle. You just gotta (a) do production in bluck, at the end or (b) use a CMS/VCS and risk not having the most-current updates when you generate a set for delivery. But that is an issue that's totally orthogonal to the method you choose--nothing about how you make FM cross links is going to help you if you do not have a coordinated publishing workflow.
 
Bon chance...
David
 

 Original Message Subject: Re: post-processing a PDF with FM markersFrom: John Sgammato <john.sgamm...@actifio.com>Date: Tue, March 24, 2015 3:51 pmTo: David Artman <da...@davidartman.com>Cc: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" <framers@lists.frameusers.com>
That's pretty much what we do now, but it's hard to have all the books open at once when four writers are hurtling toward a deadline... 
And we have found that customer-users often copy a doc to email to a colleague or to use elsewhere and then the links break. 
It's not a stopper for now, but I'd love to find a more robust solution.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 3:44 PM, David Artman <da...@davidartman.com> wrote:


 I concur with Robert, unless you're facing other issue that you didn't mention in your post.
 
Have all the BOOK files open when you print to PDF; and esure that the resulting PDFs are located in the same relative file structure as the BOOK files. [If I were you, I'd put all BOOK files in one folder, for simplicity of access, regardless of where you let choose to locate your working FM-type and graphics files.]
 
Barring that, you could do something with Named Desitnations I reckon... but that's just a major pain: as you noted, you won't know the base location to make aboslute/hyperlink references in the FM files. But if it's your company's system to setup and install, it should be trivial just to make a docs folder on it somewhere and plop all your PDFs in that (and a shortcut to the 'master' document, perhaps, on the All Users Desktop). Done deal.
 
David
 

 Original Message Subject: Re: post-processing a PDF with FM markersFrom: Robert Lauriston <rob...@lauriston.com>Date: Mon, March 23, 2015 12:05 pmTo: John Sgammato <john.sgamm...@actifio.com>, "framers@lists.frameusers.com" <framers@lists.frameusers.com>I've defined cross-references between FrameMaker files that workedacross generated PDFs, provided the PDFs were in the same positionsrelative to each other in the directory structure (e.g. all in thesame directory) as the FrameMaker books were.It used to be that all the files in all the books had to be open whengenerating the PDFs for that to work, but it has been a few yearssince I did that.On Sun, Mar 22, 2015 at 5:58 AM, John Sgammato<john.sgamm...@actifio.com> wrote:>> I generate a library of PDFs that are delivered to the customer inside a server that we sell and install for them. Some of our customers are in secure facilities with no outside internet access, so I can't just point them to our knowledge base.>> I need a way to link from one PDF to another, when they are all served from that customer server.___You are currently subscribed to framers as da...@davidartman.com.Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com.To unsubscribe send a blank email toframers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.comor visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/david%40davidartman.comSend administrative questions to listad...@frameusers.com. Visithttp://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.___You are currently subscribed to framers as john.sgamm...@actifio.com.Send list messages to framers@lists.frameusers.com.To unsubscribe send a blank email toframers-unsubscr...@lists.frameusers.como

RE: extremely slow PNG loading

[David Artman]

Unless something's changed, expect bad news from your IT:
https://threatpost.com/png-image-metadata-leading-to-iframe-injections/104047
 
But there's no reason to leave run-time scanning on them, so long as the file-create and file-modify scanning remains (i.e., check each write operation, not each read operation). 
 
That said, I use PNG, JPG, and SVG exclusively in FrameMaker, and my files open over a network in the usual time: e.g., 400-page manual with 18 chapters; File > Open All Files; about 2-3 minutes. [If that's "slow as molassas" then I'm just used to it after two decades.]
 
HTH;
David

 Original Message Subject: Re: extremely slow PNG loadingFrom: Stuart Rogers Date: Mon, March 30, 2015 3:07 pmTo: "Davis, David" , "framers@lists.frameusers.com" On 2015-Mar-30 5:32 AM, Davis, David wrote:> I have seen this behaviour before,> I usually blamed it either on an anti-virus scanner that was scanning each PNG as it was opened and/or some shenanigans on a network switch.>>Thanks for the tip, David. It does appear to be the fault of AVG scanning the files. I temporarily turned off AVG protection, and the file containing .png images opened almost as fast as the one containing .tif images. Closed the files, turned AVG back on, reopened the files. The version with .png was slow as molasses again.Our network guru is going to check whether .png files are vulnerable to malware in some way, and if not, he'll exempt them from AVG's scanning.Best regards,-- Stuart Rogers
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RE: What FM plugin suite give the most bang?

[David Artman]

I would give serious thought to Acrolinx, if you're facing consistency issue as your content scales up and if you're going to bring in multiple writers. It can also help other casual content authors (e.g., developer's and tester's design and use case docs; marcomm) or give you a fast-editing path to clean up such source prior to importation/reuse in FrameMaker. It's NOT cheap, and it take a significant setup and routine maintenance as your product lines evolve... but it's a joy to see working well! It basically can eliminate any 'copyediting' roles throughout your organization.
 
And, no, I am not affiliatedf with them, other than as a fanboy who wants MY compnay to adopt it! :)
David

 Original Message Subject: What FM plugin suite give the most bang?From: john.x.pos...@us.hsbc.comDate: Thu, April 23, 2015 1:35 pmTo: framers Hi, guys...I'm using FM11 unstructured and I maintain quite a largedocument set...10 books of 2,000 pages each give or take.Because of the amount of time I spend on housekeeping, I'm ready to take astab at adding plugins that will save me time. In addition, I may bebringing in a team of 3-4 writers and I want the files to be as clean aspossible. When you evolve to 20,000 pages of document from an initial 195pages in 2 years, ya get careless at times.
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RE: Adobe Customer Care-less - Yet another round

[David Artman]

Glad I've never bothered to investigate the Yahoo group. In my experience, Yahoo Groups basically died sometime in the mid-oughties, and like many ghost towns, squatters and coyotes abound.If I can't find an answer on http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/listinfo/framers (Framers; this list and its archives) it's not worth finding.Further, my need for FM support has diminished considerably, for a variety of reasons (non-proprietary file formats; better tools for editing those; need for tight CCMS integration; ludicrous pricing model for FM/TCS; tried-and-true non-structured FM techniques in all templates I use or create, etc.). I'm basically on the list for the laughs, occasional "thing that makes me go 'hmmm'," and the very-rare help I offer on super-weird solutions (what I preferred to do in the past decade: kill the Goliaths of format/processing woes).David


 Original Message 
Subject: Re: Adobe Customer Care-less - Yet another round
From: Alan Litchfield 
Date: Tue, June 02, 2015 3:37 pm
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com

Hmm, as some others of you who may have also decided to poke around, you 
too may have noticed. Lot's of spam in that group and lots of NSFW 
subject lines.



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RE: Book Save-As PDF w/ multiple page sizes

[David Artman]

At the risk of seeming blunt: Don't use Save As PDF.I never have in 20 years (has it EVER worked?), I never do so now (for my remaining time in FM), and I probably never will (being on my way out of the Adobe ecosystem permanently).If it works one way, why use another? Heck, print to PS is BETTER for workflow, if you can avail yourself of watched folders and scripted file transfer tasks (cron/Task Manager).David


 Original Message 
Subject: Book Save-As PDF w/ multiple page sizes
From: "Charles Richardson" 
Date: Mon, June 08, 2015 10:36 am
To: 

Unable to find answer in FM docs.  How does one configure FM to do Save-As PDF with the correct output page sizes (e.g., book with mixed letter/tabloid pages) in PDF?  This is not a problem if a book print setup is set to tabloid and printed to .ps then distilled; the output reflects the original page sizes.  With Save-As, if the page size is set to tabloid, all the pages in the output will be tabloid.  I can get only one size or the other. FM12 (unstructured)/Acrobat IX Adobe PDF Converter/W7 Thanks for your help!Charles___


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RE: Book Save-As PDF w/ multiple page sizes

[David Artman]

"Things that make me go 'hmmm'" = That's one! :)I did not know that, having never embedded multimedia in PDF.David


 Original Message 
Subject: RE: Book Save-As PDF w/ multiple page sizes
From: tom.beiswen...@emhartglass.com
Date: Mon, June 08, 2015 2:32 pm
The only time that I use Save as PDF is when I am embedding video clips in the FM document. If you print to pdf, you get a flat pdf. The referenced video clips are not actually embedded in the pdf unless you "save as pdf". 


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RE: Book Save-As PDF w/ multiple page sizes - Follow-Up

[David Artman]

One additional note: "Why continue to use the Save-As method?  Why not just keep the process I’ve always had?  Well, for one thing, when I have to produce the entire document (over 30 books), it is much faster and simpler to use the Save-As PDF."
 
Have you setup a Watched Folder in Distiller and configured it to run at startup? If so, then "Print Book" is the same number of keystrokes or mouse clicks as "Save as PDF" (I just counted them: three). [After the one-time configuration of the Print Book and PDF Setup dialogs, of course.]
 
As additional bonus, if you configure Distiller to move the PS file to the primary watched folder's Out folder, then you can do a 'chain' of distillations just by dragging it to the Out folder's In folder (which it has because it, too, is a Watched folder with different Settings), for example, if you do a Press Quality and a Standard quality of each deliverable. Setup the primary folder with the best, most-lossless Settings, then set Distiller to watch its Out folder and set that folder's Settings with the alternate, lossier quality. Drag and drop from WF/Out to WF/Out/In and --BAM!-- another PDF appears in WF/Out/Out. [And you can continue ad infinitum, but I've never needed more than two levels of quality: print and screen.]
 
So now I'm three keystrokes/mouse clicks and one drag and drop to make TWO different-quality PDFs. Can't be done faster with Save as PDF, because you must change the PDF Settings bewtween each save (something like four more keystrokes/mouse clicks). ;)
 
[I wish the Watched Folder's didn't need to use In folders; because then you could totally automate a theoretically infinite chain of PDFs of different qualities. Alas... it 'really watches' the Watched Folder's IN folder, not the folder itself. :( ]
 
Happy distilling either way!
David
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Re: FM window minimizing unexpectedly

[David Artman]

I'm gonna take a guess that you are using a Microsoft Touch Mouse.If so: Return it for your money back, as I did.If not: Got nuthin'.David Artmandavid artman designs
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RE: FM window minimizing unexpectedly

[David Artman]

Sorry--forgot the listserv is still plaintext.
RESEND:
 I'm gonna take a guess that you are using a Microsoft Touch Mouse.
 
 
 If so: Return it for your money back, as I did.
 If not: Got nuthin'.
 
 
 David Artman
 david artman designs

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Manual > Task Sheet > Checklist

[David Artman]

Hi, Framers--it's been a while!

I am working within Unstructured FM8, though we might transition to
Structured (and maybe FM10) someday, so please bear that in mind as you
devise a strategy to deal with my challenge below.

Goals:
Three separate deliverables:
- Full Manual: A traditional book; comprised of chapters; print-ready
PDF; often viewed on-screen
- Task Sheet: A section of a Chapter; comprised of substeps; primarily
viewed on tablet screen
- Checklist: A PDF form, with fields to the right of each line item for
Comments and Initials (was typeset in tables; needn't be going forward,
but would have to *look* like it's a table/form)

Example:
- The Manual has a Chapter called "Installation" for getting the
software on servers and workstations and monkeying with devices to get
them upgraded to work with the new software version. Obviously, the
Chapter contains a lot of preamble information, lists of related
documents to prep for the install, and other text I dub "Yadda".
- Within the Chapter, there are Stages: site data collection, tasks to
be done prior to site arrival, setting up the server(s), setting up
workstations, etc.
- Within a Stage is a series of Tasks, which are "chunked" to make Task
Sheets. A given Task Sheet contains ALL the content of that Task, down
to the Substep (and lower) level(s).
- Finally, for the entire Chapter, there is a Checklist. It contains
ONLY Tasks and Steps: no Yadda, no Substeps (nor art, nor details, nor
listings of related publications for that Task/Step(/Substep)--those are
in the Task Sheet and Full Manual).

Challenge:
- Single-sourcing: I'd like to build out of a single set of (FM,
content) files, not have to keep two file sets in synch nor use
cross-references to "drag in" content (e.g., build the Checklist out of
xrefs to the Task and Step paras--labor-intensive should the sequence
need changing!).
- Cross-linking: As a user uses a Checklist, they need to be able to
click [something: icon, the whole para's text, a small phrase like
"How?"] on a Task or a Step and it shows the Task Sheet (at that
Task/Step point) with all the Substeps and art and Yadda and "See Also"
details not in the minimalist-formatted, stripped-down Checklist.

SO
Without muddying the water further with details of my past few days of
experimentation (nor with details of the junkpile that is the template
I've inherited and will slowly walk away from while maintaining steady
eye contact)...

??? How would the experts here a FrameUsers go about building that
deliverables set? No need to be super-detailed; I'm not new to the game.
Just a basic overview of how you would build BOOK(s) and template
schemes to rapidly reformat things, whether you'd use conditional text
to hide Substeps and Details or LOP to extract Tasks and Steps, or
whether you'd maybe look to text insets (better bring me some advice
about rapidly updating cross-references in hundreds of insets, then!).

[Yes, I know this is trivial in Structured and that it's also ready-made
for HTML Help (or similar) drop-down paras in Checklist... I'm trying,
here... Baby steps]
David Artman

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RE: Manual > Task Sheet > Checklist

[David Artman]

I have created a table to try to show what would be included (in
pseudo-Para Styles) and what wouldn't: a sort of propagation hierarchy.
I think it shows the challenge well, in that TASK deliverables are both
less and more than CHKL deliverables.

Shared, if you come from the link, at GDocs:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwYIazaIFHy4MHc4OXpLZ1VUYi1TeUd0RnRDbTRsZw

David Artman

>  Original Message 
> Subject: Manual > Task Sheet > Checklist
> From: "David Artman" 
> Date: Fri, March 30, 2012 11:35 am
> To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
...
> Goals:
> Three separate deliverables:
> - Full Manual: A traditional book; comprised of chapters; print-ready
> PDF; often viewed on-screen
> - Task Sheet: A section of a Chapter; comprised of substeps; primarily
> viewed on tablet screen
> - Checklist: A PDF form, with fields to the right of each line item for
> Comments and Initials (was typeset in tables; needn't be going forward,
> but would have to *look* like it's a table/form)


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RE: How to replace curved apostrophe with straight apostrophe?

[David Artman]

> On 3/31/2012 3:41 PM, Theresa de Valence wrote:
> > Frame 8.
> >
> > How do I search/replace for curved apostrophe to straight apostrophe?
Find: ALT+0146 (’)
Replace: ' (just type it)

> > How do I search/replace for curved open and close quotes to straight
> > quotes?

Find: ALT+0147 (“) or ALT+0148 (”)
Replace: "

But I'd do the opposite, as a "straight quote" is the symbol for feet or
minutes. Search for the straight quotes and replace them with curved. Do
the double quotes in two passes: the first with Find & Change, not
Replace All (for the open quote); the second with Replace All (for the
closed quote).

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RE: Frame 9 F9 key behavior

[David Artman]

Have you tried either turning off the toolbar with the drop-down or
rearranging that toolbar (in Maker.ini) to no longer show that list box?
I do the former within minutes of launching any new setup.
David

>  Original Message 
> Subject: Frame 9 F9 key behavior
> From: Tim Pann 
> Date: Wed, April 04, 2012 2:42 pm
> To: "framers@lists.frameusers.com" 
> I've been digging around the preferences and cannot find a way to change back 
> to the single-line selection field in the status bar. The full drop-down is 
> very annoying. Anyone know how to change this?


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RE: Numbering problems in a book

[David Artman]

>  Original Message 
> I've followed the instructions, added the cross reference from the pod,
> chosen the Paragraph Tag (Figure n+) from the list, selected specific
> paragraph from the Paragraphs list and chosen the format 'Figure No.' from
> the Formats list.

Possibly obvious questions:
1) Does the "Figure n+" ParaStyle use autonumbering of the form "Figure
"?

2) Does the cross-reference format Definition field read something like
"Figure " or ""?

If Yes and Yes... I'd have to see a sample file using the styles. You
should be able to make one very quickly, with just two lines of text
(Figure Para, and a Body or whatever with the xref).

I suspect there's a typo in the Autonumber Format field on the ParaStyle
or in the Definition field of the xref format.
David

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RE: Manual > Task Sheet > Checklist

[David Artman]

One reply, off-list, suggested a cross-referencing plug-in. That *might*
work for linking back automatically, but it doesn't address building the
TASK and CHKL out of the "comprehensive" IMPL (main book).

I'm leaning towards LOP, this week. Each Task and Step would link back
to the manual automatically, of course.

Thanks!

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FM 8, Inter-document references, and the iPad

[David Artman]

Related to my Manual > Task Sheet > Checklist project (you though the
single-sourcing challenge was tricky!):

I have the Checklist linking to various external publications that it
calls (in the previous email, I simplified it to one doc, but it's
really linking out to about ten different docs).

On Windows 7, FM8, in Acrobat X — I build all the books in the same
folder, and the links work just like they have for 15 years for me:
Click a "(How?" xref to go to the actual manual with full information;
click a "(Back)" xref to return (I am using manual back links for
testing, not having Fred's plug-in).

On Windows XP, FM8, in Acrobat 7 — The links produce an error about
"file referencing" (it's on another person's machine, and I can't ask
ATM). Not too surprising: I'm on a 64-bit system. Somewhat surprising:
we both tried it from the SAME files on the SAME network share.

When imported into PDF Expert on iPad: The links ONLY go to the top of
the PDF document, NOT to the actual Task or Step at which their markers
are set.

Ultimately, these deliverables will be in PDF on iPads, being filled out
as forms, saved, and attached to cases in a CRM.

SO: has anyone got any thoughts about cross-linking documents at the
heading level in PDFs for delivery to the iPad?

David

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RE: FM 8, Inter-document references, and the iPad

[David Artman]

Hi, all!Thanks for the suggestions. As it turns out, there's all SORTS of odd issues:* PDF Expert support acknowledges that it's a bug that will be fixed in the next patch. OK; and their signature -capture support is superior to Reader (see below).* Cross-links in Reader for the iPad does NOT work at all: won't even open the other doc, let alone go to the right heading.* Oh, and it doesn't recognize a signature field built *in Acrobat.* It shows as a non-field, though one could still use a Pen tool to draw one--but PDF Expert has a "flatten" function that is more desirable to the organization. So, yeah... no joy there.Basically, as I suspected, it's not a process problem (how we make xrefs, naming, [non-]file structure on iPad) but us running into problems with support for standard practices.Or maybe they need to be done as marker (not para) xrefs...? It's hard to troubleshoot something that's worked perfectly for a decade. :)Thanks again;David
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RE: Table Continuation variable - how do I change to lower-case c?

[David Artman]

On the FM main menu, select Special > Variables.
Find the "Table Continuation" variable.
Click Edit Definition.
Change the Definition field to suit your needs.
Click Edit to commit the change.
Click Done on the Variable dialog to close it.

Should do it.
HTH;
David
 Original Message 
My editors are complaining that when writers use the Table Continuation
variable, "Continued" is initial capped. My editors want a lower-case c
(continued).

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Archive all imported files

[David Artman]

Hi, all;I'm wondering what ever happened to Bruce Foster's "Archive" tool for FM (v8). I am hunting around Carmen Publishing, Leximation, Techknowledgecorp's Handy FrameMaker tools page, and various other sites; and I can not seem to find it anywhere.We just want to open a book, click a menu item, and have it "package" the BOOK file and all of the FM, graphics, and text insets into a new folder or ZIP file, for purposes of archiving and "freezing" revisions (no, we don't have a CMS--got to do it all via folder/file operations).If Bruce's Archive isn't available anymore, what other options do we have? Seems like FrameScript could do it (of course) but I'm not sure if that's our simplest or most cost-effective option (i.e., we don't need "to pack a U-Haul for a weekend trip," so to speak).Suggestions?David
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Archive all imported files

[David Artman]

[Resending because I *always* forget we're on an ancient listserv...]

Hi, all;

I'm wondering what ever happened to Bruce Foster's "Archive" tool for FM
(v8). I am hunting around Carmen Publishing, Leximation,
Techknowledgecorp's Handy FrameMaker tools page, and various other
sites; and I can not seem to find it anywhere.

We just want to open a book, click a menu item, and have it "package"
the BOOK file and all of the FM, graphics, and text insets into a new
folder or ZIP file, for purposes of archiving and "freezing" revisions
(no, we don't have a CMS--got to do it all via folder/file operations).

If Bruce's Archive isn't available anymore, what other options do we
have? Seems like FrameScript could do it (of course) but I'm not sure if
that's our simplest or most cost-effective option (i.e., we don't need
"to pack a U-Haul for a weekend trip," so to speak).

Suggestions?
David

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RE: Archive all imported files

[David Artman]

 Original Message 
From: Jeff Coatsworth 
> Bruce died last year - that's why you don't see it around anymore.

Ah, I did not know that. My apologies to anyone who might have been
upset by my post.

I will discuss the ExtendScript possibility with my group and go forward
with Rick and Carmen Publishing (FM10 is not likely to be purchased at
this site--times are a'changin').

Thanks, all!
David

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RE: Importing Word Object into FrameMaker doc

[David Artman]

I am curious as to why you'd maintain the content in Word then import to
Frame. Why not just convert the Word to Frame, maintain that as the
source file, and avoid this whole issue?

Assuming that It Must Be This Way... I got nothing, sorry. I have yet to
work in a production environment that relied on Word for source files
(though I've definitely gotten input from SMEs in Word and had to
convert).
David

 Original Message 
Subject: Importing Word Object into FrameMaker doc
From: "Thomas, Lynn" 
Date: Tue, June 05, 2012 4:57 pm
To: "'framers@lists.frameusers.com'" 

  I would like to insert an existing Word document as an Appendix into
my FrameMaker document. I would like to import it as an object so that I
can easily edit the Word doc as needed without having to reimport a file
each
...

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RE: What's your top feature request for FrameMaker 11?

[David Artman]

Could you please explain what you mean by this:

> From: ri...@inficon.com
> 
> If XML is ever going to become truly mainstream, Adobe has to make 
> creating XML outputs just as easy as creating a PDF.

I don't think I've encountered a need for an XML deliverable, yet. Are
you thinking in terms of shared structured content between isolated
content silos or between incompatible data repositories, or similar?

My understanding of the FM XML implementation is that it is a SOURCE
format, not a deliverable format. AS A SOURCE, it can also be
"delivered" to other organizations, for their integration needs. But XML
is really more a place from which content transformations BEGIN, not
where they end.

Further, I don't think Adobe's adoption or not of XML as a development
format will have any impact on XML becoming mainstream. It is a given,
if the World Wide Web Consortium has any say in the matter; and many
major players are almost totally wedded to it already.

Adobe can merely choose whether or not their tools are competitive in
terms of power and cost.

But maybe I misunderstand your meaning of "XML output"...?

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How to replace curved apostrophe with straight apostrophe?

[David Artman]

> On 3/31/2012 3:41 PM, Theresa de Valence wrote:
> > Frame 8.
> >
> > How do I search/replace for curved apostrophe to straight apostrophe?
Find: ALT+0146 (?)
Replace: ' (just type it)

> > How do I search/replace for curved open and close quotes to straight
> > quotes?

Find: ALT+0147 (?) or ALT+0148 (?)
Replace: "

But I'd do the opposite, as a "straight quote" is the symbol for feet or
minutes. Search for the straight quotes and replace them with curved. Do
the double quotes in two passes: the first with Find & Change, not
Replace All (for the open quote); the second with Replace All (for the
closed quote).

Frame 9 F9 key behavior

[David Artman]

Have you tried either turning off the toolbar with the drop-down or
rearranging that toolbar (in Maker.ini) to no longer show that list box?
I do the former within minutes of launching any new setup.
David

>  Original Message 
> Subject: Frame 9 F9 key behavior
> From: Tim Pann 
> Date: Wed, April 04, 2012 2:42 pm
> To: "framers at lists.frameusers.com" 
> I've been digging around the preferences and cannot find a way to change back 
> to the single-line selection field in the status bar. The full drop-down is 
> very annoying. Anyone know how to change this?

Numbering problems in a book

[David Artman]

>  Original Message 
> I've followed the instructions, added the cross reference from the pod,
> chosen the Paragraph Tag (Figure n+) from the list, selected specific
> paragraph from the Paragraphs list and chosen the format 'Figure No.' from
> the Formats list.

Possibly obvious questions:
1) Does the "Figure n+" ParaStyle use autonumbering of the form "Figure
"?

2) Does the cross-reference format Definition field read something like
"Figure " or ""?

If Yes and Yes... I'd have to see a sample file using the styles. You
should be able to make one very quickly, with just two lines of text
(Figure Para, and a Body or whatever with the xref).

I suspect there's a typo in the Autonumber Format field on the ParaStyle
or in the Definition field of the xref format.
David

Manual > Task Sheet > Checklist

[David Artman]

One reply, off-list, suggested a cross-referencing plug-in. That *might*
work for linking back automatically, but it doesn't address building the
TASK and CHKL out of the "comprehensive" IMPL (main book).

I'm leaning towards LOP, this week. Each Task and Step would link back
to the manual automatically, of course.

Thanks!

FM 8, Inter-document references, and the iPad

[David Artman]

Related to my Manual > Task Sheet > Checklist project (you though the
single-sourcing challenge was tricky!):

I have the Checklist linking to various external publications that it
calls (in the previous email, I simplified it to one doc, but it's
really linking out to about ten different docs).

On Windows 7, FM8, in Acrobat X ? I build all the books in the same
folder, and the links work just like they have for 15 years for me:
Click a "(How?" xref to go to the actual manual with full information;
click a "(Back)" xref to return (I am using manual back links for
testing, not having Fred's plug-in).

On Windows XP, FM8, in Acrobat 7 ? The links produce an error about
"file referencing" (it's on another person's machine, and I can't ask
ATM). Not too surprising: I'm on a 64-bit system. Somewhat surprising:
we both tried it from the SAME files on the SAME network share.

When imported into PDF Expert on iPad: The links ONLY go to the top of
the PDF document, NOT to the actual Task or Step at which their markers
are set.

Ultimately, these deliverables will be in PDF on iPads, being filled out
as forms, saved, and attached to cases in a CRM.

SO: has anyone got any thoughts about cross-linking documents at the
heading level in PDFs for delivery to the iPad?

David

FM 8, Inter-document references, and the iPad

[David Artman]

An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: 

Template for four-page brochure?

[David Artman]

You have answered your own question--see below:

> I neglected to add that we will distribute this document in two ways:
> 
> 1. Physically along with the hardware product
> 
> 2. In PDF form from the web site

The (2) means you should build it as Letter and have the printer impose
it into a "2-Up, Duplex" booklet on 11x17. End users that pull it off of
the web (a) won't know WHAT to do with a pre-imposed booklet and (b)
easily can MAKE it a booklet (or a single-side 4-Up, or a four-page
stack) as they see fit with most modern printers' driver settings.

Relative file size of the two deliverables is managed simply by having
one print-to-PDF setting for the booklet's printer (high DPI; maximal
font embedding; overprint/undercolor settings; etc) and one for the
print-to-PDF setting for the web (compressed, maybe a little lossy,
maybe 150 DPI max, strip special printer control codes, add bookmarks
and tagging, etc).

If you are attempting to deliver a single PDF file for both media
(printer and web) then you've got some tough decisions to make
surrounding print quality versus file size online (and customer
bandwidth). I would advise against trying to do it that way at
all--that's what PDF Settings on BOOK files in FM is FOR! ;)

HTH;
David

Batch Update of FM file templates

[David Artman]

I, too, would like a (known-safe) DLL or batch file or script that will
make all FM files save to MIF!

I've kind of dreaded that stage of the complex project on which I'm
working (making a checklist link to a full guide, using one file set and
conditional text and MIF to build the checklist half).

Thanks!
David Artman
 Original Message 
From: Nancy Allison 
Date: Fri, August 03, 2012 9:36 am
...
1. Open your FM book.
2. Use a .dll function, not native to Frame, to save all the book files
to .mif at once.
...