In Praise of Framers and QuickBooks Pro 2008
Rick, > I am getting ready to incorporate my business and my accountant > recommended > QuickBooks Pro 2008. I was getting ready to buy it, but I am a little > spooked by the negative reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. Does anyone here > have any feedback on it? I'm sure you can find negative reviews for any accounting program. PC Magazine seems to give QuickBooks the highest rating every year for over a decade. I use it, and find it much easier than a program I used previously, and completely dependable. Others have said the interface isn't intuitive, but I don't see how it could get any more so. The opening window is a series of flowcharts divided into things you do with customers, vendors, etc. The flowcharts contain choices like "Create Invoice," "Accept Payment," "Pay Bills," etc. So even a novice should be able to make correct choices most of the time. Once you know what you're doing, you'll be clicking icons in the toolbar, instead of items in a flowchart. Of course, even an intuitive interface doesn't make it automatically easy! If one knows nothing of accounting procedures, he'll still get lost because he won't know which accounts to set up, or the difference between how to enter the buying of a new printer or the buying of paper for it. (One is an asset; the other an expense.) If one doesn't know accounting procedures such as these, his financial records will become screwed up royally-- and it doesn't matter which software program he uses. Mike Wickham
Learning curve for FrameMaker
> Lester omits to mention what will be known to many here - that the Frame > 5 manual was the last to be > produced by the tech authors at Frame Corp. I have a copy, and yes, it is > a lot better than the current > offering (although I've not seen a FrameMaker 8 manual.) The FrameMaker 8 manual is worse, because there isn't on-- at least, no hard copy is included or sold separately. Adobe does include a file on the CD that you can print and bind yourself, but sheesh. It's over 1000 pages and awkward to print and bind in an office. I'm thinking about sending it off to a POD printer to get a printed/bound copy (split into two volumes for convenience). Mike Wickham
OT: Monitor for color correction
Hi, all, I recently had the fun experience of having lightning strike. It blew out the phone and cable lines, and took out computers, all the network boxes, TVs, and lots of other electronic equipment. Some jacks were blown out of the walls and even knobs got blown off of a clothes dryer! One of the things that took a hit was my LaCie electron22blueIV monitor that I use for color correction of photos. It's not made anymore, so I'm looking to replace it with something else. Any suggestions? At one time, LCDs were not supposed to be good enough for this purpose, but that seems to have changed. Is anyone still selling CRTs for this purpose, or are LCDs by LaCie, Eizo, and others the only options now? I'm not against LCDs-- and would actually prefer one, if not outrageously expensive. Mike Wickham
Learning curve for FrameMaker
>>The FrameMaker 8 manual is worse, because there isn't one-- at least, no >>hard copy is included or sold >>separately. Adobe does include a file on the CD that you can print and >>bind yourself, but sheesh. It's >>over 1000 pages and awkward to print and bind in an office. I'm thinking >>about sending it off to a POD >>printer to get a printed/bound copy (split into two volumes for >>convenience). > So there is no proper hyperlinked online guide either? Yes, there's online help, but it's nice to have a book you can read away from the computer. Also, the help files that come with various Adobe programs are not (in my opinion) well done. There have been countless times when I've been unable to find simple items in help. For example, you would think that every menu item, or dialogue box option would be covered in help. They often are not. Or, at least, search cannot find them. Of course, these same terms are usually lacking from the indexes in the printed manuals, too. Mike Wickham
Default anchored frame settings
> Looking for a solution, my web search turns up ImpGraph Plugins: > > http://home.comcast.net/~bruce.foster/ImpGraph.htm > > This plugin seems to do the trick. Does anyone have experience with it? > Or, do you recommend another plugin? Nancy, the plugin works great and is well worth the money. Mike Wickham
Book file > PDF problem
> Having recently upgraded to Acrobat 8 (from 5), I now find that I can't > print a book file to a single pdf. When you installed Acrobat 8, did you first uninstall v.5 (and any version of Adobe Reader or the distiller that came with FrameMaker)? Since version 6, Dov Isaacs of Adobe has warned us not have more than one installation of Adobe Acrobat and/or Adobe Reader and/or the PDF Distiller that comes with FrameMaker on any given computer. They can conflict. If you had other versions of Acrobat, Reader, or Distiller installed, you should uninstall all of them and then reinstall Acrobat 8. Mike Wickham
Paragraph and Character styles in FrameMaker and InDesign
> I am going to be using InDesign to produce some docs and was wondering if > there is any way of importing the Paragraph and Character styles from my > Framemaker 8 docs into InDesign CS4? Although my layout will be radically > different in the new docs, it would be useful to be able to reuse content > from my Frame docs. Here's something that might work: MIF Filter for Adobe InDesign http://www.dtptools.com/product.asp?id=mfid I've never used it, so can't comment. And it has a weird licensing model that charges based on the number of pages you convert. If you're only converting a template, it might be cheap. Mike Wickham
Finding Fonts
> 3) Click in each cell and remove any of the "missing" fonts. You do this > by > applying paragraph formats to the cell paragraphs; of course making sure > that all of the paragraph formats you apply have valid fonts. In addition to checking cells, be sure to also check the table title. It is often turned off and, therefore, overlooked. FrameMaker seems to remember the table title font, even if table titles aren't used. Mike Wickham
Finding Fonts
Another way to find missing fonts is to create an Index of References and specify fonts. FrameMaker will generate a document with a hyperlink to the locations of each of the fonts used. You can follow a link and change the font. I don't believe this method will find fonts on master or reference pages, however. Mike Wickham
Discretionary Hyphen Gripe
Does anyone find discretionary hyphens as useless as I do? It appears that they only work if hyphenation is turned on in the paragraph style, but if the paragraph already hyphenates itself, there is little need for them. I turn hyphenation off because I prefer not to have hyphenated paragraphs. However, there are occasional instances where a word is so long that it wraps to the next line and leaves a huge white gap in the line above. It's ugly as hell. In those instances, I would like to make an exception and allow hyphenation for that word. A discretionary hyphen is supposed to do this, but won't. I could use a hard hyphen to break the text, but then if an edit ever creates reflow, it creates a problem. Since a discretionary hyphen is an override, why isn't it set up to also work in unhyphenated paragraphs? If anyone agrees with me that it should be, please add your voice to the feature request form at Adobe: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform Mike Wickham
FM8 Bug Fixed: Lines not breaking after em dash and en dash
Bug as I reported it originally: >> In FM8 Format> Document> Text Options, I have "Allow Line Breaks After" >> set to forward slash, hyphen, en dash, and em dash. I believe these are >> the default values. Lines break after a slash or hyphen, but not after >> either em or en dashes. << The new 8.0p273 (8.0.2) patch appears to have fixed this bug-- sort of. It fixes it for newly entered em dashes, but existing em dashes remain broken until fixed manually. A find/change for /m to /m, "Change All," causes them to once again function correctly. I did not test on en dashes. Mike Wickham
Hypertext links in Acrobat8 documents generated from FM8don't work
> Please, where did you find the p273 download. The Adobe site only goes > up to 8.0p266...thanks, Kelly. > In FM8, choose Help> Updates. It will find the update. Mike Wickham
Distiller 7 missing fonts
> Some fonts are restricted from being embedded by the font foundry. It is > an attribute of the font files. This prevents them from being extracted > from the PDF by a third party and reused. Except that Adobe fonts all permit embedding, and he said he had an Adobe font. (Maybe it was different with really old versions of the font?) Mike Wickham
Smart Quotes pretty dumb in Gentium Basic, Minion Pro, andAuld Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and All
Hedley, Your latest message must have been transmitted in MIME format. It came through silent. :) Mike Wickham - Original Message - From: "Hedley Finger" To: Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 3:09 AM Subject: Re: Smart Quotes pretty dumb in Gentium Basic, Minion Pro, andAuld Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and All > > > ___ > > > You are currently subscribed to Framers as mewickham at compuserve.com. > > Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com > or visit > http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/mewickham%40compuserve.com > > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. >
also working with images
> On 2/4/08, Mike Wickham wrote: >> If you're on the Windows platform, and creating documents for press, EPS >> is >> really the only way to go for color graphics. With every other graphics >> format, Frame passes the graphics through the Windows GDI when creating >> Postscript. CMYK graphics are converted to RGB in the process and colors >> may >> change. EPS is passed around the Windows GDI and maintains original >> colors. > > Slightly OT, but for comparison purposes -- does InDesign do this as well? > It's not an issue with InDesign. It avoids the Windows GDI. So your CMYK will remain unchanged and there is no need to convert to EPS. Mike Wickham
future of FrameMaker
Adobe just came out with version 8 a few months ago, and two updates since. They are also actively seeking feature requests for version 9 in the Adobe FrameMaker Users Forum. You'd be better off to worry about FrameMaker's competitors. :) Mike Wickham
Question about TOC, LOF, LOT
The Chicago Manual of Style shows this as the proper order: Table of Contents List of Illustrations List of Tables Mike Wickham
cross reference vs variables
> Just to mix things up, the next question will appear in the form of a > statement. > > There is very little difference between cross-references and variables. > > Discuss. > > Deirdre One advantage of variables is that you can't delete them accidentally. More than once, I have deleted a section of text and not noticed that it contained a cross-reference or cross-reference marker referenced from somewhere else. Deleteing either one breaks the cross-reference, leaving an unresolved cross-reference. But if I delete text that contains a variable, big deal. I only deleted the text, because the variable definition still exists to work everywhere else it has been, and ever will be, used. There are lots of differences between cross-references and variables. Use cross-references to link to somewhere else you want the reader to go. "See figure x on page nnn" for example. Use user variables for data you may want to change. For example, some create user variables for product names because the final name of the product may change before it goes into production-- like the way Microsoft called a product "Chicago" before it was eventually released as Windows 95-- or maybe the product is sold to others to be resold under different proprietary brand names. So changing the definition of a variable can instantly change the product data sheet for "Joe's Snake Oil" to one for "Rebecca's Magic Elixir" without having to search and replace for every location of that phrase. Mike Wickham
cross reference vs variables
> In these documents that I am currently cleaning up, the title, > customer name, document date, and document number are all variables on > the title page, but then are cross-referenced throughout the chapters. > It would make more sense that they are variables throughout? Yes, having them all as variables would be better. You get the same result, but without the added overhead of making sure links don't get broken. Variables don't have links. Mike Wickham
Keeping a frame with the next paragraph
The method I use for graphics with captions is to create a one-cell table with title. Put the graphic in the cell and the caption in the title. They'll always stay together. The title (caption) can be set for above or below. I think it looks better below, but if your intention is to create a document with hyperlinks to the captions, it may be better to put them above the graphic. This is because the hyperlink jump will position the title (caption) paragraph at the top of the screen, and the associated picture would be above it, off screen. Mike Wickham
fractions
> Is there a way to generate fractions > without just writing them like I am here (i.e. 1/4)? One method is to buy any of the various fraction fonts available. Go to myfonts.com or other font seller and search for "fractions." Yes, you still have to enter them by typing the individual characters, but they will be properly sized and kerned. You'll have to apply a character format to them that uses the appropriate fraction font, or they may display as other characters, based on the paragraph format. Some of the "Pro" fonts include Unicode font numerators, denominators, and fraction slash. You can copy and paste them from Character Map, since you have FM8. Again, you'll have to apply a character format to them, unless the font is the same one used for the whole paragraph. Mike Wickham
Text string in title case?
I must be misunderstanding you because it sounds like a simple Find/Change would do it. 1. In the Find/Change dialogue box, set Find to Text: "The Title of This Book." Make sure the "Consider Case" checkbox is unchecked and Find/Change will find the phrase no matter what case it is. 2. In the Find/Change dialogue box, set Change to Text: "The Title of This Book" (capitalized the way you want). That will do it. Of course, if you've set "Small Caps," "Uppercase," or "Lowercase" in the Paragraph Format or Character Format that contains the phrase, the setting will override the intended result. 3. In the Find/Change dialogue, be sure that "Book" is selected. Then hit Find. Mike Wickham - Original Message - From: "Tina Ricks" To: Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 5:13 PM Subject: Text string in title case? > > Hi all, > > > > I'm trying to put many text strings (book titles) throughout a long book > into title case. I need to do this at the character level, not the > paragraph. For example, changing > > > > THE TITLE OF THIS BOOK > > > > to > > > > The Title of This Book > > > > So. it needs to have some logic, i.e. knows to skip conjunctions like "of" > and "and" etc. > > > > I can see in the character designer how to change a set of characters to > small caps, lowercase, or uppercase. Does anyone know of a way to make > this > ability go one step further and become title case? > > > > Tina Ricks > > Editor > > Trial Guides, LLC > > tina at trialguides.com > > > > > > ___ > > > You are currently subscribed to Framers as mewickham at compuserve.com. > > Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com > or visit > http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/mewickham%40compuserve.com > > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. >
Text string in title case?
> Sorry... I wasn't clear. Search/replace won't work. > > It's lots and lots of different book titles, all throughout a 600 page > manuscript. This is a legal textbook with loads of footnotes, which > contain > references to many other works. The previous author set all the book > titles > in all caps, now they need to be cap/lowercase (title case). > > So a search/replace doesn't work. I'm trying to avoid retyping all these > titles. Seems like the best so far is to change the case to lower, and > retype the initial caps where needed. The only idea I can come up with is a wildcard search. In the Find/Change dialogue check "Consider Case" and "Use Wildcards." Then search for [A-Z][A-Z][A-Z]. This will find all instances of three capital letters in a row (and assumes no book titles have less than three capital letters). If you know the shortest number of characters in a book title, you might add more [A-Z] entries to eliminate finding ISBN and other acronyms. Anyway, the wildcard search will find the book titles, but leave you stuck changing their case manually. Maybe some of the better minds here will have an idea how to do that. See help for "Finding and changing " and "Searching for special characters and nonprinting symbols" for more information. Mike Wickham
Color Output From Frame
> Has Framemaker 8 made any advances in color output for Framemaker pages? Sadly, no. > Second, has anyone discovered any new ways to create color output from > Framemaker > without having the printer giving you the, "these colors are rgb, .." Is it graphics you are having problems with? If so, save them as .EPS files. When FrameMaker creates PostScript for distillation it passes everything through the Windows GDI. This converts graphics back to RGB. The exception is for .EPS files, which are passed around the GDI as is. CMYK will stay as CMYK. So I recommend that you use only .EPS format for graphics files. Also, in maker.ini, try this setting: GetLibraryColorRGBFromCMYK=None You may also have an improper color management setting in Distiller. (Distiller also offers a "Convert All Colors to CMYK" option.) I seem to recall that having "Tag Everything for Color Management" caused plain black text to go multi-ink!) The preflight capability of Acrobat Pro can help you find RGB problems. Mike Wickham
The dreaded Internal Error error meets the dreaded Adobesupport, sigh
> What finally SEEMS to have fixed the problem for me (crossing fingers, > knocking on wood, hoping that Murphy's Law will not now extract a > horrible vengeance) is the suggestion about deleting the FNTCACHE.DAT > file in the C:\i386 and C:\WINDOWS\system32 folders. I haven't figured > out a way to automate this yet, but I did create some shortcuts to the > relevant directories so I can Eradicate the Evil Badness when necessary. > > Create a plain text file containing the following lines: @echo off REM Delete fntcache.dat del c:\windows\system32\fntcache.dat REM Restart Windows in two seconds C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe -r -t 02 Name the file with a .BAT extension and place it on your desktop. Double-clicking the file will run it. I'm not sure it's necessary to remove the fntcache.dat file in C:\i386, but if you also want to do it, use this file text instead: @echo off REM Delete fntcache.dat del c:\windows\system32\fntcache.dat del c:\i386\fntcache.dat REM Restart Windows in two seconds C:\WINDOWS\system32\shutdown.exe -r -t 02 Mike Wickham
Using PDF Converter with Frame
> my company's > purchasing department recently asked us to stop > ordering Acrobat and to instead try using a product > called PDF Converter. Cost-cutting. Wow. The purchasing department could save even more money by giving up their computers, calculators, and spreadsheets, and going back to using pencil, paper, and slide rules. Think of the savings! :) Someone else gave a link to an Acrobat feature comparison matrix. Near the top of the page on that link is a more detailed version: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/pdfs/acrobat8_matrix.pdf Mike Wickham
easy way to relink or manage links in FrameMaker ?
It looks like Systec's "Export Copied Graphics" plugin, part of the Toolbox, will export copied (embedded) graphics and then change them to referenced graphics: <https://www.systec-gmbh.com/os/index.php?cat=c14_7-6-x.html&page=2&XTCsid=afec57784912ef717a8b43a91b8993b9> Mike Wickham - Original Message - From: "Studio Smalbro" To: Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 1:50 PM Subject: easy way to relink or manage links in FrameMaker ? I am running FrameMaker 7 and have been given a vast number of manuals to update. I need to update several graphics in the files. All graphics have been embedded in the files and I sorely miss a link management tool like InDesigns. Is there an easy way to relink a graphic to a new file from within Framemaker - apart from importing it again from scratch ? Or is there a plugin which will facilitate management of links ? Best regards Bj?rn ___ You are currently subscribed to Framers as mewickham at compuserve.com. Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. To unsubscribe send a blank email to framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/mewickham%40compuserve.com Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
Another FM Automatic Letter Spacing Bug
Automatic Letter Spacing does not work in the first paragraph line, if a tab space is present. Is anyone else seeing this? I reported it to Adobe. I noticed the bug in FM8, but it is present in 7.1, too, and presumably all versions. I can't believe I didn't notice it before! **BUG** Concise problem statement: Allow Automatic Letter Spacing is broken in lines that contain a tab space. Steps to reproduce bug: 1. Create a body paragraph for bulleted lists. 2. Set Indents to First: 0, Left: .25", and Right: 0. 3. Set Alignment to Justified. 4. Create a tab stop at .25" Left. 5. Turn on Allow Automatic Letter Spacing 6. Turn on Autonumbering. Use a bullet and a tab building block. 7. View changes to paragraph. Results: Letterspacing works in all lines of the bulleted paragraph, _except_ the first line, where a tab is present. It does not matter if the tab is set in the Autonumber Format dialogue, or entered instead in the main document text. Expected results: I expect the first line to letterspace and justify between the tab stop and right margin. Mike Wickham
question about overrides
> Is there a way to find overrides, other than examining each paragraph > individually? Hunt Overrides (free): http://www.freeframers.org/freeware/cud/ Character Tools: Paragraph Tools: Table Tools: http://www.freeframers.org/freeware/cud/ These plugins are very cheap, contain lots of other useful functions, and are highly recommended. Mike Wickham
new computer woes
I didn't take time to test this, but another place to look for a possible cause to the file locking problem is File> Preferences> General> Cross-Platform File Naming. I'm not sure, but I think I once got your error message when I had CPFN set to Macintosh on a Windows machine and tried to save to a filename that was too long for Macs. Windows had let the file be created when the setting was, earlier, set to Windows, and Frame let the file load in Windows, but would not let it save when the Macintosh cross-platform file naming was set. Mike Wickham
Frameusers.com website
>> It will probably be fixed within a few hours of the hosting service >> recognizing the problem. You would think, but that message was up last week when I tried to access the site. The website has been poorly managed for a very long time. It would be nice if someone else would take it over. Mike Wickham
Generating a PDF through Adobe Distiller
> I'm having trouble using the Save As PDF feature. Here is the relevant > version information: > > Windows Vista > Adobe Acrobat Standard 8.0 > Framemaker 7.0, unstructured According to the following document, FM versions before v8.0 are not supported with Vista.: http://www.adobe.com/support/products/pdfs/adobe_products_and_windows_vista.pdf Also, could your problem be related to the location of your Distiller .joboption files? Acrobat 8, puts them in a different location than previous Acrobat versions, but FM 7 came out before Acrobat 8. So it still looks in the old location. You have to copy the .joboption files to the spot where FM 7.0 looks. Acrobat 8 puts them in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe PDF\Settings" and "C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe PDF\Settings." I forget where previous Acrobat versions placed the files. Perhaps someone else will chime in. Mike Wickham
Generating a PDF through Adobe Distiller
> This is only a guess because I am not familiar with Vista, but I would > first > check what version of Acrobat Distiller is installed. I see you are > running > Adobe Acrobat Standard 8.0, but Framemaker 7.x requires Acrobat Distiller > 7.0. This is separate from Adobe Acrobat itself and can be installed via > your Framemaker CD. (And, yes, this small discrepancy can cause all sorts > of > FM surprises). I don't know about using Save as PDF. I don't use it, since so many have problems with it. (I print directly to the Adobe PDF printer instance.) But FM 7.x works fine with Acrobat 8.0, if you put the .joboptions files in the right place. > If you do not have Distiller 7.0 installed, try removing and then > reinstalling FM and choose "Yes" when the installer prompts you with the > option to install Distiller 7.0. Don't put multiple instances of Acrobat Distiller and/or Adobe Reader on the same computer. I'll save Dov Isaacs of Adobe the time of jumping in by quoting a portion of his previous note: "Although (very unfortunately), it is PHYSICALLY possible to have multiple versions of Adobe Acrobat concurrently installed, concurrent versions of Adobe Reader concurrently installed, or some combination of versions of both Acrobat and Reader installed, the truth is that the architecture of these programs and the underlying operating system services used by same really only fully supports installation of only one version of EITHER Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader on one system at one time. - Dov" Mike Wickham
question about usage
> Here's what I'm talking about: > > "Move the part numbers that begin with a numerical character to the > end of the list after the part numbers that begin with an alpha > character." > > I'm just wondering how widespread this usage is. Are these terms just > in my documents in my company, and I should make the correction, or do > technical writers the world over use "alpha characters" to refer to > letters and "numerical characters" to refer to numbers? I'd use numbers and letters. It's so much clearer. Others have mentioned alphanumerics as including both letters and numbers, but doesn't it also include punctuation? Mike Wickham
FrameUsers mailing list dead?
The "Unable to connect to database server" message has been up at frameusers.com for weeks. I reported it on July 17th to . Someone wrote back saying they'd have the Webmaster take a look. They must not consider it a priority. Mike Wickham - Original Message - From: "Art Campbell" To: "Reng, Dr. Winfried" Cc: Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2008 11:59 AM Subject: Re: FrameUsers mailing list dead? > > Looks as if the whole site is hosed... > > www.frameusers.com comes up with an interesting message for a > production server > > The sister site, www.techwr-l.com, is up. You may be able to reach > someone through that site's contact form: > http://www.techwr-l.com/contact > > Art
Entering unicode characters directly in an FM 8 document
> I want to enter some unicode (but non-ANSI) characters into an English > language document (such as primes and double primes-u2032; and u2033; > respectively-being symbols use in specifying latitude and longitude). I'm > stuffed if I can work out how to do this directly in FM. The only method I'm aware of is to cut and paste characters from the Windows Character Map program. Mike Wickham
Entering unicode characters directly in an FM 8 document
> Press the Alt key and type your Unicode, then release the alt key. That only works for the 256 extended ASCII characters for me. How are you entering the Unicode characters with higher values, such as U+0416? Alt-416 and Alt-0416 both produce characters, but neither are the correct Unicode character. (I used the Arial Unicode MS font.) Mike Wickham
Entering unicode characters directly in an FM 8 document
> The first method described here ("How to enter Unicode characters
> in Microsoft Windows")
> http://www.fileformat.info/tip/microsoft/enter_unicode.htm
> does work for me in FM8.
> You probably need to set the registry key EnableHexNumpad as described.
Thanks! Adding the registry key got it working for me.
Mike Wickham
Entering unicode characters directly in an FM 8 document
> Hi, did anyone notice if this change of the registry key affects the > behavior of the numeric key pad for other use? i.e. does the normal ALT > sequence for ASCII characters still work? I noticed no change. The alt keypad keys still work normally-- hold down the alt key, type the four digit extended ASCII code, and then release the alt key. For Unicode characters, you hold down the alt key, _press and release the plus key_, press and release the Unicode code numbers/letters, and then release the alt key. Of course, the font must support those Unicode characters. Mike Wickham
Strange Frame to PDF problem
Check File> Preferences> General> Cross Platform File Naming. That setting can affect how many characters are allowed in the filename, as well as disallow certain characters in the filename because they are illegal characters in the chosen OS. Mike Wickham
FM8 and Acrobat Pro 9
> Acrobat Pro 9 is just being released. Since we presently distill our > FM8 files into PDFs with Acrobat8 -- should we upgrade immediately to > Acrobat9, or should we "wait for the dust to settle"? I'll get it when Creative Suite 4 comes out. There's no sense buying Acrobat twice. Mike Wickham
FM8 and Acrobat Pro 9
> The unexplained crashes we get are of two sorts. One sort of crash is > the one we get in Acrobat Pro 8, during the process of distillation, > and then when we repeat our procedure, the distillation succeeds > without any further problem. The other sort of crash is the one we > get in the Adobe Reader, when we attempt to open the resultant PDF > across the internet. Here, by way of an example, is an Acrobat 8 PDF > that has been distilled out of a FM8 file, that has a history of > three times out of four crashing the Adobe Reader when an attempt is > made to access it on the internet using a fast cable connection (and > then with perhaps the fourth attempt, opening perfectly without any > problem): http://www.kouroo.info/kouroo/thumbnails/C/AlexanderChalmers.pdf > The PDF opened on the first try for me, using Acrobat 8 Professional (in IE7 browser window). I used PageDown to quickly view all 25 pages without apparent problem. You mentioned both Reader and Acrobat. Do you have both installed on the same computer? If so, that may be your problem. Since version 6, Adobe has insisted that no more than one version of Reader and/or Acrobat should be installed on any one computer, due to possible conflicts. They do not support such installations. If you have both on the same computer, or more than one version of the same, you should uninstall them in reverse order, and then reinstall only one copy of Acrobat or one copy of Reader. Mike Wickham
FM8 and Acrobat Pro 9
> Mike's take is that Acrobat and Reader interact in some way that can > cause problems. And I disagree... > > Reader is a separate product that doesn't conflict or inter-operate > with Acrobat binaries Art, I could swear that I've heard Dov say there are possible issues, not only with multiple versions of Acrobat or Reader on the same computer, but even with having only the same version of both on one machine. But I could be remembering it wrong. I'm sure Dov will jump in and straighten us all out. I'm curious if ridding the extra versions fixed Austin's problem. His wish that Adobe's installer prevented this issue makes it sound like it was the fix for him. Mike Wickham
table and figure captions
Deirdre, I also use the "single-celled table with title" method for inserting graphics with captions, but since you mentioned both figures and tables, I want to add a suggestion to the good advice others have given. Consider using a single numbering system for all graphics. It greatly simplifies things. A reference to "see table 7" doesn't tell you where to look for it. Table 7 might fall before Figure 1, for example. It's unintuitive and confusing. If a cross-reference says to see Table 7 and that table is several chapters away, it becomes very difficult to find. Having all the graphics numbered in a single series makes life easier for the reader. Figure 7 is always after Figure 6 and before Figure 8. Here's a link to a short article about an IBM study that concluded it is best to simply call everything a figure and number it in a single series: http://www.techknowledgecorp.com/nonum.html. Mike Wickham
New figure object [was "Re: table and figure captions"]
> Yeah, it is so fun to (a) insert a single-celled table previously set up > as a format, (b) import a graphic file or create an anchored frame into > the single para in the cell, and (c) set the anchored frame to At > Insertion Point so you can get the spacing even all around, and then (d) > adjust the cell borders (or anchored frame border) to coincide of the > figure has a ruled box around it. > > Wouldn't it be great if you could just select a Figure format when you > are in the file browser and the external graphic is imported into a > figure all ready to fill in the blanks? I like that idea. In the meantime, the inexpensive AutoText plugin is even more capable. You can create sample tables for holding your graphics with accompanying text, captions, callouts, etc. Then you can pluck the whole thing from a menu whenever you need it. For example, AutoText can pop in a table that includes a heading and text placeholder in the left column. On the right are graphic and caption placeholders to illustrate the text. All the appropriate paragraph tags-- heading, body, anchor, caption-- are in place. Even the paragraph tag that holds the anchored frame is predefined. Just click and type or click and insert the graphic. (I actually reprogrammed a function key to import graphics.) My table also contains a separate anchored frame, attached to the caption paragraph, that is set to Outside Column, Side Closer to Page Edge, and is rotated 90?. I use this to display the photographer's name next to the photo's edge. A figure style probably wouldn't have that capability. Mike Wickham
adding user variables to the TOC
Deirdre, A possible workaround is to create a special paragraph format and put it in the text frame on the body page. Put the variable in it as the only text. Then set the color to white to make it invisible. (You can also set a very small font size for the paragraph to reduce its effect on line spacing.) The TOC will then be able to pick up the paragraph text from the body page. There are a couple of potential problems: 1. Being invisible, there's a chance of accidental deletion. 2. White text on a white page is invisble to the eye, but not to speech synthesizers. So if you have sight-impaired readers of your resultant PDF, they'll hear the variable text pronounced with the other text. Mike Wickham
Adobe Garamond font in bold doesn't distill properly
Are you sure the font is actually installed on your system? Look in \windows\fonts for it. Some fonts are "printer resident." These are fonts that are hardwired inside your desktop printer. The printer driver tells Windows how to display these fonts on screen-- and, since the fonts are hardwired inside your desktop printer, the desktop printer can print them, too. But the fonts are not actually installed on your computer, so they cannot be embedded in a PDF and that forces Acrobat/Distiller to substitute. Most printer manufacturers also include their printer-resident fonts on disk, so that you can truly install them. However, that installation isn't part of the printer setup. You have to manually look for the fonts on the installation CD and then manually install them. Mike Wickham
How FM use impacts purchasing decisions
Rene, I also have to replace a laptop. It was attached to the network when we got hit by lightning. I hate that Vista is the only choice that laptop manufacturers are giving us these days. So I'm planning to check to be sure that XP-compatible drivers are available for the prospective laptop's hardware. Then I'm going to reformat the disk, install Windows XP Professional, and install the proper drivers instead. It'll eliminate the junk trialware, too. Mike Wickham
How FM use impacts purchasing decisions
> Anyway, with Parallels, you can run multiple virtual machines > simultaneously. Windows XP, Vista, 2000, Linux, etc. Perfect for > testing and documenting different systems and beta software. And of course, there is the PC counterpart-- Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. It can be downloaded free at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc/default.mspx. It's limited to running virtual machines of Windows 98 or later and OS/2, though. Mike Wickham
update file paths easyli?
Bruce Foster's "Archive" plugin will do it for you easily, and for only 25 bucks!: http://home.comcast.net/~bruce.foster/products.htm Mike
question about overrides
> I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we > add text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of > Page we might not want. Create a special paragraph format called PageBreak. Give it a large "Space: Below Pgf:" value, say 600 pt. Then insert this paragraph before the item you want to force to the next page. It functions similarly to Special> Page Break, but has the advantage that FM doesn't see it as an override, and removing overrides leaves it in place. Mike Wickham
FM abruptly closes with no save
> I know that Adobe people do monitor this list (and have for many years) so > I > need to ask - what is the best way to report this? I have a couple of > dumps > I can send. Adobe has a bug report form at this address: http://www.adobe.com/misc/bugreport.html I've had them ask for sample files after I've reported a bug. Mike Wickham
Printing of Paragraph Design Information
> Microsoft word has the capability to print out the characteristics of > Styles contained within the document. How would one do the same for > Paragraph Designs in Frame? Format List, part of the Systec Toolbox, does a very nice job. It creates a table of all the styles and nearly all their characteristics. You can find it here: https://www.systec-gmbh.com/os/index.php?cat=c12_Windows.html&XTCsid=afec57784912ef717a8b43a91b8993b9 Paragraph Tools from http://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com/Products.html can also produce a list. This tool is less expensive, and _well_ worth having for its many other features, but its list of formats is simply that-- a list. It produces a list, for each style, of all characteristics. It's very useful if you're looking at a particular style, but I like the Systec Format List plugin a lot more for this task. It puts all the styles in a nice table. So you can quickly scan a table column to spot that one style that's still set up to use Times Roman, when you've set the others to Bookman or something else. Mike Wickham
Printing of Paragraph Design Information
> Anything similar for printing out master page characteristics (object > properties, etc.)? Systec's Format List lists "Page Layout" properties that include page size, whether double-sided or right 1st page, and column layout info that includes column, sidehead, and margin settings. The plugin also list system and user variables, and cross-reference formats. Silicon Prairie Software's Master Page Tools plugin can list the master pages that are used in each document. Mike Wickham
Upgrade to Frame 8?
> I am looking at upgrading from Frame 7.0/7.1, Acrobat 7.0 Pro to Frame > 8.0and Acrobat > 8.0 Pro. Our output is 90% pdf, but we do use ePub Pro for our online help > conversions. I see that some of you are having problems with Frame 8 Can > you comment on your experiences? Is an upgrade worth it? I upgraded from 7.1 to 8.0. I use unstructured only, 100% PDF output. There were some bugs that appear to have been fixed in the latest patch. So, I can't think of any bugs that are biting me at the moment. However, there was a problem with lines not breaking properly after em and en dashes in an earlier release. The latest release fixed the problem for new em and en dashes, but didn't reset the line breaks for those already in the document, that were displaying improperly. I had to do a bookwide find and replace, replacing em dashes with em dashes, and en dashes with en dashes to cause the lines to reflow properly. All is good from then on. Mike
Extracting copied-in graphics from documents
> A posting some weeks ago mentioned a utility that could extract graphics > copied into FM files and restore them in their original format. I should > have been paying more attention at the time, but can someone remind me > what > that utility is called? (I'm hoping it can do a better job than Acrobat.) Export Copied Graphics, part of the Systec Toolbox, might be what you're looking for: https://www.systec-gmbh.com/os/product_info.php?info=p264_Export-copied-graphics--TB-8-0-WIN-.html&XTCsid=afec57784912ef717a8b43a91b8993b9 Mike Wickham
Framemaker Books
Add Thomas Neuburger's _The Masters Series: FrameMaker 6_ to the list of good titles. He also sells them from his site: twelfthnight.com. Mike Wickham
Questions about look and feel.
> 2. Do people think that a Sans Serif font improves legibility for body > text? Using a sans serif font for body text greatly reduces reader comprehension. Obtain a copy of Colin Wheildon's _Type and Layout: Are You Communicating or Just Making Pretty Shapes?_ The book contains actual studies showing the effects on readability and comprehension of serif vs. sans serif fonts, color type, bold and italic type, justified paragraphs, etc. It's a fantastic book: http://www.amazon.com/Type-Layout-Communicating-Making-Pretty/dp/1875750223 Book designers really need to pay attention to these kinds of things. I'm seeing more and more books with sans serif body type that might be good for a Web page, but not for a book. Recently, I ordered a book that was on a unique topic in my field. I awaited it excitedly. At first glance upon arrival, it struck me how pretty the book was, which excited me more. Then I tried to read it. I couldn't! My eyes just could not stay trained on the lines for long. The book broke every rule. It had tiny type, sans serif body text, headings with no capitalization, headings in every color of the rainbow, including some that were yellow and nearly invisible on the pages. All recto pages have color backgrounds. Do you know how hard it is to read tiny, thin, black type on a blue page? Anyway, the book was clearly a designer's dream, but it's a reader's nightmare. I still haven't read more than a few paragraph's from it. Mike Wickham
Questions about look and feel.
> In general, serif fonts are "better" for printed works. Sans serif fonts > are "better" for screen displays, but, I could be wrong...regards, I agree. And would note that the Wheildon studies were done well before the advent of the Web, so the book has no comment about viewing text on screen. I would also note that the original poster said his documents had no "web page formats." Mike Wickham
Out of print FrameMaker books
> You might be able to find out of print books, like Jahred's "Beyond the > Basics" or any other, using www.bookbutler.com Another great used book site is http://used.addall.com. It searches a whole bunch of used book sites in one fell swoop. Mike Wickham
FrameMaker 8.0.3 Update Now Available (POSSIBLE WORKAROUND)
Linda, Perhaps running the Windows Installer Cleanup Utility will help. There might be a mangled Installer process stuck somewhere. Here is the description: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301 The download link is inconspicuous about halfway down the page. Mike Wickham
Strange behaviour of anchored frames inserted at insertion pointwith distance 0 pt above baseline
> I cannot figure out why some of my anchored frames are placed above the > insertion point in stead of at the insertion point. For the paragraph holding the anchor, look in the Paragraph Designer on the Basic tab. Is the fixed line spacing checkbox checked? The anchored frame position varies to above or below the anchor position, depending on whether or not that box is checked. Mike Wickham
Can't open files - FM crashes!
> Check to see if XP Service Patch 3 was installed. If so, uninstall it. > It will prevent you from being able to save Frame files with referenced > graphics (in XP). I use only referenced graphics and have no problems with them under XP SP3. Mike Wickham
Section TOCs
> as I find it hard to search the archive, can anyone give an idea of how to > make section TOCs?... I use Frame 7.2. Systec makes a plugin (Chapter TOC) for this. I've never used it, so can't comment on it. Following is a link where you can find it, but I believe there is also a trial version of the entire Systec Toolbox in the site download area. You could use the trial to see if the plugin is what you want. https://www.systec-gmbh.com/os/index.php?cat=c178_7-6-x.html The Systec site is horrible to navigate, but their software is good. Mike Wickham
Set file order in directory?
> Every time I need to import a graphic, Framemaker initially presents the > graphics files to me in alphabetical order. > > It would be much, much more useful if every time I wanted to import the > graphics, they were listed by date, most recent date first. That would be a useful feature. You may want to submit a feature request to http://www.adobe.com/support/feature.html. Mike Wickham
Two-column layout and large graphics
> I'm not seeing a way to keep > the caption paragraph with the anchored frame as it moves to the top or > bottom of the page. Create a two-cell table format and use it for captioned graphics. Assign your graphic anchor paragraph format to the top cell and your caption paragraph format to the bottom cell. Insert the table wherever you want a graphic. Then import the graphic into the top cell and the type the caption text into the bottom cell. They'll move together. You can take it a step further with the Autotext plugin from Silicon Prairie Software. It lets you create a text block that would also include the empty paragraph that holds the two-cell table. You can pop it all in with a menu click, instead of creating the table anchor paragraph and inserting the table separately. Mike Wickham
Two-column layout and large graphics
>I do something similar, but use a single-cell table with a table title >above > or below. That way I have more accurate control over the Gap, as well as > placing the title above or below. D'oh! It turns out that that is what I do, too. I wrote my original message from memory and I remembered it wrong. I don't use a two-cell table-- though it would work. I use a one-cell table to hold the graphic and use the table title to hold the caption. It works great. Mike Wickham > -Original Message- > From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com > [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Mike Wickham > Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 8:12 PM > To: Linda G. Gallagher; 'Framer's List' > Subject: Re: Two-column layout and large graphics > >> I'm not seeing a way to keep >> the caption paragraph with the anchored frame as it moves to the top or >> bottom of the page. > > Create a two-cell table format and use it for captioned graphics. Assign > your graphic anchor paragraph format to the top cell and your caption > paragraph format to the bottom cell. Insert the table wherever you want a > graphic. Then import the graphic into the top cell and the type the > caption > text into the bottom cell. They'll move together. > > You can take it a step further with the Autotext plugin from Silicon > Prairie > > Software. It lets you create a text block that would also include the > empty > paragraph that holds the two-cell table. You can pop it all in with a menu > click, instead of creating the table anchor paragraph and inserting the > table separately. > > Mike Wickham
Standard tags for technical templates
> For example, the current template uses these paragraph tag names: > > S > S1 > S+ > > Both S1 is for Step 1; S and S+ act as Step +. (I don't know why there > are two tags that appear to have the same function. A mistake? Or am I > missing something?) S1 probably resets the autonumbering to start over at Step 1. S probably continues the numbering from the previous step. And S+ is probably for those situations where a step has more than one paragraph. You don't want "Step n" at the beginning of such a paragraph, so it omits the autonumbering. Mike Wickham
slow cursor movement in Frame 8 with Para Designer open
> I've noticed at times that moving the cursor around in a Frame 8 file > can be rather sluggish. This is when I'm using the arrow key to move > the cursor along a line of text. I've also noticed that using the > shift+arrow keys to select text can be really slow as well. However, at > other times the cursor moves at what I consider to be a normal speed. > > The other day I think I found out why. The movement of the cursor slows > right down when I have Paragraph Designer open. I did a timed test on a > random line of text. With PD closed, it took 4 seconds to run the > cursor from one end of the line to the other, but with PD open it took > 14 seconds. If I selected the line using Shift+arrow, the times were > about the same. I repeated the test with PD closed and Character > Designer open, but this time it took about 5 seconds. Do you have the Leximation RestoreWindows plugin? I have the same behavior and traced it to that plugin. Having the Character Designer open slows the cursor. Having the Paragraph Designer open slows it even more. Having both open seems to have an additive effect and slow things even more. The RestoreWindows version I have is 1.01e. If I remember correctly, version 1.0 didn't cause the problem, but it also didn't track as many palettes. Scott at Leximation had created a custom version for me (1.01) that opened the tool palette, the Character Catalog and Paragraph Catalog, the Paragraph Designer, Character Designer, and Table Designer. That version is the one that introduced the slow cursor problem for me. Scott was unable to fix it because he was unable to duplicate the problem on his computer. Mike Wickham
Reference graphic to Character format
>>A common solution would be to create a font (Fontographer, etc.) that contains your graphics assigned to individual characters. << Don't waste your money on Fontographer. It's too old. It won't run on Windows XP computers with more than 384K (if I remember correctly) of memory. Mike Wickham
Installing FM 7.2 and FM 8.0 on a PC
> Has anyone installed multiple versions of FM on a PC? I am looking to > install FM 7.2 alongside FM 8 since I need to convert some legacy docs > using > WWP Pro 7.06. Various versions of FM will install side-by-side without problem. Note, however, that Windows will see the last version installed as the default version to use for opening a .FM file when you double-click on it in Windows Explorer. Right-click and use OpenWith to choose to open the file with other installed versions of FM from Explorer. Mike Wickham
Problem with run-in heads
Roger, I recall seeing this problem on FM 7.0, although it wasn't related specifically to run-in heads, but to having any heading in the first column-- and, offhand, I can only remember it happening when the very first line of the first column was a heading. I can't find a document exhibiting the behavior right now. I am on FM8, now, and maybe it's no longer an issue. But I did find a note I made on solving the problem: "Unchecking the Fixed Line Spacing checkbox fixes the column alignment problem, but then text containing superscripts and subscripts causes problems with line spacing instead." Maybe that will help point your toward a fix, but be aware that I may have made other changes that affected the behavior, after I made the above note. Mike Wickham - Original Message - From: "Roger Jones" To: Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2008 3:16 AM Subject: Problem with run-in heads > I'm glad to be back after a long absence from Framers, and I am still on > FM > 7.0p579. > > I have a problem with run-in headings in a double-column format. All paras > are set to 10pt fixed and there is no line feathering, but the run-in > heads > are misaligning the baselines across columns. A page full of text with no > headings has perfect alignment; add a run-in heading and the right-hand > column goes out of alignment from that point onwards. Setting columns to > balance makes no difference. > > I need the run-ins because I want two paras on the same line, with > automatic running heads picking up on one of them and not the other. > > Any clues, anyone? > > All the best > > Roger Jones > > ___ > > > You are currently subscribed to Framers as info at mikewickham.com. > > Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com > or visit > http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/info%40mikewickham.com > > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. > >
missing fonts after changing computers;customize maker.ini file?
> I could have sworn the warning about that -- complete with link to KB > article that I remember reading -- appeared a few years ago on this > list. But now I can't find it, either in my FrameUsers archive or in the > Adobe KB. Sorry for the scare. Richard, you did remember right that there was a bug caused by uninstalling ATM Lite, and Adobe had a downloadable patch to repair Windows (or the PS driver?) after doing so. Mike Wickham
Unknown FrameMaker commands
Oops! I forgot to mention that these are new commands in the FrameMaker 9 wincmds.cfg file only. Mike Wickham - Original Message - From: "Mike Wickham" To: "Frame Users" Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 8:10 PM Subject: Unknown FrameMaker commands > Does anyone know what these commands do? They are in the wincmds.cfg file: > > --OWL commands > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Mike Wickham > > ___ > > > You are currently subscribed to Framers as info at mikewickham.com. > > Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com > or visit > http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/info%40mikewickham.com > > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. > >
FM 9 Keyboard Shortcuts (ATTN: R. Jacquez!)
>At the very least, give us a list of keyboard commands for UI manipulation. I found some commands in wincmds.cfg: > (Toggle) Between open document tabs? Ctrl-F6 (ShowNextKit) and Shift-Ctrl-F6 (ShowPrevKit) There is still some bugginess, though. The commands worked always in with .FM files. Ctrl-F6 would cycle through the .FM files, then jump back to the first and cycle again. Shift-Ctrl-F6 did the same in reverse. Book files, pods, and panels seem to want to work the same way, but as a conglomerate that is separate from the .FM files. That is, if one of them is the focus, Ctrl-F6 can cycle between them all, but skips the .FM files. This is where I found bugginess. The command would not jump to the Variables and locked up. This may be related to the bug that keeps one from using the Commands button in the Designer panels until the panel is first closed and reopened, or switched to another designer panel page. I noticed that closing and reopening the Variables pod made Ctrl-F6 work for it, too. When the command cycles to the Paragraph Designer, there is no flashing cursor to let you know. > Between pages of the Designer dialogs? I noticed that the tab key does that, but it includes all the fields in the currently displayed designer page as part of the cycle. So, depending on whether one of the panel page icons is active or a field in the dialogue, it may take quite a few tabs to move to a different designer panel page. > (That new feature that toggles UI visibility is absolutely terrific!! I > would use it dozens of times a day! ...but not if I have to use the > wretched mouse.) Esc S M s for standard screen mode. Esc S M u for full screen with user interface. Esc S M f for full screen. Esc S M t to toggle screen mode. Also these: Esc T S A (ToolBarShowAll) Esc T H A (ToolBarHideAll) Mike Wickham
FM 9 Keyboard Shortcuts (ATTN: R. Jacquez!)
> I'm on my Mac now, so I can't check this out, but in FM 8 and earlier, > PgUp/PgDn would cycle through Paragraph, Character, and (I think) > Table designer property pages. I just checked and PgUp/PgDn does the same in FM9. However, the highlight isn't changing to icon for the new property page. Mike Wickham
FM9 and two monitors
> Finally, does anyone with FM use two screens? I am unhappy with all these > boxes and pods in FM9 and would like them all on a second screen I've got FM 9 running with three monitors. Multiple monitors are great! I tend to keep a file manager and web browser up on the left and my main work in the center. The righthand monitor is a high-end color correction monitor. I usually only fire it up when I'm also working on graphics, but it also comes in so handy for those times that I really need a lot of windows open. With FM, you can put the various panels/pods on one (or more) of the peripheral monitors, and keep your central screen free to display only the document you are working on. You can even have multiple FM documents open on multiple monitors. Mike Wickham
SetPrint plug-in & FM 9 within the TCS 2.0
> Anybody have any experience with SetPrint in FM 9? Does having the TCS > make any difference? It's working fine for me in FM9, but I don't have TCS. Mike Wickham
Missing registration marks
You have to set the paper size larger than the page size so that there is room to show the registration marks.
TCS2 Distiller license problem
>I don't have any Acrobat products installed on my machine except what's in >Technical Suite, and Adobe Reader 8. Dov has also warned not to have multiple versions of Acrobat and/or Reader on the same computer. So... one version of Acrobat OR one version of Reader OR one version of the distiller that comes with FrameMaker. But only one in total. Mike Wickham
Free online version of Read Me First! A Style Guide for theComputer Industry, Third Edition (3rd Edition)
> I have googled and googled and can find only references about buying the > guide, not using it online. Scads of computer books are available at the safaribooksonline.com subscription service. The Prentice-Hall publisher of the book you listed is shown as a participant. So perhaps the title is one available there? Mike Wickham
Frame 9 MAJOR BUG
File bug reports here: https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform Mike Wickham
Notes Table graphic question
> Is there a way to design a table in FM so that a graphic is > automatically imported with it? For example, in a Notes table? You can use the AutoText plugin. Set up the table with graphic as "block" text and easily import it with menu clicks or assign a hotkey. Find AutoText (and other great plugins) here: http://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com/ Mike Wickham
Save As PDF from Frame 9 to Acrobat 9 Woes
> Simple raster images became heavily pixelated and garbage (worse than the > image in Frame)... > *The file included (Import by reference) PDFs created from Word that have > several different fonts. These fonts were rasterized garbage, whereas in > Version 8 they were pass-through fonts that were great at any zoom > setting. Save as PDF was changed in FM9 to allow pass through of CMYK data in Windows. But a bug was reported, last week, that it is badly broken. Imported PDFs become low-res, pixelated images. It sounds like this is what you are seeing. Print to AdobePDF instead or change the referenced PDF graphics to EPS. > Fonts were not mapped correctly. (They were a disaster) > *Impact font did not map at all, became boxes. > *Arial Black was mapped to Times. > *Random areas had strings of characters mapped to different characters, > whereas other characters using the exact same font and settings mapped OK. Is it possible that you forgot to transfer over custom font-mappings from your old maker.ini file? Also, you can tell Distiller where to look for fonts (Settings> Font Locations). Perhaps you don't have Distiller 9 set to look in the same places that were set for Distiller 8, so it is not finding the same fonts. Also, Adobe has warned against installing more than one version, and against installing combos, of Acrobat, Adobe Reader, or the PDF add-on that comes with FrameMaker. Installations/uninstallations of each may blow out parts of the other. If you did not uninstall Acrobat 8 before installing Acrobat 9, or you installed the PDF add-on that came with FM on top of an existing Acrobat installation, you may have messed up your ability to create proper PDFs. Mike Wickham
S-L-O-W cursor movement in FrameMaker 9
I'm experiencing very slow cursor movement in FrameMaker 9. Is anyone else seeing this? Choose the Manage Graphics workspace. Use the arrow keys to move around the text. The speed seems normal enough. Now choose any of the other workspaces (Authoring, Manage Content, Review) and use the arrow keys to move around. For me, it creeps VERY SLOWLY. A similar issue occured in FM8 if the Paragraph Designer was open, but closing all palettes/pods does not increase the speed in FM9. Mike Wickham
S-L-O-W cursor movement in FrameMaker 9
> There was another thread about this recently, and I think the answer > seemed to have to do with one particular pod/windows being open when > scrolling. Maybe the Marker window? I think it was easy to ID because > the cursor sped up right away. Except that I've closed all windows, pods, and even the toolbars in FM9 with no change. I believe you are thinking about the Paragraph Designer window causing a slowdown in FM8. Mike Wickham
S-L-O-W cursor movement in FrameMaker 9
> How much RAM are you running? And any other memory-hungry aps open at > the same time? I've got 4 GB of RAM (though XP reports on 3.25). Frame is the only program open. I've since done some experimenting with my template. Cursor speed was fine with this template when it was in FM6 and FM7.1. In FM8, cursor speed slowed if the Paragraph Designer, Character Designer, or Table Designer windows were open. In FM9, cursor speed is always very slow-- even with all windows, pods, and toolbars closed-- EXCEPT when using the Manage Graphics workspace. A line that takes 4 seconds to scroll across (using arrow keys) in Notepad or Word, takes 19 seconds in FM9 when using any other workspace. Next, I created a new, blank FM document in FM9, and populated it with a paragraph of text. The cursor speed is normal and fast with this document in FM9 using the Manage Graphics workspace-- 4 seconds to scroll across a line. But using other workspaces, it drops to 6 seconds. Next, I experimented over the weekend by importing various options from my template into this freshw FM9 document to see what effect there might be. Cursor speed changed drastically, depending on which options I imported. It turns out that importing paragraph, character, or table formats causes slowing of the cursor. Other format imports-- variables, page layout, etc. had no slowing effect. This made me think that I had some corrupted paragraph, character, or table formats. But I don't think that's it. I took the same new, blank, empty document, with _nothing_ imported from my template. I created 30 new paragraph styles in FM9 (all the same as the body style, but with a new name, using Commands> New Format). Then I tried again. Lo and behold, the cursor speed slowed way down. So it looks to me like this scrolling bug also has some relation to how many paragraph (or, character or table definitions) exist. The more there are, the slower the cursor. My template has about 100 paragraph styles and 60 character styles. Of course, there's still the issue that, using the Manage Graphics workspace causes the slowness to go away altogether. It only occurs when using the other workspaces. This behavior is also reproducible on my laptop computer. Mike Wickham
Automated List of Effective Pages for Aerospace Documents
Silicon Prairie Software also as an LEP plugin. I've never needed it or used it, so I can't comment on how it works: http://www.siliconprairiesoftware.com/Products.html >From their website: "LEP Tools LEP Tools is a special-purpose FrameMaker plug-in that helps generate a List of Effective Pages for a set of FrameMaker documents. If you create document sets that require a List of Effective Pages, this plug-in may make that process much easier. LEP Tools is $30 for a single-user license, $300 for a site license, and is available for FrameMaker 6.x, 7.x, and 8 on Windows and Macintosh." - Original Message - From: "Owen, Clint" To: "Frame Users" Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 12:32 PM Subject: Automated List of Effective Pages for Aerospace Documents > To anyone who has to keep track of the revision date for each page in a > document. You know what a pain it is to do manually. > > I have worked out a way to generate an automatic LOEP in unstructured > FrameMaker documents. This method uses a second flow, with a text frame > on each page that only has room for two lines, the page number and the > date. Then you can generate a list of paragraphs to pick up these two > items and the title of each chapter. Then it is just a matter of > formatting. > > Please contact me off list for a full description, if you are > interested. > > Clint > > > Clinton Owen | Senior Technical Writer | Crane Aerospace & Electronics | > Telephone: +1 425-743-8674 | Fax: +1 425-743-8113 > > > > > We value your opinion! How may we serve you better? > Please click the survey link to tell us how we are doing: > http://www.craneae.com/surveys/satisfaction.htm > Your feedback is of the utmost importance to us. Thank you for your time. > > Crane Aerospace & Electronics Confidentiality Statement: > The information contained in this email message may be privileged and is > confidential information intended only for the use of the recipient, or > any > employee or agent responsible to deliver it to the intended recipient. Any > unauthorized use, distribution or copying of this information is strictly > prohibited > and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, > please notify > the sender immediately and destroy the original message and all > attachments from > your electronic files. > > ___ > > > You are currently subscribed to Framers as info at mikewickham.com. > > Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com. > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com > or visit > http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/info%40mikewickham.com > > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info. > >
OT :: Frame & Voice to Text software
> Although you didn't ask, I'd highly recommend the Microsoft Natural > Keyboard and a Logitech trackball as alternative controllers. I've > used both for a long time and love 'em both, but you do need to adjust > to them. I'll add my vote for the Logitech trackball. I'll never go back to a traditional mouse. I never have the problem of reaching the end of the mouse pad before I'm done scrolling. There's no need to lift the mouse and reposition it to scroll the rest of the way! I haven't used the Microsoft Natural Keyboard, but I'll put my vote in for the Unicomp Customizer 104-105. It's the original IBM keyboard with a good tactile click. And the keycaps are double-injected, so the letters won't wear off unless you wear through the whole key! I love it. Mine is several years old now and not a sign of wear. Find it here: http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/customizer.html, or a model with the same size keys, but smaller footprint, here: http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net/en104bl.html Mike Wickham
S-L-O-W cursor movement in FrameMaker 9
> I'm going to save as MIF in 9 later to see if that cleans it up. I tried a MIF 9 save with no luck. Mike Wickham
S-L-O-W cursor movement in FrameMaker 9
> I am trying out FM 9, and also find the cursor is extremely slow to > respond to the arrow keys. (XP on a 3GHz CPU, 1.5GB RAM, and no such > problem in any other app. including FM 7.0, with any number of other apps > running.) Stuart, I filed a bug report on the slow arrow keys problem and received a response from Adobe to try the following instructions: > 1. File -> Preferences -> Interface > 2. Uncheck "Hide panels on Close" (This option kills a panel on > close, else a panel would stay open in the background) > 3. Close Para Designer The above instructions worked for me to restore normal cursor speed in the Authoring, Manage Content, and Review workspaces. The Manage Graphics workspace, which previously was the only one with normal cursor speed, actually slowed by a second from 4 to 5 seconds to scroll across a line, but I can live with that. I don't like having the Paragraph Designer closed, but it's a temporary fix until Adobe squashes this bug. It's good to see that they have it in their sights. Mike Wickham
Desperately Need Legal FrameMaker 8!
> Do any of you know a way for us to get full, legal copies of FrameMaker 8? > Our IT guy has exhausted his resources. Froogle.com (google's shopping search) shows lots of copies available. Of course, sometimes those links are to companies that don't actually have the product in stock and plan to ship directly from Adobe when they receive an order. Mike Wickham
Book to .mif plugin
> I am sure there must be a utility which saves all files in a book to > .mif files. Do you know where I can get such a plugin? Systec has the "Book Transfer FM <-> MIF" utility. 29 euros to license. https://www.systec-gmbh.com/os/index.php?cat=c176_TOOLBOX.html&XTCsid=afec57784912ef717a8b43a91b8993b9 Mike Wickham
trademark symbol in text
> What's the standard practice for using the trademark symbol in the
> text? Don't use it? Use it just for the first instance of the
> trademark name? Use it ever time the trademark name is mentioned?
According to the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition:
"8.162 Brand names that are registered trademarks-often so indicated in
dictionaries-should be capitalized if they must be used. A better choice is
to substitute a generic term when available. Although the symbols (R) and TM
often accompany trademark names on product packaging and in promotional
material, there is no legal requirement to use these symbols, and they
should be omitted wherever possible. Note also that some companies want
people to use both the proper and the generic terms in reference to their
products ("Kleenex facial tissue," not just "Kleenex"), but here again there
is no legal requirement. "
Mike Wickham
How do YOU format page alignment in FM TOCs
> <$paranum>\t<$paratext>\t\t<$pagenum> > > which now does what I want. If the TOC entry is one line, no impact. > If the TOC entry is two lines, the page number still right aligns. > This is what I want. > > However...I'm interested in other ways of doing this. If anyone has a > more gracefull way of addressing it, I'd be interested in hearing > about it. I don't know if it's more graceful, but I use a run-in paragraph for <$chapnum> and a separate in-column paragraph for the rest. This puts everything on the same line (if it fits), but allows the page number to have its own left indent and tab stop settings. A single right-aligned tab stop then works whether the TOC entry flows to one line or two. Mike Wickham
Release Date for FrameMaker 8?
>> I thought I read sometime ago within the list, that Adobe had a 'Wish >> List' somewhere to post requests? Is there really such a site? http://www.adobe.com/support/feature.html Mike Wickham
Non-printing Colors Insist on Printing!
I've got some text that I need to cross-reference in a TOC, but I don't want it to print in the document where it resides. I've been hiding it in the margin, with font color white. Of course, there I times that I do want to view the text for editing, and I have to change the color of the text to something visible for those times I need to read it. But I just noticed that you can define a color and set its definition to "Print As: Don't Print." It sounds perfect! I could assign a color to this text that I could see, but it wouldn't show up in PDFs-- or so I thought. I created a color called "NoPrint" and assigned it as follows: Color Definition: NoPrint Print As: Don't Print Model: CMYK C: 0 M: 60 Y: 80 K: 0 Overprint: Knock Out Despite being set to "Don't Print," when I print to PDF, the text shows up in PDFs and prints from the PDF, too. Aargh! How can I make non-printing text NOT print? Anyone else have this problem? Mike Wickham FrameMaker 7.1p116 Windows XP Pro SP2 and all updates Acrobat Professional 7.0.7
Non-printing Colors Insist on Printing!
> The "Don't Print" setting in a color definition specifically relates > to printing color separations from FrameMaker. Colors defined as > "Don't Print" do not appear on any printed plate when printing > to color plates, but will print otherwise. > > You can suppress specific colors from being displayed and printed > can be done through "Color Views", but this will requires toggling > from one view to another to show/hide the specific colors > (eg view #6 shows all colors, view #1 hides the 'NoPrint' color). Thanks, Shlomo. I didn't realize that "Don't Print" only relates to printing color separations. Using Color Views is a good workaround. > White text, although invisible on a white background, is carried > over to the PS/PDF output. It is searchable, spoken and could even > be displayed -- see http://www.microtype.com/Hmmms.html#0412 > for additional discussion and examples I knew about the possible downside of using hidden text, but a hidden cross-reference was part of the only solution I could think of to make Part Titles ripple forward for use in chapter page headers. The <$volnum> system variable picks up the part numbers easily enough, but not the part titles. Mike Wickham Pleco Press, Inc. "Aquarium books endorsed by fish!"
Different endings when typing continuous letters
> One of my students has asked a question I've never encountered or thought > about before. He asks why he can type the letter "d" continuously and the > line will go all the way to the right margin, but if he types the letter > "x" continuously on a line, it wraps to the next line before reaching the > right margin. He points out that other letters end at different places and > then wrap to the next line. Any ideas? In maker.ini, change DisplayUsingPrinterMetrics to ON. When it's off, Frame displays characters to best fit the pixels on your screen. It makes the characters look their best, fudging line length to do so. When printer metrics are on, Frame spaces characters roughly according to the way they print. Justified text will all end exactly at the right margin, but individual characters may be crowded or poorly spaced on screen to make it so. I don't believe either setting affects the way a document prints-- only the way it displays. The effect varies according to the zoom level of the display. There is less fudging when displayed at 200% than at 100%, for example. I like to set DisplayUsingPrinterMetrics to on so that I get a realistic picture of line lengths. I can zoom in when I need to see accurate displays of kerning, stretch, etc. Mike Wickham
MIL specs (was RE: general publication quiestion)
>Why hurt Muslims' feelings with creative expressions such as >Islamofascists? Why hurt Richard's feelings for his use of an innocuous political term? That term has no more stigma than calling someone a Democrat. You say labels hurt, yet had no problem trying to label Richard as an ahole. Mike Wickham
