Re: [OT] Adobe's pricing policy

[William Abernathy]

Yves Barbion wrote:

 Hi group

 Can someone please explain to me why Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard (Full, no
 update) costs:

 - US $299 (216 EUR) when I buy it in the US Store
 http://bit.ly/aXhtLv
 - US $554 (401 EUR) when I buy it in a European Adobe Store
 - http://bit.ly/dtOSd3

 I called Customer Support in Belgium and the explanation they gave me was
 that the price in the US is lower because they don't have offer free
 support. But I don't need support!


Was he trying to say they have *to* offer free support? In other words, does 
EU law (or general expectation of EU customers) require free product support? If 
so, this might explain the difference: $229 gets you a product out the door; 
$554 buys you hand-holding (whether you predict you will ask for it or not...).


Just guessing here...

--William


--
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Berkeley, CA
http://yourwritereditor.com
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[OT] Adobe's pricing policy

[William Abernathy]

Yves Barbion wrote:

 > Hi group
 >
 > Can someone please explain to me why Adobe Acrobat 9 Standard (Full, no
 > update) costs:
 >
 > - US $299 (216 EUR) when I buy it in the US Store
 > http://bit.ly/aXhtLv
 > - US $554 (401 EUR) when I buy it in a European Adobe Store
 > - http://bit.ly/dtOSd3
 >
 > I called Customer Support in Belgium and the explanation they gave me was
 > that "the price in the US is lower because they don't have offer free
 > support". But I don't need support!
 >

Was he trying to say they "have *to* offer free support?" In other words, does 
EU law (or general expectation of EU customers) require free product support? 
If 
so, this might explain the difference: $229 gets you a product out the door; 
$554 buys you hand-holding (whether you predict you will ask for it or not...).

Just guessing here...

--William


-- 
William Abernathy
Berkeley, CA
http://yourwritereditor.com

Re: Strategy for Handling Conditional Text

[William Abernathy]

Joseph:

What you are describing is exactly the sort of situation conditional text was 
designed for. From the sound of things, you're bothered by the basic logic of 
conditional text. You are not the first writer to experience this, and you will 
not be the last. Nonetheless, I have a hard time imagining how adding another 
layer of complexity is going to help you over that hump. My advice, good for 
what you paid for it, is to put your chin into the breeze and perfect your 
conditional text technique. With time, you will master it, and it will become 
less confusing.


Concerning the specific issue you address, one way of dealing with the paragraph 
mark issue is simply to get into the habit of adding a space to the end of every 
line. Once upon a time, when memory was expensive, and mighty lizards ruled the 
land, leaving an extra byte of padding at the end of a line was a pretty 
profligate use of memory. Time to get over this. Adding an extra space character 
makes not picking up the paragraph tag much easier. As for tracking, you need to 
force your reviewers into reviewing a Windows draft and a Linux draft. I've 
managed this with change bars only, and in newer versions of Frame, your 
tracking only gets better.


Good luck,

--William

Joseph Lorenzini wrote:

Hi all,

I have recently encountered a documentation issue that I'd like feedback on.
I am documenting a software product. There are two versions of the product.
One version is for Windows. The other version is for Linux. The windows
version came after the Linux version and there are significant UI and
functional differences between the two. Originally, I was told that these
differences would eventually go away and that the user experience would be
identical on both operating systems. This hasn't happened. The differences
have grown.

This is problematic because a Linux user isn't going to care about
windows-only functionality and a windows user isn't going to care about
Linux-only functionality. At the same time, there are major similarities
between the two versions because they are the same software. It doesn't make
sense to create two different documents, which share a large amount of
information. This has led me finally to consider conditional text. I'd
create two tags: windows and linux. Then,  I'll apply the tags to operating
system specific UI/functionality while leaving shared content alone.

Here's the thing though, I am not a fan of conditional text. I've learned
that i need to apply the tags in a very specific sequence and apply it to
preceding paragraph marks or otherwise hiding and showing the conditional
text introduces funky formatting into my book. I also think it makes
managing and tracking content in a document really tricky. So here are my
questions:

-is there a better mechanism than conditional text that I could use to get
the same result?
-If conditional text is the best solution, is there a framemaker plugin that
makes managing conditional text easier? Note that I am not interested in
FrameScript.

Sincerely,
Joseph Lorenzini



--
William Abernathy
Berkeley, CA
http://yourwritereditor.com
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Strategy for Handling Conditional Text

[William Abernathy]

Joseph:

What you are describing is exactly the sort of situation conditional text was 
designed for. From the sound of things, you're bothered by the basic logic of 
conditional text. You are not the first writer to experience this, and you will 
not be the last. Nonetheless, I have a hard time imagining how adding another 
layer of complexity is going to help you over that hump. My advice, good for 
what you paid for it, is to put your chin into the breeze and perfect your 
conditional text technique. With time, you will master it, and it will become 
less confusing.

Concerning the specific issue you address, one way of dealing with the 
paragraph 
mark issue is simply to get into the habit of adding a space to the end of 
every 
line. Once upon a time, when memory was expensive, and mighty lizards ruled the 
land, leaving an extra byte of padding at the end of a line was a pretty 
profligate use of memory. Time to get over this. Adding an extra space 
character 
makes not picking up the paragraph tag much easier. As for tracking, you need 
to 
force your reviewers into reviewing a Windows draft and a Linux draft. I've 
managed this with change bars only, and in newer versions of Frame, your 
tracking only gets better.

Good luck,

--William

Joseph Lorenzini wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have recently encountered a documentation issue that I'd like feedback on.
> I am documenting a software product. There are two versions of the product.
> One version is for Windows. The other version is for Linux. The windows
> version came after the Linux version and there are significant UI and
> functional differences between the two. Originally, I was told that these
> differences would eventually go away and that the user experience would be
> identical on both operating systems. This hasn't happened. The differences
> have grown.
>
> This is problematic because a Linux user isn't going to care about
> windows-only functionality and a windows user isn't going to care about
> Linux-only functionality. At the same time, there are major similarities
> between the two versions because they are the same software. It doesn't make
> sense to create two different documents, which share a large amount of
> information. This has led me finally to consider conditional text. I'd
> create two tags: windows and linux. Then,  I'll apply the tags to operating
> system specific UI/functionality while leaving shared content alone.
>
> Here's the thing though, I am not a fan of conditional text. I've learned
> that i need to apply the tags in a very specific sequence and apply it to
> preceding paragraph marks or otherwise hiding and showing the conditional
> text introduces funky formatting into my book. I also think it makes
> managing and tracking content in a document really tricky. So here are my
> questions:
>
> -is there a better mechanism than conditional text that I could use to get
> the same result?
> -If conditional text is the best solution, is there a framemaker plugin that
> makes managing conditional text easier? Note that I am not interested in
> FrameScript.
>
> Sincerely,
> Joseph Lorenzini


-- 
William Abernathy
Berkeley, CA
http://yourwritereditor.com

Re: adding a v9.0 license to a 7.1 team

[William Abernathy]

If you want to buy me a copy of 9.0, I'll send your new writer my copy of 7.1.

Only half kidding...

--W


From: ellen_liding...@ingenix.com
To: framers@lists.frameusers.com
Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:18:58 -0500
Subject: adding a v9.0 license to a 7.1 team

Hi all,

I manage a group of distributed writers. All of us are on version 7.1.
Our newest writer has submitted a request to have FM installed on her
system and is being told her only option is version 9.0. I am concerned
about us being able to exchange documents because I already have a
writer on 8.0 and the only way we can exchange docs is by saving them as
.mif.

My other concern is helping her learn FM. Since I have never seen v9.0,
I'm not sure how different the interface is.

I would appreciate your thoughts and advice.

Thanks.

Ellen   


--
William Abernathy
Berkeley, CA
http://yourwritereditor.com
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adding a v9.0 license to a 7.1 team

[William Abernathy]

If you want to buy me a copy of 9.0, I'll send your new writer my copy of 7.1.

Only half kidding...

--W

> From: ellen_lidington at ingenix.com
> To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
> Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 15:18:58 -0500
> Subject: adding a v9.0 license to a 7.1 team
>
> Hi all,
>
> I manage a group of distributed writers. All of us are on version 7.1.
> Our newest writer has submitted a request to have FM installed on her
> system and is being told her only option is version 9.0. I am concerned
> about us being able to exchange documents because I already have a
> writer on 8.0 and the only way we can exchange docs is by saving them as
> .mif.
>
> My other concern is helping her learn FM. Since I have never seen v9.0,
> I'm not sure how different the interface is.
>
> I would appreciate your thoughts and advice.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Ellen 

-- 
William Abernathy
Berkeley, CA
http://yourwritereditor.com

Re: vsd flow charts

[William Abernathy]

WMF or EMF work fine. You can hard-import these, import by reference, or embed 
them as OLE objects. If you are confident nobody is going to muck about with 
your source, importation by reference is easiest, because you can update more 
or 
less on the fly from Visio. You just need to remember to save the chart as 
(wmf/emf) when you're done with your session. be careful not to leave any 
object 
in the image selected, or you'll end up saving just that object, which can make 
for some embarrassment, to be sure.

If you are concerned about poor source discipline, the best method may be to 
build your flowcharts directly in Frame, using its graphical features. It all 
depends on your work environment. There used to be a way to backdoor save and 
import from vsd into Frame, but MSFT plugged that hole, so you'd likely be 
stuck 
with redrawing if you opt to go this route.

I've found OLE implementation to be pretty spotty, but my experience is getting 
a little elderly, and perhaps they've fixed things in recent revs.

--William Abernathy

Zeller, Barbara wrote:
 What is the best way to import flow charts from Visio (.vsd) into FrameMaker?
 I'm getting some pretty fuzzy results. I am working in Frame 7.2. Would
 appreciate any tips.
  
 Thanks!
 Barbara Zeller
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vsd flow charts

[William Abernathy]

WMF or EMF work fine. You can hard-import these, import by reference, or embed 
them as OLE objects. If you are confident nobody is going to muck about with 
your source, importation by reference is easiest, because you can update more 
or 
less on the fly from Visio. You just need to remember to save the chart as 
(wmf/emf) when you're done with your session. be careful not to leave any 
object 
in the image selected, or you'll end up saving just that object, which can make 
for some embarrassment, to be sure.

If you are concerned about poor source discipline, the best method may be to 
build your flowcharts directly in Frame, using its graphical features. It all 
depends on your work environment. There used to be a way to backdoor save and 
import from vsd into Frame, but MSFT plugged that hole, so you'd likely be 
stuck 
with redrawing if you opt to go this route.

I've found OLE implementation to be pretty spotty, but my experience is getting 
a little elderly, and perhaps they've fixed things in recent revs.

--William Abernathy

Zeller, Barbara wrote:
> What is the best way to import flow charts from Visio (.vsd) into FrameMaker?
> I'm getting some pretty fuzzy results. I am working in Frame 7.2. Would
> appreciate any tips.
>  
> Thanks!
> Barbara Zeller

Re: Old styles being picked up

[William Abernathy]

If the obsolete styles are consistently applied, you could use CudSpan's 
TemplateMapper app to address this.

--William

Nina Rogers wrote:
 Hi all,
 
  
 
 For several years, I was the sole tech writer at my company and was the
 only person in my department who used Framemaker. Now we have another
 tech writer, for a total of two.
 
  
 
 For this year's user guides, I made some changes to the paragraphs and
 character styles, cross-reference names, etc. I created a template
 document that contained info about all of these new styles and when to
 use them-it took quite a bit of work, but we needed it, particularly
 since we now had more than one tech writer, and the new tech writer
 (unfortunately) cannot read my mind. :)
 
  
 
 Anyway, I have no problem with using the new styles on my computer. When
 the new tech writer opens my documents on his computer for editing or
 proofreading, however, or when he creates a document on his own using
 the template, many of the obsolete styles end up finding their way in
 his documents. 
 
  
 
 It is very time consuming for him to have to go through every document
 he touches and delete the obsolete styles. Can someone tell me how to
 avoid this issue? Thanks!
 
  
 
 Nina Rogers, Technical Writer
 
 Drake Software Tax Development
 
 nina.rog...@drakesoftware.com
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Old styles being picked up

[William Abernathy]

If the obsolete styles are consistently applied, you could use CudSpan's 
TemplateMapper app to address this.

--William

Nina Rogers wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
>  
> 
> For several years, I was the sole tech writer at my company and was the
> only person in my department who used Framemaker. Now we have another
> tech writer, for a total of two.
> 
>  
> 
> For this year's user guides, I made some changes to the paragraphs and
> character styles, cross-reference names, etc. I created a template
> document that contained info about all of these new styles and when to
> use them-it took quite a bit of work, but we needed it, particularly
> since we now had more than one tech writer, and the new tech writer
> (unfortunately) cannot read my mind. :)
> 
>  
> 
> Anyway, I have no problem with using the new styles on my computer. When
> the new tech writer opens my documents on his computer for editing or
> proofreading, however, or when he creates a document on his own using
> the template, many of the obsolete styles end up finding their way in
> his documents. 
> 
>  
> 
> It is very time consuming for him to have to go through every document
> he touches and delete the obsolete styles. Can someone tell me how to
> avoid this issue? Thanks!
> 
>  
> 
> Nina Rogers, Technical Writer
> 
> Drake Software Tax Development
> 
> nina.rogers at drakesoftware.com

Re: Superscript Frame to PDF issue

[William Abernathy]

As Shlomo points out, this is a known characteristic of FrameMaker, and you 
can't change it without using a Framescript-based solution. If you need a quick 
kludge to get you out of this production cycle, and you're going to PDF output 
only, you can work around this by selecting the Link tool in Acrobat and 
manually stretching the affected links across the TOC entry. Obviously, this is 
not something to adopt as a long-term fix, but it can get you out of the lurch 
if they need it this week.

--William

theboggette wrote:
 Greetings.
 
 I have a set of documents that have superscript characters in the Heading1
 levels.  When I convert to PDF, any Heading that has a superscript is not a
 link in the TOC of the PDF.  The Heading shows up in the TOC, but you can't
 click on it to go to that page.
 
 I'm not sure if my settings are wrong in Frame, PDF, or what.  I'm using
 Frame 8 and Acrobat Professional 8 on Windows.
 
 Thoughts?
 
 Trish
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Superscript Frame to PDF issue

[William Abernathy]

As Shlomo points out, this is a known characteristic of FrameMaker, and you 
can't change it without using a Framescript-based solution. If you need a quick 
kludge to get you out of this production cycle, and you're going to PDF output 
only, you can work around this by selecting the Link tool in Acrobat and 
manually stretching the affected links across the TOC entry. Obviously, this is 
not something to adopt as a long-term fix, but it can get you out of the lurch 
if they need it this week.

--William

theboggette wrote:
> Greetings.
> 
> I have a set of documents that have superscript characters in the Heading1
> levels.  When I convert to PDF, any Heading that has a superscript is not a
> link in the TOC of the PDF.  The Heading shows up in the TOC, but you can't
> click on it to go to that page.
> 
> I'm not sure if my settings are wrong in Frame, PDF, or what.  I'm using
> Frame 8 and Acrobat Professional 8 on Windows.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> Trish

Re: Cross-ref formats

[William Abernathy]

First, figure out your standard cross-reference style.

See Appendix D
See Appendix D, Frying Pans and Toasters,
See Appendix D, Frying Pans and Toasters, on p. 247
See Frying Pans and Toasters on p. 247

Whatever it's going to be, standardize as much as you can. Think about whether 
the style you select works with headed paragraphs as well as 
chapters/appendices. Do your paragraphs have heading numbers? Should these be 
included in the cross-reference definitions? Bust out your Chicago Manual and 
choose wisely, Luke.

Concerning the punctuation inside the terminal quote, you can either pick a 
style that moots it (any of the above examples, except the second) or you add 
two styles, one for commas, another for periods. In a template I built, I 
called 
these xref tags +p and +c (for an added period or comma) styles, e.g. 
ChapterXref+p.

In the second example above, you could dispense with the +c xref definition, 
because the title is an appositive and must be offset with commas, but you 
would 
still need a +p to bring it on home.

--William


Nancy Allison wrote:
 Once more, this time with content!
 
 For your technical manuals, what is your preferred set of cross-reference
 formats?
 
 I'm setting up a template and am trying to figure out a way to avoid having
 to create multiple x-refs to accommodate different punctuation. You know
 (x-ref is inside the underscores):
 
 ---See __Appendix D, Frying Pans and Toasters,__  for more information.
 (X-ref includes comma inside quotation marks)
 
 ---For more information, see __Appendix D, Frying Pans and Toasters.__
 (X-ref includes period inside quotation marks)
 
 ---[Inspiration fails me, but I am sure there's a similar example that does
 not use any punctuation within the quotation marks]
 
 If I create only one x-ref format, using only one kind of punctuation, most
 nimble tech writers will be able to construct nicely flowing sentences to
 employ it. Right?
 
 Or, I could decree that we never quote the titles of referenced sections, and
 omit any punctuation:
 
 ---For more information, see __Appendix D__.
 
 But I think that's a lousy solution: I don't want to omit a descriptive title
 just because it's a pain to set up the x-ref formats for it.
 
 What is your solution?
 
 ___
 
 
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Re: Cross-ref formats

[William Abernathy]

Book titles are italicized, but chapter titles (and titles of book sections, 
figures, tables, etc.) are normally set in quotes. Italicizing these features 
is 
a bad hack, putting the needs of the writer ahead of those of the user.

I'm curious: could your two-template approach be automatable using structure 
and 
some special DTD magic?

--William

Art Campbell wrote:
 You can also make the punctuation and quotation marks a moot point by
 italicizing the book title, chapter title, heading, or other object,
 which would greatly reduce the number of cross-refs that you need.
 
 If it was me, I'd think about two templates with identically names
 cross-ref formats -- one with page numbers and one without, for
 print/PDF and online output. Then apply the appropriate format
 depending on the type of output.
 
 Art
 
 Art Campbell

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Cross-ref formats

[William Abernathy]

First, figure out your standard cross-reference style.

See Appendix D
See Appendix D, "Frying Pans and Toasters,"
See Appendix D, "Frying Pans and Toasters," on p. 247
See "Frying Pans and Toasters" on p. 247

Whatever it's going to be, standardize as much as you can. Think about whether 
the style you select works with headed paragraphs as well as 
chapters/appendices. Do your paragraphs have heading numbers? Should these be 
included in the cross-reference definitions? Bust out your Chicago Manual and 
choose wisely, Luke.

Concerning the punctuation inside the terminal quote, you can either pick a 
style that moots it (any of the above examples, except the second) or you add 
two styles, one for commas, another for periods. In a template I built, I 
called 
these xref tags +p and +c (for an added period or comma) styles, e.g. 
ChapterXref+p.

In the second example above, you could dispense with the +c xref definition, 
because the title is an appositive and must be offset with commas, but you 
would 
still need a +p to bring it on home.

--William


Nancy Allison wrote:
> Once more, this time with content!
> 
> For your technical manuals, what is your preferred set of cross-reference
> formats?
> 
> I'm setting up a template and am trying to figure out a way to avoid having
> to create multiple x-refs to accommodate different punctuation. You know
> (x-ref is inside the underscores):
> 
> ---See __Appendix D, "Frying Pans and Toasters,"__  for more information.
> (X-ref includes comma inside quotation marks)
> 
> ---For more information, see __Appendix D, "Frying Pans and Toasters."__
> (X-ref includes period inside quotation marks)
> 
> ---[Inspiration fails me, but I am sure there's a similar example that does
> not use any punctuation within the quotation marks]
> 
> If I create only one x-ref format, using only one kind of punctuation, most
> nimble tech writers will be able to construct nicely flowing sentences to
> employ it. Right?
> 
> Or, I could decree that we never quote the titles of referenced sections, and
> omit any punctuation:
> 
> ---For more information, see __Appendix D__.
> 
> But I think that's a lousy solution: I don't want to omit a descriptive title
> just because it's a pain to set up the x-ref formats for it.
> 
> What is your solution?
> 
> ___
> 
> 
> You are currently subscribed to Framers as william at inch.com.
> 
> Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
> 
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> 
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> http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
> 
> 

Cross-ref formats

[William Abernathy]

Book titles are italicized, but chapter titles (and titles of book sections, 
figures, tables, etc.) are normally set in quotes. Italicizing these features 
is 
a bad hack, putting the needs of the writer ahead of those of the user.

I'm curious: could your two-template approach be automatable using structure 
and 
some special DTD magic?

--William

Art Campbell wrote:
> You can also make the punctuation and quotation marks a moot point by
> italicizing the book title, chapter title, heading, or other object,
> which would greatly reduce the number of cross-refs that you need.
> 
> If it was me, I'd think about two templates with identically names
> cross-ref formats -- one with page numbers and one without, for
> print/PDF and online output. Then apply the appropriate format
> depending on the type of output.
> 
> Art
> 
> Art Campbell

Re: Adding graphics in a reference page

[William Abernathy]

Larry:

I've used Art's approach of a graphic in the left cell of a 1-line, 2-cell 
table 
as well. If you need to sell it, mention that it offers a couple of advantages 
over a paragraph format-based approach, to wit: you carry a lot fewer tags in 
the p-tag menu, which is a plus for usability (you can use one standard 
paragraph format for all these callouts, or even adopt one from your table or 
body paragraph formats) and you get to have full paragraph breaks in your 
Note/Tip/Warning/Caution cells, in case you need to get verbose. It's no more 
work than using a paragraph to do the job, and in my opinion looks and works 
better.

If you are stuck with the paragraph-based approach, I would recommend you 
manipulate the graphic. It sounds to me as if you may have some excess white 
space around the graphics. Careful pruning of the original graphic in a photo 
manipulation program (use GIMP if you can't afford Photoshop) may yield 
positive 
results.

--William

Art Campbell wrote:
 An easier way to do this may be to create a 1-row, two-cell table. The left
 cell holds a unique tag that only calls the graphic on the reference page
 with Frame Above or Below. The right cell holds the warning/note/whatever
 text.
 
 The table will let you adjust more finely because now you have cell margins
 and spaces to use to adjust the graphic's position.
 
 Art
 

 
 
 On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Larry Kovnerla...@kovner.net wrote:
 Hi:
 
 I am developing templates for a client.  They asked me to create four tags
 named Notes, Caution, Warning, Tip.
 
 They want colored borders above and below each tags and a gif file to
 appear (to the left) when text is selected and changed to one of these
 tags.
 
 I created four graphic frames with the colored borders (calling them
 Note-Top, Note-Bottom, Tip-Top, Tip-Bottom and so on) in the Reference page
 of the chapter tempate.  In Paragraph Designer, when I select Frame Above
 Pgf and Below Pgf for each of the four tags, the colored border works the
 way I need it to.
 
 For the small gif images associated with each of the note tags,  I imported
 the graphic into an anchored frame within the graphic frame.  It works.
 The problem is I am unable to customize the spacing around this image so
 that is is parallel with the text. when applying the tag to text, the image
 is too high above the text, which creates too much space.
 
 I've tried everything and cannot adjust it to the space requirements I
 need.  Another other option is to insert an anchor by the note and manually
 add the graphic, that works, but it's not what they are expecting.
 
 Looking for some advice.
 
 Thanks, Larry ___


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Adding graphics in a reference page

[William Abernathy]

Larry:

I've used Art's approach of a graphic in the left cell of a 1-line, 2-cell 
table 
as well. If you need to sell it, mention that it offers a couple of advantages 
over a paragraph format-based approach, to wit: you carry a lot fewer tags in 
the p-tag menu, which is a plus for usability (you can use one standard 
paragraph format for all these callouts, or even adopt one from your table or 
body paragraph formats) and you get to have full paragraph breaks in your 
Note/Tip/Warning/Caution cells, in case you need to get verbose. It's no more 
work than using a paragraph to do the job, and in my opinion looks and works 
better.

If you are stuck with the paragraph-based approach, I would recommend you 
manipulate the graphic. It sounds to me as if you may have some excess white 
space around the graphics. Careful pruning of the original graphic in a photo 
manipulation program (use GIMP if you can't afford Photoshop) may yield 
positive 
results.

--William

Art Campbell wrote:
> An easier way to do this may be to create a 1-row, two-cell table. The left
> cell holds a unique tag that only calls the graphic on the reference page
> with Frame Above or Below. The right cell holds the warning/note/whatever
> text.
> 
> The table will let you adjust more finely because now you have cell margins
> and spaces to use to adjust the graphic's position.
> 
> Art
> 

> 
> 
> On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Larry Kovner wrote:
>> Hi:
>> 
>> I am developing templates for a client.  They asked me to create four tags
>> named Notes, Caution, Warning, Tip.
>> 
>> They want colored borders above and below each tags and a gif file to
>> appear (to the left) when text is selected and changed to one of these
>> tags.
>> 
>> I created four graphic frames with the colored borders (calling them
>> Note-Top, Note-Bottom, Tip-Top, Tip-Bottom and so on) in the Reference page
>> of the chapter tempate.  In Paragraph Designer, when I select Frame Above
>> Pgf and Below Pgf for each of the four tags, the colored border works the
>> way I need it to.
>> 
>> For the small gif images associated with each of the note tags,  I imported
>> the graphic into an anchored frame within the graphic frame.  It works.
>> The problem is I am unable to customize the spacing around this image so
>> that is is parallel with the text. when applying the tag to text, the image
>> is too high above the text, which creates too much space.
>> 
>> I've tried everything and cannot adjust it to the space requirements I
>> need.  Another other option is to insert an anchor by the note and manually
>> add the graphic, that works, but it's not what they are expecting.
>> 
>> Looking for some advice.
>> 
>> Thanks, Larry ___

Re: OT: Use of please in technical documentation and messages on screen

[William Abernathy]

We've recently been reading some E.B. White books to our kids (Charlotte's Web 
and The Trumpet of the Swan) and I note that White has no practical respect for 
his own rules.

I avoid Please in instructional documentation. The reader knows what to 
expect 
-- you're telling him or her how to make the product go, and the writer can 
venture forth from the indicative-mood explanations to imperative-mood commands 
without fear of offense. Cookbooks, for example, aren't lousy with please, 
and 
would look downright weird if they were.

I would not dismiss such small courtesies out of hand for user interfaces, 
however, because users and readers have different expectations. In an 
instruction from documentation, the writer is not burdening the reader, and the 
word please just lards up the sentence. When a computer application burns a 
few billion cycles and a few read-writes to disk working on a problem, however, 
it introduces a delay that importunes the user. Because the application is 
begging the user's indulgence while it does its work, it is in no position to 
bark out orders. In this instance, manners, even robotically generated ones, 
are 
entirely appropriate.

--William

Andersen, Verner Engell VEA wrote:
 Hi
 Once I learned that you shouln't use the word please in technical
 documentation - that it was like asking the reader to do you favor.
  
 Does this still hold true? Is it OK to have this message displayed on
 the screen of our user interface? 
  
 We are updating the result list, please wait
  
 Best regards,
  
 Verner
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OT: Use of "please" in technical documentation and messages on screen

[William Abernathy]

We've recently been reading some E.B. White books to our kids (Charlotte's Web 
and The Trumpet of the Swan) and I note that White has no practical respect for 
his own rules.

I avoid "Please" in instructional documentation. The reader knows what to 
expect 
-- you're telling him or her how to make the product go, and the writer can 
venture forth from the indicative-mood explanations to imperative-mood commands 
without fear of offense. Cookbooks, for example, aren't lousy with "please," 
and 
would look downright weird if they were.

I would not dismiss such small courtesies out of hand for user interfaces, 
however, because users and readers have different expectations. In an 
instruction from documentation, the writer is not burdening the reader, and the 
word "please" just lards up the sentence. When a computer application burns a 
few billion cycles and a few read-writes to disk working on a problem, however, 
it introduces a delay that importunes the user. Because the application is 
begging the user's indulgence while it does its work, it is in no position to 
bark out orders. In this instance, manners, even robotically generated ones, 
are 
entirely appropriate.

--William

Andersen, Verner Engell VEA wrote:
> Hi
> Once I learned that you shouln't use the word "please" in technical
> documentation - that it was like asking the reader to do you favor.
>  
> Does this still hold true? Is it OK to have this message displayed on
> the screen of our user interface? 
>  
> "We are updating the result list, please wait"
>  
> Best regards,
>  
> Verner

Re: Creating an FM9 Style to Apply Forced Page Breaks

[William Abernathy]

If you need to insert these breaks in running text for aesthetic reasons (i.e., 
you don't want to have a heading and three lines of body text, followed by a 
page break), consider using the Keep With Next Paragraph exception in the 
paragraph definition. This is no more effort than inserting a dummy paragraph 
to 
force the page break, and has the benefit of lower maintenance -- If the 
upstream formatting changes, you stand a much better chance of the break 
falling 
in a logical/aesthetic fashion than if you force a break (either with a P-tag 
exception or by inserting a dummy paragraph). Once either paragraph crosses the 
page boundary, the break is redrawn in a way that looks good. I believe it is 
also possible to program this behavior into your body text definition's 
Widow/Orphan Lines control, but I have not investigated this.

--William

Alison Craig wrote:
 Is there a way to create a style that accepts all existing formatting and
 simply applies (i.e., forces) a page break? My attempts to create such a
 style have failed so far.
 
 I really don't want to have to create an Override every time I want a page
 break based on layout/esthetic reasons.
 
 Alison

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Creating an FM9 Style to Apply Forced Page Breaks

[William Abernathy]

If you need to insert these breaks in running text for aesthetic reasons (i.e., 
you don't want to have a heading and three lines of body text, followed by a 
page break), consider using the "Keep With Next Paragraph" exception in the 
paragraph definition. This is no more effort than inserting a dummy paragraph 
to 
force the page break, and has the benefit of lower maintenance -- If the 
upstream formatting changes, you stand a much better chance of the break 
falling 
in a logical/aesthetic fashion than if you force a break (either with a P-tag 
exception or by inserting a dummy paragraph). Once either paragraph crosses the 
page boundary, the break is redrawn in a way that looks good. I believe it is 
also possible to program this behavior into your body text definition's 
Widow/Orphan Lines control, but I have not investigated this.

--William

Alison Craig wrote:
> Is there a way to create a style that accepts all existing formatting and
> simply applies (i.e., forces) a page break? My attempts to create such a
> style have failed so far.
> 
> I really don't want to have to create an Override every time I want a page
> break based on layout/esthetic reasons.
> 
> Alison

Push or Click???

[William Abernathy]

My personal preference is to say "click," and, following your example, avoiding 
the useless prepostion in "click on..."

This is not a question that admits of a "right" answer. Check your client's or 
employer's house style guide. If there's a suggestion there, follow it. If 
there 
isn't, add the rule. If there isn't a house style guide, lobby to start one.  
If 
you need to appeal to an authority, the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical 
Publications is a good resource for GUI-specific terminology.

--William

Garnier Garnier wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I have a query:
> 
> Which is technically accurate, Push the Browse button to activate the browser
> on click the Browse button to activate the browser?
> 
> B/R Garnier
> 

Re: Big and Little Endians

[William Abernathy]

This discussion has brought to mind a couple of points of usage.

First, the property is (or should be) referred to as endianness, with two 
n's. 
An endianess is a female endian.

Second, since there is no country called Endia, there is no need to 
capitalize 
little- or big-endian.

Thank you, Jeremy, for the schooling on endianness.

Play through,

--William
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Re: Today's exercise in misunderstanding English

[William Abernathy]

It's OK...I can see you have done the needful to make amendments.

--William

Martinek, Carla wrote:
 Sigh...  Selected the wrong list email when I sent this!!!  Sorry,
 everyone.  
 
 (FWIW, this was all about someone finding the word updation in some
 outsourced programming files. And the fact that the word has been around
 and in use for the past decade or so... )
 
 TGIF is all I can say. 
 
 -Carla

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Today's exercise in misunderstanding English

[William Abernathy]

It's OK...I can see you have done the needful to make amendments.

--William

Martinek, Carla wrote:
> Sigh...  Selected the wrong list email when I sent this!!!  Sorry,
> everyone.  
> 
> (FWIW, this was all about someone finding the word "updation" in some
> outsourced programming files. And the fact that the word has been around
> and in use for the past decade or so... )
> 
> TGIF is all I can say. 
> 
> -Carla

Re: Trial version of FrameMaker 9

[William Abernathy]

While we're on the topic...Frame 9 won't pave over my Frame 7.1, right?

--William

Combs, Richard wrote:
  Madeleine r Dimond wrote:
 
  I have been assigned the task of evaluating FrameMaker 9. Before I
  install
  the trial version, I wanted to ask whether it will interfere with my
  FrameMaker 8 installation; I'd hate for the trial version to uninstall
  the
  previous version.  I'm on Windows XP SP2 with FrameMaker 8.0p277.
 
  FM 9 will politely coexist with FM 8. FM has always been very good about
  allowing multiple versions on one PC, each in its own installation
  directory. The only caveat is that the Windows file associations will be
  updated so that .fm, .book, and .mif point to FM 9. But it's a simple
  matter to change them back to FM 8 in Windows Explorer.
  Richard
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Trial version of FrameMaker 9

[William Abernathy]

While we're on the topic...Frame 9 won't pave over my Frame 7.1, right?

--William

Combs, Richard wrote:
 > Madeleine r Dimond wrote:
 >
 >> I have been assigned the task of evaluating FrameMaker 9. Before I
 > install
 >> the trial version, I wanted to ask whether it will interfere with my
 >> FrameMaker 8 installation; I'd hate for the trial version to uninstall
 > the
 >> previous version.  I'm on Windows XP SP2 with FrameMaker 8.0p277.
 >
 > FM 9 will politely coexist with FM 8. FM has always been very good about
 > allowing multiple versions on one PC, each in its own installation
 > directory. The only caveat is that the Windows file associations will be
 > updated so that .fm, .book, and .mif point to FM 9. But it's a simple
 > matter to change them back to FM 8 in Windows Explorer.
 > Richard

Acrobat Pro 9.0 and Frame 7.x?

[William Abernathy]

We are adding a seat to our department (all running on Windows). We have an 
extra Frame 7.2 license, and we will need to add a new Acrobat Pro license. Are 
there any incompatibilities between Acrobat 9 and Frame 7.x? Between an Acrobat 
  Professional 7.0 workgroup and one Acrobat Pro 9.0 user? We do not intend to 
take advantage of the new TCS workflow.

Thanks in advance,

--William
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Acrobat Pro 9.0 and Frame 7.x?

[William Abernathy]

We are adding a seat to our department (all running on Windows). We have an 
extra Frame 7.2 license, and we will need to add a new Acrobat Pro license. Are 
there any incompatibilities between Acrobat 9 and Frame 7.x? Between an Acrobat 
  Professional 7.0 workgroup and one Acrobat Pro 9.0 user? We do not intend to 
take advantage of the new TCS workflow.

Thanks in advance,

--William

Re: Can one selectively remove Change Bars in a Document?

[William Abernathy]

Select the text you want to (de-)change-bar, then hit ESC, c, and h (in 
sequence, none at the same time). This toggles the change bar on and off.

--William

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Hi, all.
 
 Using FM 8 (latest version) on a Windows XP SP3 system.
 
 Is there any way to do selective removal of Change Bars? I.e., without
 removing them from the whole document (from the menu item that does
 this)?
 
 Reasons and comments:
 
 1. In some of my specification documents, I explicit note that some text
 changes, without content or meaning differences, do not get Change Bars
 (to avoid too many situations where people go looking at Change Bars for
 content change and see no real change!). As an aside, it is good that
 format changes do not trigger Change Bars - whew!
 
 2. Occasionally (often enough to be a pain), I find that changing the
 text INSIDE a table, and then undoing it, doesn't remove the Change
 Bars!
 
 3. I also noted that sometimes, doing an Update References SOMETIMES
 causes references to tables - not all of them either (wish it was
 consistent!) - to get flagged with Change Bars, even though they did not
 change at all (either number or page or figure name etc.). These, at
 least, I can usually fix manually (sigh) with a Set Default Font ...
 but I do have to go looking for them - which is a pain!
 
 Anywa, for tables, I have tried using the Use Default Font method and
 that does not ALWAYS work. I have also noted, that till the file gets
 saved, sometimes the Change Bars do not update!
 
 However, SOMETIMES, none of the above methods work for text inside the
 table! Then, I get stuck with the Change Bar in places where I cannot
 remove them.
 
 Hence my question ...
 
 Z
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Can one selectively "remove" Change Bars in a Document?

[William Abernathy]

Select the text you want to (de-)change-bar, then hit ESC, c, and h (in 
sequence, none at the same time). This toggles the change bar on and off.

--William

Syed.Hosain at aeris.net wrote:
> Hi, all.
> 
> Using FM 8 (latest version) on a Windows XP SP3 system.
> 
> Is there any way to do selective removal of Change Bars? I.e., without
> removing them from the whole document (from the menu item that does
> this)?
> 
> Reasons and comments:
> 
> 1. In some of my specification documents, I explicit note that some text
> changes, without content or meaning differences, do not get Change Bars
> (to avoid too many situations where people go looking at Change Bars for
> content change and see no real change!). As an aside, it is good that
> format changes do not trigger Change Bars - whew!
> 
> 2. Occasionally (often enough to be a pain), I find that changing the
> text INSIDE a table, and then undoing it, doesn't remove the Change
> Bars!
> 
> 3. I also noted that sometimes, doing an "Update References" SOMETIMES
> causes references to tables - not all of them either (wish it was
> consistent!) - to get flagged with Change Bars, even though they did not
> change at all (either number or page or figure name etc.). These, at
> least, I can usually fix manually (sigh) with a "Set Default Font" ...
> but I do have to go looking for them - which is a pain!
> 
> Anywa, for tables, I have tried using the "Use Default Font" method and
> that does not ALWAYS work. I have also noted, that till the file gets
> saved, sometimes the Change Bars do not update!
> 
> However, SOMETIMES, none of the above methods work for text inside the
> table! Then, I get stuck with the Change Bar in places where I cannot
> remove them.
> 
> Hence my question ...
> 
> Z

FrameVector graphics

[William Abernathy]

Greetings, all.

I am the inheritor of a book that's got some FrameVector figures in it. I can't 
figure out who put these in the document or why (my suspicion is that it was a 
sloppy import, but I can't be sure). Anyway, about half of the signal arrow 
names are inverted (upside-down) and I'd like to set them right if I can.

I can tell you that the figures list their object type as FrameVector with no 
referenced file. They present themselves as unary graphical blobs, which do not 
respond to my FrameMaker (7.2 on Win XP) graphics tools.

Is there any way to fix these? Can I export them to some other format? Or do I 
have to redraw them from scratch?

TIA,

--William
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OT: Corp-to-Corp

[William Abernathy]

I've learned recently that the contract I've worked under for the past 6 or so 
years is going to expire and not be renewed. So, for the first time in quite a 
while, I will be back on the market. I have been considering incorporating, 
because I do not like having a third-party company interjecting itself between 
me and my client, making me a W-2, and skimming a little for their trouble.

My question is whether asserting that I wish to work corp-to-corp would be more 
of a hindrance than it's worth. Some colleagues I've discussed this with have 
indicated that the market for this type of employment arrangement is drying up, 
and that more and more companies are demanding a third-party body shop to 
interpose, and thus provide them with some (illusory) protection from Vizcaino 
liability.

So, before I drop well over a thousand in fees to incorporate, I would like to 
hear your experiences in negotiating corp-to-corp as a freelance tech writer, 
good, bad, or ugly. I am especially interested if any of you have recent 
experiences from the EDA world to relate.

Obviously, because this is wildly off-topic, I must request that you DO NOT 
respond to the whole list. If you are reading this at all, it's a testament to 
the extreme indulgence of the moderator.

Thanks in advance,

--William
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OT: Corp-to-Corp

[William Abernathy]

I've learned recently that the contract I've worked under for the past 6 or so 
years is going to expire and not be renewed. So, for the first time in quite a 
while, I will be back on the market. I have been considering incorporating, 
because I do not like having a third-party company interjecting itself between 
me and my client, making me a W-2, and skimming a little for their "trouble."

My question is whether asserting that I wish to work corp-to-corp would be more 
of a hindrance than it's worth. Some colleagues I've discussed this with have 
indicated that the market for this type of employment arrangement is drying up, 
and that more and more companies are demanding a third-party "body shop" to 
interpose, and thus provide them with some (illusory) protection from Vizcaino 
liability.

So, before I drop well over a thousand in fees to incorporate, I would like to 
hear your experiences in negotiating corp-to-corp as a freelance tech writer, 
good, bad, or ugly. I am especially interested if any of you have recent 
experiences from the EDA world to relate.

Obviously, because this is wildly off-topic, I must request that you DO NOT 
respond to the whole list. If you are reading this at all, it's a testament to 
the extreme indulgence of the moderator.

Thanks in advance,

--William

Re: Overrides

[William Abernathy]

If you capture the end-of-paragraph mark with your localized (character 
formatting) exception, Frame treats it as an overridden paragraph style, rather 
than a localized character format.

Richard's solution is spot-on. For a long time, I deleted any extra spaces I 
saw 
at the end of a paragraph, under the geezer-like assumption that Every Byte is 
Sacred, and using the least number of them to do a job was a positive social 
good.

This is one of those little things that looks like an anal-retentive 
bookkeeping 
problem until you make a habit out of it and have to update a book to a new 
template using TemplateMapper. TemplateMapper can handle character exceptions, 
but sticks all paragraphs into the new style, heedless of local exceptions. 
Suddenly, all those overridden paragraphs get paved over, and you have to go 
back and put in all the localized exceptions by hand.

--William

Combs, Richard wrote:
 Leah Smaller wrote:
 
 I never use manual overrides for formatting. But I have noticed that
 when
 the last word (right before the pilcrow) has a special character
 format,
 the pgf name is shown with an asterisk . This asterisk, of course,
 signifies a format override for that specific paragraph. If I leave a
 blank
 space between the last word and the pilcrow, the asterisk does not
 appear.
 Why does this issue bother me ?
 1) I don't like a perfectly good pgf, with no overrides, displayed as
 if
 there are overrides.
 2) Leaving a blank space between the character formatted word and the
 pilcrow is not a good workaround because spell checker picks it up as
 extra space and that adds many more mouse clicks to the workday.

 Comments? Solutions?
 
 I always type a space (just one) at the end of a sentence, and that
 includes at the end of a paragraph. Spell checker never flags these (and
 yes, I do have it set to find extra spaces), and it shouldn't -- a
 single space after the last sentence in a pgf isn't extra. 
 
 The only reason I can think of that spell checker would flag that space
 is if you include \p in the Find Space Before entries. 
 
 I like consistently having a space before the pilcrow for several
 reasons: 
 
 -- If I merge pgfs (delete the pilcrow), that space needs to be there to
 separate the now-adjacent sentences. 
 
 -- As you noted, separating a char format from the pilcrow prevents a
 pgf override (due to an FM bug). 
 
 -- Similarly, separating a text inset from the pilcrow of its
 container pgf prevents that pgf from taking on the formatting of the
 first pgf in the text inset (another FM bug). 
 
 I see now downside to typing that space, and no reason to end sentences
 differently depending on where in the pgf they occur. 
 
 IMHO, YMMV, etc.
 
 Richard
 
 
 Richard G. Combs
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Overrides

[William Abernathy]

If you capture the end-of-paragraph mark with your localized (character 
formatting) exception, Frame treats it as an overridden paragraph style, rather 
than a localized character format.

Richard's solution is spot-on. For a long time, I deleted any extra spaces I 
saw 
at the end of a paragraph, under the geezer-like assumption that Every Byte is 
Sacred, and using the least number of them to do a job was a positive social 
good.

This is one of those little things that looks like an anal-retentive 
bookkeeping 
problem until you make a habit out of it and have to update a book to a new 
template using TemplateMapper. TemplateMapper can handle character exceptions, 
but sticks all paragraphs into the new style, heedless of local exceptions. 
Suddenly, all those "overridden paragraphs" get paved over, and you have to go 
back and put in all the localized exceptions by hand.

--William

Combs, Richard wrote:
> Leah Smaller wrote:
> 
>> I never use manual overrides for formatting. But I have noticed that
> when
>> the last word (right before the pilcrow) has a special character
> format,
>> the pgf name is shown with an asterisk . This asterisk, of course,
>> signifies a format override for that specific paragraph. If I leave a
> blank
>> space between the last word and the pilcrow, the asterisk does not
> appear.
>> Why does this issue bother me ?
>> 1) I don't like a perfectly good pgf, with no overrides, displayed as
> if
>> there are overrides.
>> 2) Leaving a blank space between the character formatted word and the
>> pilcrow is not a good workaround because spell checker picks it up as
>> "extra space" and that adds many more mouse clicks to the workday.
>>
>> Comments? Solutions?
> 
> I always type a space (just one) at the end of a sentence, and that
> includes at the end of a paragraph. Spell checker never flags these (and
> yes, I do have it set to find extra spaces), and it shouldn't -- a
> single space after the last sentence in a pgf isn't "extra." 
> 
> The only reason I can think of that spell checker would flag that space
> is if you include "\p" in the Find Space Before entries. 
> 
> I like consistently having a space before the pilcrow for several
> reasons: 
> 
> -- If I merge pgfs (delete the pilcrow), that space needs to be there to
> separate the now-adjacent sentences. 
> 
> -- As you noted, separating a char format from the pilcrow prevents a
> pgf override (due to an FM bug). 
> 
> -- Similarly, separating a text inset from the pilcrow of its
> "container" pgf prevents that pgf from taking on the formatting of the
> first pgf in the text inset (another FM bug). 
> 
> I see now downside to typing that space, and no reason to end sentences
> differently depending on where in the pgf they occur. 
> 
> IMHO, YMMV, etc.
> 
> Richard
> 
> 
> Richard G. Combs

Remove Overrides...doesn't

[William Abernathy]

I have an obnoxious master page that prompts me to Remove Overrides every time 
I 
return to the body page. When I receive the Page Layout Warning, I dutifully 
click Remove Overrides. I see no visible change in the document. When I go 
back to the master page and return to the body page view, I get the same error 
message. Nothing by way of explanation, mind you. Frame are not amused by your 
vile master page, little man. Remedy it at once, and trouble us not for 
explanation!

Have any of you encountered/conquered this one in your Framely peregrinations?

Thanks,

--William
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Re: Remove Overrides...doesn't

[William Abernathy]

Art suggested outputting to Mif and reopening, but I licked this thing before 
he 
could get back to me.

The page I was working with was a book cover with a couple of frames on the 
master and a couple more in the body. The body page frames were tagged B and C, 
which did not appear anywhere else in the entire document. So, I removed these 
tag names and toggled off auto-connect.

Problem solved.

--W

Deirdre Reagan wrote:
 Yes!
 
 Deirdre
 
 On 5/2/08, William Abernathy [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 I have an obnoxious master page that prompts me to Remove Overrides every 
 time I
 return to the body page. When I receive the Page Layout Warning, I dutifully
 click Remove Overrides. I see no visible change in the document. When I go
 back to the master page and return to the body page view, I get the same 
 error
 message. Nothing by way of explanation, mind you. Frame are not amused by 
 your
 vile master page, little man. Remedy it at once, and trouble us not for
 explanation!

 Have any of you encountered/conquered this one in your Framely 
 peregrinations?

 Thanks,

 --William
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Remove Overrides...doesn't

[William Abernathy]

I have an obnoxious master page that prompts me to Remove Overrides every time 
I 
return to the body page. When I receive the Page Layout Warning, I dutifully 
click "Remove Overrides." I see no visible change in the document. When I go 
back to the master page and return to the body page view, I get the same error 
message. Nothing by way of explanation, mind you. "Frame are not amused by your 
vile master page, little man. Remedy it at once, and trouble us not for 
explanation!"

Have any of you encountered/conquered this one in your Framely peregrinations?

Thanks,

--William

Remove Overrides...doesn't

[William Abernathy]

Art suggested outputting to Mif and reopening, but I licked this thing before 
he 
could get back to me.

The page I was working with was a book cover with a couple of frames on the 
master and a couple more in the body. The body page frames were tagged B and C, 
which did not appear anywhere else in the entire document. So, I removed these 
tag names and toggled off auto-connect.

Problem solved.

--W

Deirdre Reagan wrote:
> Yes!
> 
> Deirdre
> 
> On 5/2/08, William Abernathy  wrote:
>> I have an obnoxious master page that prompts me to Remove Overrides every 
>> time I
>> return to the body page. When I receive the Page Layout Warning, I dutifully
>> click "Remove Overrides." I see no visible change in the document. When I go
>> back to the master page and return to the body page view, I get the same 
>> error
>> message. Nothing by way of explanation, mind you. "Frame are not amused by 
>> your
>> vile master page, little man. Remedy it at once, and trouble us not for
>> explanation!"
>>
>> Have any of you encountered/conquered this one in your Framely 
>> peregrinations?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> --William
>> ___
>>
>>
>> You are currently subscribed to Framers as deirdre.reagan at gmail.com.
>>
>> Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
>>
>> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
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> 
> 

best method to store template version

[William Abernathy]

I use two conditional text tags in my templates. "TBD" is for stuff the writers 
want to discuss with engineers, and "Writers_Note" is for stuff the writers 
only 
want to share with each other. I keep the template version number as a variable 
under the Writers_Note condition on the cover master page. If they update an 
existing work to a newer template, they need to update this variable manually. 
If they start a book from scratch, they have it by default.

The only other thing I would suggest is keeping a very detailed revision 
history 
for your templates: this has enabled me to narrow down legacy books to the 
proper template in short order, even when the template version variable was 
missing or wrong.

--William

Karene Millar wrote:
> Hi I'm new to this group, but not to FrameMaker :)
> 
> I am responsible for maintaining the templates at my current company
> and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions on the best place to
> store the template version. Ideas are: in a variable or perhaps on a
> reference page.
> 
> To be clear - I have a version number and date associated with the
> template so when you have a document you can look at it and identify
> the template version/date to see if it is using the latest templates.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Karene

Output file name automation

[William Abernathy]

I figure this is unlikely, but does anyone have a method for automating file 
name generation from within FrameMaker?

For example:

Let's say I have a document that has a Paying Customer version and a Sneak 
Preview version, with certain key information deleted for the benefit of 
tire-kickers. Let's also stipulate that I'm using PDFMark, FrameMaker 
variables, 
and conditional text to control the Document properties. Hence, by turning on 
the Sneak Preview condition and toggling off the Paying Customer condition, 
the document properties in the PDFMark code, thus the finished PDF, are 
automatically manipulated.

Is there any way to force FrameMaker to output by default to 
title_preview_version number.ps or title_preview_version 
number.pdf? 
Or is this simply impossible? I see no handles for manipulating file names, but 
someone here might know better...

Thanks,

--William
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Output file name automation

[William Abernathy]

I figure this is unlikely, but does anyone have a method for automating file 
name generation from within FrameMaker?

For example:

Let's say I have a document that has a "Paying Customer" version and a "Sneak 
Preview" version, with certain key information deleted for the benefit of 
tire-kickers. Let's also stipulate that I'm using PDFMark, FrameMaker 
variables, 
and conditional text to control the Document properties. Hence, by turning on 
the "Sneak Preview" condition and toggling off the "Paying Customer" condition, 
the document properties in the PDFMark code, thus the finished PDF, are 
automatically manipulated.

Is there any way to force FrameMaker to output by default to 
__.ps or __.pdf? 
Or is this simply impossible? I see no handles for manipulating file names, but 
someone here might know better...

Thanks,

--William

PDFMark Bookmarks

[William Abernathy]

My last attempt at getting this answered resulted in zero responses. I will 
assume that it was because my post was not a model of concision or clarity. So 
I'll try it again, hitting the highlights.

When inserting PDFMark bookmarks to other PDF documents, is it possible to 
force 
the inserted links to the top of the Bookmarks panel on the generated PDF 
document? If there is, what's the magic argument? Currently, the bookmarks may 
be placed at the top of the column (if there are many chapters) or the bottom 
(if there is only one chapter).

Right now, the PDFMark argument to create the bookmark to another document 
looks 
like this:

[/Title (Title)
/Action /GoToR /File (foo.pdf)
/C [0 0 1]
/F 2
/OUT pdfmark

FrameMaker 7.2, Acrobat + Distiller 7.0 on Windows XP

Thanks,

--William

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PDFMark Bookmarks

[William Abernathy]

My last attempt at getting this answered resulted in zero responses. I will 
assume that it was because my post was not a model of concision or clarity. So 
I'll try it again, hitting the highlights.

When inserting PDFMark bookmarks to other PDF documents, is it possible to 
force 
the inserted links to the top of the Bookmarks panel on the generated PDF 
document? If there is, what's the magic argument? Currently, the bookmarks may 
be placed at the top of the column (if there are many chapters) or the bottom 
(if there is only one chapter).

Right now, the PDFMark argument to create the bookmark to another document 
looks 
like this:

[/Title (Title)
/Action /GoToR /File (foo.pdf)
/C [0 0 1]
/F 2
/OUT pdfmark

FrameMaker 7.2, Acrobat + Distiller 7.0 on Windows XP

Thanks,

--William

PDFMark and placement of bookmarks

[William Abernathy]

In my long-form template, which is used for books that have a multiple-chapter 
format, the following PDFMark code puts the off-book bookmarks (bookmarks that 
point to another .pdf file in the same directory) at the top of the PDF 
bookmarks column, in order. In my short-form templates, these bookmarks appear 
at the bottom of the Bookmarks column.

Redacting for brevity the PDFMark statements that tell PostScript printers to 
pay no attention to the PDFMark code, the initial page and title view 
declarations, and the forcing of document properties, the germane code is as 
follows:

% Creates X-Ref bookmarks first:
  [/Title (Manual)
  /Action /GoToR /File (_man.pdf)
  /C [0 0 1]
  /F 2
  /OUT pdfmark

  [/Title (User Guide)
  /Action /GoToR /File (_ug.pdf)
  /C [0 0 1]
  /F 2
  /OUT pdfmark

  [/Title (Release Notes)
  /Action /GoToR /File (_rn.pdf)
  /C [0 0 1]
  /F 2
  /OUT pdfmark

(Where  is a variable for the common file name of the book.)

On a long-form book (multiple document files, grouped by a .book file), the 
Bookmarks column thus appears as:

Manual
User Guide
Release Notes
Contents
Preface
Chapter 1, etc...

However, when I use this code in a short-form document (with a single document 
file, no .book file), the bookmarks column places these at:

...Appendix Z
Index
Manual
User Guide
Release Notes

While I can manually move these to the top where they belong, it's a needless 
pain in the neck, and should be something I can address automagically, this 
being the whole point of PDFMark.

So...Any tips?

Oh yes...I'm using FM 7.x on Windows XP > Acrobat Distiller 7.0.

Thanks in advance,

--William

Fixing Numbers in PDF Bookmarks

[William Abernathy]

Here's an annoyance I'm stumped on. I've been working on updating my group's 
template, which is a unification of two work groups' templates.


One group had chapter title paragraph tags that addressed chapter numbering with 
 a simple auto-number, after which the writer was required to enter a soft 
(linefeed) return to enter the chapter title. The other group had a special 
frame on the First master page that contained the chapter number, which would 
appear automatically, with writers simply required to enter the chapter title in 
the adjacent title line field. I proposed a simple alternative, which eliminated 
the first group's required user input and the complexity of the second group's 
extra master pages and paragraph tags. This was to use a Chapter title paragraph 
tag that had the chapter number, a tab, and the text.


Would that life were so simple.

The group decided that for readability, the chapter/appendix number and the text 
should appear on the right margin. FrameMaker does not like line feeds in the 
autonumber fields, so I accomplished this by cunning subterkludge: I defined the 
Chapter and Appendix paragraph tags as:

C:$chapnum =0 =0 =0 =0 =0[ and 46 spaces ]

The 46 spaces forced a new line, everything stuck to the right margin, and peace 
and love ruled the stars...


Until we output the thing to PDF. [Frame 7.x outputting to PDF 5.0 using 
Distiller 7.0 on Windows XP]


The space-forced line feed results in repeated chapter numbers in the PDF 
bookmarks. For example:


1 1 Chapter Title
A A Appendix Title

Does anyone know alternatives for:
* Forcing a line feed in a chapter-heading paragraph format?
* Suppressing this bizarre repeated numbering?

Thanks in advance,

--William



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Fixing Numbers in PDF Bookmarks

[William Abernathy]

Here's an annoyance I'm stumped on. I've been working on updating my group's 
template, which is a unification of two work groups' templates.

One group had chapter title paragraph tags that addressed chapter numbering 
with 
  a simple auto-number, after which the writer was required to enter a soft 
(linefeed) return to enter the chapter title. The other group had a special 
frame on the First master page that contained the chapter number, which would 
appear automatically, with writers simply required to enter the chapter title 
in 
the adjacent title line field. I proposed a simple alternative, which 
eliminated 
the first group's required user input and the complexity of the second group's 
extra master pages and paragraph tags. This was to use a Chapter title 
paragraph 
tag that had the chapter number, a tab, and the text.

Would that life were so simple.

The group decided that for readability, the chapter/appendix number and the 
text 
should appear on the right margin. FrameMaker does not like line feeds in the 
autonumber fields, so I accomplished this by cunning subterkludge: I defined 
the 
Chapter and Appendix paragraph tags as:
"C:<$chapnum>< =0>< =0>< =0>< =0>< =0>[ and 46 spaces ]"

The 46 spaces forced a new line, everything stuck to the right margin, and 
peace 
and love ruled the stars...

Until we output the thing to PDF. [Frame 7.x outputting to PDF 5.0 using 
Distiller 7.0 on Windows XP]

The space-forced line feed results in repeated chapter numbers in the PDF 
bookmarks. For example:

1 1 Chapter Title
A A Appendix Title

Does anyone know alternatives for:
* Forcing a line feed in a chapter-heading paragraph format?
* Suppressing this bizarre repeated numbering?

Thanks in advance,

--William

Re: Italics dropping out of TOC

[William Abernathy]

I got no response to the below post. Is this such a well-known FrameMaker bug 
that it merits no response? Did I get you all on a bad day? Or am I just being a 
dunce?


Don't answer that last one.

--W

William Abernathy wrote:

I assume there is some very important reason for the following behavior.

[Frame 7.2, WinXP, Unstructured]

When I italicize a chapter or section heading using the CTRL-I, the 
generated TOC file does not retain the formatting, but maintains the 
cross-reference all the way to the end of the line. Hence:


4.1 Heading with /Italic/ Text

renders as:

4.1 Heading with Italic Text...22

in the TOC, with the whole line linking to the heading on p. 22, but the 
word Italic now rendered in roman.


If, on the other hand, I use an Italic (Emphasis) character format, I 
get the formatting in the generated TOC, but the link breaks at the tag 
boundary. The generated TOC line thus appears as:


4.1 Heading with /Italic/ Text22

However, the link breaks at the boundary between with and Italic.

It there any way around this? Call me a dreamer, but I really want the 
formatting to come through *and* the link not to be broken when I 
generate a TOC.


Thanks in advance.

--William Abernathy



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Italics dropping out of TOC

[William Abernathy]

I got no response to the below post. Is this such a well-known FrameMaker bug 
that it merits no response? Did I get you all on a bad day? Or am I just being 
a 
dunce?

Don't answer that last one.

--W

William Abernathy wrote:
> I assume there is some very important reason for the following behavior.
> 
> [Frame 7.2, WinXP, Unstructured]
> 
> When I italicize a chapter or section heading using the CTRL-I, the 
> generated TOC file does not retain the formatting, but maintains the 
> cross-reference all the way to the end of the line. Hence:
> 
> 4.1 Heading with /Italic/ Text
> 
> renders as:
> 
> 4.1 Heading with Italic Text...22
> 
> in the TOC, with the whole line linking to the heading on p. 22, but the 
> word Italic now rendered in roman.
> 
> If, on the other hand, I use an Italic (Emphasis) character format, I 
> get the formatting in the generated TOC, but the link breaks at the tag 
> boundary. The generated TOC line thus appears as:
> 
> 4.1 Heading with /Italic/ Text22
> 
> However, the link breaks at the boundary between "with" and "Italic."
> 
> It there any way around this? Call me a dreamer, but I really want the 
> formatting to come through *and* the link not to be broken when I 
> generate a TOC.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> --William Abernathy

Italics dropping out of TOC

[William Abernathy]

I assume there is some very important reason for the following behavior.

[Frame 7.2, WinXP, Unstructured]

When I italicize a chapter or section heading using the CTRL-I, the generated 
TOC file does not retain the formatting, but maintains the cross-reference all 
the way to the end of the line. Hence:


4.1 Heading with /Italic/ Text

renders as:

4.1 Heading with Italic Text...22

in the TOC, with the whole line linking to the heading on p. 22, but the word 
Italic now rendered in roman.


If, on the other hand, I use an Italic (Emphasis) character format, I get the 
formatting in the generated TOC, but the link breaks at the tag boundary. The 
generated TOC line thus appears as:


4.1 Heading with /Italic/ Text22

However, the link breaks at the boundary between with and Italic.

It there any way around this? Call me a dreamer, but I really want the 
formatting to come through *and* the link not to be broken when I generate a TOC.


Thanks in advance.

--William Abernathy
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Italics dropping out of TOC

[William Abernathy]

I assume there is some very important reason for the following behavior.

[Frame 7.2, WinXP, Unstructured]

When I italicize a chapter or section heading using the CTRL-I, the generated 
TOC file does not retain the formatting, but maintains the cross-reference all 
the way to the end of the line. Hence:

4.1 Heading with /Italic/ Text

renders as:

4.1 Heading with Italic Text...22

in the TOC, with the whole line linking to the heading on p. 22, but the word 
Italic now rendered in roman.

If, on the other hand, I use an Italic (Emphasis) character format, I get the 
formatting in the generated TOC, but the link breaks at the tag boundary. The 
generated TOC line thus appears as:

4.1 Heading with /Italic/ Text22

However, the link breaks at the boundary between "with" and "Italic."

It there any way around this? Call me a dreamer, but I really want the 
formatting to come through *and* the link not to be broken when I generate a 
TOC.

Thanks in advance.

--William Abernathy

Broken Text Includes

[William Abernathy]

I've built out a template for my group that includes a page of copyright 
boilerplate, which is in a file on one of the corporate servers. This works 
wonderfully: If legal decides to drop or assert a new copyright claim, I can 
update the central file, and the update is made immediately to all documents 
with no writer input required. Love it, love it, love it.

The problem is that one of the writers is a telecommuter with limited 
long-distance dialup access. When she opens a page, if the network isn't 
working, she can't do much for a minute while Frame figures out it can't find 
the page.

Possible solutions I'd like to get feedback on: Is there a default timeout 
setting in maker.ini or elsewhere I could change to lower this search to a 
tolerable delay? Or is there a way to persuade FrameMaker to look for the 
network and display an alternate local file if it can't find the include text 
it's looking for? Or perhaps you have solved this problem in a manner I haven't 
thought of...If so, do tell...


Thanks in advance,

--William

Frame to PDF: display Document Title in title bar?

[William Abernathy]

In Acrobat, under:

Document Properties  Initial View  Show:

there is a setting that toggles the document view between Document Title and 
File Name. This controls the caption that appears in the top (usually blue) bar 
of the window. Thus, I can choose to display foobar.pdf in the top bar of the 
window, or Foo, a Learned Disquisition on Bar (the full document title) in the 
same location.


The default setting is to display the file name. I would like to change the 
default setting to display the document title and force this on subsequent 
readers. I can't locate a PDFMark command to force this, nor can I parse 
anything like this by hunting for an obvious line in the various *.ini files in 
the c:/Program Files/Adobe tree.


I am using Frame 7.2, Distiller 7.0, and Acrobat 7.0 on a Windows XP system.

Is anyone aware of, an Acrobat registry setting, a line in a *.ini file, a 
PDFMark argument, or some other setting that will result in my writers being 
able to Distill from FrameMaker into PDF, forcing documents to default display 
the title, without their having to toggle the Initial View setting manually to 
Document Title?


Thanks in advance,

--William Abernathy
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Frame to PDF: display Document Title in title bar?

[William Abernathy]

Thank you, Rick and Klaus!

Since the current template already makes extensive use of PDFMark code, and I'm 
not shy around it, I just plugged Klaus's code into the existing PostScript 
box, 
and it worked perfectly! No tinkering required. I'm glad to know, though, that 
there's more than one way to skin this cat. Neato! Thanks again!

Kind regards,

--William Abernathy

M?ller wrote:
> Hello William, 
> 
>> change the default setting to display the document title 
>> and force this on subsequent readers. I can't locate a 
>> PDFMark command to force this
> 
> Put the following lines into a FrameMaker PostScript frame:
> 
> /pdfmark where {pop} {userdict /pdfmark /cleartomark load put} ifelse
> [ {Catalog} << /ViewerPreferences << /DisplayDocTitle true >> >> /PUT pdfmark
> 
> Kind regards, 
> Klaus M?ller, itl AG
> ___
> 
> 
> You are currently subscribed to Framers as william at inch.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 
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> 
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> http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
> 
> 

Frame to PDF: display Document Title in title bar?

[William Abernathy]

In Acrobat, under:

Document Properties > Initial View > Show:

there is a setting that toggles the document view between Document Title and 
File Name. This controls the caption that appears in the top (usually blue) bar 
of the window. Thus, I can choose to display "foobar.pdf" in the top bar of the 
window, or "Foo, a Learned Disquisition on Bar" (the full document title) in 
the 
same location.

The default setting is to display the file name. I would like to change the 
default setting to display the document title and force this on subsequent 
readers. I can't locate a PDFMark command to force this, nor can I parse 
anything like this by hunting for an obvious line in the various *.ini files in 
the c:/Program Files/Adobe tree.

I am using Frame 7.2, Distiller 7.0, and Acrobat 7.0 on a Windows XP system.

Is anyone aware of, an Acrobat registry setting, a line in a *.ini file, a 
PDFMark argument, or some other setting that will result in my writers being 
able to Distill from FrameMaker into PDF, forcing documents to default display 
the title, without their having to toggle the Initial View setting manually to 
"Document Title?"

Thanks in advance,

--William Abernathy

Re: Book problems

[William Abernathy]

Jim: The offending text field is probably a text frame that is marked as 
PostScript code in the text frame's object properties. The first word in the 
text frame is KVH, and since PostScript is space-delimited, PostScript throws 
an error at the first word (KVH not being a proper PostScript or PDFMark 
command). This aborts the whole print job.


To toggle off the PostScript characteristic, select (click on) the text frame 
and either right-click or select the Graphics menu, then click Object 
Properties. From there, uncheck PostScript Code.


This will eliminate your document's bad behavior

Good luck,

--William Abernathy


James Dyson wrote:

Thanks for all of your help. I just figured out a workaround. I noticed
the first file in the book was the only one that I couldn't save as a
PDF. The culprit was the last page of the first file. There was a text
field that existed in duplicate in both the left master page and body
page. I tried deleting the body page text box (since the text is static)
but that didn't solve it. For some reason I had to override the blank
master page we use and add a text box on top of it in the body page. If
I get more time I'll experiment for a withbetter solution, but I can work
with this for now.

Thanks again,
Jim
_ 
From: 	James Dyson  
Sent:	Wednesday, August 15, 2007 11:54 AM

To: 'framers@lists.frameusers.com'
Subject:Book problems
with
Hi all,

I'm using Framemaker 7.2 and I've run into a problem I've never seen
before. I have a small book, consisting of just four files (15 pages)
and a TOC. I can print the files within the book individually without
any problems. When I try to print the book, only the first file prints
and then a page prints with the following error message:

ERROR: undefined
OFFENDING COMMAND: KVH?  (KVH is my company name)
STACK:
72
469
-462
-69

I've also tried saving the book as a PDF, and the .log file listed the
very same error message shown above. The PDF failed to generate.

I've tried the following solutions to no avail:
Tried other printers
Creating a new book and adding those files to the new book
Deleting individual files
Reordering files
Printing the book using a different PC and copy of Framemaker
Printed another, existing book and verified that I can still do that
Gotten assurance from IT that there is no known significance on their
end to the error message shown

Thanks,
Jim Dyson



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Book problems

[William Abernathy]

Jim: The offending "text field" is probably a text frame that is marked as 
PostScript code in the text frame's object properties. The first word in the 
text frame is "KVH", and since PostScript is space-delimited, PostScript throws 
an error at the first word ("KVH" not being a proper PostScript or PDFMark 
command). This aborts the whole print job.

To toggle off the PostScript characteristic, select (click on) the text frame 
and either right-click or select the Graphics menu, then click Object 
Properties. From there, uncheck PostScript Code.

This will eliminate your document's bad behavior

Good luck,

--William Abernathy


James Dyson wrote:
> Thanks for all of your help. I just figured out a workaround. I noticed
> the first file in the book was the only one that I couldn't save as a
> PDF. The culprit was the last page of the first file. There was a text
> field that existed in duplicate in both the left master page and body
> page. I tried deleting the body page text box (since the text is static)
> but that didn't solve it. For some reason I had to override the "blank"
> master page we use and add a text box on top of it in the body page. If
> I get more time I'll experiment for a withbetter solution, but I can work
> with this for now.
> 
> Thanks again,
> Jim
>> _ 
>> From:James Dyson  
>> Sent:Wednesday, August 15, 2007 11:54 AM
>> To:  'framers at lists.frameusers.com'
>> Subject: Book problems
>>with
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I'm using Framemaker 7.2 and I've run into a problem I've never seen
>> before. I have a small book, consisting of just four files (15 pages)
>> and a TOC. I can print the files within the book individually without
>> any problems. When I try to print the book, only the first file prints
>> and then a page prints with the following error message:
>>
>> ERROR: undefined
>> OFFENDING COMMAND: KVH?  (KVH is my company name)
>> STACK:
>> 72
>> 469
>> -462
>> -69
>>
>> I've also tried saving the book as a PDF, and the .log file listed the
>> very same error message shown above. The PDF failed to generate.
>>
>> I've tried the following solutions to no avail:
>> Tried other printers
>> Creating a new book and adding those files to the new book
>> Deleting individual files
>> Reordering files
>> Printing the book using a different PC and copy of Framemaker
>> Printed another, existing book and verified that I can still do that
>> Gotten assurance from IT that there is no known significance on their
>> end to the error message shown
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Jim Dyson
>

Paragraph numbering issue

[William Abernathy]

Thank you Fred, Ann, and Jeremy for your replies. All suggested that I review 
the numbering properties at the book and document levels for consistency.

Fred, however, wins the scalp on this bug with the following suggestion:

"And are you remembering to execute the Update Book command
to refresh all the numbering after you make any changes in the
book-level numbering properties? The numbering does not update
on the fly when you change the setup; you must explicitly tell
FrameMaker to perform the update."

D'Oh!

Thanks!

--William


William Abernathy wrote:
> All: I'm having a difficult time finessing this one, and I think I need 
> someone to help me come at it from a different angle. I have chapterwise 
> paragraph numbers that I want to reset on every chapter break, and I 
> have a set of requirement numbers that I want to sustain across chapter 
> boundaries. Hence:
> 
> ...
> Section 5.10.6
> blah blah
> Requirement 47: Thou shalt Foo
> 
> Chapter 6
> 
> Section 6-1
> blah-blah
> Requirement 48: Thou shalt Bar
> 
> The problem is that I still end up with:
> 
> Section 6-1
> blah-blah
> Requirement 1: Thou shalt Bar
> 
> The current Heading p-tags are: C:<$chapnum>.<n+>.< =0>< =0>< =0>< =0>< 
> =0>\t (for Heading1, outputting "N.1   [Section Title]" and resetting 
> all subheadings in the C: series). At the chapter break, the Chapter 
> title P-tag resets the entire series with C:<$chapnum>.< =0>< =0>< =0>< 
> =0>< =0>< =0>.
> 
> The current Requirement p-tag is: R:Requirement <n+>
> 
> I have set the paragraph numbering properties to continue paragraph 
> numbering from chapter to chapter, under the theory that the C: series 
> will be reset by the chapter title regardless. Nonetheless, the R: 
> series doggedly resets at the chapter breaks. As things stand, I'm 
> having to cook up a fudge p-tag setting at the chapter breaks, which is 
> obviously unacceptable.
> 
> What am I doing wrong?
> 
> --William

Paragraph numbering issue

[William Abernathy]

All: I'm having a difficult time finessing this one, and I think I need someone 
to help me come at it from a different angle. I have chapterwise paragraph 
numbers that I want to reset on every chapter break, and I have a set of 
requirement numbers that I want to sustain across chapter boundaries. Hence:

...
Section 5.10.6
blah blah
Requirement 47: Thou shalt Foo

Chapter 6

Section 6-1
blah-blah
Requirement 48: Thou shalt Bar

The problem is that I still end up with:

Section 6-1
blah-blah
Requirement 1: Thou shalt Bar

The current Heading p-tags are: C:<$chapnum>..< =0>< =0>< =0>< =0>< =0>\t 
(for Heading1, outputting "N.1   [Section Title]" and resetting all subheadings 
in the C: series). At the chapter break, the Chapter title P-tag resets the 
entire series with C:<$chapnum>.< =0>< =0>< =0>< =0>< =0>< =0>.

The current Requirement p-tag is: R:Requirement 

I have set the paragraph numbering properties to continue paragraph numbering 
from chapter to chapter, under the theory that the C: series will be reset by 
the chapter title regardless. Nonetheless, the R: series doggedly resets at the 
chapter breaks. As things stand, I'm having to cook up a fudge p-tag setting at 
the chapter breaks, which is obviously unacceptable.

What am I doing wrong?

--William

PDFMark question

[William Abernathy]

I've created a Postscript window that uses PDFMark to populate the Title, 
Author, and Subject fields using the DOCINFO argument (keywords are not useful 
to this client). This uses the document variables, and so far, I must state, 
Man-o-Manischewitz, this thing is cool.


However, I would also like to be able to use PDFMark to populate the fields 
locatable via the Additional Metadata button (in Acrobat: File  Document 
Properties...  Additional Metadata), specifically, the Copyright Status, 
Copyright Notice, and Copyright Info URL declarations.


I have tried the METADATA tag, but this only populates the Custom Properties 
field under the Custom tab.


I would greatly appreciate your assistance.

Thanks in advance,

--William Abernathy
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PDFMark question

[William Abernathy]

I've created a Postscript window that uses PDFMark to populate the Title, 
Author, and Subject fields using the DOCINFO argument (keywords are not useful 
to this client). This uses the document variables, and so far, I must state, 
Man-o-Manischewitz, this thing is cool.

However, I would also like to be able to use PDFMark to populate the fields 
locatable via the Additional Metadata button (in Acrobat: File > Document 
Properties... > Additional Metadata), specifically, the Copyright Status, 
Copyright Notice, and Copyright Info URL declarations.

I have tried the METADATA tag, but this only populates the Custom Properties 
field under the Custom tab.

I would greatly appreciate your assistance.

Thanks in advance,

--William Abernathy

Re: Change Bars

[William Abernathy]

If all else fails, ESC-C-H toggles the change bars manually.

--W

Ridder, Fred wrote:
You do it via the Character Format option in the Find box. 
In the Find Character Format dialog, first use Shift+F8 to
set all properties to As Is (gray X's in options, empty 
list boxes) then click the Change Bars option to change 
the X to black.


But be aware that FrameMaker has some long-standing 
bugs relating to searching for text in tables.


My opinions only; I don't speak for Intel.
Fred Ridder (fred dot ridder at intel dot com)
Intel
Parsippany, NJ



-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of John Pilla
Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 11:42 AM
To: Grant Hogarth
Cc: Framers@frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Change Bars

Thanks, however: 
How do I search for a change bar as an attribute using Finf/next (Ctrl +


F)? 
 
~ John ~  Sr. Learning Specialist, 
Educational Services MRO Software, (An IBM Company)

Phn: +1.781.280.2003, Fax: +1.781.280.2201 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 
Maximo 5 Certified, Maximo 6 Certified EAM 
Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management
 





What might be worth checking is whether any styles (or overrides) have
the change bar attribute set.  You can search on this attribute.

It won't solve what cased it, but it will let you move forward.

Grant 



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Change Bars

[William Abernathy]

If all else fails, ESC-C-H toggles the change bars manually.

--W

Ridder, Fred wrote:
> You do it via the Character Format option in the Find box. 
> In the Find Character Format dialog, first use Shift+F8 to
> set all properties to As Is (gray X's in options, empty 
> list boxes) then click the Change Bars option to change 
> the X to black.
> 
> But be aware that FrameMaker has some long-standing 
> bugs relating to searching for text in tables.
> 
> My opinions only; I don't speak for Intel.
> Fred Ridder (fred dot ridder at intel dot com)
> Intel
> Parsippany, NJ
> 
> 
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: framers-bounces+fred.ridder=intel.com at lists.frameusers.com
> [mailto:framers-bounces+fred.ridder=intel.com at lists.frameusers.com] On
> Behalf Of John Pilla
> Sent: Monday, March 26, 2007 11:42 AM
> To: Grant Hogarth
> Cc: Framers at frameusers.com
> Subject: RE: Change Bars
> 
> Thanks, however: 
> How do I search for a change bar as an attribute using Finf/next (Ctrl +
> 
> F)? 
>  
> ~ John ~  Sr. Learning Specialist, 
> Educational Services MRO Software, (An IBM Company)
> Phn: +1.781.280.2003, Fax: +1.781.280.2201 John.Pilla at us.ibm.com
>  
> Maximo 5 Certified, Maximo 6 Certified EAM 
> Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> What might be worth checking is whether any styles (or overrides) have
> the change bar attribute set.  You can search on this attribute.
> 
> It won't solve what cased it, but it will let you move forward.
> 
> Grant 

Re: Cross-reference nightmare - help needed

[William Abernathy]

Another possibility is that there has been a change in the file hierarchy 
between the Frame document and the linked files. Have there been any changes to 
the names or the permissions on the targeted files or the directories in which 
they reside, or has the master Frame file been moved?


--William

Sage DeRosier wrote:

HELP!

 


Here we are on the bleeding edge of a deadline and my production guru
who puts together our master PDF from multiple files of multiple
stand-alone books has encountered one file with suddenly +70 broken
cross-references to multiple different files (both from inside that
file's original stand-alone set and others).

 


He writes:

 


Unfortunately, the only fix I can do is of the one-by-one manual type.
The errors are odd: The messages say Cannot find the file etc., but as
I dig down to the target / source I AM finding the referenced headings
-- so they ARE there, they're not deleted -- but somehow over 70 of them
were broken. Normally, since the target / sources are there, they would
update automatically when the book is generated or x-refs are updated.
I've tried to update the x-refs using a variety of techniques, but they
simply won't update automatically like they should.

 


Anybody have an idea what might have happened? Do you have a clue as to
how to speed up fixing this sort of thing without having to visit each
and every cross-ref?

 


Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 


Regards,

Sage DeRosier

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Business Objects


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Cross-reference nightmare - help needed

[William Abernathy]

Another possibility is that there has been a change in the file hierarchy 
between the Frame document and the linked files. Have there been any changes to 
the names or the permissions on the targeted files or the directories in which 
they reside, or has the master Frame file been moved?

--William

Sage DeRosier wrote:
> HELP!
> 
>  
> 
> Here we are on the bleeding edge of a deadline and my production guru
> who puts together our master PDF from multiple files of multiple
> stand-alone books has encountered one file with suddenly +70 broken
> cross-references to multiple different files (both from inside that
> file's original stand-alone set and others).
> 
>  
> 
> He writes:
> 
>  
> 
> Unfortunately, the only fix I can do is of the one-by-one manual type.
> The errors are odd: The messages say "Cannot find the file" etc., but as
> I dig down to the target / source I AM finding the referenced headings
> -- so they ARE there, they're not deleted -- but somehow over 70 of them
> were broken. Normally, since the target / sources are there, they would
> update automatically when the book is generated or x-refs are updated.
> I've tried to update the x-refs using a variety of techniques, but they
> simply won't update automatically like they should.
> 
>  
> 
> Anybody have an idea what might have happened? Do you have a clue as to
> how to speed up fixing this sort of thing without having to visit each
> and every cross-ref?
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
> 
>  
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Sage DeRosier
> 
> sage.derosier at businessobjects.com
> 
> Business Objects

Re: Import RTF

[William Abernathy]

You can also copy and Paste Special in RTF format, if that's not too cumbersome. 
That's how I import tables from Word docs.


--William

Art Campbell wrote:
The easiest way to do this is to Open, not import, the source .RTF file 
in FM.


So, first, in FM, Open the .RTF file. Next, to remove hidden Word
characters, save the file in FM as a MIF format file. Finally, open
the (now clean) MIF file and cut and paste whatever you need into your
destination FM file.

Use the FM Paragraph Designer's Global Update tool to change all tags
of one type to another type.

Art



On 3/8/07, John Pilla [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Hello, all;
We are in the process of converting older Word documents into FrameMaker.
After stripping and cleaning unwanted old Information Mapping formatting
from Word, saving as RTF . . .
When I import one of the RTF files into our new FrameMaker template file,
the old document comes in as a Text Inset and not as the desired RTF . 
. .


We use File | Import.  And select  Retain Source File Formatting so we
can use  a Find and Replace on the standard para Styles from Word to the
new Tags in FM template.
However, after importing, because it comes in as a Text Inset, I then 
have

to select  the Text Inset Properties from the Edit menu,
and convert to text.
When we do this, we loose all text in the tables.

How can I import text from an RTF file so that it comes in as RTF and not
as a Text Inset?
Is there a properties setting, somewhere?


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Import RTF

[William Abernathy]

You can also copy and Paste Special in RTF format, if that's not too 
cumbersome. 
That's how I import tables from Word docs.

--William

Art Campbell wrote:
> The easiest way to do this is to Open, not import, the source .RTF file 
> in FM.
> 
> So, first, in FM, Open the .RTF file. Next, to remove hidden Word
> characters, save the file in FM as a MIF format file. Finally, open
> the (now clean) MIF file and cut and paste whatever you need into your
> destination FM file.
> 
> Use the FM Paragraph Designer's Global Update tool to change all tags
> of one type to another type.
> 
> Art
> 
> 
> 
> On 3/8/07, John Pilla  wrote:
>> Hello, all;
>> We are in the process of converting older Word documents into FrameMaker.
>> After stripping and cleaning unwanted old Information Mapping formatting
>> from Word, saving as RTF . . .
>> When I import one of the RTF files into our new FrameMaker template file,
>> the old document comes in as a Text Inset and not as the desired RTF . 
>> . .
>>
>> We use File | Import.  And select  "Retain Source File Formatting" so we
>> can use  a Find and Replace on the standard para Styles from Word to the
>> new Tags in FM template.
>> However, after importing, because it comes in as a Text Inset, I then 
>> have
>> to select  the Text Inset Properties from the Edit menu,
>> and convert to text.
>> When we do this, we loose all text in the tables.
>>
>> How can I import text from an RTF file so that it comes in as RTF and not
>> as a Text Inset?
>> Is there a properties setting, somewhere?

Re: First Hurdle

[William Abernathy]

MATT TODD wrote:

All,

Congratulate me, friends! As a newbie, I just completed my first
preliminary manual in FM without overrides or unresolved xrefs or any
other shenanigans that I can see. Everything appears to work great. Hah!
It's pizza for me!


Congrats.


I'm working with legacy documentation created in Word and FM 7.0
unstructured. The goal is FM 7.0 structured. 


Whose goal is this, and why? I've seen the gee whiz demonstrations from Adobe 
reps and been utterly convinced that I Need Structured Docs Now! only to return 
to my pdf-output-only client projects that have no real need for structured 
Frame. Before committing, make sure there's a business case for structuring.



As I understand it, once
you have a clean unstructured document, the next step is EDD development
(of which I have no clue), is that correct? 


You need someone who has a big-time clue about XML and document type definitions 
to set up your structures.



Also...another dumb question
probably...I read up on how the FM conditional text feature works, and
it apparently will fit nicely with our documentation - but are there any
pitfalls or difficulties to it in structured FM?


The one I seemed to fall into the most when learning is that there is a bias 
towards showing conditional text. So if you have text under both Condition A and 
Condition B, you can't hide it if either A or B is toggled on. Also, it can 
screw up your pagination to have text popping in and out, so you need to be 
careful to test different editions using the same source for different output 
docs. Conditional text can be a little hard to parse at first, but once you get 
the hang of it, it becomes your bestest friend in the whole world.



One final question...is structured FM difficult to learn? I have to
admit that it looks daunting to me. How long did it take some of you to
learn?


I've been working with regular Frame for six and a half years now, and just 
fielded my first structured project. Someone else defined the structure, and I 
just had to beat the requested changes into the old structured format. It's 
taken about a man-week to get to the point where I understand the element tags 
I've been handed well enough to produce valid documents. If pressed to define 
structural elements from scratch, I would not know where to begin.


--William Abernathy
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First Hurdle

[William Abernathy]

MATT TODD wrote:
> All,
> 
> Congratulate me, friends! As a newbie, I just completed my first
> preliminary manual in FM without overrides or unresolved xrefs or any
> other shenanigans that I can see. Everything appears to work great. Hah!
> It's pizza for me!

Congrats.

> I'm working with legacy documentation created in Word and FM 7.0
> unstructured. The goal is FM 7.0 structured. 

Whose goal is this, and why? I've seen the gee whiz demonstrations from Adobe 
reps and been utterly convinced that I Need Structured Docs Now! only to return 
to my pdf-output-only client projects that have no real need for structured 
Frame. Before committing, make sure there's a business case for structuring.

> As I understand it, once
> you have a clean unstructured document, the next step is EDD development
> (of which I have no clue), is that correct? 

You need someone who has a big-time clue about XML and document type 
definitions 
to set up your structures.

> Also...another dumb question
> probably...I read up on how the FM conditional text feature works, and
> it apparently will fit nicely with our documentation - but are there any
> pitfalls or difficulties to it in structured FM?

The one I seemed to fall into the most when learning is that there is a bias 
towards showing conditional text. So if you have text under both Condition A 
and 
Condition B, you can't hide it if either A or B is toggled on. Also, it can 
screw up your pagination to have text popping in and out, so you need to be 
careful to test different editions using the same source for different output 
docs. Conditional text can be a little hard to parse at first, but once you get 
the hang of it, it becomes your bestest friend in the whole world.

> One final question...is structured FM difficult to learn? I have to
> admit that it looks daunting to me. How long did it take some of you to
> learn?

I've been working with regular Frame for six and a half years now, and just 
fielded my first structured project. Someone else defined the structure, and I 
just had to beat the requested changes into the old structured format. It's 
taken about a man-week to get to the point where I understand the element tags 
I've been handed well enough to produce valid documents. If pressed to define 
structural elements from scratch, I would not know where to begin.

--William Abernathy