The Soapbox, Please

I admit that my intelligence is easily insulted. It’s probably because I’ve got so little of it left – raising a child, running a business, and working in the software industry take their toll, after all – that I’ve got to defend it with the ferocity of a rabid fruit bat. But, as I review the state of the art in desktop publishing software, I’m left with one nagging question: Just exactly how dumb do these guys think I am?

Kvern, Olav Martin. Upper and lowercase Magazine (1999). Articles>Software>Document Design

Technical Writing for Desktop Publishers

Writing and book indexing help for desktop publishers. Often desktop publishers become jack-of-all-trades and need at least a basic understanding of technical writing.

Howard Bear, Jacci. About.com (2002). Resources>Document Design>Software>Technical Writing

There and Back  

Taking FrameMaker files on the road can present a few challenges, but it doesn't have to be difficult. Here are some tips that'll help ensure that you get the best results.

Valiulis, Dave. Adobe Magazine (1997). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

Threaded Text in InDesign CS

If you use Microsoft Word, you are used to the fact that if when your text will get to the end of a page, another page will be automatically added. With InDesign and most layout programs, this is a little bit different. This is because layout programs work with text boxes (or tex frames) which allow you more freedom when you lay out your document.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Total Control: The Next Generation  

There's never been a better time to free yourself from boring, repetitive tasks using PageMaker's scripting language.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1995). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Troubleshooting PageMaker Documents

This document will attempt to tell you what causes corruption, how to prevent it, and — if it’s already too late — how to attempt recovery. There are even a couple of tips for when you can’t open the document at all. There are also some links to other documents that may be of interest. Finally, you can download some scripts that may help you.

Kvern, Olav Martin, Gordon Woolf, Carol Majors, Christine Hummel, Kristina McCook and Peter C.S. Adams. Makingpages.org (2002). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Understanding Frame Grids  

The frame grid feature enables you to use multiple baseline grids on your pages.

Cole, Tim. Adobe Evangelists (2006). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Understanding Print Preview in Photoshop

This is a quick rundown of the Print with Preview function of Photoshop. While it is not a complete guide, it will satisfy the most common needs for the non-designer or the in-house designer. While this article is not meant to explain the Print Preview in all of its details, it will shed light on the most important ones.

Bruno, Elisabetta. About.com (2005). Design>Software>Document Design>Adobe Photoshop

Unexpected White Outlines Around Graphics In InDesign

Sometimes when making PDFs from InDesign, white outlines appear around graphics. Here's why and how to solve it.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Design>Software>Document Design>Adobe InDesign

Usability SIG Web Site Tests Macromedia FlashPaper

The Usability SIG is always interested in new ways to put publish our newsletter on the Web. When an upgrade to Macromedia’s Contribute 2.0 included a new program called FlashPaper, we decided to give it a try.

Dick, David J. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Document Design>Software>Flash

Using Acrobat Standard 6.0 in a Document Review Cycle

A six-part sample lesson on how to use Acrobat and PDF for document review. Included for download are several files referenced in the exercises.

PlanetPDF (2004). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Using Distiller to Build Booklets  

Adobe InDesign and Adobe PageMaker include utilities that create booklets using a simple page imposition routine. However, other applications such as Adobe FrameMaker or Microsoft Word do not have these utilities and leave users with a bit of a dilemma when they want booklets made. Using Adobe Acrobat Distiller and a simple PostScript file (sig.ps), you can create booklets from EPS (encapsulated PostScript) pages printed from your application. The PostScript file takes the EPS files and arranges them on pages in a single PDF document. This technical guide briefly explains impositions and signatures and provides instructions for editing the associated sig.ps PostScript file used to create a booklet. Knowledge of PostScript may be helpful but is not absolutely necessary; you need only to make a few clearly explained edits for the sig.ps file to work with any documents you have.

Virginia Tech. Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Using Guides Effectively

Adobe InDesign 2 has some incredible features that aren't found in any other page-layout application and that's why so many designers are migrating to it. What's often overlooked, however, are the cool, subtle, yet powerful features for everyday production work.

White, Terry. Mac Design Magazine (2003). Design>Software>Document Design>Adobe InDesign

Using Layers Creatively

Adobe® PageMaker® 7.0 includes a powerful Layers tool with countless applications—we’ll show you three in this tip: 1. Multiple versions 2. Quick arrangement of layers from top to bottom 3. Layered communication—'stick-on' notes

Adobe (2003). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker

Using OpenType Pro fonts in InDesign 1.x

This document is intended to serve as a brief introduction to both the new OpenType font file format, as well as the ways you take advantage of the advanced features of OpenType Pro fonts within InDesign.

Cole, Tim. Mac Design Magazine (2003). Design>Software>Document Design>Adobe InDesign

Using RoboHelp to Develop a Simple Web-Based Tutorial

RoboHelp is a top application for developing online help. It is also used for developing Web-based help, such as JavaHelp and RoboHelp's WebHelp. Besides being used for online or Web-help, RoboHelp can also be used to develop simple tutorials.

Kurtus, Ron. School for Champions (2001). Design>Documentation>Software>RoboHelp

Using Your Own Placeholder Text in InDesign

The Fill with Placeholder Text command in the Type menu fills one frame or a series of linked frames with placeholder text. This text serves as a temporary substitute for the text that will actually appear in your finished document. You can use this placeholder text to create templates or serve as a placeholder for text content in a document that's in process. The placeholder text produced by InDesign is known as 'Lorem Ipsum,' and it's a faux Latin intended to represent the space real words would occupy (and that's all). With InDesign 2.0, however, you have the option of replacing InDesign's default Lorem Ipsum text with placeholder text of your own.

Cole, Tim. Mac Design Magazine (2003). Design>Software>Document Design>Adobe InDesign

Version Cue: Balancing Simplicity, Functionality in CS Workflow Tool

Adobe's release of Creative Suite last fall introduced Version Cue, a tool designed to help individuals and small creative teams keep track of the latest versions of their graphics and page layouts. The Seybold Reports took it for a test drive to assess its performance.

Dyson, Peter and Mark Walter. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>Workflow

WebWorks Publisher: Can It Convert You?  

Discusses Quadralay's WebWorks Publisher, a software package that allows single-sourcing from Adobe FrameMaker to online documents. For a more advanced discussion of WebWorks, see Robert R. Desprez's article 'WebWorks Publisher: Jumping into the Details,' also in the September/October 2001 issue of Intercom.

Beren, Wendy G. Intercom (2001). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

WidemanOne Adobe FrameMaker Topics

For all that the most central concept in FrameMaker is the Frame, the existing documentation is thoroughly foggy regarding the precise nature of the Frame types and the relationships amongst them. Here is a first pass at rectifying that shortcoming.

Wideman, Graham. WidemanOne (2001). Resources>Software>Document Design>Adobe FrameMaker

Word Spacing Keyboard Shortcut  

Ever been copyfitting and wished there was a quick way to kern word spacing but leave letterspacing alone? There is.

Cole, Tim. Adobe Evangelists (2006). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Word-to-RoboHelp Conversion Tips and Tricks

Whether you’re converting an existing Microsoft Word document to a WinHelp format using RoboHelp, or to an HTML-based Help format using RoboHelp HTML, RoboHelp Office 9 lets you add a Word document to your Help project with a single mouse click. But don’t do it, at least not until you’ve reviewed, tweaked, and massaged the document to make the most of the new medium for your documentation and to avoid problems that commonly surface following conversion Here are some tips for an (almost) error-free conversion.

Carlson, Janice L. WilliamRice.com (2001). Design>Documentation>Software>RoboHelp

Working with Colour in InDesign CS

Explains the use of the Colour Palette and Swatches palette and how they relate to each other. It also briefly covers the Gradient Palette. Informative links explaining the difference between RGB, CMYK, hues, tints, etc. are also provided.

Bruno, Elisabetta. About.com. Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Working With Graphics in Adobe InDesign CS

In this topic, you will place graphics on the page and then move, resize and crop them.

Adobe. Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Creating Tables in FrameMaker

Tables make information easy to find and understand and are often used for illustrating comparisons among similar data. A table usually consists of a heading row and one or more body rows and may also contain a title.

McMurrey, David A., Jana Owens, Jacqueline J. Pulido and Thomas A. Moore. Illuminati Online (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker