1. MAILBAG
2. ANSWERS
5. ANOTHER LAYOUT PROGRAM
6. GOING METRIC
7. UTILITIES/UPDATES
8. HINTS
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
10. LAST WORD
1. MAILBAG
==========
Firstly, a word of thanks to all our subscribers -- we were going to note when we passed the 500 mark, but then we passed 600 so quickly, and we know that several subscribers print out copies for internal distribution, so the actual number is way above that figure. It is also pleasing to note from the email codes that Format goes to so many countries. The one criticism we've had is that they are tending to get longer. We will try to correct that, while giving the same information.
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Alan Challoner wrote from the UK: "Can you please help with a long-standing problem? I have some databases that were formatted in MS Works 3. I have tried the usual methods to convert them to Access 7 for Win 95, but with no success. Any ideas out there?"
We replied: "If you have Works 3 or 4, or can get access to a copy, one way might be to create a report in Works that includes all the fields with commas between. You should be able to bring this into any other database program. Any other ideas?"
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Kevin Mack in Australia wrote: "I have received a PM6 file from a customer for printing to my Docutech. I open the files in PM6.52 and print directly to the Docutech. Problem: The customer set the files up to print to a PCL printer and used the toolbar text attributes to set some headings and some words within certain paragraphs to "underline". The underline is too close to the text and too thin. The heading are easy to fix but the text within paras is time-consuming. I would like to re-define the underline to a more suitable line (like I used to do in Ventura) but can't find any way to do it in the PM documentation. Any ideas?"
We replied: "Underline is on my 'never use' list, so hopefully you can persuade the client to use italic or bold. Then you could do Search and Replace for any text with the underlined attribute.
"I haven't come across any way of redefining the underline position, but a script could find the underlined text, highlight it, get its position, and draw a line related to that position. But it wouldn't then move with the text (though you could put it on a separate layer to delete and run again if text moved). This would probably take as long to troubleshoot as to do manually...unless it really is a huge job.
"Maybe K2 will catch up with those nicer aspects of Ventura..."
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The following was from the US, but we've had several similar recently: "I am looking to buy CD ROMs that contain PageMaker templates for newsletters, newspapers, brochures, etc."
In many cases the writers have been unaware that PageMaker includes a range of templates because they are now among the scripts (and that it is advisable to install the fonts which also come with PM to ensure the scripts run properly). However, we would also suggest that most people producing publications want to produce something that is original, and while they may base a publication on either a template, or on another publication they have seen, the changes will be such that you would be hardpressed to see the similarities.
2. ANSWERS
==========
Mike Dickison wrote from New Zealand: "A while ago, Miraz Jordan asked about the name of that backwards-P thing that marks the end of a paragraph. It's called a pilcrow (though I've also seen 'picrow'). The best reference I've found on odd typographic characters is Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style (Hartley and Marks, Vancouver, 1997, 2nd ed.), a book that's well worth tracking down."
We forwarded the information and it seems Miraz and Mike know each other -- once again the Internet world proves to be very small.
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Davis Rowell, who is production manager, with McLeod & Associates in the US wrote following our mention of the Quite Imposing imposition plugin for Acrobat Exchange: "I work for a small publisher creating a variety of booklets with a finished page size of 5.25 x 8.25 inches. We use Quite to impose our pages on 11x17 sheets which we laser print at 1200 dpi. The laserprinted pages are used to create polyester plates (we usually have press runs of 3,000 or fewer books, each book averaging around 40 numbered pages).
"Quite has worked very well for us as a part of our PDF workflow. There are a few technical issues that need to be noted, however. Foremost among them is the absolute requirement that all graphics are in a PDF-friendly format. We have discovered that our .wmf and .cmx graphics (among others) print unpredictably when imposed. They're fine unless they appear on a page that is rotated. It is now our policy to use only .eps and .tif graphics in our workflow. Explaining the delays connected with tracking down all the source files for our graphics and doing a "save as" to a new file format has been an unending source of joy.<g>
"Second, our system has misbehaved when asked to deal with trapping, large files, and files where color-seps are generated simultaneously in one PM print operation. Consequently, we don't trap our spot colors and try to design our way out of the need for so doing; we keep a close watch on file sizes, and we print each color to a separate .pdf file.
"On this last issue, we have a consultant who is watching a German firm that is creating software (I believe it will be a plug-in for Exchange) that should handle color-seps without the need for multiple "prints." When we've had a chance to try it out (when it's written), I'll pass along what we discover.
"Thanks for your publication. You, along with a few others, make it possible to keep up with changes and improvements in our favorite software and our industry without having to spend every waking moment trying to." Details on Quite Imposing are at <http://www.quite.com>
5. ANOTHER LAYOUT PROGRAM
=========================
Users of either PageMaker or Quark XPress may like to take a look at another layout program under a different operating system: "Paste-Up" works under OS/X (which is to be the next Mac OS, just launched in a server version) or under OpenStep and you can find details at:
<http://www.blackholeinc.com/catalog/software/Software/DocumentProcessing/PasteUp.shtml>
Along with all the expected features are:
Paragraph border attributes: lines and fills imported.
Ligatures, hanging punctuation.
Create hanging bullets automatically without tabs.
Embedded graphics: resizable with baseline support.
Copy Attributes transfers object attributes like word spacing, leading, font, and color. On objects copy height, width, location, color.
Auto Flow columns as needed on pages (left, right, all), and link from page to page.
Manual Flow columns can be drawn and linked in any configuration.
Column Layout Panel creates set of linked columns.
Specify column count, margins, gutters, position, and size.
Add or delete columns from master layouts with automatic reflow of text.
Manual column/page break markers.
Headlines resize to fit text as you type.
Create dash patterns for outlined shapes and line segments.
Built-in and custom arrowheads for line termination.
Crop text or any object to a geometric shape; auto-crop tool allows drag-and-drop into crop rectangle.
Graphic Styles (similar in concept to paragraph styles) save frequently used, named combinations of lines, fills, dashes, and arrows.
Forward delete and transpose operations.
User-configurable keymaps to emulate other products.
Page navigator: thumbnail view for easy maneuvering through documents, collapse page ranges, print selected pages, etc
Process markup: adjusts document based on redline and strikeout marked text.
Zoom in/out: 10% to 1600%.
Auto-numbering for lists and outlines, up to ten levels.
Generate four-color separations, including on-screen preview, for all supported PostScript imagesetters.
Autosave interval.
All program messages in easily modified string tables.
User interface (nib) files available for editing.
Of course, not having the operating systems referred to, we haven't been able to check just how well it works.
6. GOING METRIC
===============
It was a joke in the print industry at the time when Britain, and later Australia, went metric... "we used to convert from inches to points and picas, now we convert from millimetres to points and picas."
And so the point, of one-seventysecond of an inch, stayed as the base measurement (well actually it was 1/72.27 inch but John Warnock and Charles Geschke set it at 1/72 inch in PostScript, and the rest of the world followed...well almost.
The French (and many others in Europe), stayed, as they had for centuries with the Didot point which was similarly 1/72nd of another measure, but of the French royal inch which preceded the French adoption of the metric system.
Germany tried to adopt a metric system, with typesizes based on the millimetre, but the world is now dominated by US typgraphic software.
Now there is a new attempt, again which seems to originate in Germany, as part of the well known DIN standards. DIN 16507-2 does away with points, picas, ciceros, inches, and all the rest, and has dimensions which are based on millimetres of line spacing.
So Helvetica 5.0 will mean a font designed for a 5mm line spacing, and baselines of text will neatly align with a millimetre grid.
If you need to add additional line spacing, this will be referred to by descriptions such as Helvetica 5.00/5,25 which means the same font as before but with 0.25mm more baseline skip.
As a guide, font size 2.0 would be close to the present 4pt, 5.0 would be a fraction smaller than the present 10pt, and 10.0 would be a fraction over 20pt.
Have a look at <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/%7Emgk25/metric-typo.html>
7. UTILITIES/UPDATES
====================
We mentioned Trimtxt last issue. Well we'd like to mention it again as it taken a permanent place on our desktop. All that odd formatting you get when you copy from emails or html files -- just copy, click on Trimtxt, click on convert pasteboard, and paste back into your original application. <http://www.richlink.com>
8. HINTS
========
In PageMaker, you can't apply text wrap directly to a text block to make other text wrap around that (such as with a break-out quote), but you can if you "Group" it first. A group can be a single object, including a single text block. Grouping is also useful for keeping captions with pictures, and you can apply text wrap to this group to make text columns run around the pic and caption.
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We were saddened when someone who has had a long involvement with newspapers was among those caught by one of the many internet hoaxes -- the latest version in many cases of the old chain letter. A good clue is to suspect any email which suggests that you pass on copies to everyone you know. Classic hoaxes are those which tug on the heartstrings (to send an email to a child who is dying), or those which warn of some computer disaster, usually a virus that will destroy all your information. In such case it is the mass email, which can bring down servers, which is the "virus". Viruses can infect email attachments (so don't open any from unknown sources), but no one has yet found a way to include a virus in straight text. Most anti-virus software companies have web sites which detail the hoaxes as well as the real viruses, but a useful site, run by the US Department of Energy, is <http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/>. They comment: "We find that we are spending much more time de-bunking hoaxes than handling real virus incidents".
By the way, this page even quotes the classic hoax spoof which starts: "Goodtimes will re-write your hard drive. Not only that, but it will scramble any disks that are even close to your computer. It will recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so all your ice cream goes melty..."
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If you are finding that guidelines on a complex job get confusing, you can create mock guidelines by using rules of any colour on another layer, and making them, or the entire layer, non-printing. You can also stop the layer from showing when you want a clearer screen.
10. LAST WORD
=============
"If you have an apple and I have an apple... and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still have one apple each. But, if you have an idea, and I have an idea... and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." - George Bernard Shaw
====================