1. ...AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
2. QUARK PAVES WAY WITH 4.1
3. UPDATED PAGEMAKR WEBSITE
4. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
5. XTENSIONS/PLUGINS/SCRIPTS
6. UTILITIES/UPDATES
7. HINTS
8. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
9. LAST WORD
1. ...AND A PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
===============================
We missed the opportunity to send Christmas greetings, but are just in time to wish our readers all the best for 2000.
Our network here (WinNT, Win95, iMac and an ancient 486) has been thinking it is January 1 or 2, 2000, for the past week, and, so far, all has worked normally. We had updated our accounts software, but little else, though we do generally take advantage of patches and updates as they are issued.
The surprise was the 486 running Win 3.11 with a 1990 BIOS which we were quite prepared to dump, but which has been useful in answering occasional queries about PageMaker 5 and similar ancient but still worthy software. Changing it in DOS mode with the date function it asked for the date in dd/mm/yy format and refused to accept 01/01/00 saying it was an invalid date. So we typed in 01/01/2000, and all was well.
2. QUARK PAVES WAY WITH 4.1
===========================
Quark appear to have taken a leaf out of Adobe's book by sending the latest update to XPress out on CD to all registered users, complete with free Xtensions and trial versions of other software. If you have QXP 4 and don't receive the CD within the next week or so, then contact your local Quark office.
At a time when Adobe have moved, with InDesign, to the old Quark model, it has been generally well received on the newsgroups and mailing lists by an often critical user base.
The new, free XTensions include: Custom Bleeds, Dejavu, GIF Import, Guide Manager, Quark HTML Text Export, Quark HTML Text Import, PDF Filter, Scissors, and Super Step and Repeat. (Beta versions of some of these have been available on the Quark website; those on the CD are the release versions).
There are other free XTensions from third party developers -- but be a little careful. Some of these are demo XTensions that turn the entire program into demo mode, meaning that any documents you open in demo mode won't be openable in regular operating mode.
Quark have also been quick to acknowledge some problems and have issued workaround hints to problems such as not being able to draw picture or text boxes, lines or bezier shapes, if certain XTensions are loaded (due to the XTensions being "locked" under Mac OS9), and to delays in some functions when many fonts are loaded (deactivate fonts not used in the document).
3. UPDATED PAGEMAKR WEBSITE
===========================
There are at least a couple of useful new additions to the "PageMakr List" web site:
"Footnotes in PageMaker" <http://www.makingpages.org/pagemaker/tips/footnote.html> discusses one way to place footnoted in PageMaker and introduces Jonathan Bessel's NoteMaker script which helps manage footnote references.
"Troubleshooting Damaged PageMaker Documents" <http://www.makingpages.org/pagemaker/tspmdoc.html>. This includes sections on prevention and recovery, and has links to download Olav Kvern's "Object Recorder" scripts that help you rebuild a document. They are "beta" scripts in the sense that Ole has promised an improved version. They work by copying the attributes of?each object, so they don't take over any corruption, but that means they can be a little slow, and they work a page at a time. They are also not documented (except inside the code). Try them on a good document to get a feel for·them before you need them.
4. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
========================
Allan Bock wrote from Newfoundland, Canada: "We operate a community newspaper and a commercial printing facility in a rural area. We have purchased a refurbished Heidelberg GTO and have to make an investment on our front end. We want to be as efficient as possible, but still get good quality work out of our new press. We read with interest Ewald Wuschke's comments in the recent Format newsletter about his experiences with Xante. Is Xante the only way to go? We have heard that they have worked out the problems, but others aren't so sure, including company representatives. Is there another way to go? We'd like to hear your suggestions or comments."
We replied: For quality, nothing yet beats output to an imagesetter and making plates from the film. However, that can be expensive, and, even worse for a newspaper, slow -- with particular problems if pages are incomplete either because of late material, or because of material being supplied as camera-ready artwork.
This is why some newspapers have gone back to laser-printer output and the process camera (most still had a process camera), even for color.
The system of making plates or film from laser printers seems to be gaining ground, but there are, as you say, conflicting reports... and I've yet to see a satisfactory negative film output. I'll include your comments in the next issue of Format to see if we can get more views.
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Tony asked us: "We have a newspaper publication with coupons and we would like to include the coupons from the paper on our website, and I cannot figure out how to convert the PageMaker files into a file you can use for the Internet. Thanks for your help."
We replied: Two suggestions, neither of which are completely satisfactory:
1. Print to eps files or export to pdf, then rasterise in Photoshop and convert to a gif or jpeg.
2. Use InDesign to open the PageMaker file -- correct the few oddities in spacing, and use that program's HTML export, which does a good job of creating advanced code including layers.
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A PageMaker question which has come up a few times: "Distill Immediately is greyed-out on PDF export?" The only thing to do with it is export PS for later distilling."
There's an Adobe techdoc on this -- No.322159, also called 175b2.html, which is called "Distill Now Is Dimmed in the Export Adobe PDF Dialog Box in PageMaker 6.5x"
There's a long solution (10 steps) and a short one -- the short one is: Install or reinstall Acrobat Distiller to the same hard disk where PageMaker is installed. The Acrobat installer creates an association between Acrobat Distiller and PostScript files.
5. XTENSIONS/PLUGINS/SCRIPTS
============================
ALAP (a lowly apprentice production) have launched version 2.0 of Imposer, an XTension which will impose pages from a single QuarkXPress document into 2 up or 4 up flats. Unlike other solutions it does not rearrange or shuffle pages in a document - rather reordering is handled in the print stream. It gives control over bleed, creep, and crossover traps. Available for both Mac and Windows platform at US$199.99. More information at <http://www.alap.com>
6. UTILITIES/UPDATES
====================
If you have a G3 Mac which goes to sleep and won't wake up, the answer may be the G3 CD Update 2.0 which installs new firmware on certain 24x CD-ROM drive mechanisms to ensure correct sleep and wakeup behavior. It replaces G3 CD Update 1.0, and is meant for use on Power Macintosh G3 models with internal CD-ROM drives.
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Need to work out the check digit on an ISSN or ISBN number, and then the check digit on the resulting barcode? John Owen Smith of Headley Downs in the UK has a simple Excel spreadsheet which does both calculations. It's at <http://www.headley1.demon.co.uk/self-p.htm>
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Despite reports to the contrary Suitcase 8 is compatible with Mac OS 9, except for one component: the MenuFonts control panel. Extensis recommends that it be disabled.
7. HINTS
========
Adobe type expert Thomas Phinney points out that for full control of type InDesign needs OpenType fonts, and that it does not grab additional ligatures from Expert sets. So if you want more than the two ligatures built into most fonts, even if under Windows, they are not usually available, you'd need to use OpenType fonts, or put 'em in manually. InDesign does however hook into small caps fonts in the same family (algorithmically), to get real small caps.
He adds that "The "oldstyle figures" formatting option is intended for OpenType fonts, and doesn't do anything with Type 1 fonts. However there's a fun trick to get oldstyle figures for some Type 1 fonts: if the small caps font also has oldstyle figures, applying the "small caps" formatting to the numbers will make them oldstyle".
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To simulate power paste on an InDesign page don't use Step-and-Repeat, press Option-Right arrow/Alt-Right arrow and then press Left arrow. This creates a clone of the selected object exactly on top of the original object.
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We can't really vouch for this, but it has been reported that if you are having trouble launching existing applications under the new Mac OS9, you might try changing the large system font via the Appearance Control Panel to Chicago.
8. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
=========================
For lots of useful information on scanning, check out <http://www.scantips.com>
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Anyone who uses Ventura Publisher could do worse than consider taking a break for a week in San Diego next September. Rick Altman's Corel World will be there. The first half of the week is all about Draw and Paint, the second half of the week is all Ventura Publisher. See <http://www.altman.com/>
9. LAST WORD
============
Canadian newspapers are moving away from US spelling: The latest edition of The Canadian Press _"Caps and Spelling" which we're told is the style guide of choice for most if not all Canadian newspapers states: This edition also marks a significant change in CP style for words such as colour, favour and others of more than one syllable in which the "u" is not pronounced. Throughout its history, The Canadian Press has spelled such words without the "u". Starting with this edition of Caps and Spelling, CP moves to the 'our' style to reflect the spelling taught in most Canadian schools and preferred by many readers.
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Type the word MILLENNIUM (all caps, double N) in your wordprocessor. Select the word and change the font to WingDings. For those not at the right kind of machine, you get a series of skulls, sad faces, and bombs. In comparison, Dingbats looks positively ... well, starry.
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.
====================