CONTENTS
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1. OPEN TYPE ON ITS WAY
2. NEW BOOK ON MAGAZINE PRODUCTION
3. ADOBE PS DRIVER UPDATE FOR WINDOWS
4. OH YES THERE IS (ACROBAT FOR CE)
5. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
6. XTENSIONS/PLUGINS/SCRIPTS
7. UTILITIES/UPDATES
8. HINTS
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
10. LAST WORD
1. OPEN TYPE ON ITS WAY
=======================
We've read that the first releases of OpenType fonts by Adobe will be out "within a few weeks" coinciding with a free update of Adobe Type Manager to work with them. You will finally be able to go cross-platform with the same font files. It will be a while before full font libraries are available in this format but they will be able to be used with applications other than InDesign (which came with one example of the font). Windows 2000 has OpenType support built-in.
One other aspect of OpenType: submit a PC-produced file on a Mac-formatted disc and most of those so-called service bureaus who complain of problems with PC files won't be able to tell the difference.
2. NEW BOOK ON MAGAZINE PRODUCTION
==================================
This is an unashamed plug. We've just published the third edition of my book "How to Start and Produce a Magazine". As the previous edition was nine years ago, it was beginning to look a little dated. As well as general advice on page production it covers much more on planning, organisation, distribution, selling and an overview of the legal side. The title has been changed slightly to "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter" but it still has much of interest to anyone producing any kind of regular publication. It costs A$38.50 plus A$3.50 postage in Australia, A$35 plus A$12 postage to the US and Canada and A$35 plus A$13 to Europe. To Format subscribers there is a A$5 discount.
For those in the US this is a good time to be buying from Australia: the conversion has dropped from 65 Aussie cents to 57 cents to the US dollar in recent months. We accept Visa, Mastercard and AmEx and delivery to the US (and most parts of the world) takes only about 7 days. (The record is 3 days to a small town in Ireland!) Fuller details are on out web site: <http://www.worsleypress.com/pubprod/Magbook.htm>
3. WARNING ON NEW ADOBE PS DRIVER FOR WINDOWS
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Adobe recently posted a new Windows version of their postscript driver, but there are some problems with it if you are creating PDFs which use the "base 35" fonts commonly available in laserprinters. This has led to Adobe issuing the following notice:
"If you have not installed AdobePS 4.4 to date, we recommend that you DON'T do so at this time. If you have installed AdobePS 4.4, either from the web site or as part of a FrameMaker 6.0 installation AND if you are creating PDF files that use any of the Base 35 fonts, we recommend that you delete the AdobePS 4.4 printer instances and reinstall the AdobePS 4.3.1 driver ASAP.
"Within the next three to four weeks, Adobe will be updating ATM to version 4.1.1 that will fix this problem. An updater for ATM Deluxe 4.0 to ATM 4.1.1 will be made available as will a 'free' version of ATM Lite 4.1.1. We will also be updating this universal Windows driver installer to version 1.0.1 that will include AdobePS 4.4.1 that has some additional fixes."
The older 4.3.1 driver has been reposted on the Adobe web site at <http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/pdrvwin.htm>
There's a full explanation in the Adobe user-to-user forums, available from <http://www.adobeforums.com/> or linked from the main Adobe web site, in the printer driver section. You can log on as a guest without having to register if you only want to view the messages.
4. OH YES THERE IS (ACROBAT FOR CE)
===================================
Last issue we said in answer to a question from Martin in Sweden: "We don't think there is an 'Acrobat for CE'."
It seemed that within minutes we were being corrected, though in our favour we can say that it is very new. Details of a PDF viewer for Windows CE are at <http://www.ansyr.com>. Our thanks to Mike Mallett from Reading in the UK, Janez Lovsin, from Ljubljana, Slovenia, and Kate Binder and Don Fluckinger, Editors of PDFzone.com, whose replies we passed on.
Kate and Don commented: "What perfect timing for this question -- an 'Acrobat for CE' has just been released. For more information on PDF technology, your readers might want to check out PDFzone.com. We track the latest events, software releases, and techniques for PDF users in the areas of prepress, e-paper, document management, e-commerce, and web development -- pretty much the entire spectrum!"
We fully endorse that comment: PDFZone is a resource to be consulted any time you have a PDF query.
Incidentally, Ansyr is also developing a PDF reader for the Palm OS.
5. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
========================
Another of those questions we couldn't answer: Tim Hufler said that many years ago at a printing related trade show he met Suzan Reed who was selling a collection of 1000+ stationary related PageMaker templates for print shops.
We've heard of this collection of templates but a web search failed to find any trace. Can anyone help?
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Bob Markey II wrote: "I'm just learning the Harris newspaper pagination system and I wonder if you know of any Web sites or mailing lists that can help."
We suggested: The Harris system seems to be typical of the dedicated pagination systems in that information and training seems to be available only via the company itself, though they may have their own accredited training agents.
An alternative may be to approach some of the newspapers which have the system installed -- which the company lists in their news releases that are available on their web pages at <www.harrisessnews.com>.
I'd be interested to hear of experiences with the system.
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In answer to Carlos Vidal of Spain who wondered if there is any way to drive a Linotype CRTronic 300 series film typesetter from a PC or Mac, Mike Mallett wrote from the UK to say that he "heard years ago that it was possible to get Linotronics upgraded with a serial port to work with computers, possibly for around UKP3000."
6. XTENSIONS/PLUGINS/SCRIPTS
============================
Richard Roberts of GalleyMaster Software has produced a new mail merge and database publishing plug-in for PageMaker. Called MergeMaster he says is much easier to use than his previous GalleyMaster. The new plug-in is called MergeMaster.
You put the field name from a database between delimiters in your PageMaker document <<FieldName>> like that, and the data will be merged into your PageMaker document. You can also merge graphics by using a different delimiter [[GraphicFileName]] like that. There are also other delimiters that format PostNet barcodes with checkdigits and special formatting characters, and another that lets you to import text files as a field.
MergeMaster also goes beyond simple mail merge operations with its PivotMerge feature. In a normal merge operation you would merge one database record per page but with PivotMerge you can merge up 200 records per page. This would allow more complex documents like school yearbooks and product catalogs.
There is a demo version at <http://www.galleymaster.com> which has the unusual limitation of not merging any vowels (they are replaced by asterisks). As the site states, you can purchase unlimited vowels for $99.
7. UTILITIES/UPDATES
====================
We're told that Marc Moini's Smart Scroll 3.7b1, from <http://www.marcmoini.com> is a cure for that uncontrollable scrolling in some programs on the Mac -- where moving the cursor off the screen sends everything into free fall. It's available as a 12-day free demo and cost US$12. One hint: If you use a Logitech mouse with Smart Scroll, put a space in front of the Smart Scroll control panel name before you drop it into the system folder.
8. HINTS
========
If you are using a Mac with OS8.6, and having trouble importing PDFs into PageMaker, don't forget that this is one of the problems the Font Manager update is said to solve. It's on the Apple web site.
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To those who need a dongle with a Quark program (common outside the US), we understand that a USB key is now a standard issue with Passport, the multi-language version of XPress. We understand there is now an option for exchanging an ADB for a USB dongle, for versions 4.1 and on.
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QX Layers seems to be a QuarkXPress extension that, when used on a file, can prevent InDesign from opening the file. If you delete the layers and re-save the Quark file, you can use InD v.1.5 to open the Quark document.
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Here's a way to get mixed styles in the same paragraph in PageMaker. Create the paragraph as two paragraphs, applying separate styles for each section. Then change both paragraphs to "No style" and delete the carriage return between them. A strange character, not used elsewhere in the document used at the end of the first para each time could let you do the carriage return deletion automatically using Find/Replace. But it is that change to "No Style" which is the key. And it works as long as the first para in each set is changed to "No Style". Not quite "character styles" but very close!
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
==========================
We mentioned VTC Online University <http://www.vtc.com/> and their 12,000 software tutorials last issue. Its likely the proportion of sales to free downloads was not sufficient because they have now changed to a system where you can download the first three lessons, but have to pay $25 a month for full access. They still look to be reasonable value.
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And just another mention that the Format web site is now <http://www.worsleypress.com/format> and there is no longer a need to type ".htm" after "format". We've started planning a search engine for the site but don't expect to see it for a couple of months.
10. LAST WORD
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Received in our email:
"This virus works on the honor system: Now that you have received this virus, please forward this message to everyone in your address book and delete a bunch of your files at random. Thank you, The Virus."
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.
====================