CONTENTS
========
1. CATCHING THEM YOUNG
2. PAGETOOLS AND PAGEMAKER
3. EDITING HINTS
4. ADOBE'S STRANGE "AOM" FILES
5. DOWNLOADING EMAIL ATTACHMENTS
6. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
7. UTILITIES/UPDATES
8. HINTS
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
10. LAST WORD
1. CATCHING THEM YOUNG
======================
Many publications suffer from an ageing readership, and there have been many attempts to involve children in newspapers and other publications. The idea is that if you can get children reading newspapers and magazines before they reach teenage, there is a good chance you will get them back in their late teens or twenties.
West Ferry Printers in London started running tours for children soon after starting in 1986 and have now spun off the educational aspect into The Newspaper Education Trust, a registered charity which runs visits and courses for school children plus teacher training days.
We quote from their web site: "We believe it is unique with nearly 2000 Primary and Secondary pupils using our newsroom facility each year. Not only in numbers, but also in the way in which pupils are covering live news stories as they break, (often beating the nationals with their own stories!), the specific curriculum preparation that has been written for teachers before returning with their pupils, and the vast amount of ICT, Literacy and office skills that pupils learn during their day's visit. If you make a telephone call to The NET, it may well be a 10 year old that answers!"
It is a good example of how a newspaper production company has set about involving children and details can be seen at <http://www.the-net.org.uk/index.html>
You can read more about West Ferry Printers, the company which started in 1986 and now prints the Telegraph, the Express, the Star, the Financial Times, the Guardian, and the Observer in London's Docklands, at <http://www.qtiworld.com/news/ferry.html>
They print 3 million copies a day which means that papers have very strict production schedules. For example the Financial Times has an allocation of just 1.5 hours for makeready, printing, collating, and dispatch of 180,000 copies each night with plates scheduled to be ready at 10.40pm each night and the press due to start running 5 minutes later. There are incidentally, special inks to allow for full color printing on pink paper.
2. PAGETOOLS AND PAGEMAKER
==========================
For Windows users of PageMaker, "Harry" has done it. Harry Ewell has found a way to make most of the items in the PageTools plugin work with PageMaker 7.0.
PageTools was formerly marketed by Extensis, but no is longer supported. It gives customizable toolbars and additional plugins which allow scaling of multiple items (including text and graphics), registration marks whereever you like, and even the ability to run simple scripts from buttons.
On Harry's site at: <http://helpfulcenter.com/> there is a PDF (right click to download) which tells in 19 steps (yes, 19 steps -- no one said this was going to be easy) which tells how to get PageBars and many of the other items in PageTools working with the Windows version of PageMaker 7.0
You do have to start PageBars manually (Utilities>Plugins>PageBars) each time you open PageMaker. Some may remember that this was a problem in the original upgrade from PM6 to PM6.5 until the PageTools 2.01 upgrade.
It is too soon to know if there are any dangerous side effects, and I've seen a few messages that parts of the plugin can't find their hooks (leaving odd unnamed buttons on the Taskbar). However some of the plugins then work if you try them a second time or click on the unnamed button and then on the strange ghostly box which appears.
I'd suggest playing with it on non critical work for a while before opening copies of any major jobs.
Anyone like to take up the challenge on the Mac side?
3. EDITING HINTS
================
The biggest need in editing copy is to develop a sense (a sixth sense?) for whose copy can be trusted. There is generally little time to check multiple facts, so I've encouraged sub-editors (US= copyeditors) on small publications to be prepared to throw back any story where they see that even one small fact is wrong.
If the writer can't check that July 23 this year really is a Monday, then how can you trust that a quote or any other fact is correct? As I heard an editor tell a journalist once: "I'm not here to be popular, I'm here to make sure we both have a job next week".
Have an affinity with The Count from Sesame Street -- count everything that can be counted -- such as the number of people in a picture and the number named in a caption.
And, if can still be achieved with the noise of computers, copy editors working in a group environment should still be encouraged to keep up their constant comments on what they are working on.
In the pre-computer world this tended to be a constant mumble about the lack of skill of the reporters. While it seemed as if no one was listening, it was a well developed system by which facts were checked -- if the mumble was correct, it passed through, but if there was an error, someone else would shout across the mumble -- not always with the answer but just an indication that there might be a problem... perhaps a shouted "No" that didn't even seem to interrupt the continuing mumble on his own work from the one who shouted.
Some of the best advice on editing newspapers is at the site maintained by Bill Walsh <http://www.theslot.com>. "The slot" is the inside position on a traditional U-shaped copy-editing table --usually the second position in responsibility, held by the person who makes all the detailed, and usually instant, decisions.
4. ADOBE'S STRANGE "AOM" FILES
==============================
There have been reports of several Adobe applications freezing on computers, often on computers such as notebooks which have been set up for use on a network but which freeze when they are not on a network. Applications such as MacsBug, which indicate the active application at the time of the freeze, have shown AOM as the current application. Disabling AOM has reportedly ended the freezes. MacFixIt reported: "Adobe confirmed to us that this is a potential issue with AOM that they are working to fix."
However others have reported that if you try to prevent AOM from working by deleting it (and associated files), you will disable all ability of Adobe applications to access the Internet.
But what does AOM do? Adobe has stated that AOM only fills in the registration details when registration is carried out online: "It is not an anti-piracy device, as some users have suggested."
AOM stands for Adobe Online Manager. It coordinates the online interaction between Adobe products when a user selects Adobe Online or Updates/Downloadables.
MacFixIt suggests that, if you are concerned about Adobe getting this info, you can supposedly block it by deleting the following files from the Web folder: AOM, AdobeOnline Inventory, Adoberegistrationenu.html, and AdobeWeb.dll. Similar files exist on Windows installations.
However Adobe state: "We highly suggest not removing them since these components are critical to functionality of the connectivity, collaboration and support features of the product."
There are small programmer's tool that shows hidden processes. One such utility for the Mac is called ProcDoggie which is available via the developer pages of the Apple web site. In NT the task manager provides similar capabilities.
5. DOWNLOADING EMAIL ATTACHMENTS
================================
Anyone who has taken elementary precautions since the first of the scripting worms will not have suffered from the latest SirCam virus itself -- but may well have suffered from the large number of email attachments which it has caused.
Problems will have ranged from a few extra annoying emails and attachments which have to be deleted to productivity problems such as unwanted attachments coming in when you are waiting for that last minute file for a job which has to be finished tonight.
The virus (actually a worm rather than a virus), worked, as most of these recent ones have done, via MS Outlook, sending an attachment to everyone on the infected computer's address book. The difference this time was that it picked a random file to send, usually from the My Documents folder.
The message was usually on the lines of "I send you this file in order to have your advice" which many ISPs and inhouse technicians have now blocked.
The problem is worst for those on dial-up connections, and for such people it may pay to read the help file for your email program. They all have settings which allow you to download email headers only, so that you can decide which emails to download and which to delete on the server. Some allow you to download messages only without attachments, but in such cases will retain a copy of both on the server until you tell it to delete them.
And for many, telling your mail server to delete them may need doing fairly quickly as many ISPs have limits on mail space, often of around 10MB -- and you don't want your real clients getting "mailbox full" messages, do you?
However, whenever you are in a hurry to receive a file, downloading just the headers -- while it may seem to take longer -- will let you select just the email you really need to get at that moment.
In the long run these worms may be helping us understand how to use the Internet to our best advantage. But it can be a cruel lesson along the way.
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This may also be an opportunity to mention again the file on our website which tells how to use a website for making files available: "Using a web page for file transfer" which you can find at <http://www.worsleypress.com/freestuff.html>. One advantage is that such files usually take half the time to download as they do not have all the excess baggage of being encoded for sending as an email.
6. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
========================
Tom Sarns asked "When we create a CMYK TIFF image in Photoshop 6 with a transparent background, the image has a jagged black background in PageMaker 6.5 Plus. Do you have any idea what might be causing this? Do we have to use the EPS format?"
We replied: PageMaker 6.5 has some problems with transparency in Photoshop6 -- the ability to handle direct placement of current Photoshop and Illustrator files is one of the improved filter features for PageMaker 7. I have experience so far only of seeing Illustrator 9 files with transparency placed in PageMaker 7 and the screen view looks terrible -- but it does seem to print OK.
However, clipping paths in TIFFs from Photoshop 6 seem to come into PM6.5 without problem.
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Craig Faichney replied to Marcye's problem in the last Format: "when you try to lasso with the mouse, you fly off the page.":
"This has been around since version 6.0. I asked the Adobe rep about a fix for 7.0 but he looked rather blank. Obviously, not a problem on his end. Maybe Adobe can shoot me a copy of 7.0 and I'll report back to them? :) As a workaround... do your marquee and let it fly off as much as it wants. Do a Cntrl 0 (that's the zero from the top line of the keyboard) and your art will be centred and highlighted."
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A couple of people reported problems in downloading Thomas Phinney's new file describing the differences between the font formats. The name on the page was updated but the filename reference wasn't. It is now corrected but the direct link is <http://www.worsleypress.com/download/TT_PS_OT.pdf>
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Don Drozdenko in California asked: "How can an accent be placed over a letter? Like the French 'acute' symbol over an e or other letter? Or the two dots over certain letters in German, the "umlaut?"
We replied: On a PC, the Character Map accessory which will probably be accessed from the Start>Programs>Accessories and maybe under System Tools beneath that... or type charmap into the Run box. If you use it often, create a shortcut to charmap.exe which will be in the Windows folder.
When you click on a character in the display it will show the keys to use in the bottom right hand corner -- which will often be an Alt combination. For these hold down the Alt key and while holding it press the other keys on the number key pad. (You may need to check the setting of the NumLock key).
If you are not getting the keys you expect, check the language setting for your keyboard in Control Panel.
On the Mac the desktop accessory Key Caps does the same thing, but not quite so obviously -- you have to press the Shift, Option and Shift with Option to see all the keys. You use modifier keys along with another key to add the accents.
7. UTILITIES/UPDATES
====================
Adobe has issued a revised Photoshop import filter for InDesign which supports Photoshop 6 file import. (The first release of this filter was in faulty archive files, so if you had problems with it, for Mac or Windows, it may now be worth downloading the filter again).
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Extensis promise that a free Adobe Illustrator auto-activation plug-in for Suitcase 10 font manager will be available this month. They have also stated that the carbonized OS X version of Suitcase 10 due to ship later this year, will be free to all registered owners of Suitcase 10.
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An update to Extensis Preflight Pro 2.2 is free to users of 2.0 and 2.1 at <http://www.extensis.com/preflightpro/> The update includes support for Adobe Illustrator 9 files and faster, more detailed inspection of Adobe Acrobat PDF files.
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Callas Software have launched a beta version of "pdfInspektor2", a preflight tool that now includes a wider analysis of PDF files. As well as running as a plugin for Acrobat 4.05 or 5, it can be integrated in the Callas suite of production tools and can run as part of a fully automated production workflow. It ranges in price from US$149 upwards for 3 versions. Windows version available now, Mac version soon. Details at <http://www.callas.de/>
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Adobe PageMaker ColorSync Component Update 7.0 enables you to start Adobe PageMaker 7.0 without receiving the error "The application Adobe PageMaker 7.0 has unexpectedly quit, because an error of type 1,010 occurred. You should save your work in other open applications and restart the computer."
8. HINTS
========
If PageMaker 7 crashes when you try to place or drag in a tagged text file, try replacing the filter with that from PM6.5. Under Windows, the file is pmtagimp.flt (maybe call the file in the PM7 folder something like pmtagimp.old before you do that). The old filter file is 141kb; the new, and faulty one, is 148kb. Some people seem to be experiencing other problems with the text and tagged text import and export filters.
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Microsoft has released a Security Rollup Package (SRP) for Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a that includes the functionality from all security patches released for Windows NT 4.0 since the release of Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a (SP6a). See <http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q299/4/44.ASP>
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While everything is working well with a program, that may be the time to save a copy of the preference files. Then when things play up, and you've checked that it is a prefs problem by deleting the existing prefs, you won't have to spend all that time going through all the options to get back to where you were.
With InDesign, you should also include a copy of the SavedData file; this is reputed to include palette state information. If you save a copy of the SavedData file when you have just set things up as you want them it can be just a few kilobytes. The file can grow to megabytes.
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In Windows a crash in PageMaker and maybe some other programs stating that there is a "Kernel32" illegal operation problem can be caused by an install of Acrobat 5. Document 325876 in the Adobe knowledge base apparently has the answer -- it's to do with a couple of seldom used files, and there are now some updated files to solve the problem -- or for many, they can just be deleted.
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Mac users of OS X will be using the "Classic" environment of OS 9.1 for some time, and will presumably continue to put files on their Desktop. But then you switch to the other OS and they aren't there. Where are they? Well, there are two "Desktop folders". The OS 9 desktop files will be in a root level Desktop folder while the OS X Desktop folder will be inside a folder called Users. You may want to create aliases for each.
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Another PageMaker 7 upgrade hint: If you use many printer styles, copy your printer styles file to the new program's folders.
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
=========================
If you are looking for printer drivers the new site name is: <http://DriversGuide.com>. It does require joining but is free and has a database of drivers for all platforms.
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There are useful links and tips on newsletter production at <http://deezin.com/newsl.html>, the Graphic Design Resource Center.
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If you are looking for comparison information on laser printers, large-format inkjets, digital cameras, scanners etc. it may be worth looking at the set of web sites operated by FLAAR. Their sites include <http://www.laser-printer-reviews.org/> and <http://www.wide-format-printers.org/> The information seems a little patchy and the sites are described as "Organized by the Digital Imaging Technology Center, a department of F.L.A.A.R., a non-profit research institute dedicated to digital photographic technology. F.L.A.A.R. has offices in St Louis, Missouri, Guatemala, and Essen, Germany."
10. LAST WORD
=============
We read that at the recent Book Tech West convention in the US, a scientist from XeroxPARC, talking about the future of reading. He mentioned that Xerox now has a machine that turns a pdf file into a printed, perfect bound book in 1 minute. Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) originated the interface we now know so well on Mac or Windows, the mouse as we know it, the basis of the PostScript printer language, the page layout program and so much more. You may also note that these are usually now considered to have come from other companies -- Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, etc.
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Lorem Ipsum is the generic nonsense text for filler purposes (supposedly it ensures that the viewer concentrates on evaluating a layout rather than actually reading the dummy articles). However, if you are satisfied with less esoteric matter and are creating it in MS Word, try typing this on a line by itself:
=RAND(4,3)
You can vary the paragraph and sentence figures to suit.
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.
====================