CONTENTS
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1. CONSIDERING XP
2. A CHANGE FOR FORMAT
3. THE LOOK OF NEWSPAPERS AND NEWSLETTERS
4. QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS
5. UTILITIES/UPDATES
6. HINTS
7. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
8. LAST WORD
1. CONSIDERING XP
=================
Many Windows users will be considering a move to Windows XP and from early reports it seems that Microsoft has produced an operating system that works well and is stable in its version 1.0 release.
But, as mentioned before, we have reservations about any system which requires the user to apply to the software company for permission to continue using the system and again after major hardware upgrades or to reinstall.
We have however seen the version that does not make these demands -- the version which will be available to major companies and to computer makers. It has not taken long for this version to escape into the wild, and while we abhor software piracy, many owners of a legal version would not mind having an additional copy that makes fewer demands and which can bring peace of mind should a reinstall become necessary.
There are also concerns about a lack of online security within XP, reputed to have been explained by the many Windows 9x legacy applications would fail to operate within a secure environment. Campaigning programmer Steve Gibson (who was instrumental in getting Iomega to admit their "click of death" Zip drive problems) says there is a simple solution. Anyone considering a move to XP should read the info on his site: <http://grc.com>
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Incidentally, an "official" comment from an Adobe person is that there should be no problems running InDesign, or any Adobe programs likely to be run in conjunction with that, under XP, but that you should "do a clean Windows XP install after backing up your data and then reinstall all applications" if you are updating from Windows 9x. There was an additional comment that "Microsoft's updater really does not do an adequate job of fixing things up for that massive an update" which seems a good guide. We've confirmed that this can be done with the upgrade version but you do need to have your Win98 CD handy.
2. A CHANGE FOR FORMAT
======================
We are now using new list management software to mail Format and to keep track of subscribers. This runs on our hosted web server rather than on a separate list server, and so it becomes easier to sign on and off from our web site -- at <http://www.worsleypress.com/format> (or from almost any page on our web site).
Doing it this way also ensures that a subscriber's email address is correctly listed -- you subscribe and instantly an email is sent to your address. Click on the link in that email and subscription to the newsletter is confirmed.
We sent a brief message to everyone listed by the previous list server and found that while the old one was very good at subscribing people, it wasn't so good at unsubscribing them -- which explains why our number of subscribers has dropped. We thought we had passed the 2000 mark. In fact we are still around 200 short.
Please note therefore that all references to format at lists.best.com are no longer valid.
For those interested, the software we are using is Mojo Mail by Justin Simoni <http://mojo.skazat.com/>
Incidentally, we have changed the look of our worsleypress.com site, but are still working on that.
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3. THE LOOK OF NEWSPAPERS AND NEWSLETTERS
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A comment on the InDesign list that it would be "an outstanding newspaper" which would make use of the excellent typography of InDesign" brought a spirited response from Adobe's "Western fonts" manager, Thomas Phinney.
He stated: "I couldn't disagree more. One of the main features of newspaper typography is that they do justified text in quite short line lengths, leading to nasty 'rivers' of white space and hard-to-read text. InDesign's multi-line composer is ideal for significantly reducing this problem and improving the readability of almost any newspaper.
"There are other type considerations that newspapers would like, when one considers what's been shown for a future version of InDesign -- notably automatic real fractions with OpenType fonts."
Our own reaction was that newspapers generally don't have the time to correct things in the deadline hours other than ones which will cause legal problems or which make them look stupid. But that doesn't mean they don't put a lot of effort into planning that their product looks better.
I've heard from a number of very small newspaper publishers who want to achieve the kind of typesetting which InDesign offers. For several the decision has been to get a copy, but to defer general introduction until the general upgrading of computers means they will have it operating at least as quickly as their present software.
Unfortunately the hardware renewal cycle is being extended -- and extended. If the upgrade cycle was as it appeared to be when InDesign was being created, they'd all be using it by now. As it is, I'd put it 2 to 3 years away. These are mostly weeklies or twice-weeklies publishing from one paper upwards, plus a few monthlies. The largest has 20+ papers in three production locations. They aren't all in Australia.
As an example of a detail -- I saw examples of proofs marked by an editor who wanted no broken words to end a paragraph. I pointed out that would mean virtually every page having to be reproofed, or suggested I could write a script to make every last word of a para non-breaking. I added a quote not only for my cost (very small) but an estimate for the time it would take to run on every page of every paper. The compromise was that if a page has to be reproofed anyway, he can mark the cosmetic changes, but the production manager has the right to override them.
I recall the editor of a Sunday paper I once worked on commenting after the early, country edition was out "Well, we made it -- now let's turn it into a newspaper". (He was also heard to remark after one edition: "They should have kept the trees", but that's another story).
4. QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS
=========================
Susan Dang asked: "After looking at your website it seems you guys might be the only ones who can help me with my questions about PaceMaker 6.5's build booklet command. I have several images in the booklet which are stretched across 2 pages. Whenever I do the build booklet command, these images /and or their text appears in the wrong place in the new booklet. I have tried locking them, grouping them, and everything else but it does not work correctly!"
We replied: We've seen Build Booklet duplicate a graphic which crosses the page boundary and crop it correctly on each of the booklet pages -- but more often it gets this wrong.
It is almost always easier, and more reliable to do this part of the job manually...copy and power paste the graphic on top of itself. Then crop one half to one side and the one beneath to the other side, perhaps cropping in a bit too far and readjusting when the booklet has been made.
It may seem a lot of work, but the plugin still saves time over trying to do it manually.
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Jenni Tombilson wrote from New Zealand: "I am contacting you as a last resort! For 8 years now I have used PageMaker to produce our fortnightly newspaper in various versions without a hiccup but now I am using 6.5 and am having a problem on one of my computers printing. We print to a LaserJet 5000N and AgfaStudioset 2000 and it has been fine with this version for 18 months. I use L330 Linotronic Drivers and Agfastudioset PPDs.
"Out of the blue the job goes so far into the Laserprint and them just drops it. My other computer which uses same setup prints okay and is apparently set up identically. I use a lot of linked graphics which have not caused too much trouble till now. Have you any ideas what could be the problem?"
We replied: We've seen similar problems on Windows systems under Win2000 which are claimed to be solved with PM7, but I've also seen the same caused under later versions of Win98 and under some driver-OS combinations on the Mac. There seem to be two directions to look:
-- it could be worth checking what postscript driver is in use, with preference for the AdobePS driver over Microsoft ones (even though Adobe wrote most of the latest MS postscript driver) if you are using Windows. It is possible to install multiple drivers, though they are then hard to keep track of.
-- the other route is to see if a particular graphic or font is the cause (even though they may have worked perfectly with previous driver-OS-PM combinations). When you have a page which refuses to print, try deleting half and then half again until you can isolate an item which is the cause. Sometimes you'll need to try different combinations because, for example, a large graphic late in the postscript flow can cause problems whereas it'll print if early in the flow.
It can even be worth trying combinations of printing with "optimised subsampling" (not usually recommended) or even "omit images", just to see what happens.
Other things to try include another PPD, turning on the "include postscript error handler" in the print dialog (the PS error codes can occasionally mean something you can understand and it can be worth seeing if you can create a PDF of a problem page. (I've done that as last resort before now -- made a PDF, sometimes of only part of a page, and placed that back in PM).
We've seen such a problem caused by the PPD being set as if there is more memory in the printer than is actually available.
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Karl Grabowski wrote: "First, I am looking for a program called Tableau made by Publishing Revenue Partners. This program is no longer in production but it looks like it is just what I need for my upcoming publication. It's a classified advertising manager for the Macintosh platform.
"Second, If you can't help me in finding this program I was wondering if there was a good alternate choice for this. It has to be inexpensive and can be available for the Mac or PC (I use PCs more than Macs)."
We replied: We've been involved in the links between several ad booking systems and output to PageMaker but most are in the multiple thousand dollar price range.
However, you might like to look at <http://www.ezypublish.com> -- a system for a few hundred dollars designed mainly for a realty publication here in Australia because the owner of the publication could not find anything else around that he could afford, though it does require a PC for the input (the resulting scripts can be run on either platform).
In Format No. 21 <http://www.worsleypress.com/format/format21.htm> there's mention of a problem with creating tagged text for QuarkXPress (from an ASCII text file) but which may give some thoughts on using output from a standard database. The same ideas can apply to PageMaker or InDesign tagged text.
We've had several queries on classified booking systems and, basically, the answer seems to be that most people have cobbled together systems using Access or FoxPro or similar because the commercial systems don't do what they want or because they are too expensive.
If anyone knows about Tableau, or of other systems such as AccountScout which we have been unable to find, please let us know.
5. UTILITIES/UPDATES
====================
QuarkXPress isn't the only program that puts potentially dangerous commands next to often used innocuous ones -- such as Go To Page (Command J) being next to Command K which is "Delete selected item" and you can remap the keys with something like QuicKeys. However you may also like to look at LiveKeys at <http://www.badiaxt.com/livekeys.html> which not only remaps the keys but updates the entries in the QXP menus. It is available for Mac or Windows and costs US$39.99 with a 280kb demo download available.
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Wondering about the new four-digit Pantone colors which aren't available in the swatches of, for example, QXP or the latest version of Illustrator 9 among many other programs? There's more info at: <http://www.pantone.com/support/>
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Image Info 0.8b1 is an AppleScript library which returns information about image files without loading the whole image into memory. It returns the info very quickly and gives resolution, width, height and color mode of a dozen common image file types, including TIFF, JPEG, PICT and GIF. Scripts can be written using Image Info to quickly find images which have a color mode of RGB, or list images which have a low resolution, and more. It's 52kb. From Kanzu. <http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=12265&db=mac>
6. HINTS
========
& If you have a problem graphic it can be useful to look at the file in a text editor, as most graphics files include some text saying what the format is. Best to work on a copy of the file just in case you accidentally save the file in the program.
Anne Smith suggested that this procedure can also be useful when you have a file that you KNOW is, say a PDF, but it just won't open with Acrobat or Illustrator. Open it instead in a text editor and look at the beginning string of characters. PDF files should always begin with "%PDF-".
If the file doesn't begin with "%PDF-", then search for that string and, once found, delete all the characters preceding it. Then save the file (as text) and try to open again. Usually that will work.
The same idea may work with PostScript files which should always begins with "%!PS-Adobe-3.0" though it may be a different number).
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PageMaker users are often told that "you can move from version to version (within one platform) or you can cross platform (if the version numbers match exactly), but not both at the same time".
However PM7 to PM6.5 is the exception to this. If you go via the File>Open route you can *usually* open a PM7 file in PM6.5 on either the same platform or the other one. And you can open a PC version of a PM6.5 file from PM7 on a Mac and vice-versa.
7. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
=========================
We have mentioned before the site for info on postscript errors: <http://users.belgacom.net/prepresspanic/database/solveerror.htm>.
There is also now a page for info on the error message "undefined", at <http://users.belgacom.net/prepresspanic/database/undefined.htm>
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Two members of the PageMakr List have compiled a guide to color management in PageMaker. The PDF from Scott Oswald and Rick Dumont covers color fundamentals, color management basics, and finally its application in Adobe PageMaker. You'll find it at: <http://www.makingpages.org/pagemaker/tips/> then click on the link for PageMakr_CMS.pdf It's a 2.75MB download.
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Here is a site that has an online calculator for characters per pica for many of the standard PS typefaces: <http://www.gtsgraphics.com/cppd/cpp.html>.
8. LAST WORD
============
Conversation overheard as a local dealer was trying to help a customer: "No, I don't want you to do that yet. ... First we'll check the .... No, before you do that, I want to .... [sigh] I really wish you hadn't done that."
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.
====================