CONTENTS
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1. ON THE STRANGER SIDE
2. TWENTY YEARS OF ADOBE
3. HOW DO YOU KNOW A DESIGNER?
5. NEW NISUS WRITER SHOWS WAY
6. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
7. UTILITIES/UPDATES
8. HINTS
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
10. LAST WORD
1. ON THE STRANGER SIDE
=======================
Perhaps it's the season, but in the past couple of weeks we seem to have read more than the usual number of serious items which seem a little strange.
Among them was the issue by Adobe of a 2.0.2 update to InDesign, and then the withdrawal a day later when it was discovered that an unintended consequence of the Windows version was that it deleted all the Help files. (So that the few people who managed to use the update before it was pulled were not forced to reinstall version 2.0 and then the original 2.0.1 update, the Adobe download site now includes a large selection of replacement sets of Help files in various languages). See <http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=31&platform=Windows>
In another of those "don't ask why" explanations, here is the answer from an Adobe expert to a problem with pasting from Word in InDesign 2.0.2: "This is a known issue. If you experience this paste issue after installing the InDesign 2.0.2 Update, then follow the steps below:
1. Quit InDesign
1. Open InDesign 2.0 folder\Plug-ins\Filters\Sangam Readers\
2. Drag the ZTxtRdr.smrd file to your Desktop
3. Drag the ZTxtRdr.smrd file back to it's original folder
4. Launch InDesign
(and yes, the instructions did include two steps numbered "1" -- as we said, it must be the time of year).
Incidentally, the "trick" by some users of saving the preference files before an update so they can be restored afterwards is not recommended with the 2.0.2 update on either platform. You just have to accept that after the update some preferences will have been reset to their default. Adobe say they are working on this issue for future updates.
Things fixed by the 2.0.2 update when you can get it include that InDesign should no longer quit while launching on Mac OS X if AutoProtect is enabled in Norton AntiVirus software, and that, on Mac OS X version 10.2.x, Undo and Quit options should function correctly after dragging a file from the Finder or another application over an InDesign document window.
Also, text formatting should be discarded when placing Microsoft Excel, Word and RTF documents if the 'Retain Format' option is deselected in the Place dialog, and InDesign should no longer interrupt while drawing objects on screen when the space bar shortcut is used to navigate in a document. The size of the resultant PostScript file should be reduced when generating PostScript files (by exporting pages as EPS files, printing to a PostScript printer, or saving as a PostScript file), if the document contains text that interacts with transparency.
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How do you get a character count in a QXP document. There seem to be some roundabout ways, such as one suggestion to "save your Quark document to a PDF, open the PDF in Acrobat, set View to Continuous, Select all, Paste into a Word document, go to Tools>Word Count (which also reveals the number of characters).
Another suggestion was: On a Mac I'd tell you can paste the following into 'Script Editor'
tell application "QuarkXPress 4.11"
display dialog ("You have " & (length of (every character of every
text box of every page of document 1 as string)) as string) & " chars"
end tell
and click the 'Run' button, but, as the question was from someone on Windows the suggestion was to get someone with a Mac to do this.
Yet another proposal was "When you spell check a document Quark first shows a box with a word count? Does this help for what you need? I don't know how to count characters, however."
2. TWENTY YEARS OF ADOBE
========================
That Adobe Systems has been in existence for 20 years really marks the completion of 20 years in Desktop Publishing. Until that event, DTP, as it was to become known many years later, was really a number of black boxes -- complete systems locked away from any changes. Even when John Warnock and Charles Geschke, the creators of PostScript, started Adobe, they still saw themselves producing a complete package, with the system integrated with laser printing machinery. But three months after they started, according to John Warnock in a 1985 interview, they realised that the days of the big machines could be ending. The pair realised that "all the major computer companies were interested in laser printing" and that while they were all trying to integrate the text and the graphics, they weren't having a great deal of luck." He added: "Our company knew how to do that."
But he also saw that the real breakthrough was when Mergenthaler and Adobe agreed that the Linotronic film typesetting machines would be compatible with the "ultra cheap" 300dpi Apple LaserWriter (itself made possible when Canon dropped the price of their CX laser engine which was inside it). The LaserWriter cost about US$7000, but compare that to the first laser printer, from Xerox, which, in 1978, cost US$500,000.
Those quotes come from an article (by me) from PC Update magazine <http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/2211/2211article3.htm>. For a very personal view on the history of DTP, you may like to see my "DTP I gave you all the Best Years of my Life" at <http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/2211/2211article10.htm>
And if there was any doubt about it, the Adobe Annual Earnings Conference report made it clear that PDF is now the main income source for Adobe. It also made the first public references to a product called "Acrobat Lite" intended for major users with "pilot" installations of 5000 seats. At the core of Acrobat success in the past year are 2500-plus installations of Acrobat for the US Department of Justice and the Patent and Trademark Office. It also seems that Adobe's layoffs have ended. Though regular employees at the end of the 4th quarter totalled 3319, down from 3557 at the end of the third quarter, the meeting was told that the company is about to embark on a hiring trend "with aggressive hiring plans beginning in Q1." The sales mix of Adobe software was 73% Windows, 27% Mac; Macs gained a point from last quarter. From PDFZone: <http://www.pdfzone.com>
3. HOW DO YOU KNOW A DESIGNER?
==============================
The question was: "I am working with a team that is putting together a magazine for our executives. Yesterday we met with the graphics company and the woman asked us questions about the layout. Since I did not really know what the 'standard' is, I could not offer her anything other than 2 column. I don't know if we should do ragged right or flush right, or what font to choose."
My reply was to suggest that for someone to ask questions like this they are trying to give the impression that "we are the experts, look at how little you know".
Most of my "design" work has been with newspapers rather than magazines, but the question I'd ask is "what kind of impression do you want to give -- upmarket, influential, busy, reserved, relaxed and so on." The designer is the person who will decide on the numbers of columns, font, type size etc to reflect the kind of answers he or she gets in the discussion.
For example, an organisation may want to have some influential pieces reflecting the views of the future of management or they may want to reflect it as a good place to work or to do business with. Perhaps an answer to achieve this might be some wide open spaces in the front with pictures of the directors and executives at new plants, but to get as many names of customers/staff as possible in the back with multi-column pages with small pics and news of exhibitions, staff functions etc etc.
On the other hand a business may want to show they are interested in their staff and customers and get lots of pics of them up front, and put the technical info at the back.
As a designer I'd also be wanting to know who was going to write the stuff, take the pictures (see some samples -- pro pics can go big, the staff happy snaps will be just as important but may have to be small so they'll reproduce in print at all) etc, and of course I'd want to know what the budget is.
Most firms producing newsletters will also show you some examples of what they have done for others -- or, failing that, some samples they found in their trash of what other firms are doing in other fields. From reactions to these, they'll also be helped to judge what the client wants.
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While looking at the design process, there's an interesting article on CD cover design which would apply almost equally to book cover design, and, to some extent, to magazine covers, written by Carol Wright at <http://home.comcast.net/~carol.wright/design.htm>.
5. NEW NISUS WRITER SHOWS WAY
=============================
Nisus chief Jerzy Lewak seems to have taken a different approach to their forthcoming Mac OS X version, recreating the application afresh with input from another program Okito Composer, which Nisus have bought, though it is not yet certain whether there will be separate text-only and formatted-text products or whether they will be combined. Interestingly, Mr Lewak reports in a MacEdition interview that one problem with OS X has been speed: "One of the serious drawbacks that I am sure everyone is well aware of is the relatively poor responsiveness (speed) of Cocoa applications. We are working hard to overcome this and other problems of OS X and this is the reason we have not yet come out with an OS X version of Nisus Writer."
He added: "We will do our utmost to provide the best possible multilingual support – something that would be much simpler and quicker if Apple had finished their text engine. Bidirectional text support, in particular, is not complete in the current version of the system." He added: "Apple has made a good start at developing very powerful and versatile text handling tools (ATSUI) which we are eager to apply. The problem is that the necessary basic text engine which would save us a lot of time is not quite ready."
MacEdition put a major question of interest to all users when they asked: "What words of advice would you offer to other developers/companies who may be debating a rewrite (Cocoa) versus a port (Carbon)?" His reply: "I don?t think that enough time has passed for my perspective to be good enough to answer this with great conviction. With that caveat, if we can overcome successfully some of the immature aspects of the new system, our path will be vindicated. And of course I have confidence that this will happen. Others who may be considering the two alternative paths must examine the system capabilities to see if they are ready for what they want to achieve. I am biased towards a Cocoa approach because that is the future and is the best way to take advantage of the new system features."
He added: "I think that Apple has made a strategic mistake in not focusing sufficient effort on the development system, even way back when they created Claris. That should have been Claris?s mission. If the development systems on the Apple platform were at least as mature as those on the Windows platform and if they could be used to produce applications on the Windows platform also, there would be no shortage of Macintosh software and we would have released our Cocoa version by now."
From MacEdition <http://www.macedition.com/interviews/int_nisus_20021204.php>
6. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
========================
In answer to a question from Sherry Stinson in Format69, Ralf Köster replied from Germany: "I never did thank you for Format Newsletter, so I take the chance now: Thank you very much! But the main reason I reply is the problem Sherry Stinson is having with importing WORD index references.
"It reminds me to a may be similar problem I once had (with PM6.5 Win): I found out that the maximum total character length of a given index within PM is limited (at least using the import filter). Therefore long indices (which may work in WORD) will make PM index-handling go ill."
Sherry replied: "Thank you so much for doing that! I believe that actually may be the culprit as this index was incredibly huge. Thanks for including it on the list and the help!"
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Another of our subscribers commented: "This is really bugging me! Is there any way to resize a text frame so the text scales with the frame either up or down, using either the direct selection or the selection tool and a keyboard modifier? I have tried every combination and the only thing that works is if I type in a percentage in the transform palette while using the direct selection tool."
We replied: The text scales with the frame when you use the Free Transform Tool to drag on a corner or side node. So, effectively, this is equivalent to selecting the text frame and using the Scale command from the right-click (or option-click) menu. The Free transform tool can be selected by pressing E when not in text editing mode.
7. UTILITIES/UPDATES
====================
Badia Software have released a new XTension for Mac QuarkXPress 4 and 5: Similarity XT.
This is a search and replace engine that allows you to gather items sharing one or more similar attributes and apply global changes to any of the matches found. For example, you can find items that fall into this category: "color is red, shade is less than 50%, and frame is not solid".
You can choose and combine any of the 50 attributes available with conditionals such as "is", "is not" and "is greater than", among others. Similarity returns all the matches found at once, so you know in advance how many and which items answer to your search query. Then you can make global changes to some or all of these items with a click of the mouse.
The XTension costs US$59.99 for a single license. It is for QuarkXPress or QuarkXPress Passport 4.1x/5.x, Mac 8.5 or later.
Details and a demo version are at <http://www.badiaxt.com/similarity.html>
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Epson have issued some new scanner drivers for Mac OS X. You'll find them at <http://www.epson.com> (There are no built-in drivers for Epson Scanner products in Windows XP).
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Imposer Pro is a more powerful version of ALAP's Imposer XTension for QuarkXPress. It supports 8-up printer flats as well as signature sizes up to 128 pages. Additional features include split web, sheetwise binding and multiple units. Details at <http://www.alap.com/>. Price is US$399.99 with upgrades from Imposer 2 at US$199.99.
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Add a 3-button mouse connected via the USB port of a Mac and drive it with the shareware USB Overdrive <http://www.montalcini.com>. Author Alessandro Levi Montalcini describes it as "The USB Overdrive X is a Mac OS driver that handles all USB mouse, trackball , joysticks and gamepads and lets you configure them either globally or on an application-specific basis. It reads all kinds of wheels, buttons, switches and controls and supports scrolling, keyboard emulation, launching and all the usual stuff like clicking, control-clicking and so forth. The USB Overdrive can easily handle several USB devices at once".
The OS9 version is 301kb. He also has an OS X mouse and trackball version running, with support for joysticks and gamepads coming.
8. HINTS
========
On an Apple laptop to use number pad keyboard shortcuts, you have to press the Function key before pressing the number pad key. The Function key should be pressed second from last in the key sequence. For example, to assign the 'Option+Shift+ Number pad 9' shortcut, press the Option and Shift keys then the Function key, then the number pad 9 key.
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For InDesign, there's an "ExportAllStories" AppleScript at <http://share.studio.adobe.com> (Go to the InDesign Scripts section). Many other useful items are to be found here, though you will have to register with Adobe Studio if you haven't already, and maybe even if you have (Somehow, Adobe Studio seems to forget who I am so I have to keep registering under a new name... it remains the most annoying system I'be come across. But the stuff you get if you persevere is useful!)
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Another InDesign hint from within Adobe: If you are using Asian fonts, in the graphics panel of InDesign's print dialog, try changing font downloading from 'complete' to 'subset'. "Japanese fonts are huge and affect print performance (which is why in the Japanese version of InDesign, font downloading is set to subset by default)."
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Want to move a complete paragraph in Word? Click once anywhere inside a paragraph. Then hold down Alt+Shift and press the up or down arrow. The entire paragraph moves up or down. From Woody's OFFICE Watch <http://www.woodyswatch.com>
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
=========================
A good site of tips, tricks and workarounds involving Mac OS X: <http://www.macosxhints.com/>
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Articles on what is likely to be in the next version of MS Office are to be found at <http://news.com.com/2100-1001-977880.html> (""How Open is the New Office") and a good summary of the current state of XML at <http://smh.com.au/articles/2002/12/09/1039379779557.html>. Just how open the planned Microsoft version of the XML format will be interesting to see.
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Interesting that one of Australia's biggest regional newspaper groups has changed to computer-to-plate operation with thermal plates (meaning few chemicals and no darkroom), and has pushed up the lpi rulings for their newsprint screens to 120lpi. This is a plant which makes 6000 plates a week.
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Lots of info about clipping paths, alpha channels and their use at <http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/clippingpaths/>. Some on the about.com site but with links to other info as well.
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The first international conference to look at the past, present and future of the book is to be held from 22 to 24 April 2003. Full details are at <http://www.book-conference.com>. The conference is to be held in tropical Cairns, Australia, on the edge of the World Heritage listed Great Barrier Reef and Rainforest region.
10. LAST WORD
=============
We had many emails commenting on our statement that 14.4 is a popular leading due to being 5 lines to the inch, all pointing out that it is the standard 120 per cent default leading of 12pt type, which is true of course. However there are not many 120 per cent leadings which produce round numbers of lines per inch by being a division of 72. It takes on particular importance when considering revenues from lineage ads. Leadings (regardless of type size) of 4.8, 6, 7.2, 8, 9, 12, 14.4, are the only ones which don't need rounding. Of course if you in any of those countries where centimetres rule, there are no conversions which don't involve roundings in DTP programs.
Perhaps this is also a place to mention reciprocals: the few percentages where you can reduce or enlarge by one round amount and then do the reverse with another round amount to return to the original size precisely. They used to be important when even so called tabloid lasers had trouble printing to what was a common width for a tabloid page: reduce from the print dialog of PageMaker or QuarkXPress and then blow up on the process camera. (They can still be useful if you have to resort to blowing up a logo for transmission as a fax).
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All Format subscribers can get a 10% discount on any of our books. Quote the voucher number of 11204101. If ordering on our web site, enter this number in the voucher box and hit the recalculate button; your discount of 10% will be shown when the page is revised. See <http://www.worsleypress.com/wpstore/>
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Best wishes to all for the coming festive season and/or new year. Format will be back in 2003 with the first issue towards the end of January.
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.