CONTENTS
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1. KEEPING TAGS ON TEXT
2. UPDATE ON ISBN CHANGES
4. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
5. UTILITIES/UPDATES
6. HINTS
7. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
8. LAST WORD
All Format subscribers can get a 10% discount on any of our books ordered from us or our US distributor. 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 will be shown when the page is revised. See <http://www.worsleypress.com/wpstore/>
1. KEEPING TAGS ON TEXT
=======================
Late Night Software have a tool <http://latenightsw.com> for those needing to move documents from QuarkXPress to InDesign. That might seem worthy of just a line or two mention in our Utilities section, but it is potentially far more important than such a mention would imply.
It will retail for US$149 via electronic delivery, and US$159 on CD-ROM (plus shipping)
The filter lets InDesign read QuarkXPress tags which makes it fairly easy to move formatted text from QXP to InDesign, but that is not where its importance lies -- its importance is that it means major changes may be avoided in advertising and news systems based on databases. The plugin can be scripted and comes with examples of how to do this in Applescript and VisualBasic.
As scripting expert Shane Stanley from Australia commented on the InDesign Talk list: "A lot of classified ad systems are built around tagged text, and it's a great way of storing formatting in databases. It also opens the way to using things like GREP on stories, because the tagging lets you keep formatting while dealing in ASCII documents."
He also put a point better than we could: "Unfortunately, the tagging language used by InDesign is a classic piece of Adobe over-engineering, and the filter is too fussy. Which is where Tag-On comes in: it lets you use the simpler QXP tagging system. And if your database/classified system/editorial system is set up to produce copy tagged for QXP, it makes the change to InDesign fairly simple."
Tagged Text means that you can preformat copy so that it imports into your layout program with headlines, bylines, intros, and even possibly crossheads, bulleted items, captions etc. already formatted and seldom needing more than some minor fiddling within a frame to make them fit correctly. Classified ads can be exported as a report from a database program so they come in ready sorted under section headings, and possibly with logos, pics and semi-display typesetting already done.
And we are not necessarily talking of high-end systems here. Small weeklies and monthly publications have saved many hours of production time by using tagged text systems.
To see what tagged text looks like, whether you are using InDesign, QuarkXPress or PageMaker, set a couple of lines of type in a new file, apply styles such as Headline and Bodytext, then export the text as "Tagged text" (In PageMaker perform the extra task of making sure that the checkbox "Export tags" is NOT checked when you have "Tagged text" in the file type box of the Export dialog).
Depending on the program (and we must not forget that the original file system for Ventura consisted entirely of tagged text) you will find a larger or smaller amount of garbage at the start of the file which is actually the full specification of the styles. This is not needed if you are planning on placing the tagged text in a new file where the styles already exist. It is the first tag or two (which specifies the system being used, and the tags immediately before, within and after the text from the file which is all you really need.
You can also use Tagged Text for temporarily exporting text which is to be edited by others. You just have to ensure they don't change anything within the tags.
2. UPDATE ON ISBN CHANGES
=========================
There are details on the latest plans for changes in the system for International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) in an article from BookTech magazine at: <http://www.booktechmag.com/doc/276965094602207.bsp>
While all who produce books need to be aware of the impending changes, this is one of those rare problems which is much more likely to affect the big publishers than the small.
Most small publishers already use the 978+ISBN coding for barcodes rather than UPC codes, and the change is basically that the number we now use for barcodes will become the ISBN code, although they'll use an extra prefix as well as 978 to double the available number of codes.
Those US publishers who currently need UCC codes (for the gift market etc.) will be saved the extra expense, though this saving is still a few years off. All UCC product codes will eventually become the same as EAN codes used in the rest of the world, and the Bookland coding is already EAN coding.
For once small publishers are ahead of the game. It is generally the big publishers who use UCC/UPC codes instead of or in addition to Bookland codes -- the system which, incidentally, was developed by the bookselling chain of W H Smith in the UK.
It might be a good idea though, if you use ISBN in your databases, to check whether they could cope with the extra digits that go with a current book barcode.
3. CHANGES IN OFFICE 11
=======================
Office 11 (or Office 2003) could have a dramatic effect on how many online newsletters are produced. According to Woody's Office Watch newsletter <http://woodyswatch.com/>, Outlook 11 will continue to display HTML email messages but by default only the text and formatting in the message itself - any links to external images don't show up.
One reason is that spammers are using such images, sometimes a tiny 1 pixel image, to see if your email address is valid. Present versions of Outlook will go and get that image. Outlook 11 will not.
Some blocked images will be pictures which form parts of online newsletters which people sign on to receive. Some HTML ezines have a lot of images including some that provide menus and navigation. Such newsletters will become little more than a series of empty spaces.
You can choose to view the blocked content for a single message or specify links from a particular domain as being 'Trusted' and not blocked.
Woody adds: "Some email newsletters will have to consider changing their format." However he adds: "People on dial-up links will like the fact that Outlook won't prompt them to connect for each and every little thing in an email."
The program in Office 11 which seems to have the most changes is webpage editor FrontPage. Among these is that it no longer assumes it is the complete master of the site. In the past FrontPage had difficulty coping with the common situation where more than on person would edit a site and not always with FrontPage. Now you will be able to synchronize local files with the web site, retrieving a copy of any file on the server you don't have.
4. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
========================
Geoff Ward wrote from Australia: "I run a small community paper around Rutherglen and operate from home with 2 PCs. Until recently I had been using Suitcase 9 and window 98SE but have upgraded to Windows XP Professional. I use Illustrator 10, Photoshop 7 and PageMaker 6.5, plus Word for XP. I was wondering if you could give me any information with regards to font management and whether Suitcase 9 will work with XP. Also I want to reduce the amount of True Type fonts residing on the machine while still keeping the fonts required by the operating system. I have contacted your magazine before and your reply was very helpful. Format is one of the best resources for accurate info in the small publishing and graphics field on the net and I have recommended it to a number of people who now subscribe."
We replied: Windows XP's font management is substantially different to previous versions but Extensis do say that Suitcase 9.01 works with XP. As we were using ATM until changing to XP, we looked at both Suitcase and FontReserve and went with the latter, but it was a very marginal decision. I decided after downloading and trying the demos from the Extensis and FontReserve web sites.
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Lance Cotton writes from Texas: "I found the following document on the worsleypress.com website, <http://www.worsleypress.com/format/format41.htm> which talks about 'Rosetta Stone' and using PageMaker filters in InDesign. A document at Adobe also describes the Rosetta Stone plugins as necessary in order to use PageMaker filters with InDesign. My dilemma is this: I can't seem to find the rosetta stone plugins for InDesign anywhere, on my InDesign 2.0 CD or on the Internet."
We replied: The original reason for the Rosetta Stone workaround was because the InDesign developers didn't get all the filters ready in time for the initial release. If you have an older version, it might be interesting to see if it still works, but I'd guess that Adobe's developers thought it was no longer needed. Other recent changes include changing the scripts palette from a "beta" plugin that had to be installed separately to a part of the standard installation.
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Daniel Gold in Arkansas asks: "I need to remove all hard returns from a Microsoft Access 2000 database. Access does not offer a code for hard-returns in its Search/Replace. I'be thought of trying to export the data to Word or Excel, remove the hard returns with Search/Replace, and then attempt to re-import the data to Access 2000. Will it match up in the right fields? I have no experience with this import/export, and welcome any advice. Thanks always for your great newsletter,"
We replied: We would expect that exporting from Access which included a return would start a new record. Have you tried a test database with just three or four records?
If there is anything else unique in the fields in question (or in the fields immediately before or after), exporting as tab or comma delimited text might allow for a search, or even a macro in Word to loop through the tabs to reach the field in question and then delete any line endings. Others might have better ideas.
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Mike Lindsay of LampLight Publishing writes: "We publish a small publication in a rural area; however, we receive some national ads. More and more are being submitted in PDF format. We use PageMaker 7 for layout. We also have PageMaker color separate directly to the imagesetter. That's just the way our local print shop does things. Although we can place PDF files in PageMaker, we have found that our document size increases dramatically when we do this, causing all kinds of problems.
"We've tried using Acrobat 5 to convert PDF files to EPS files so that can be placed in PM. This works great with some documents, but others generate a 'color space error' and will not allow us to convert them. I know this is going backwards instead of moving forward, but we don't expect the local printshop to convert to a PDF workflow for at least another year or two. Is there something else we can use to successfully convert PDF documents to EPS files so that they can be used with PM?"
We replied: While we agree that placing a PDF does seem to produce a larger document than creating and placing an EPS from the PDF, the difference should not be dramatic if the file import options dialog is used to change the preview to a lower level -- perhaps 72dpi or less.
We've also experienced errors, which sometimes seem due to an RGB graphic buried in the PDF, though that should not be the cause with national ads from reputable agencies <g>. Sometimes fixes we've tried seem ridiculous -- one recent one being to use Acrobat 5's ability to edit a graphic to get rid of it completely, and then, from a copy of the original, to cut and paste the graphic into Photoshop and make a TIFF. Then we reassembled the ad. There will always be such files which don't fit into any kind of workflow.
While we are increasingly using InDesign in its own right, our initial copy of that was used for some time to output to EPS files things which would not go directly into PageMaker. In other words, it is a great problem solving tool.
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Brian Forbes wrote: "I am looking for a good book on how to use PageMaker specifically for Print On Demand book publishing, i.e. mostly text, average 200 pages, etc. Is there a good basic book which concentrates or at least contains a good section on this application?"
I replied: The only book I know of which deals specifically with publication production and PageMaker is mine <g>, but I can't promise that even that is what you are looking for. However, as a guide for colleges and libraries, we'be made available to them on an unlinked website a PDF of the first 44 pages. As this includes the contents and list of hints, it may help you to decide (and may be helpful in itself). The file can be reached at: <http://www.worsleypress.com/pubprod/PP-PM7sample.htm> (This availability is extended to Format subscribers)
Apart from that I'd recommend the very old books of Real World PageMaker by Olav Kvern and others (which stopped with PM5 for the Mac and PM4 for Windows) and which can still be found occasionally in secondhand bookstores. Well worth getting.
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Laurence Artale wrote: "I have created a form in Word 2000. I have three columns in an evaluation. In the center column I put drop down boxes containing each of the 3 possible grades. I cannot get a box to calculate the drop downs. I have tried all I know in the formula and never get anything. Is it possible to get calculations from drop down boxes and if so how? "
We suggested checking the the FAQ here very helpful: <http://www.mvps.org/word/FAQs/> and to download the useful FAQ in Word format at <http://www13.addr.com/~kenyonck/word/WordFAQ.doc>. There might also be an answer in the archives to Woody's Word Watch at <http://www.woodyswatch.com/wowmm/archives.asp>. Any other suggestions?
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Jeff Richardson wrote from Seattle: "I have a PC-Based Word 97 SR-2 Document that I need to send to an editor who uses PageMaker 6.5. I have Adobe Reader and PhotoShop 5.5 but do NOT have PageMaker. Is there a way I can covert my Word document online or with some sort of conversion program so that I may see the conversion? I want to ensure that the conversion was correct and successful before sending it to the editor who uses PageMaker 6.5."
We replied: Precautions include ensuring that Fast Save is turned off in Word, at least do a Save As... under another file name to clean up the file. It may also be worth creating a PDF, so that the person placing the file in whatever layout program has something to check for any queries.
On the other hand I don't want to make it seem that there is any real likelihood of a problem unless it makes extensive use of odd typefaces, languages with which the recipient is not conversant, or specialised typesetting such as equations and scientific notation.
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Carl Woebcke wrote: "I am self-publishing a book in Windows 2000. When I 'place' a 30-page Word 2000 document containing about 24 page breaks in my 136-page PageMaker 7.0 file with the filter preference 'Page Break Before Paragraph' bulleted, page breaks seem to be inserted BOTH BEFORE AND AFTER the relevant paragraph. This was working perfectly for me before I built a new computer and re-installed all my software again."
We replied: An answer may be as simple as checking on the way the style has been brought into PM, and making sure that it is not shown as having both column and page breaks before -- or that there is not a blank line, a paragraph in itself, which also has the same style, and therefore a page break before applied.
It is best to first create styles in the layout program with identical names (including identical capitalisation) to the styles used in the Word document. These styles should not be overridden by the imported styles.
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In Format 71 Jeff Greensmith asked about ways to extract the text for headings boxes in Word, and insert it *in the same position* in the main text. Peggy Coquet asked in reply "Is there any reason not to export as RTF - which should kill the boxes while preserving bold, caps, ital, etc. - and then re-save as .DOC?" Jeff responded: "No reason why not. Doesn't seem to kill the text boxes though - when I open the RTF in Word they're still there, if I open it in Wordpad they disappear. I'll persevere with it, a solution is bound to come up."
5. UTILITIES/UPDATES/PLUGINS
============================
If you use PageMaker and prefer headings to have "smart title case" rather than initial capping every word, you may like the script "Smart Title Case" on our web site at <http://www.worsleypress.com/pubprod/scripts.html>. This was created by Jonathan Bressel from an idea for a script by Gordon Woolf.
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SoftCare Software-Service GmbH of Hamburg, Germany, have announced v.4.2 of the K4 Publishing System, a cross-platform collaborative editorial system that integrates InDesign and InCopy. The new version supports InDesign 2.0.2 and InCopy 2.0.1 and allows article and layout templates to be stored and managed from within the K4 database, eliminating the need to leave InDesign or InCopy to find files on a file server. InCopy templates "with full layout geometry, one or several text elements, and all style sheet information" can be created from InDesign and made available to writers and editors in-house or in remote locations. Queries can also now be based on previous and next issues as well as the current issue. Status colors can highlight files at some or all workflow stages. This is a free update. K4 supports mixed Mac OS 9, Mac OS X and Windows platforms and the server software is available for Mac OS X, Windows, SUN Solaris or Linux. Information about K4 is available at: <http://www.K4PublishingSystem.com>
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More information on QuarkXPress 6 at <http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0302/18.quark.php> and on the Quark website at <http://www.quark.com/about/presscenter/prview.jsp?idx=318>. Also at <http://www.macuser.co.uk/?news/news_story.php?id=37334> which quotes Quark as stating that users of QXP are split roughly equally between the platforms.
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Badia Software has released a public beta of OfficialReport XT, a QuarkXPress XTension to creates professional-looking reports to get formatted listings of document fonts, document colors, style sheets, H&Js, picture fonts, picture colors, document preferences, basic or detailed picture usage, and application print styles. It can generate a report for up to 100 documents at a time, without having to open any, and the reports themselves are fully formatted QuarkXPress documents, with the information presented in a compact tabular layout. It requires QXP or Passport 4.1x/5.x and Mac 8.5 or later. Details at <http://www.badiaxt.com/officialreport.html>. The beta version is sent by email.
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Another option to Acrobat is pdf995 at <http://www.pdf995.com/>. It is free as adware, or US$19.95 for full licenses to the suite of three programs. Windows only.
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ALAP have issued a maintenance release (2.5.1) to Imposer and Imposer Pro XTensions for QuarkXPress which is available free to existing customers of Imposer 2.x and Imposer Pro. Additionally, Imposer Pro 2.5.1 adds a "Stacked" binding feature useful for three-hole punched, spiral bound, or comb bound jobs. For more information see <www.alap.com>. There have also been maintenance releases (2.0.1) of XPert Align, XPert Layers, XPert Scale and XPert Tools Pro for QuarkXPress.
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Markzware just released ID2Q XT <http://www.markzware.com/id2q/>, a QXP XTension to convert InDesign files to QXP, provided they are not too complex. There are limitations on transparency, multi-color gradients, drop shadows, and Text on a Path. Tables, layers and some section formatting may also not convert. Inline graphics will convert but not necessarily in the same position. US$169, Mac OS 8/9 only, QuarkXPress 4.1 to 5.0, though it will convert Windows InD documents. The demo version is 3.2MB.
Going the other way is Batch 2.5 at <http://www.cacidi.com/> which converts old QuarkXPress and PageMaker files to InDesign. A 14-day demo is available for either Mac or Win. About 1.6MB.
6. HINTS
========
A change in the way InDesign places pasted text, to include formatting, has resulted in calls for a way to paste text without formatting but still retaining bold and italic. At present, after pasting, you can click on the name of the paragraph style sheet while holding the Option or Alt key and that will apply the style sheet without the "plus" sign problem. However it will also mean the loss of italics or bold.
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If you use many long words -- very long words -- beware a small change in InDesign 2 introduced at the request of users to cope with URLs. InDesign seems to regard anything with more than 25 characters as a URL for hyphenation purposes and may break it in odd places, and not use a hyphen.
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Scanning items which have a showthrough from the back? Place a piece of black paper or cloth behind the item being scanned.
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If you need to color separate Word files, check <http://www.wincore.com>. However, it costs US$399.
7. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
=========================
Marion Gropen who runs Gropen Associates, providing financial and general business advice for small publishers, is putting together an increasingly useful site at <http://www.GropenAssoc.com/> with information of interest to many in addition to its main audience of book publishers.
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If you have old printers which don't work as they should, but which seem too good to throw out, you may find help at <http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/>.
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For colour management help, particularly with inkjets, try <http://www.neilbarstow.co.uk/home.html>. (You may need to register your details to access the knowledgebase.) Also includes advice on problems such as how to unblock an Epson inkjet.
8. LAST WORD
============
It's often a CKI issue (the chair-keyboard interface), which means that it is a PICNIC (Problem In Chair, Not In Computer) or in extreme cases you might want to say the cause is at the one-dee-ten-tee level (we'll leave you to work that one out!)
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.