CONTENTS
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2. CALL FOR CONTEXTUAL STYLES
3. DTP PROGRAM OPENS PDFs
4. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
5. UPDATES AND HINTS
6. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
7. LAST WORD
Pete Masterson to our item in Format about ad indexes described how they create a separate layer for advertisements, and another layer for proxy boxes showing the ad name and position. When they are moving ads, they make sure the proxy and ad layers are switched on so if an ad is moved, the proxy layer moves too. When they are producing editorial proofs, the proxy layer is on but the ad layer is off, producing much smaller PDFs for emailing to those responsible for corrections. When the PDF is prepared for the printer, the proxy layer is turned off.
Seems a remarkably simple and sensible system from someone who knows a lot about producing things for print. See his website at <http://www.aeonix.com>
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While writing about ourselves, there is now a PDF online of extracts from the new fourth edition of "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter". This has 40 pages from the book and is a 722kb download from <http://www.worsleypress.com/magbook/index.html>. That's free, but Format subscribers can use the voucher number at the top of this newsletter to get a 10% discount on the full book if ordering on our website or, for those in the USA, by phoning Tollfree on 888-511-5125.
2. CALL FOR CONTEXTUAL STYLES
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Can there be anything still wanted in DTP programs? Well, to judge from a recent discussion on the InDesign Talk email list <http://www.listsearch.com/indesigntalk.lasso?manage>, yes it can. The call is for contextual styles -- styles which will be different according to where the paragraph or text appears.
Examples are that body text style might have an indent only if it is not the first paragraph to which that style has been applied. Or before spacing might apply depending on whether it is the first paragraph in a text frame. A bulleted list might want spacing before if it is the first item to which that style has been applied, and space after if it is the last.
There have been many instances where I'be had to write scripts to do much of this automation, but all most require is a check on whether the same style is applied to the previous or subsequent paragraph.
I wonder if we'll see this in the new version of InDesign, supposedly code-named FireDrake, which is slated (at least by some "in-the-know" websites to be part of a Creative Suite 2.0 due in the first part of 2005. (The next version of Photoshop is said to be code-named "Space Monkey".)
3. DTP PROGRAM OPENS PDFs
=========================
Despite the fact that PDF was created as a system by which files would not be altered, and that the originator could be sure that everyone was seeing the same result (within some limitations), there has been constant pressure for ways in which to edit a PDF. Acrobat itself allows limited editing, and Adobe people regularly remind users that although it will open PDF files, that "Illustrator is not a PDF editor".
There were initial rumors, with some basis in fact, that InDesign would have PDF as its native format, but that did not come about.
There is, however, a DTP program which will attempt to open PDFs as an editable file and to convert back into its own format: PageStream.
A page on the PageStream site states: "The PDF will be loaded as a PageStream document, but will have a few of the limitations that Acrobat possesses when it comes to editing it. The second mode sensibly merges individual lines of text into paragraphs with the appropriate leading and paragraph leading, margins and more to create an editable version of a PDF document. Creating new content from old PDF files, recreating lost original documents, even moving old documents from other programs to PageStream, are all now possible."
See <http://www.grasshopperllc.com/> and click on the PDF filter box on the right hand side to reach the details.
PageStream is available for Windows, Mac, Amiga and Linux. It has a long history, having started life as Publishing Partner for Atari computers in 1986. They also have an unusual pricing structure: US$149 for the first copy, and then $75 for a second copy, even if for a different platform.
4. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
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Ron asked: "I have files created in Japanese version of PageMaker 7.0.2 and I tried to open in English version but I have a message that it 'Cannot Open file; Internal error: Bad table index'."
We replied: The problem is likely to be the Japanese fonts. If one of the versions of PageMaker which can use double-byte fonts creates a file using those fonts, then it can be opened in any other double-byte version of PageMaker (such as the Chinese version) but not in the single-byte roman language versions.
Therefore it would seem that you will have to find a Japanese, Chinese, or Korean language version of PageMaker 7.
There are of course the usual problems of actually having access to the fonts used; that should not stop the file being opened, though it may look strange.
What I could not find was any help on whether a Japanese PM file which does not make any use of special fonts or other special features can be expected to open in the standard PM. Can anyone help further?
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Craig wrote: "In the first two articles of the previous Format there seems to be a substitute for the commas, space question mark. Why?"
At my request, Craig sent a JPEG of how it looked. Some of the double quote marks and some hyphens had come through oddly. I have seen something similar when text from PDFs is copied and pasted into a web editing program.... where it looks fine when pasted but not when the page is previewed.
It must have something to do with character encoding, but what I can't work out is why this carries through when, in theory, all the text was assembled in a straight ASCII-text file! It should happen to them all, or to none.
Can anyone offer a better explanation.
5. UPDATES AND HINTS
====================
There's a new version 2.0 of Nisus Writer Express which features "easy to use" tables and styles, footnotes, smart quotes and more. This was rated "Best Overall Word Processor" by MacUser UK. Details at <http://www.nisus.com/express/>. It requires a Macintosh G3 or better and OS X 10.2 or later. Some features require Mac OS X 10.3.
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Vision's Edge JobSlug Pro ($79) is an XTension that attaches a self-updating slug to a QuarkXPress 6 document that includes the last time a file was modified, when it was last output and the fonts and colors used. It updates whenever the document is printed. US$79. <http://www.visionsedge.com/XTensions/index.asp?id=jobslugpro>
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65bit software if offering a free multi-undo plugin for InDesign CS as a teaser for their EasyHistoryCS plugin that provides viewing of all the available undo and redo steps in one palette for US$39.99. See <http://www.65bit.com/products/multido/multido.shtm>. You do have to fill in an email address to receive info on how to download the 128kb freebie.
6. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
=========================
There's a nice piece on Nick Hodge's website explaining what can be done with InDesign to create CMYK or grayscale output when you have RGB originals. See <http://www.nickhodge.com/mne.php?mcid=715>. He makes it seem quite easy, and there are even ways around the problem with RGB inside placed EPS and PDF files.
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From CreativePro there's an article by Olav Martin Kvern and David Blatner detailing what can be done with InDesign's table features. It is an excerpt from "Real World InDesign CS": <http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/21863.html>
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Trying to track down an old website which seems to have disappeared, or changed beyond recognition? You may find a previous form at·<http://www.archive.org/web/web.php>. We were intrigued by some of the old versions of our own site; we had not realised how much it had changed over the years -- our earliest page on view was from 1998.
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We'be mentioned it before but <http://www.prepressure.com/index.htm> is a useful site including info on Postscript error messages.
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Useful information on newspaper design <http://www.ronreason.com/>
7. LAST WORD
============
Typographer John Berry says we have been getting more spindly type: "We'be gotten used to overly light text faces, largely because so many of them are adaptations of classic metal typefaces ... too often, the new versions just translated the original drawings into digital outlines, without regard for the differences of ink-spread between a letterpress and an offset press." As he says in a CreativePro story <http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/21831.html?cprose=5-35>, what we now see as book faces such as Bembo is not what was intended.
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George Bernard Shaw: "Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization."
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.