Month: November 2008

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HTML Clinic: Special Characters

 
You can easily add special characters to your Web page such as an ampersand
(&), less-than sign (<) and copyright (©) symbol. The trick to getting
the symbol to appear when viewed through a Web browser is, as with all things
HTML, all in the tag you typed.
 
The most important thing to remember about tagging for special characters
is that unlike standard HTML tags that you have learned about during previous
articles published here (such as a heading tab beginning with <H1> and
ending with </H1>), special characters do not have traditional ending
tags. When typing special characters, the code for the symbol appears between an
ampersand (&) and a semicolon (;).
 
Here are some popular special characters and the tag required to display
them: 

 
 
Special Characters 

 


Want to learn more about HTML? Attend our HTML Basics class. Click here for more information.
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Adobe FrameMaker 8: Track Changes

by Barbara Binder

 
Whether you are a new Adobe FrameMaker user or a veteran, you will be
pleasantly surprised to learn that FrameMaker version 8 allows you to track your
text edits without having to leave the program or install a third-party
extension.
 
Here is how the track changes feature would work…
 
Let's say that Kevin creates a FrameMaker document and e-mails it to Jennie
for editing. Jennie can open up the document in FrameMaker, enable Track Text
Edits and then proceed to edit the document (adding, deleting and replacing
existing text).
 
When Jennie returns the FrameMaker file to Kevin, Kevin can see what
changes Jennie has made, and can choose to accept or reject her changes, both on
an individual basis or throughout the entire document.
 
To enable the Track Text Edits feature:

  1. Open up a FrameMaker document in FrameMaker version 8.
  2. Enable Track Text Edits by choosing Special > Track Text Edits
    > Enable     (you can also choose View > Track Text Edit
    Bar     to open a floating toolbar and click the first button on the
    toolbar to enable Track Text Edits)

    Track Text Edit Bar

  3. Try adding a word, deleting a word, and replacing a word with Track Text
    Edits enabled.

    The green/underline colors you will see are used to show
    additions, and the red/strikethrough shows words that are marked for
    deletion.

    Tracked Changes

  4. Once you have finished entering in the edits, you can use the next two
    buttons on the Track Text Edit Bar to review your
    work.

    The right pointing red arrow takes you forward to the next edits,
    and the left arrow takes you to previous edits.

    The buttons with the
    green check marks allow you to accept a change, or all changes, respectively,
    and the buttons with the red Xs allow you to reject one or all
    changes.

    The last three buttons control the display of a document that
    still contains Track Edits information (which means that you have not accepted
    or rejected all edits).

    Here is what those last three buttons
    do:

    Preview Final. All red/green indicators are hidden,
    and the document shows all of the suggested edits.

    Preview
    Original.     All red/green indicators are hidden, and the original
    document is show, without any of the suggested edits.

    Preview
    off.     All red/green indicators are shown, and the document shows all of
    the suggested edits.

When you are ready to print or create a PDF, pay attention to the Preview
status-what you see on the screen is what you will get when you print or view
the PDF (complete with red/green indicators, if they were left on).
 
Next week: Change Bars 



Want to learn more about Adobe FrameMaker 8? Come to Barb's Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker 8
class next week (it's not too late to register). All you need is a computer with
fast Internet access, a headset and the current version of FrameMaker (the
30-day trial version of the software works fine). You can ask all the questions
you like because all virtual classes are led by a live instructor–this is not
pre-recorded content.

 

About the author: Barbara Binder is the president and
founder of Rocky Mountain Training.
Barbara has been a trainer for nearly two decades and was recently recognized by
Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide for 2007.

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Adobe RoboHelp 7: The Mystery of the Missing Project Manager Items

by Kevin A.
Siegel

 
Anyone who has used RoboHelp over the years, and is now getting to know
Adobe RoboHelp version 7 will probably agree that the changes made to the
interface are a major improvement over the old interface.
 
However, learning the nuances of the new version 7 interface will take some
time. You'll often find yourself looking for familiar items on the new Project
Manager Pod that used to be on the old Project Manager Pane, but appear to be
missing.
 
For instance, in the image below you will see that the new Project Manager
pod has a Toggle Project Manager View button at the far left (the yellow folder
with the blue globe).
 
Toggle Project Manager View button 1
 
Using the Toggle Project Manager View button shown above, your Project
Manager pod might look like the picture below.
 
Project Manager in its global view
 
Of course, if you click the Toggle Project Manager View button again it
will, well, toggle to a detailed view and look like the binocular icon shown
below.
 
Toggle Project Manager View button 2
 
If your Project Manager pod is in detailed view, it will look like
this:
 
 
Project Manager Pod, detail view
 
See the difference between the global view and the detailed view? If
you're thinking that there isn't much difference, you're right. In fact, the
detailed view is supposed to show much more than the global view. Of course,
that's not the case with the image above. In fact, the only difference between
the two views is the first folder is called Project Files in
the global view and HTML Files (Topics) in the detailed view.
Why?
 
The answer is simple, but has caused much angst among newer (and a few
veteran) RoboHelp users who cannot see such common Project items as style sheets
and baggage files.
 
You'll notice in both views that the Project Manager Pod sports a funnel
button. The button is actually called the Show/Hide files button.  If clicked,
you will have an option to view several project items.
 
Hidden files
 
 
Selecting all of the items and then clicking OK while in global view will
not seem to make much of a difference (although the previously hidden items will
now appear in the Project Files folder). However, once you switch to the
detailed view… well, check out the image below and notice that several
folders, previously hidden, are now available (such as Images, Multimedia, Style
Sheets and Baggage Files).
 
Hidden files revealed in the detail view
 
Want to learn more about Adobe RoboHelp 7? Click here.

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Adobe Captivate 3: What to Do When Links to External Projects Break


I've received a significant number of emails from Captivate developers who
are having fits linking one Captivate project to another.
 
While linking projects together is a relatively simple process, and can be
accomplished in more than one way (via a button, click box or end of project
settings), the broken link problem won't present itself during the testing
phase.
 
After publishing the project and the external projects, and then testing
the links, many developers report that they are greeted with a less than
friendly "Page Cannot Be Displayed" message. Why? More often than not, the
culprit behind the broken links is one of the following:

  1. Published files go to different folders. The source project
    and external projects must be published to the same root folder. (External
    projects, also known as targets, are those projects being
    linked to.)

    For example, if you link Project1 to Project2, Project1 is
    the source and Project2 is the target. You
    will need to publish both projects into the same folder.

    However, what
    typically happens during the publish phase of development is that Captivate
    projects are published into individual folders. In that case, clicking a link to
    the target from within source will not work. Why? The link inside the source
    won't be able to drill into the folder containing the target.

    The
    solution:     Publish both source and target projects into the same
    folder.

  2. The Project Titles are wrong. When creating the link to an
    external project, the published file name of the external project MUST be the
    same as as the one used in the source project. While this sounds like a simple
    thing to keep straight, every time you save a Captivate project with a new name,
    the name that appears in the Project Title area changes too.

    Here's the
    scenario: I wanted to create a link in Project1 that
    automatically opens an external project called
    Project2.

    Here's how I did it:

    I opened Project1
    and chose Edit > Preferences.

    On the Start
    and End     category, Project end options
    drop-down menu, I selected Open other project and then selected
    Project2.

    Open other project

    After that, I published the source
    project.

    All I needed to do now was publish any and all target projects
    and do a little testing.

    I opened the target project
    (Project2) and saved it with the name
    Project2_v2. (I tend to save my projects with updated names
    throughout the development process.)

    I knew I needed to publish the
    project with the Project Title Project2 because that's the name
    I used back in the source project.

    Upon clicking the
    Publish button, the Project Title changed to
    Project2_v2. Dohhhhh! If left alone, the link back in Project1
    (that will be looking for a published file called Project2) will fail during
    testing.

    Project Title (in the Publish dialog box) 

    I changed the Project Title to Project2
    and published. During the testing process, the links between the projects worked
    as expect.


Do you have a Captivate production problem that's making you pull your
hair out? Email your problem and let
others learn solutions from your experience.
 
 
Want to learn more about Adobe Captivate 3? Click here.
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Grammar Workshop: While vs Whilst

 
"Please excuse the mess whilst we renovate."
 
My friend Mike saw a sign worded something like this on his vacation in
England last summer. While telling me about it, he asked whether
while or whilst was correct. The answer is
simply that whilst is British usage, and while
is American usage.
 
Most people are familiar with some of the variant spellings used in British
versus American publications: colour vs.
color, grey vs. gray,
analyse vs. analyze. Some less familiar ones
include adding an s to words that end in
–ward, as in towards vs.
toward, and adding st to
while and among to get whilst
and amongst. 
 
Alternative spellings of words are listed in Webster's Collegiate
Dictionary either as separate entries or as alternative spellings within
the same entry. If alternative spellings are listed with the word
or, the two spellings appear with equal frequency in
publications. If the word also is used to introduce the
alternative spelling, the second spelling is less often used. The notation
chiefly Brit means the spelling is used in British
publications.
 
So start sentences with these conjunctions whenever you like. But don't use
a comma unless there is a truly parenthetical element after the
conjunction.
 
 
About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author
with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat
7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American
Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager
of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George
Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She
is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and
desktop publishing.

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Questions of the Week

Adobe Captivate 3 Question: How do You Edit Full Motion Recordings?

How on earth do I edit my full motion recordings?  I have segments that I
want to get rid of or tidy up, or even add Captions to.  However this is very
difficult to do.
I have found that you can add items in the time line,
however positioning these items is a mission.
 
For example, if you drag the playhead to the position you want, you can see
the slide in the full motion recording, only problem is the minute you let go of
the play head, you lose the image and it reverts to the first, hence my
frustration.

Answer
 
To edit your FMRs, you can use Adobe's free FMR editor.
 
***

 

Adobe Captivate 3 Question: Where Did You Get That Blue
Arrow?

 
I noticed a sample project you created that
included a cool animated blue pointer–how did you achieve that please? I am
suspecting it might be a Flash image you imported. 

Answer
 
You are correct… it's a simple SWF animation that comes free with Adobe
Captivate. You can insert it, and many others, by choosing Insert >
Animation and navigating to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate
3\Gallery\SWF Animation.
 
***
 
 
Adobe Captivate Question: Can I Slow Down Imported
PowerPoint Slides?
 
I'm a Web programmer by trade and have taken up a Captivate
project on the side.  It's primarily converting a PowerPoint presentation into
Captivate, with some fancy stuff done later.
 
I found out that, by default, the resulting Captivate project
just wants to tear through all of the slides without pausing, as PowerPoint
does. I have figured out how to create a button that will pause until it's
pressed.  It seems that there should be a way to stop a slide when it's complete
and not go to the next slide until the user clicks. Is that too much to
ask?
 
Answer:
 
 
You can add click boxes to the slides (basically invisible
buttons) that will accomplish what you want. The next time you import PowerPoint
presentations in the future, you can select Background and set the advance to
Manual. The result is that click boxes would have been added to each slide
during the import process.
 
***

Adobe RoboHelp 7 Question: Any Drawbacks to
FlashHelp?
 
We looked at a sample of FlashHelp. I have never known anyone who uses
FlashHelp. Is it popular? Are there pluses and minuses?
 
Answer:

 
FlashHelp is a wonderful single source layout that I think looks better
than WebHelp. However, there are two drawbacks:

  1. Customizing is problematic because there is no Skin Editor like you have in
    WebHelp (you'll need to use Flash and the Flash Developer Kit that comes with
    RoboHelp to customize the Flash skins)

  2. If your customers do not have the free Flash Player (always a possibility
    unless your Help System is posted on an intranet), your topics will simply not
    appear. Ouch!  


Got a question you'd like answered? Email me.