June 2010 – Page 2 – The Logical Blog

June 10, 2010

Acrobat: Signatures in the Clouds

by David R. Mankin

First there was Buzzword, an online word processor that Adobe created for all of us to use for FREE. Then there was Presentations (think PowerPoint… only online and free). Next came Tables, an online spreadsheet.

Adobe seems to be assembling a cloud-based suite of useful programs. The anchor to all these 'modules' is the free acrobat.com service. The only things required to use all of these services are a user name and a password. Simply visit www.acrobat.com to sign up.

Adobe has continually improved and added to this online suite of tools. The latest addition (still in beta, but is available to all, and it's really cool) is Adobe eSignatures.

Adobe eSignatures

eSignatures is an incredibly easy way to get your documents digitally signed. No more printing, faxing or overnighting documents. Just upload your documents to this service and get them signed quickly.
You can use your existing Adobe ID (that you use for Acrobat.com), or create one when you visit https://esign.adobe.com/.

Once logged in, you will get to upload the PDF file you wish to have signed. You can add a description of the document if you wish. You will then have the opportunity to input the email addresses of the people to receive the doc(s). You will then designate a date by which all recipients must have signed the document. You can write a custom note that will be the body of the email that the service will send out for you. This email will have a link to the document, which is housed online for you.

Your recipients will have to log into the service, and if they don't yet have an Adobe ID, they can create one by following the prompts. Recipients log in and can preview or download the file. The magic happens when the recipient presses the Sign button. A digital signature is applied to the document (yes, you can customize its appearance, believe it or not!), and the initiator is notified via email that the doc has been signed. Once all recipients of the file have signed, the doc can be downloaded. It will have an additional page added to the end, containing all the signatures, and the PDF will no longer be editable. Nice.

Signature page

Did I mention the cost of all this stuff? FREE!! I have tried to get clients and coworkers to use digital signatures for years, and am sometimes successful. This is a tool that I will use constantly. It makes digital signature technology readily available and a snap to setup and use. Stay tuned–the cloud is getting better and better.

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Looking to learn Acrobat quickly? Sign up for my next online Acrobat class where you'll learn a whole bunch more.

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About the author: David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. And if that wasn't enough, of course David is an Adobe-certified expert in Adobe Acrobat.

June 8, 2010

Adobe FrameMaker 9: Deleting Empty Pages

by Barbara Binder

For those of you transitioning to FrameMaker from Microsoft Word, the empty pages left at the end of a document can be bothersome.
The first rule to learn is that the single fastest way to delete empty pages is to save your document. When you save, empty pages are deleted. Of course, this assumes a few things.

Choose Format > Page Layout > Pagination. Ensure "Before Saving & Printing" is set to Delete Empty Pages.

FrameMaker pagination

If you confirm the settings shown above, but the empty pages refuse to go away when you save or print, read on…

If the page in question is using a custom master page, choose Format > Page Layout > Master Page Usage and reassign the default Right/Left masters.

Master Page Usage

Save your work and the empty page should be gone.

If not, read on…

Another reason that empty pages stick around is if the master pages are using overrides. View the master pages via View > Master Pages and switch back the Body Pages (View > Body Pages). Select Remove Overrides.

Remove overrides

Save your work and the empty page should be gone. But… if not, read on…

Yet another reason a page won't go away is if the page contains the start of a new flow (i.e., Flow B) or a disconnected page. Choose Special > Delete Pages and remove the page manually.

Delete pages

If the page disappears, but returns after you update your book, it's likely the book pagination is set to add blank pages to force a new chapter to begin on a specific page side. In the book window, you can choose Format > Page Layout > Pagination and you'll find the same options you saw for single documents. Book commands override the document commands, so I just ignore document pagination and always set it at the book level.

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If you are new to FrameMaker and want to get up to speed quickly, join IconLogic's instructor-led, online Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker class. Hope to "see" you there.

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

June 7, 2010

Adobe Captivate 5: One Masterful Slide

by Kevin Siegel

Ever needed to display an object across several or all of your Captivate project slides? Me too! The good news is that there is more than one way to accomplish the task. The bad news is that neither process works very well.

One way to show an object (such as your logo) across multiple slides is to use Captivate's Show for rest of project command via the Options tab. This technique works well enough until you come across one of the slides where you don't want the image. Since the Show for rest of project command is an all-or-nothing affair, you are sunk (unless you cover the object or know how to Hide an object).

The other way to show an object across multiple slides (hold onto your hat) is to copy and paste the object onto said slides. While antiquated, this is a simple-enough process until, sometime later, you want to move, alter or remove the object from all or some of those slides. The only foolproof way to make changes to those objects is to go from slide to slide and manually make the change(s). I know that there's an Apply to All feature, but it is often inappropriate to use or worse, simply doesn't work consistently. Ouch!

So hello to Captivate 5 where you will find a wonderfully welcome addition: Master Slides. Once you create a Master Slide, anything you add to a Master Slide can quickly be applied to any project slide(s). If you modify, move or delete Master Slide objects, the slides assigned to the Master Slide will instantly be affected. Nice!

To create a Master Slide, choose Window > Master Slide.

The Master Slide panel appears alongside the Timeline. If you click on a Master Slide, you'll enter Master Slide view. Any changes you make to the slide will affect the selected Master Slide.

Master Slide Panel

Add, format or position object(s) on the Master Slide just as you would a project slide. In the picture below, I added a logo to the lower right of the master slide.

Master Slide

The final step is to apply the Master Slide to project slide(s).

On the Film Strip, select any or all of the slides.

From the General group on the Properties panel, select the Master Slide you would like to apply from the Master Slide drop-down menu.

Apply a Master Slide

You can have multiple Master Slides in a project (choose Insert > Master Slide while the Master Slide panel is open to add a new Master Slide). And you can name a Master Slide via the Properties panel of any selected Master Slide.

If you don't want to use a Master Slide on a specific slide(s), select the slide(s) and, from the General group on the Properties panel, select None from the Master Slide drop-down menu.

No Master Page

As mentioned earlier, once you have applied a Master Slide to a project slide, any changes you make to the objects on a Master Slide will have an instant affect on any slides that are assigned to the Master Slide.

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Looking to learn Captivate? We have a couple of options… we offer two online classes (Beginner and Advanced). Click here for details on the Beginner class. Click here for details on the Advanced class. We also have a 3-hour class devoted to Advanced Actions. Click here to learn more about that class.

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Follow Kevin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kevin_siegel

June 4, 2010

Acrobat: Portable Indeed!

by David R. Mankin

In my last article I wrote about how my Blackberry was able to open and show a PDF file–much to my delight! And now Adobe has released a version of Adobe Reader for Android-based devices. Keep in mind that Reader can be installed only if your phone runs Android 2.1 or later and it has at least 256 MB of RAM and a 550 MHz processor.

Two trends seem to have led to this exciting bit of news: Apple's turning of their back regarding Flash on the iPhone/iPad devices; and Adobe's welcoming embrace toward Google's Android mobile operating system. (Google has also enthusiastically invited Flash technology into their OS. If you use an Android, you may want to keep your eyes open for Adobe AIR on your device now that the Developer Prerelease program is underway).

Adobe states that Reader for the Android features "Multi-touch gestures, like pinch-and-zoom, as well as double-tap-zoom, flick-scrolling and panning. It also includes a "reflow" mode which will take text-heavy documents with wide margins and automatically wrap the content for easy viewing on smaller screens."

Reflow with a tap of the finger? Awesome. To see Reader on the Android, click here to view a video on Adobe TV.

Darn! A few weeks ago I loved my Blackberry. Technology can make us fickle. See you later… I'm off to see if I can figure out how to install Photoshop on my kid's Nintendo DS.

Looking to learn Acrobat quickly? Sign up for my next online Acrobat class where you'll learn a whole bunch more.

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June 4, 2010

Adobe FrameMaker 9: That Flippin’ Toolbox

by Barbara Binder

FrameMaker tools Most of us don't do a lot of drawing in FrameMaker these days, but sometimes we just need to add a quick line or rectangular element to the page. The toolbox gives you access to these drawing tools, along with various formatting commands.

To access the toolbox, just choose Graphics > Tools. It will appear at its default position, docked to the left of the page.

Getting rid of the toolbox is another matter. Resetting the workspace will do it, but if that's too drastic an action (because it also resets the toolbars, pods and panels, and then you will need to undock the toolbox.

Grab the top of the toolbox and drag it onto the page. Once it is undocked, you can simply click the X to close it.

Undocked toolbar

Before you close the toolbox, take a minute to click the double white arrows to the left of the X. Did you know you can flip the toolbox to a horizontal position?

That's cool. Plus, now that it is horizontal, it fits nicely into the Toolbars. Just drag it up to dock it.

Docked, horizontal toolbar.

Truthfully, you don't need to flip it to dock it in the toolbars. Simply drag the vertical version up to the toolbar and it will flip itself.

It's good to know how to flip the toolbar though because if you ever get this far and you want to restore the floating vertical Toolbox, you won't need me to tell you to drag it out of the dock and click the double white arrows (located below the X on the rotated toolbox) to restore the vertical orientation.

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If you are new to FrameMaker and want to get up to speed quickly, join IconLogic's instructor-led, online Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker class. Hope to "see" you there.

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June 3, 2010

PowerPoint 2008 for the Mac: Inserting YouTube Videos

by AJ George

Over the last two weeks I've shown you how to insert YouTube Videos into PowerPoint 2007 when presenting both with and without an internet connection. This week I'm going to show you how to do the same thing, but in PowerPoint 2008 for the Mac.

Find the YouTube video you would like to insert into your PowerPoint presentation.
Copy the URL for the video.
Navigate to www.mediaconverter.org (there are other free media converters, but I've tried and had success with this one) and click enter a link.
Paste in the URL for the YouTube video and click OK.
Click go to the next step.
Select an output file type and click OK.
Choose either mov or wmv. Mov files will play on Macs but will not play on PCs. Wmv files will play on PCs, but not on Macs. If you will be presenting on a PC, select wmv and read the note at the bottom of this post before inserting your video into PowerPoint.
Click start to begin the conversion.
When finished, click download and save the file to your desired location.
In PowerPoint, ensure that you are working on the slide where you would like insert the video.
From the Standard toolbar, select the Media tool and choose Insert Movie (if you do not see this toolbar, from the Menu bar, choose View > Toolbars > Standard).

The Insert Movie dialog box appears.
Navigate to your saved YouTube video and click Choose.
Select whether you would like your video to start Automatically or When Clicked.
When you view your slide show, simply click the video to play it. Click the video again to pause or stop it.

Note: If you will be presenting your slide show from a PC, you should have converted the YouTube video to wmv (the rest of these steps would still apply to you). There are several programs that will allow Mac users to play wmv files on their systems, but I have tried and had success with Flip4Mac, which you can download for free here. You may need to restart your computer before the software will allow you to watch the wmv files and insert them into your PowerPoint presentation.

PowerPoint 2007: Insert YouTube Videos (with internet)

PowerPoint 2007: Insert YouTube Videos, Part 2 (without internet)

PowerPoint 2010: Inserting YouTube Videos

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About the author: AJ George is IconLogic's lead Technical Writer and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." You can follow AJ on Twitter at http://twitter.com/andrayajgeorge.

June 3, 2010

Writing & Grammar: Tiny Questions that Drive Writers to Distraction

by Jennie Ruby

Do I use a or an before the word historic? Do I use everybody or everyone? Do I use toward or towards? These tiny questions and others like them have driven writers to distraction since–well probably since the invention of papyrus and pen. And for just about as long, editors have tried to answer them.

Professional editors in the field of publishing know a big secret that many business writers and members of the general public don't know. This secret is not addressed by most English or communications classes. The secret is that the answers to many of these questions are arbitrary.

Now, wait just a minute before you decide that you will fire your copyeditor and use a coin toss to make all future editorial determinations. The decisions are arbitrary, but they were also made long ago by practitioners in a long line of professional writers, editors and publishers. What you need to know is what those decisions were, and that you can find them in style guides, usage guides, and grammar books.

On a versus an with historic, the tradition in American English diverges from British English. American English uses a. How do I know? My authority for this is the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition, paragraph 7.46.

Everybody versus everyone? These words mean exactly the same thing. You can choose whichever one sounds best to you in your particular sentence. But just so you know, everyone is used about twice as often in print. With anybody versus anyone, anyone is used three times as often in print. My authority for this? The Oxford Dictionary of American Usage and Style by Bryan A. Garner. My personal opinion as to why this disparity in usage occurs is that everyone and anyone sound more sophisticated and smooth, whereas everybody and anybody sound more choppy and casual.

And the question of the s on toward? Again, American versus British tradition addresses this question: American usage is toward without the s. Garner came through with this answer.

Making your writing conform to these once arbitrary, but now traditional choices will enhance its credibility and professionalism. If you don't have time or inclination to collect a shelf-full of reference books and memorize much of what is in them, you can make it a practice to hire a good copyeditor for every job, or, if you like, just ask Jennie. I love hearing from our readers with questions on usage, style, grammar, and other writing problems.

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Are you an eLearning developer who has been tasked with creating an effective voiceover script? If so, consider attending my Writing Effective eLearning Voiceover Scripts. Click here to learn more. I also teach the Writing Training Documents and eLearning Scripts class. You can learn about that here.

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About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Editing with Word 2003 and Acrobat 7" and "Editing with MS Word 2007" to her credit. She is a publishing professional with more than 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.

June 1, 2010

Adobe Captivate 5: Affected by Effects

by Kevin Siegel

How many times have you wanted to make Captivate slide objects animate like you can do in PowerPoint (you know, make an image fly in, flip, rotate, follow a path… the standard stuff you've been able to do since the dawn of time in PowerPoint)? And how many times have you been stymied when it comes to adding effects because well, Captivate simply did not offer the feature. Did you notice I said did not? That's right, the new Adobe Captivate 5 offers effects… and not just a few vanilla effects. Captivate 5 features so many effects, we just might have to offer a dedicated class just to cover them all.

Add an Effect

During the steps that follow, I'll show you how to add a few simple Effects to an image (but keep in mind that you can add an Effect to just about any slide object and you can combine Effects).

Right-click the image and choose Apply Effect.
On the Effects tab, which is new to Adobe Captivate 5 and is grouped by default with the Timeline, click the Add Effect button (the button is very small and is located in the lower-left of the Effects panel).

Shown below is the full Effects menu available to you in Adobe Captivate 5. Each menu has several effects.
In the screen capture below, notice that I've added an image and positioned it at the far left of the slide. Then I selected Entrance > Fly In > Fly In From Right.
The slide position of the image is important. As the image performs the Effect, the image will fly in from the far right of the slide and stop at the designated slide position.
When you add Effects, the effect appears on the Effects panel (as mentioned above, the Effects panel is new in Adobe Captivate 5 and grouped with the Timeline). In the screen capture below, notice that I have also added a Glow effect.

You can easily control which effect occurs first (in the screen capture above, the Fly In From Right effect will occur first, followed by the Glow effect). All you will need to do to reverse the effect is drag the objects left or right on the Effects panel (just like controlling the timing of objects on the Captivate Timeline).

Two final things, but I think they are both kind of cool. First, many of the Effects will have Properties you can edit. In the screen capture above, the Glow Effects include Blur and Strength properties. Second, there is a Save icon (the little disk) on the Effects panel that will allow you to save your Effects for future use.

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