Category: Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite

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Acrobat: Think Reader Can’t Do That? Presto! Now it Can!

by David R. Mankin

If Acrobat was free, everyone would own it. Acrobat is a very sophisticated application allowing you to work with, create, enhance and edit those amazing PDF files.

Sadly, Acrobat isn't free and not everyone owns it. People who do not have Acrobat still need to work with PDF files, which is where Adobe's free Acrobat Reader comes in. Reader, a very capable piece of software in its own realm, allows you to browse, print and interact with PDFs.

However, Reader is a Read-Only application… at least that's what most people believe. Why? When downloaded and installed on a computer, Reader is in fact just a Read-Only application. But that is only true for some PDF files.

A PDF file can be given the ability to save form data (from a fillable PDF form), have comments and markup added and signed digitally… in Reader! These special fortifications to a PDF file must be enabled in Acrobat itself (not Reader), and are applied to PDF files individually.

To add these capabilities to a PDF file, you must have the PDF file open in Acrobat. Then choose Advanced > Extend Features in Adobe Reader. Acrobat presents an information dialog box which explains what capabilities are being added.

Features Will Become Available screen...

Once enabled, the PDF can't be edited. For this reason, Adobe has wisely given you a button labeled Save now, which opens the Save As dialog box and allows you to give this super-charged PDF file a unique name (preserving the original PDF for possible future edits).

Send the enhanced PDF to someone who has only Reader, and they will see that the document's capabilities are extended and they will be able to utilize the file in ways otherwise impossible in Reader!

***

I teach two levels of Acrobat online (yes, the program is that deep). Click here to learn about my beginner Acrobat class. Click here if an advanced Acrobat class is more your style.

***
 
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.
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Adobe RoboHelp: Synchronize the TOC Automatically

by Kevin Siegel


One of the three most common features of any help
system is the Table of Contents (the Index and Search features are the others).
However, even while most Help Authors take the time to create a detailed and
seemingly helpful TOC, most Help System customers will not look to the TOC first
when they are trying to get help. Instead, customers they will typically look to
Search the Help System or use the Index.

Why don't Help customers look
to the TOC first when looking for Help? As helpful as the TOC might seem to a
Help author, the TOC is typically laid out in a logical order that's only
logical to the person who created the TOC.

If customers saw the topic
they were looking for on the TOC, there's a good chance they would click the
topic on the TOC and open the topic. The problem is that a typical TOC might be
made up of books inside of books inside of books. There is simply very little
chance that the topic in question is open for the customer to
click.

RoboHelp's Synchronize Table of
Contents feature will automatically show where a topic is located on the
TOC while customers use the Index or Search feature to get help.

On the
Single Source Layouts pod, show the Properties of either  FlashHelp or WebHelp.
Click the Next button and select Synchronize Table of Contents and then select
Automatically from the drop-down menu at
the right.

Synchronize Table of Contents Automatically

Generate and view your project. Use either Search or
the Index to find a topic that is on the TOC. The topic will be highlighted on
the Table of Contents. Believe it or not, the more your customers see the topic
on the TOC, the more likely it will be that they will use the TOC to find and
open the topic in the future.

***


Need to learn Adobe RoboHelp
8… and fast? I'm teaching a live, online RoboHelp class at the end of this
week (April 29-30). Click here to sign up or learn
more.

***


Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kevin_siegel.

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Adobe RoboHelp: Why Type It When RoboHelp Will Do it For You?

by Kevin Siegel
 
How many times have you found yourself adding the same information to your RoboHelp topics over and over again. Maybe it's the name of your CEO. Maybe it's your corporation's "mother paragraph" (the paragraph that tells customers what your company is all about).
 
Believe it or not, RoboHelp has the ability to replace a few characters you might type on your keyboard (such as the letters zzz) with a phrase, sentence… even multiple sentences). All you need to do is put RoboHelp's AutoCorrect feature on the job.

  1. Open any of your project topics.
  2. Choose Tools > Spelling Options and select the AutoCorrect tab.
  3. In the Replace field, type some text (such as the letters zzz).
  4. In the With field, type the text you would like to appear should you type the letters in the Replace field (in the example below, I typed three sentences into the With field.

    AutoCorrect

  5. Click the Add button.
  6. Click the OK button.
  7. Open any topic, press your [spacebar] and then type the letters you typed into the Replace field (such as zzz).
  8. Press [spacebar] one final time and BAM! The letters have been replaced by whatever you typed in the Replace field.

***

Need to learn Adobe RoboHelp 8? And fast? I'm teaching an online RoboHelp class at the end of this month (April 29-30). Click here to sign up or learn more.

***

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kevin_siegel.

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Adobe Captivate 4: Creating Printable PDFs

by Kevin Siegel

If you've spent any time within the
Publish dialog box of Captivate 4, you have probably noticed that there
is a PDF option. Selecting this option will create a PDF version of your
project without the need to use Adobe Acrobat… cool. Because Acrobat Reader 9
includes the Flash Player, anyone who has Reader 9 on their system will
be able to open the PDF and watch or interact with your eLearning
lesson. Cooler!

However, the PDF document you publish with Captivate will
behave a little differently than PDFs you create from a print document.
If your Captivate lesson contained 50 slides, the resulting PDF you
Publish with Captivate won't contain 50 PDF document pages. Instead, the
PDF will contain a single video. Customer's will be able to watch the
video easily enough and use the Captivate playbar to move through the
lesson. However, printing the PDF becomes a challenge. Customer's will
only be able to print the slides contained in the PDF one slide at a time… they'll need to
pause the lesson and print. There is no way to print all of the slides
at one time (even if they select the Print All option in the Print
dialog box, only
one slide will print). Ouch!

You can get around this limitation
easily enough however by adding a widget to the Captivate project prior
to publishing. Here's how to do it.

  1. Back in the Captivate project, open a slide for editing (if
    you want the print icon to appear on every slide, you should insert the
    widget on the first slide).
  2. Choose Insert > Widget.
  3. Open
    PrintSlides.swf from the
    Captivate Widget folder (the PrintSlides.swf comes free with Captivate 4
    and is typically found in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Captivate
    4\Gallery\Widgets).

    PrintSlides.swf

  4. Position the widget
    on your slide wherever you'd like.
  5. Ensure the widget is
    in front of all other slide objects by choosing Edit > Order > Bring to Front
    (this step is a requirement of the widget… if the widget isn't in
    front of other objects, customers might not be able to click it while in
    the PDF).
  6. If you'd like the Widget to appear on all of
    the slides, show the Properties of the Widget and, on the Options tab,
    Display for Timing to Rest of project.

    Rest of Project

  7. Publish the project
    (File > Publish) and ensure
    the Export PDF Option is
    selected.

    Export PDF Option

  8. Open the PDF that
    you published.
  9. Click the printer icon you see on the
    slide.

    Printer icon

  10. A dialog box will
    appear. All you'll need to do now is select the slides you want to print
    and click the Print button.

    Print dialog box as seen via the PDF

***

Join me in May for training on Adobe Captivate. I'm teaching
two classes (Beginner and Advanced). Click here for details on
the Beginner class. Click here for details on
the Advanced class.

***

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kevin_siegel.
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Adobe FrameMaker: Templates

by Barbara Binder

For as long as I've used FrameMaker, there's been an option to choose File > New > Document > Explore Standard Templates. These aren't the most exciting designs, and they haven't been updated in years, but I always take a few minutes to show them to my Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker students, because they are a great way to figure out some of the more complex layouts.

Take the Harvard and Numeric Outlines, for example. Figuring out how to set up auto-numbering like that is daunting for a new user, but starting from one of the templates makes it considerably easier.

For students who are looking for additional FrameMaker templates, I'll steer them to C:\Program Files\Adobe\FrameMaker9\samples\MoreSamples. This folder contains a variety of templates (some are still pretty clunky, but others may be very close to what you are looking for.) Remember, it's faster to tweak a template than start completely from scratch.

I design all of my own templates from the ground up, and have helped a number of companies do the same thing. However, it takes knowledge, time and money to create a template. In these budget-conscious times, the stock templates may be just what you are looking for.

***


If you are new to FrameMaker and want to get up to speed quickly, join IconLogic's instructor-led, online Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker 9 class. Too elementary for your skill level? How about the Advanced FrameMaker 9 class? Hope to "see" you there.

***

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.

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Acrobat 9: SKATAT!

by David R. Mankin

Huh? SKATAT… What? I'll explain in just a minute.

In earlier releases of Acrobat, it was easy to get your zoom tool active – either click on the zoom tool with your mouse, or tap the Z key. Want to try out your new link? Activate your Hand tool to test it. Either click on the hand tool with your mouse, or tap the letter H. Voila – hand tool activated. I used these "speed keys" all the time, and have taught them to all my classes. "Tap the letter H" was heard many times per class back in the day.

Something happened when Adobe released (I believe it was) Acrobat version 6. The cool speed key trick no longer worked. I remember thinking, "Oh no! I not only teach this trick constantly, but I use it perpetually as well."

I was certain Adobe wouldn't remove such a productivity-boosting feature like this. I went digging through the Preferences. I never did find the phrase 'speed keys,' but I did find a rather lofty and verbose option labeled Use Single-Key Accelerators To Access Tools under the General heading, and it was turned off by default.

Use Single-Key Accelerators To Access Tools

After consulting with two dictionaries and several PHD scholars, I determined that turning this feature on would allow me to use those 'speed keys' once again. It worked in Acrobat 6, and has worked in every version since!

To use "Single key accelerators," you simply tap a single key.

H=Hand tool

Z=Marquee Zoom Tool

C=Crop Tool

A=Article Tool

There are many more. You can press F1 on your keyboard in Acrobat to bring up the Help system and search for keyboard shortcuts for the complete list of available commands.

Oh, there's a catch–these 'Single key accelerators' ONLY work when your view panel is active. If you have just clicked on a bookmark, you've activated the Navigation panel so you'd need to click on the right-side of your screen (View panel) for the speed keys to work.

What other productivity-energizing features does Acrobat sport? Sign up for my Acrobat classes and find out!

***
 
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.
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Adobe Captivate 4: Brand Your Table of Contents (TOC)

by Kevin Siegel

One
of the easiest ways to personalize your project (with your picture or
company logo) is to add a TOC to the project and then add an image to
the TOC.

To add a TOC to a project, choose Project > Skin Editor. On the TOC tab, select Show TOC.

By
simply clicking Show TOC, every slide in your project will be added to
the TOC (you can remove slides from the TOC by remove the check mark
from the slide numbers).

Project with a TOC

Once
you have a TOC, branding the project is going to be a snap. Still
working in the Skin Editor and still on the TOC tab, click the Info button in the lower right of the dialog box.

Fill in the TOC information as you see fit and click the three dots to the right of Photo to Browse.

Project information

Click the Import button and open any image you'd like to use (you can resize the image via the Zoom slider).

Image resized

Preview the project and you'll have a TOC that includes the image you imported in the upper left. Cool!

A branded TOC

***

Join
me later this week for training on Advanced Adobe Captivate concepts
including importing, branching, working with PowerPoint, creating
accessible projects, commenting and more. Click here for details.

***

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/kevin_siegel.

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Acrobat 9: Shared Workspaces

by David R. Mankin

We
all used to share documents by shooting them back and forth via email. Many people
still do. Not me–not anymore. I signed up for my free Acrobat.com account
right after Adobe made the amazing service available. I've written about it
several times. From a browser on any computer in any office, train station or
coffee shop, I can log in and access my online-hosted documents as well as any
files that a friend or colleague has specifically shared with me. I can create
a spreadsheet, presentation or word processing document from scratch as well. Nice.

This past week, Adobe has again upped the ante with its
Acrobat.com service, and has integrated a new feature called Shared Workspaces.

Shared Spaces

Instead of sharing
individual files with others, you can now set up an online workspace into which
you upload or copy files. Instead of sharing these files one at a time, you can
now share the entire workspace at once. The free service allows for one shared
workspace (into which you can create your own folders), but Acrobat.com's pay
service enables multiple workspaces. Mighty tempting!

Your
colleagues can log in from anywhere and access the contents of the workspace. Working
on a project with Bill from the San Francisco office? No problem. Share away.

Shared Workspaces 2

Want
to know if Bill has logged in to access the project's files? All that
information is there for you to see. Any participant can upload and download
files to utilize. If they make edits, they may upload the revised doc, but not
to worry–they'll receive a rename/overwrite option before they can replace
the online version with their edits.

Folks from all over the world who attend my Acrobat classes are always surprised
at how flexible, interactive and useful a PDF file can be. Don't let your PDF
files sit there and only ask to be looked at and printed. They can be much more
useful in the workplace, and so can you–once you learn what Acrobat technology
can do.

***
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.
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Adobe FrameMaker: 10 Things You Should Know

by Barbara Binder

The following 10 items should be included in any short-list of important FrameMaker features.

  1. You can follow any hyperlink in FrameMaker by
    pressing Control+Alt as you click on
    the link.

    You can do this with manual hyperlinks (i.e., a link to a web page)
    or automatic hyperlinks (i.e., a cross-reference, or an index page number).

  2. You can hide and show all imported graphics in
    an image by simply unchecking/checking Graphics under View > Options.

  3. You can quickly create a new single-sided
    portrait document by pressing Control+N,
    Alt+P    .

  4. You can insert a user-variable by pressing Control+0 (zero, not the letter O) and
    typing the first letter(s) of the desired variable.

  5. You can select two consecutive paragraphs with
    different paragraph formats and change both of them at the same time. (When you
    pick Update All, the Global Updates dialog box opens when you have two or more
    paragraphs selected.)

  6. You can unlock an accidently-locked document
    by pressing Esc F l k. (Shortcuts are case
    sensitive so you need a capital F and lower case l k.

  7. You can shrinkwrap an anchored frame and
    position it at the insertion point by pressing Esc m p.

  8. You can add a tab within a table cell by
    pressing Esc Tab.

  9. You can type an inch mark, even with smart quotes on, by
    pressing Esc Shift '.

  10. You can pose questions on the FrameMaker General
    Discussion forum and FrameMaker experts will rush to answer them (because they earn Adobe
    "community points" for each question satisfactorily answered).


If you are new to FrameMaker and want to get up to speed quickly, join IconLogic's instructor-led, online Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker 9 class. Too elementary for your skill level? How about the Advanced FrameMaker 9 class? Hope to "see" you there.


***

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.

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Adobe RoboHelp 8: Can Word Footers Be Used in a RoboHelp Project?

Question of the Week:

I'm
linking MS Word documents into a
RoboHelp project. On a smaller RoboHelp project, I copied and pasted
the footers into the body of the text because the footers were not
showing up in RoboHelp. The project I
have in front of me has way too many footers and will be updated too
often to
do that, but I haven't figured out how to do it automatically. Do you
know how?

Answer:

Yes,
you can import the footers from Word. If the document is going to
update frequently, you should
be linking the Word document into RoboHelp instead of importing the
text. After importing the document, and prior to generating the
topics, choose File > Project Settings. Click the Edit button to edit the conversion settings
for Word documents. From the Other Settings category, you'll find an option to
Convert Footer (and the Headers too).