Category: Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite

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Adobe Acrobat 9: Reading RSS Feeds With Acrobat. Really?

by David R. Mankin  

Really!

Here's a little known trick that is rather handy if you subscribe to any RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. Acrobat's Tracker can follow your subscriptions for you and present the content to you–without the need for a web browser or any other separate application.

First, you will need to open the Tracker. Choose Comments > Track Reviews. Curiously, Adobe doesn't think you'll want to know about RSS subscriptions by default, so you may have to go to Edit > Preferences (Acrobat > Preferences on the Macintosh) to enable RSS reading capabilities.

Enable RSS reading capabilities

Click Tracker on the left and enable RSS Feeds in Tracker. You will need to close and reopen the Tracker to see the RSS options.

Click RSS in the left panel of Tracker. Then click the Subscribe to RSS Feed link on the right. Paste or type the RSS Feed's URL into the dialog box and click OK. That's all that's required to make this magic happen.

Subscribe to RSS Feed

If you then look at Tracker's left side, you'll find your RSS Feed listed under the RSS button. Each subscribed feed will have its own entry.

RSS Feeds

Click the plus sign (or triangle) to expand the topic and to reveal a listing for each article or topic. Clicking on any topic reveals the appropriate article (including graphics!) in Tracker's right panel.

 
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Want to learn more about Adobe Acrobat? Attend Dave's live, online class. Click here for more details.
 
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David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. He is an Adobe-Certified Expert in Acrobat.
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Adobe FrameMaker 9: Pods vs. Panels

by Barbara Binder 

I've barely made the required Creative Suite 4 verbal transition from palettes to panels. Now FrameMaker has incorporated the CS4 panel terminology and then added the term "pods." What's it all about, Alphie?

Let's start with Panels. Panels are the floating, uh, panels that appear on the right side of the various FrameMaker 9 workspaces. They include the indispensable Paragraph and Character catalogs, but also include the various Designers (Paragraph, Character and Table), along with Find/Change, History and more.

Pods are defined by Adobe as "frequently used dialog boxes that have an interface designed to simplify your work, [and includes the] Conditional text pod, Cross-references pod, Marker pod, Fonts pod, Insets pod, [and the] Variables pod."

Here's my definition: panels appear on the right, pods at the bottom. (This is slightly oversimplified, because Pods in the structured environment have additional properties that I won't get into here.) Don't get me started on the Window > Panels menu option that then proceeds to list the pods.

OK, so now we have pods and panels. How do we manage them? I always advise my FrameMaker students with small screens to leave class, drive straight to a store like Best Buy and purchase the largest possible monitor they can afford. All of the current Adobe programs offer a plethora of panels and we need space to store them all. Can't buy a new monitor? How about hooking a second monitor to your XP or Vista system? Then you can push all the panels to the second monitor and do all your layout on your primary display. No? Then, keep reading.

  • Open or close any panel or pod by clicking its name via Window > Panels
  • Rearrange open panels and pods by dragging the panel/pod name
  • Click the gray space to the right of any panel/pod name to collapse/expand an open panel group
  • Click the double white arrows to the right of panel's name to collapse/expand a panel group to icons with labels (not pods)
  • After collapsing the panel groups to icons with labels, resize the panels to just icons by tugging on the left edge of the panel group (again, not pods).
 

The best part? Once you get your panels and pods (and toolbars) just the way you like them, you can click on the Workspace Switcher in the Application bar and save your workspace. That way, you can return to your customized, saved workspace at any time. This is a huge improvement over the old FrameMaker interface.

 
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Want to learn more about Adobe FrameMaker? Click here.
 
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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 in the world.
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Adobe Acrobat 9: Expand Your PDF Portfolio Layout Options

by David R. Mankin

By now, many of you have discovered the most amazing new feature of Acrobat 9 Professional–the PDF Portfolio. For those of you who haven't, the PDF Portfolio is a unique and exciting type of file that allows you to share and distribute ANY type of file, not just PDFs.
 
Portfolio's are wrapped up in a beautiful and functional PDF wrapper, which is bathed in Flash. If you are not a Flash developer, no worries because no Flash knowledge is required. In fact, Acrobat 9 does all the fancy Flash work for you.

Click here to see a video of the PDF Portfolio creation process and then continue with this article.

 
In the video, did you catch the part where I got to choose from those four pre-set Layout options? Those four dazzled me when I first installed Acrobat 9 and began making PDF Portfolios. Before long, though, I found myself wanting more choices and functionality. Fortunately, Adobe came to the rescue with new and FREE PDF Portfolio Layouts. If you would like to add to your PDF Portfolio Layout choices, click here and download the appropriate file for your operating system.
 
Adobe actually has you download a PDF Portfolio. Included are folders for the various languages in the release, and specific directions on how to install the new layout options.
 
Portfolio Download
 
Once installed, you'll be able to explore and utilize your original four layouts, plus the new enhanced ones.

Finished Portfolio

 
There's nothing ordinary about any PDF Portfolio, but yours can now be truly extraordinary.
 
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Want to learn more about Adobe Acrobat? Click here.
 
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David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. He is an Adobe-Certified Expert in Acrobat.
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Adobe FrameMaker 9: The Toolbars

 
It's so easy to order a software upgrade, install it, and then just keep working, as if you never upgraded. FrameMaker 9, thankfully, makes this fairly easy. However, this article (and those that follow over the next few weeks) are designed to get you to stop working for a few minutes and actually look at the new FrameMaker 9 interface. Hopefully, I'll be able to increase your productivity by helping you get to know the ins and outs of the new interface.
 
This week, let's take a look at the redesigned toolbars. The visible toolbars are displayed under the Menu bar and above any open documents. Before you start, choose the Authoring workspace from the Workspace Switcher in the Application Bar (top right of your screen).
 
Quick Access Bar

 
The Quick Access Bar appears first, just like it always has. It has been redesigned to pick up more standard buttons that were scattered across various toolbars in earlier versions.
 
Paragraph Formatting Bar

 
Formerly known as just the Formatting Bar, this bar gives you one-click access to commands found in the Basic properties of the Paragraph Designer, plus it harbors the Paragraph Format list, which lists all the Paragraph tags in your document.
 
Text Formatting Bar

 
These buttons used to live on the right of the Quick Access Bar. While it is helpful to see the Font and Size of selected text, and to have easy access to case changes, you still want to rely on Character Tags for your character level formatting, and avoid all the other buttons.
 
If you want more toolbars, you'll need to choose View > Toolbars. In FrameMaker 9, we can now access the Toolbox by choosing View > Toolbars > Graphic Toolbar. The other three options in the old Quick Access Bar are available here as well: Table Formatting, Object Alignment and Object Properties, plus the Track Text Edits toolbar.
 
The new interface allows you to have all the toolbars open at once, if you have the screen real estate to support it: just choose View > Toolbars > Show all.
 
Too many toolbars? No worries. You can turn them all off, or turn them off individually by choosing View > Toolbars. Would you just like to put them back the way they were when we started? Remember how we began by choosing the Authoring workspace from the Workspace Switcher in the Application Bar? Head back to the Workspace Switcher and just choose Reset Workspace. Confirm with a Yes and you are back to a nice clean look.
 
Next week: Pods and panels… what's the difference?
 
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Want to learn more about Adobe FrameMaker? Click here.
 
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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 in the world.
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Adobe Captivate 4: Need to Reuse Project Data? Say Hello to System Variables!

by Kevin A. Siegel

Variables serve as placeholders for data. The data can be used to provide feedback to the user, create advanced actions or add content to a slide.
 
There are two types of variables available in Adobe Captivate: System and User-Defined.
 
System Variables, which ship with Captivate 4 and are available in every Captivate project, grab data from your project or computer and allow you to manipulate it. System variables include MovieControls (lesson controls such as pause, resume, previous and next slide), MovieInformation (events such as the current slide and frame), MovieMetaData (Information about the project such as its name, author, and company), SystemInformation (data that can be grabbed from your computer such as current date and time), and Quizzing Lists (allow you to capture quiz data such as the number of quiz attempts or the percentage of questions answered correctly).
 
User-defined Variables, which are typically created to store data that will be used throughout the project are created on the fly by the Captivate developer. You could create a variable that gathers a user's first name. Once the data has been collected by the variable, the name can be displayed over and over again in the project.
 
This week, I'll show you how to use System variables.
 
One of the most common uses of System variables is to return information about the project to your user in the published lesson. For instance, you might want the name of the project to appear in a text caption in multiple locations (and you don't want to have to type it each time). The first thing you'll need to do is add the Document Information to the project by choosing File > Document Info.
 
Document Information filled out
 
Insert a System Variable
  1. After adding the Document Information, insert a text caption (Insert > Standard Objects > Text Caption)
  2. Click where you want the variable to appear and click the Insert Variable button at the far right of the Text Caption dialog box

    Insert Variable Button

  3. If necessary, select System from the Variable Type drop-down menu
  4. Select MovieMetaData from the View by drop-down menu
  5. Select cpInfoProjectName from the Variables drop-down menu

    The Insert Variable dialog box

  6. Click OK

    The variable appears in the text caption in a less than readable format: $$cpInfoProjectName$$.

    The variable in place

  7. Click OK
  8. Preview the project and you'll see that the name of the project appear in the text caption. Cool!
Of course, System variables are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to reusing data in a project. I'm betting that what you'll really think is off-the-chart cool is User variables. Of course, that's a story for another day… specifically, next week!
 
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Need to learn Adobe Captivate 4 fast? Attend a live, 2-day online training class. Click here for more information.
 
Note: Our new Advanced Captivate 4 class is now posted on our Web site. Click here for more information.
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Adobe RoboHelp 8: Word Conversion Settings During Import

by Kevin A. Siegel

Last week I talked about how importing Word documents into RoboHelp 8 offers far more options than ever before. During that article, I promised that this week I'd dive a little deeper into the dialog boxes you'll encounter during the import process. So here goes…
 
After choosing File > Import > Word Document and opening the document, you are presented with the Content Settings dialog box. I know it's the first dialog you'll see, but I want to cover that next week since most RoboHelp authors do not take advantage of the options presented here (a shame, but I'll get into that next week).
 
By clicking the Next button, you'll end up on the screen that will occupy our time this week: the Import dialog box. This screen will give you access to options that control how the Word document will be formatted as it is imported into RoboHelp.
 
Click the Edit button to the right of the words Word Document: Edit conversion settings for Word documents.
 
Edit conversion settings for Word docs area
 
The Word document will be scanned and the Conversion Settings dialog box will appear.
 
Map Word Styles to RoboHelp Styles
  1. From the Word Document Settings area, double-click Paragraph to open the Paragraph group
  2. From the Word Document Settings area, select
    Heading 1
  3. From the RoboHelp Style drop-down menu, select
    Heading 1

    When the Word document is imported, the Heading 1 style used in Word will be assigned to use a style of the same name in the RoboHelp project.

  4. From the Word Document Settings area, select Normal
  5. From the RoboHelp Style area, ensure [Source] is selected

    By selecting Source, the Normal style used in the Word document will be retained and used in the imported RoboHelp topics.

Control the Pagination during import
 
  1. From the Word Document Settings area, select
    Heading 1
  2. Select Pagination from the list of options in the middle of the dialog box

    RoboHelp/Word Pagination

    By selecting Pagination for the Heading 1 style, RoboHelp will create a new topic every time it sees that Heading 1 was used in the Word document.

  3. Click OK
  4. Click Finish

And that's it. After clicking Finish, you'll see that your Word document has been split into topics based on how many times the Heading 1 style was used in the Word document. 

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Need to learn Adobe RoboHelp 8 fast? Attend our 2-day online training class from the comfort of your home or office. All you'll need is Adobe RoboHelp 8 installed (the trial version works just fine), a headset and a reliable Internet connection. Click here to learn more.
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Adobe Acrobat 9: A Little Acrobat Forms Magic

 
In the earlier days of Acrobat, converting a PDF file into an interactive form involved calling up the Forms Toolbar and then hand-crafting each and every text box, radio button, drop down list, etc.

In the new Acrobat 9, the Forms Toolbar isn't just hidden, it's GONE! Many Acrobat features received tweaks and gentle improvements in the upgrade from 8 to 9, but the way PDF forms are handled in Acrobat 9 is a complete rewrite. In fact, forms are now handled in a new interface–the Form Editing Mode. In this new interface, you can manually add or edit form fields in roughly the same way you could in earlier Acrobat releases.

The real magic surfaces when you call up the Form Wizard. With a potential PDF form already open (any PDF you've created that actually looks like a form will do), choose Forms > Start Form Wizard.

Start Form Wizard

The wizard asks you a few questions about your form, such as which file to process, and then takes you into the new Form Editing Mode.

Form Editing Mode

The wizard also performs a rather impressive operation which analyzes your file in order to try to identify, create and name form fields for you. Although rarely a perfect form at this point, Acrobat's Form Wizard takes on much of the preliminary work you would be doing painstakingly by hand, and leaves you with an editable, and often very reasonable starting point. I have been pleasantly surprised at the Wizard's ability to detect radio button groups appropriately, and it cleverly names each field with the text it assumes describes the input.

There will be those files on which the Wizard simply can't perform its magic. For these jobs, you can choose (in Acrobat 9's main interface) Forms > Add or Edit Fields to jump to the Form Editing Mode without the Wizard's help. From there, you can click the Add New Field button and work much like you did in previous versions of Acrobat.

Anyone find the Walk the Dog or Take Out the Trash Wizard yet?

 
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Want to learn more about Adobe Acrobat? Click here.
 
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David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. He is an Adobe-Certified Expert in Acrobat.
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Adobe FrameMaker: Hey, Where Did My Menus Go?

 
FrameMaker has had a view-only option for as long as I can remember. Long before most of us began using Acrobat for view-only file distribution, a product called FrameViewer was available to address that need for FrameMaker users. The idea was that you could create a complicated FrameMaker publication, and then distribute it electronically for viewing out in the field with the much-less-expensive FrameViewer.
 
To preview how a file would act in the FrameViewer environment, you could lock your FrameMaker document and render it read-only. Once locked, you could easily follow any document hyperlinks and test your online/PDF navigation systems.
 
These days, most people rely on Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader for electronic file distribution (FrameViewer disappeared years ago). So what does this have to do with your FrameMaker workflow? Back in the day, you used a complicated keyboard shortcut to lock and unlock a FrameMaker file: [Esc] [F] [l] [k]. Since there wasn't a menu command, it wasn't very easy to accidently lock a document.
 
With the introduction of FrameMaker 7.2 and beyond, Adobe provided a handy button that will lock a document. In 7.2 and 8, the button sits on the Formatting Bar and the tooltip label reads "Toggle View only." In FrameMaker 9, the button changed to a little padlock icon and now appears on the Quick Access Bar (right next to the Print button).
 
The new, more prominent position of the lock button makes me nervous. Imagine this: you are in a hurry and want to print your document. You miss the Print button and click the Lock button, but don't realize it. Suddenly, you have a reduced set of menus, and you can't edit the file. In a panic, you might click the Undo button–which doesn't unlock the document. Worse, even closing and reopening the document doesn't unlock it. Of course, all you have to do is click the lock button one more time to remove the view-only property, but when I'm panicking, I rarely think clearly enough to make a rational decision like that.
 
The moral of this little story: unless you are checking your hyperlinks, stay away from the lock button. If you suddenly can't edit your file, and you notice that about half of the normal menus are missing, it means you must have clicked it and put your document into view-only mode. Seek out the lock button, click it again to unlock your file, and maybe make a mental note to stay clear of it in the future.
 
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Want to learn more about Adobe FrameMaker? Click here.
 
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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 in the world.
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Adobe Acrobat 9.1: The Properties Bar… A Hidden Gem

 
Many folks are perfectly content with leaving things the way they are.
 
"Why change it? It works, doesn't it?"
 
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
 
Well, if everyone subscribed to this way of thinking, and they used Acrobat in a review cycle with co-workers, it wouldn't take long for the pages of a PDF file to become covered with dozens of yellow Sticky Notes (because yellow is the default color of a Sticky Note). It would be infinitely easier to decipher a colleague's comments if each contributor had his/her own unique color for their comments.
 
In Adobe products, I have long subscribed to the notion that if you're looking for a command, right-click and it's likely there. Many folks, therefore, have discovered on their own that if you right-click a Sticky Note's icon, you can select Properties and change the way your note icon looks by making changes on the Appearance Tab. If you have created a Call Out, you could right-click on its edge and adjust the line style, line weight and fill color.
 
Acrobat Object Properties
 
The secret to unlocking these attributes more quickly (and finding attributes that you can't even get to by right-clicking) is to open up a toolbar called the Properties Bar. The Properties Bar concept is not new. Early releases of QuarkXPress had a Properties bar, and it didn't take Aldus, and ultimately Adobe long to realize its value and include it in PageMaker.
 
To launch the Properties Bar, right-click the tool bar area at the top of your Acrobat interface and choose Properties Bar.
 
Properties Bar
 
Now that the Properties Bar is visible, it's time to scratch your head. It appears to do NOTHING. Actually, the Properties Bar is doing just what it's designed to do–show you the properties of whatever object you have currently selected. You likely had nothing selected, so the Properties Bar was just minding its own business and waiting for you to click on something.
 
Select a Sticky Note and the Properties Bar instantly reports the Note's properties. You can change the attributes of the Sticky Note by simply dialing in a different value in the Properties Bar.
 
Any commenting object you select can easily be customized. Clicking on a Call Out allows you to quickly customize its stroke, fill and opacity. Double-clicking inside the text area puts you in text edit mode, and you can then select a custom typeface and text alignment.
 
Customizing commenting objects
 
If you like the Properties Bar as much as I do, you may want to have it onscreen all the times. Consider dragging the Properties Bar to the edge of your Acrobat window and dock (attach) it anywhere you like.
 
Properties Bar docked
 
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Want to learn more about Adobe Acrobat? Click here.
 
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David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. He is an Adobe-Certified Expert in Acrobat.
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Adobe Acrobat 9.1: Safety First! Update Now To Prevent Attacks

 
This week's Acrobat tip is one that should not be taken lightly. Hackers are out there. They want your computer, and are ridiculously inventive in finding ways to gain control of your data, CPU or bandwidth.Update Acrobat to version 9.1... keep the bad guys out!
 
Acrobat itself has become the target of a recently discovered hack, and the bad guys are already exploiting a weakness in Acrobat's underpinnings. That's right–Acrobat or even Reader can be convinced to crash and could "potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected systems."
 
Adobe also acknowledged that there are reports the vulnerability issue is already being exploited. YIKES!! Click here to read about this vulnerability.
 
How the heck can you protect yourself from this pending disaster? Adobe has just released a bulletin that contains links to download Acrobat & Reader 9.1. If you are running version 9, download and install this update as soon as possible. (Adobe is planning to make available updates for Adobe Reader 7 and 8, and Acrobat 7 and 8 by March 18th.)
 
The major AntiVirus vendors are also on the move to help protect you from these malicious attacks. To stay safely under their protective umbrella, you must update your virus definitions. Honestly, new threats pop up so frequently, you should have your AntiVirus application check for updates DAILY.
 
Want some incentive to do this now? Quicken. Paypal. Online Banking. Your address book. Photos of your kids. Install Reader or Acrobat Professional 9.1–and breathe a little easier.
 
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Want to learn more about Adobe Acrobat? Click here.
 
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David R. Mankin is a Certified Technical Trainer, desktop publisher, computer graphic artist, and Web page developer. He is an Adobe-Certified Expert in Acrobat.