Category: Adobe’s Technical Communication Suite

• drawing a new object near an existing object
• resizing an object near an existing object
• reshaping a path near an existing object

• Objects have Gravity along their paths and at their corners
• Rectangles and ovals also have Gravity at their centers
• Some points on an object exert a greater pull than others. For example, the corners of a triangle attract the pointer more than its sides do.
• If Gravity and Snap are both selected in the Graphics menu, Gravity takes precedence

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

We started this discussion last week and came up with two ways to address text alignment in Adobe FrameMaker: column balance and feathering. The final step in the process is to address baseline alignment. It's a great concept, but doesn't make much sense if you don't understand the word "baseline". Take a look at the image below. The blue line underneath the word Typography is the baseline. Think of it as the imaginary line that keeps the letters from falling into the line below. Certain letters have descenders that descend below the baseline, like the y, the g, and the p.

 

Baseline alignment means lining up the baselines across columns. Here's how it works: when you synchronize, or align, text in a flow, FrameMaker creates an invisible grid in each text frame and aligns the baseline of the first line of each specified paragraph to the grid. FrameMaker also aligns the first line after an anchored frame and tries to align the first line in each column.

1. Jot down your Body paragraph leading value (leading is the typographer's term for line spacing). Make sure you have fixed line spacing selected.
2. Click in the flow you want to synchronize
3. Choose Format > Page Layout > Line Layout
4. Select Baseline Synchronization and turn off Feather
5. In the Synchronization Pgf's area, enter your Body paragraph leading
6. In the First-Line Synchronization Limit text box, enter the largest font size to align at the top of a column.

   For example, suppose the leading for Body paragraphs is 12 points, the column grid is 12 points, and the headings are 22 points. If you want the headings to be aligned when they appear at the top of a column, specify 22 as the first-line limit.

7. Click Update Flow.

So, why did we turn off feathering on step 4? If feathering and synchronization are both on for a flow, feathering takes precedence over synchronization. Sigh. Here's where I remind you not to shoot the messenger. Like everything in life, it's a balancing act. You have to pick what is most important and let the rest go. The good news is that if you have them both on, at least the first lines in the columns are synchronized with each other. 

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

Students come to my print layout classes (Adobe FrameMaker and Adobe InDesign) and often ask how they can easily line up baselines across columns, and easily force the last lines of every column to line up with the bottom margin. The word easily is often a clue to their pain: it always means they are adding and subtracting leading and paragraph spacing values to achieve their goals. That might be okay if there aren't going to be any further edits, but if there are, it becomes a total nightmare.  

You have three techniques in Adobe FrameMaker to automatically align text in the columns of a multi-column layout so that text has an even appearance:

1. Balancing text across columns. FrameMaker distributes text evenly across the columns of a text frame that isn't full of text.
2. Feathering text to the bottom of text frames. Also known as vertical justification, which means that the last line of text in each column reaches the bottom of the column.
3. Synchronizing baselines across columns. The first lines of body paragraphs line up whenever they appear side by side in columns.

Balancing text across columns. The first one is the easiest: just place your cursor in Flow A (or the main text flow) and choose Format > Page Layout > Column Layout. Select Balance Columns and click Update Entire Flow. The results are most evident on the final page of the flow: instead of having one long and one short (or empty) column, you will end up with columns that end at the same place. 

1. If a document window is active, place the insertion point in the main text flow
2. Choose Format > Page Layout > Line Layout
3. Select Feather, and enter the maximum amount of space FrameMaker can add between lines (Interline Padding) and between paragraphs (Inter-Padding). FrameMaker won't exceed the padding limits you set.
4. Click Update Flow

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

Now that you are successfully working with Footnotes (after last week's column), what about Endnotes? Advanced users may be thinking, "What is she talking about? FrameMaker doesn't offer an Endnotes command, does it?" No, but… you can have endnotes, if you are willing to work a little bit.

1. Prepare the list of references at the end of your chapter as a series of paragraphs.

2. Assign a short and concise paragraph format like "EndNotes" to the list.

3. Turn on Auto-number formats for "EndNotes" to number the paragraphs sequentially from 1 to infinity.

4. Create a Character format called "Superscript" that you will use to superscript the reference number in the text.

5. Create a cross-reference format that simply pulls the auto-number from an "EndNote" paragraph. Give it a simple name like "EndNote Reference", and set the definition to <Superscript><$paranumonly> to apply the "Superscript" Character format to just the reference number:

   

6. Whenever you want to add an endnote reference, place your cursor at the position where you want the number to appear and add a cross-reference to the appropriate paragraph. Voila!

   

7. When you click on the Insert button, it looks just like a "real" endnote!

   

This may seem like a lot of work, but when your document goes through substantial revisions and text begins shifting around, this technique will ensure that all numbers will update as you go. That's a real timesaving when you are approaching a deadline.

Want to learn more about Adobe FrameMaker 8? Attend Barb's Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker 8 class. 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.

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

1. On the Single Source Layouts pod, right-click either the WebHelp or FlashHelp layout and choose Properties
2. Click Next to move to the Navigation settings
3. Select the Index toolbar button and click Set as Default
4. Select the Index toolbar button and click the Up button until the Index button is in the first position (as shown below)

   

5. Click the Save button
6. Generate the layout and View the results. You will notice that the Index appears first. In addition, the Index button appears in the first position about the Toolbar buttons.  

by Barbara Binder

You are writing in Adobe FrameMaker 8 and need to add the occasional reference. Seems straightforward enough. Just choose Special > Footnote
and there you go. A footnote number immediately appears at the cursor
position and the footnote itself appears at the bottom of the page.
Better yet, if your Word document has footnotes, they will just come
into FrameMaker when you import the file. But what if you don't like
how they look? That's a little trickier because the controls are spread
all over the program. Here are the four steps to footnote formatting:

1. Choose Format > Document > Footnote Properties

   

   This
   is where you can control the height allowed for a footnote on a single
   page, the paragraph tag assigned, and the look of the actual number.
   The default is to superscript the number in the text, but have it
   baseline-aligned in the reference and follow it with a period and a
   tab. Whatever you choose here changes all the footnotes in a document
   when you click Set.

2. Choose Format > Document > Numbering > Footnote tab
   
   

   You
   can control the numbering style here and, if you publish loose-leaf
   updates, definitely consider starting the numbering over on each page
   to simply your life.

3. Choose Format > Paragraphs > Designer

   Obviously, you need to make a stop here to set the typeface, size, style, etc.

   

4. Choose View > Reference  Pages > Reference
   
   

   And
   finally, visit the Reference pages to refine the footnote rule that
   appears above the first footnote on every page. You can adjust the
   rule, the frame, or both to globally update the division between the
   text and the footnotes.

Phew!
That's a lot of stops on the footnote train, but… once you finish,
all your footnotes should be looking pretty good. Unless, of course,
they fall too far down on the page. In that case, you end up with the
reference on one page and the footnote on the next. All I know to do is
to start working with Pagination properties to force them back
together. Come on, Adobe. It's the end of 2008! Can't you please fix
this so that footnotes can break across pages like InDesign and Word
have done for years?

Want to learn more about Adobe FrameMaker 8? Attend Barb's Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker 8
class. 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.

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

Let's say you have finished up a publication in FrameMaker 8 and are ready to deliver the finished product. It seems like a straight-forward process: you choose Save as PDF from the File menu and give the file a name. You click the Save button, thinking, "That was easy." when suddenly you are confronted with the following dialog box:

Most of this screen is self-explanatory, but the most important option in there, the PDF Job Options menu, is most certainly not. What's a girl to do? It's critical that you pick the right option because these settings have a direct impact on the size of the file created, and do so with wildly varying compression settings.

These settings are designed to balance file size with quality, and depend specifically on how the PDF file will be used. Here's a quick list of which one to pick for a given situation:

Using this table, you can make educated decisions about which Job Option to pick for your files. Mine typically go through several:  I use Smallest File Size to return documents to clients for proofing, Standard for posting the finished files on a web site, and one of the commercial printing options when the files are heading out for high-res printing.

Let me leave you with the most important advice of all: if your files are heading out for commercial printing, don't just pick one of these without first talking with your printer. They will know exactly which one you should use that will work best with their equipment. Many service bureaus will opt to send you their own custom Job Options file that has been tweaked to work perfectly with their particular equipment. When you are sending files out for printing, always pick up the phone first.

1. Open a FrameMaker document
2. Choose Format > Document > Change Bars and activate Automatic Change Bars:

   

3. Just start typing in your document and any line where you make a change will display a black bar in the left column.

   

   This is an easy way to find your changes on a scanning level.

Back in the day, if you wanted to see exactly what was added or removed, you would need to use File > Utilities > Compare Documents and go through several steps to compare the newer version to the original. In FrameMaker 8, I'd suggest just using both Change Bars and Track Text Edits (see last week's article for details) and everything is right there at your fingertips, as you work. 

1. On the Project Manager pod, double-click the See Also folder
2. Click in the white space at the top of the See Also pod
3. Type a name for the keyword (in the example below, I typed Managers) and then press [Enter]

   

   Now you need to associate topics with the new See Also keyword.

4. On the Topic List pod, drag topics into the Topics for Managers area (in the picture below, I added topics named hr.htm, IS.htm, pres.htm and master.htm)

   

   Now you need to insert a link control in a topic.

5. Open a topic
6. Choose Insert > See Also
   
   The See Also Wizard – Link Options dialog box appears.
7. Give the control a label (I typed Our Managers into the Label field)

   

8. Click Next

   The See Also Wizard – See Also Keywords Selection screen appears. The See Also keyword you created should be the only keyword available to Add.

   

9. Click the Add button
10. Click Next
11. Select Popup menu from the Choose topic from area

    

12. Click Next
13. Choose any Font, Font Style and Size you like
14. Click Finish

    Your button should now appear in the topic.

    

To test the button, you would generate and view the project and open the topic containing the button.

1. Begin by setting up two opening page masters. I called mine FirstRight and FirstLeft. They are based on the default Left and Right masters, but don't have the running header and do have a more generous top margin.
2. Navigate to the first Body Page in the document and make a note of the paragraph format you are using to identify the chapter title. I called mine Title.
3. Choose View > Reference Pages
4. Choose Format > Page Layout > Apply Master

   This command invokes at least one "are you sure" alert box:

   

   And maybe two… if you have not yet used the feature in the current publication, you'll get this alert box as well.

   

   When you click OK, a new Reference Page called MasterPageMaps is created for you.

5. Navigate to the new Reference Page (usually the last page). Here's how mine is set up:

   

   My table is telling FrameMaker, "When you see the tag called Title, if it appears on a right page apply FirstRight, but if it is on a left page, apply FirstLeft.

   The Range Indicator is set to Single which means this is a single page situation, and I must have added that comment "wow!" years ago when it actually worked.

This has totally removed me from having to worry about which Master Page is being used when on my opening pages. Whenever I update my book, I have the option to turn on the checkbox for Apply Master Pages and it takes care of itself.

Now there's more time for skiing. That's how I see it.