The Logical Blog

I'm midway through an annual FrameMaker production job. It's a great opportunity for me to get out of the classroom and into the same trenches that you climb into every day.

First of all, let me say that I'm impressed with Frame 9. It is as stable as it used to be years ago (yes, FrameMaker 8, I'm talking to you). A full week with equations, large tables and lots of figures-and no tears. Woo Hoo!

As I'm working, I'm thinking about things that I do to make my production work go faster. Here are a few of my favorite tips:

Go to your computer's Control Panel and open the Mouse controls. On the Pointer Options tab, select Automatically move pointer to the default button in a dialog Box and click OK.

FrameMaker's dialog boxes pop up all over the place. This one little checkbox will save your wrist the extra movement to reach the OK button.
Rapidly pull out all those extra hard returns: Find: \p|\p, Change to: \p and turn Use WildCards on.
Use keyboard shortcuts. Tables are one place where I slow down in production. I particularly like these (remember that all Escape key shortcuts are sequential-you can execute them with one finger):
- Esc ti (Insert a table)
- Esc ta 1 t Enter (Add a header row)
- Ecs tl (straddle selected table cells)
- Esc tw (shrinkwrap cells to selected cells contents)

My FrameMaker students will all recognize this sentiment, which I drill into them during class: when you can shave seconds here and there from your workflow, those seconds will eventually grow into minutes and hours. And for the longest jobs, the time you save can mean the difference between a free weekend, and one spent in front of the computer, trying to make deadline.

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Need some more help with FrameMaker? We've got an online Adobe FrameMaker 9 Introduction class coming up October 22-23, 2009. Sign up today. Looking for advanced FrameMaker training? Click here to our upcoming Adobe FrameMaker 9 Advanced dates. Looking for other online classes? 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 was recently recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide for 2007.

October 23, 2009

Acrobat 9: Patch It!

by David R. Mankin, the Acrobat Czar

The Czar! This past Tuesday, Adobe released a giant patch to Acrobat & Reader. The patch addresses <gulp> 29 security vulnerabilities (don't be smug about this if you're a Mac user or even a Linux user–the patch is for all three operating systems). What types of vulnerabilities are exposed? Malicious PDF files opened in Adobe Reader and Acrobat could cause the applications to crash and enable remote attackers to infiltrate your computer and launch information-stealing malware (programs developed specifically for causing harm to your computer). Yikes. Now that you understand why you should install the patch, here's how to do it.

Choose Help > Check for Updates to start the Adobe Updater (which automatically connects with Adobe's server and checks to see if you have the most recent versions of all your installed Adobe applications). If there is a more recent update available, you can mark it for download and installation. Your preferences can be customized to have the Adobe Updater check for new patches and updates automatically either weekly or monthly.

Adobe Updater

I suggest that you not wait to install the patch–your data is too valuable for someone else to be browsing through and looking for your passwords and personal data.

Once successfully patched, you can then choose Help > About Acrobat 9 Professional (or whatever release you have installed). You should see a message that says "Version 9.2" once the patch is installed.

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Looking for Acrobat training? We run an online Acrobat class once each month. Click here for more information and class dates.

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About the author: In addition to recently being named the nation's Acrobat Czar, 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.

October 20, 2009

Camtasia Studio 6: An Introduction

I will be teaching a live, full-day, hands-on online workshop for the ASTD on November 3, 2009 that will introduce you to Camtasia Studio 6. (Camtasia is a program that allows you to quickly and easily create high-quality training and sales videos for mobile devices and the Web. Click here for more information.)

October 14, 2009

Adobe RoboHelp 8: User Defined Variables

by Kevin Siegel

RoboHelp allows you to quickly create and use variables. What are variables and how can they help you? Variables can contain information that occurs frequently in your project, such as a product name, company name or copyright notice. After creating the variable, you can insert it into any RoboHelp topic or onto a template by simply dragging and dropping.

Let's say you want to have your company name appear throughout the project. You could accomplish the task the old-fashioned way by typing the company name over and over again. Or you can create a variable called CompanyName, whose definition is your actual company name. After creating the variable, it's a simple matter of dragging the CompanyName variable into any topic.

Now here's the cool part. Assume your company name now appears throughout your project, and now you want to change it. Without the variable, you would have to search your entire project and update the company name. Thanks to variables, all you will need to do is update the definition of the CompanyName variable and you will change the displayed company name project-wide in just a few seconds.

Create a Variable

Show the User Defined Variables pod by choosing View > Pods > User Defined Variables.
By default, the User Defined Variables pod is empty. Let's create a variable that will link text to your corporate Web site.
At the top of the User Defined Variables pod, click the Create a new variable button.

The New Variable dialog box appears.
Type a name into the Variable Name field (no spaces allowed).
Type your company name into the Variable value field.
Click OK.
Your unformatted variable text appears in a panel to the right of the variable list. You will add a hyperlink to the variable text next.
Highlight the variable value (your company name).
Right-click the selected text and choose Insert Hyperlink.
The Hyperlink dialog box appears.
Select Web address from the Link to drop-down menu.
Type your corporate Web address into the field to the right of http://
Click OK.
Save your work.

Insert a Variable into a Topic

Open a topic.
Drag your variable from the User Defined Variables pod into your topic.
The variable value will appear in the topic. The value will be formatted to match the CSS attached to your topic and contains a hyperlink.
Drag the variable into more topics.
Save your work.

Edit a User Defined Variable value

At the right of the User Defined Variables pod, double-click the linked text to your company.
The Hyperlink properties appear. If the Web address you typed a while ago was incorrect, you could fix it now.
Click OK.
Anywhere you used the variable (two times or 10,000), the value instantly updated. How cool is that?

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Looking for Adobe RoboHelp training? Need it fast? IconLogic has a two-day, live, online RoboHelp 8 class coming up October 22-23, 2009. Worried about your class canceling? You'll be happy to hear that we never, ever cancel our classes (even if there's just one student registered). Click here to learn more about my online classes.

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Follow Kevin on Twitter: http://twitter.com/iconlogic.

October 13, 2009

There’s Nothing Rapid About “Rapid eLearning”

Jon Lloyd currently works for VMG. But back in the day, Jon worked for a company called eHelp. Maybe you've heard of eHelp? Maybe not? eHelp is the company that bought RoboDemo, now Adobe Captivate, to market. A few years back, another now-defunct company–Macromedia–absorbed eHelp. But that's another story.

Getting back to Lloyd, he knows a thing or two about eLearning. Lloyd says that many young developers have got it wrong when it comes to how long it really takes to develop eLearning.

According to Lloyd, "Rapid eLearning has seen a seven or eight year maturation that sometimes amuses me quite a bit. Why? Because many of the young developers have probably never had the experience of working within a large multimedia development team consisting of designers, storyboard teams, Flash developers, and creative artists. They are reduced to storyboarding in PowerPoint or Post-its, developing in Captivate or Articulate, and using iStockPhoto to fill in for their illustrative work."

"I believe that rapid is only relative if you compare development to the 'old days'–which consisted of large teams with fairly specialized talent (not excluding the folks using Director or Authorware!)," Lloyd continued. "Interestingly, when eHelp released their first version of RoboDemo, and even though it was a brand new tool in a new market, there was a high degree of difficulty selling people on the value of going to our training classes. 'Hey, this is easy! I can crank out training in no time!' Not so fast Sparky!"

Click here to read Jon's entire article. Trust me, it's worth the click!

October 9, 2009

Acrobat 9: The Czar’s Top 10

by David R. Mankin, the Acrobat Czar

The Czar! Everyone uses their applications differently. I used to be a mega-mouse-clicker. Over the years, I have grown to use, appreciate and ultimately rely on keyboard shortcuts to help streamline my workflow.

So here they are… my Top Ten Acrobat 9 Professional Keyboard Shortcuts.

Drum roll, please…

10.	Ctrl-6	Insert Sticky Note
9.	Shift-Ctrl-D	Delete Pages
8.	Ctrl-R	Show/Hide Rulers (yes, Acrobat DOES have rulers!)
7.	Ctrl-U	Show/Hide Grid (yep – Acrobat has a design grid too!)
6.	Alt-Left Arrow	Previous View
5.	Ctrl-0 (zero)	Fit Page
4.	Shift-Ctrl-1	Open Organizer
3.	Shift-Ctrl-F	Search
2.	Ctrl-D	Document Properties
…and the number 1 keyboard shortcut is…
1.	Ctrl-K	Preferences

I cover scores of Acrobat features and tips that will surely impact your business and workflow. To stay on top, you'd be wise to learn what Acrobat can do for you. Click here for more details.

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October 8, 2009

Adobe FrameMaker: Pasting Text from Microsoft Word

by Barbara Binder

This is one of my all-time favorite tips because it's something I have to deal with on a regular basis.

Let's say I need to replace a paragraph in my FrameMaker document with one from an MS Word file. The process seems easy enough: go to Word, select and copy the paragraph to the clipboard, return to FrameMaker, select the old text, and Paste. Right? Wrong!

Instead of the text simply replacing my highlighted FrameMaker text, the clipboard text is pasted as an OLE object (OLE stands for Object Linking and Embedding–it's a Microsoft technology that allows you to embed and link objects into documents). The pasted text appears within an anchored frame–not exactly what I was looking for.

To get around the anchored frame, I'll now have to undo the Paste step (by using the Undo command) and choose Paste Special, select "text" and then click OK.

When I need to paste text between Word and FrameMaker, I almost always want regular old text to appear, not an OLE object. While the extra work I mentioned above will give me the results I wanted, why doesn't the pasted text just appear as text by default? Why do I get the OLE object in the first place?

The answer is FrameMaker's "Clipboard Format Priority" list. By default, FrameMaker is set to paste objects from Word as OLE. If you want to change the paste priority order, you can do so by editing the maker.ini file (the maker.ini file is FrameMaker's initialization file.).

Note: Before attempting the following steps, please make a back-up copy of the maker.ini file in case you need to restore it later.

Open C:\Program Files\Adobe\FrameMakerX\maker.ini in a text editor like Notepad
Scroll down until you find:
ClipboardFormatsPriorities=FILE, OLE 2, EMF, META, DIB, BMP, MIFW, MIF, RTF, UNICODE TEXT, TEXT

This list is read from left to right by FrameMaker, and OLE has a higher priority than TEXT, so if an object can be pasted as either OLE or TEXT, it will paste as OLE.
Rearrange the order so that TEXT is first and OLE is last:
ClipboardFormatsPriorities=TEXT, FILE, EMF, META, DIB, BMP, MIFW, MIF, RTF, UNICODE TEXT, OLE 2
Save and close the file and restart FrameMaker.
Go ahead and copy and paste text from Word.
Look, Ma! No need for Paste Special! Wow!

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Need some more help with FrameMaker? I've got an online Introduction to FrameMaker 9 class coming up October 22-23, 2009. Sign up today.

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October 7, 2009

Writing & Grammar Workshop: Is Where and Is When

by Jennie Ruby

Is where and is when are expressions we sometimes use in spoken English to explain something or give the definition of something. You might hear someone say, "An adjustable mortgage is where you start out paying a certain percentage of interest on a loan, but the percentage can change over time." Or you might hear, "Love is when the score is tied in tennis."

The problem with these expressions is that they more accurately refer to place or time, not to definitions. Here are some examples that use them correctly:

The recycling bin is where you place used cans and bottles.
Next Tuesday is when the new swimming pool will open.

If you are writing about a thing or a process, stay away from these expressions. Here are some alternatives:

Not: Feathering is where you add small amounts of space between lines to fill out a column.
Use: Feathering is the process of adding small amounts of space between lines to fill out a column.
Not: Sending and receiving is when you make the program retrieve new messages from the server.
Use: The Send/Receive tool causes the program to retrieve new message from the server.

Speaking and writing have different rules–this one is for added accuracy in writing.

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Join Jennie online where she'll be teaching Writing Training Documents and eLearning Scripts.

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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. 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.

October 6, 2009

Adobe Captivate 4: It’s True, You Can Get the Closed Captions Panel to Open By Default!

by Kevin A. Siegel

If you've spent any time adding closed captions to your Captivate project, you have probably already noticed that the closed captions are hidden by default. Once the lesson appears on your customers screen, the CC button on the playbar has to be clicked by the customer before the closed captions will appear.

What if you want the closed captions panel to be open by default? That's an interesting problem because there is no option within Captivate (not the Preferences and not the properties of a skin) that you can select that will force the closed captions to appear automatically when the lesson first opens.

So what's a developer to do? Read on…

Create an Action

In Captivate, you can create an action that will force the closed captions to open automatically. While creating Actions might seem daunting if you aren't a programmer, this one is very simple.

Choose Project > Actions to display the Actions Dialog.
On the Advanced actions tab, select Create a new action from the Edit/Create action drop-down menu.
Type the name of your new action (in the example below, the action was called CC) and click the Save button.
Double-click Add Statement.
Double-click Statement.
Select Assignment.
Select cpCmndCC from the list of actions.
Select Value from the next list that appears.
Type 1 into the value field (1 means "yes," or "true," and 0 means "no" or "false.")
Click the Save button to save your new action.
Click the Close button.
Show the Properties of the first slide.
On the Slide tab, select Execute advanced action from the On slide enter drop-down menu.
Select CC from the Action drop-down menu.
Click the OK button.
Preview the project.
Assuming you are using a project that has a skin attached (Project > Skin Editor), the playbar has the closed captions option enabled, the CC panel will automatically open on your slide.

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Need to learn the basics of Adobe Captivate 4 fast? I have two live, online classes that will have you creating killer eLearning lessons with Captivate in a few short days. Click here for more information about my Captivate beginner class. Looking for more Advanced Captivate 4 training? I've got you covered. Click here for more information.

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Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/iconlogic.

October 2, 2009

Adobe RoboHelp 8: Shortcuts Anyone?

by Kevin A. Siegel

During just about every one of my online RoboHelp classes, someone asks the following question about the keyboard shortcuts that I teach during class. "Do you have a list of these keyboard shortcuts?"

Um, no. Although I always promise the group that I'll whip up a list of shortcuts and post them here. Of course, since I'm old(er), I quickly forget to post the shortcuts until the next class, when the cycle repeats. Until now…

The following is courtesy of Adobe's online RoboHelp Help system.

Task	Keyboard shortcut
Basic operations
Open project	CTRL+O (letter O)
Save All	CTRL+S
Undo	CTRL+Z
Redo	CTRL+Y
Cut	CTRL+X
Copy	CTRL+C
Paste	CTRL+V
Delete	Delete button
Close All	Ctrl+Alt+X
Select all	CTRL+A
Find	CTRL+F
Replace	Ctrl+H
Go to bookmark	F5
Print from active pane	CTRL+P
Help	F1
Spell check active pane	F7
Thesaurus	SHIFT+F7
Create a topic	Ctrl+T
Duplicate a topic	Ctrl+D
Edit item	Ctrl+E
Close a topic	Ctrl+F4
Rename	F2
Paragraph markers	CTRL+SHIFT+8
Preview topic	CTRL+W
Insert hypertext link*	CTRL+K*
Insert image	CTRL+G
Insert text-only pop-up window*	CTRL+ALT+P
Open Project Settings dialog	CTRL+SHIFT+/
Open Topic Properties dialog	ALT+ENTER
Display Conditional Build Tag dialog*	CTRL+N
Generate the Primary Layout	CTRL+M
Text formatting in Design Editor
Bold	CTRL+B
Italicize	CTRL+I
Underline	CTRL+U
Format – Paragraph menu	CTRL+SHIFT+D
Format – Font menu	CTRL+D
Font change	CTRL+SHIFT+F
Increase font size to next size in menu*	CTRL+SHIFT+>
Decrease font size to previous size in menu*	CTRL+SHIFT+<
Increase font size by 1 point*	CTRL+]
Decrease font size by 1 point*	CTRL+[
Styles in Design Editor
Apply a style*	CTRL+SHIFT+S
Apply the Normal style	CTRL+SHIFT+N
Apply a Bullets or Numbering style	CTRL+SHIFT+L
Apply Heading 1*	ALT+CTRL+1
Apply Heading 2*	ALT+CTRL+2
Apply Heading 3*	ALT+CTRL+3
TOC pod
Move book or topic up in the table of contents	CTRL+Up Arrow
Move book or topic down in the table of contents	CTRL+Down Arrow
Move book or topic to the left in the table of contents	CTRL+Left Arrow
Move book or topic to the right in the table of contents	CTRL+Right Arrow
Index pod
Change index keyword to lowercase	CTRL+L
Change first letter of index keyword to uppercase	CTRL+J
Version Control
Refresh version status on File Status tab	F5

Looking for RoboHelp training? I've got you covered! I teach an online RoboHelp class once a month. My classes never cancel! All it takes is one student and the class is a go! Click here for details.

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Reviews from Students Who Have Attended My Online RoboHelp Class

Here are some unedited reviews from students who have recently taken my online RoboHelp class:

"Great class–content and pace were perfect."

"The instructor was incredibly dynamic and personable!"

"I have sat through MANY hours of mandatory training and yours was, by far, some of the best training I've experienced."

"This is really the first online 'class' that I've attended. It was very interactive. I was worried that I would just be sitting here and listening, but it was awesome. Thank you for a great experience."

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