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Captivating Podcasts
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We are ready to purchase a Learning Management System (LMS). I was wondering if you used an LMS. If so, would you mind sharing your thoughts?
Adobe Captivate 3 Question: Where Can I Find Widgets for Adobe Captivate?
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Many words in English are created by putting a prefix onto an existing word. For example, we have tests, and through the addition of a prefix, we have pretests. Usually, the prefix goes directly on the front of the word without a hyphen: subheading, antiwar, unaffiliated, intranet. But sometimes we do use a hyphen, like this: pro-American, anti-intellectual, intra-agency.
The difference, according to the Abrams' Guide to Grammar: Second Edition, can be determined through certain guidelines that specify when you need a hyphen with a prefix.
First, you need a hyphen when you place a prefix onto a capitalized word: anti-American.
Second, you need a hyphen to avoid creating a double i or a double a: anti-insect, ultra-active.(But a double e or double o is ok: reevaluate, cooperate.)
Third, you need a hyphen when the prefix would accidentally create a completely different word if it were not hyphenated: re-creation versus recreation, re-cover versus recover.
Those three rules cover most situations with prefixes, but here are two more guidelines: The prefix self is always hyphenated: self-made, self-identified, self-addressed.
And finally, suspended hyphenation can be used with multiple prefixes being assigned to the same root word, like this: light-, middle-, and heavyweight.
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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:
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.
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.
Obviously, you need to make a stop here to set the typeface, size, style, etc.
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.
About the author:
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Orientate and conversate are examples of back-formations. Back-formations are words that have been created backward. Instead of starting with the root of a word and adding endings, people have started with a more complex form of a word and tried to remove endings to arrive at the root word. Sometimes this works.
For example, you could start from the noun hibernation and correctly derive from it the verb hibernate by changing the -ion to an e. Starting from the word orientation, people have mistakenly removed the -ion to try to get back to the root verb form of the word, but they have come up with orientate instead of the correct form orient. So many people have arrived at this word that it is now listed in the dictionary as a synonym for the word orient.
Orientate also has another, separate meaning: to turn toward the east.
Conversate is a newer back-formation. Webster's dates it as entering the language in 1973. It has no other meaning aside from being a synonym for converse.
Many back-formations are not considered proper words by usage guides such as the Oxford Dictionary of Usage and Style by Bryan A. Garner. Garner says that back-formations that are unnecessary because there is already a proper word for the concept are "objectionable."
Conversate and orientate are unnecessary synonyms for converse and orient, so do not use them in formal writing.
Here are other examples of back-formations to avoid:
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If you are a veteran QuarkXPress user like myself, you have probably lamented Quark's stubborn refusal to update the QuarkXPress interface over the years.
Hold onto your hats... the new QuarkXPress 8 is here, complete with an interface that has been totally overhauled! Over the next few weeks, I'll be discussing some of my favorite improvements in QuarkXPress 8--the best version of the this top-notch print publishing application in, well, forever!
Let's begin with the most basic of QuarkXPress features... the Tools palette. It won't take you long to notice that the Tools palette has been streamlined from the palette available in QuarkXPress 7 and older.
With the older version of QuarkXPress you had to draw an item (for instance, a text box using the Text Box tool). After drawing the text box, you then had to switch to a different tool, the Content tool, to type or edit text in the text box. While this approach worked, and worked well, for years, the process of switching tools always seems like an extra step to me. In fact, as a long-time QuarkXpress instructor, I found the concept a difficult one to hammer home to my students.
Those problems are distant memories with QuarkXPress 8. Now you draw a text box using the Text Content Tool.
After drawing a text box, you simply double-click inside of the box to begin typing or editing text--even if you've selected the Item tool (the first tool on the Tools palette).
Similarly, you can create boxes for pictures using the Picture Content Tool. Of course, you can, at any time, switch a text content box to a picture box, and vice versa.
If you are a veteran QuarkXPress user, you are probably wondering what happened to the Linking and Unlinking tools, which occupied a prominent place on the old Tools palette. No worries, those tools are still available... they've just been grouped with the Text Content Tool (which is really where they belonged all along).
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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:
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Job Option |
Destination |
Key Features to Remember |
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Press Quality |
Commercial printer |
Minimal image compression, but fonts must be successfully embedded or the job will fail |
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High Quality |
Commercial printer |
Minimal image compression, but if the fonts can't be successfully embedded, Acrobat will warn you, but continue to create the PDF |
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Standard |
In house printers |
More aggressive image compression, fonts will be embedded. Suitable for printing on your local printers. |
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Smallest File Size |
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Very aggressive image compression (which creates a small file with enough pixel data to look good on screen, but will not be acceptable in print). Fonts are not embedded as a default, but this can (and should) be changed. |
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Oversized Pages |
Engineering Doc |
Suitable for drawings over 200 inches x 200 inches. |
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PDF/A-1b |
Storage |
Both CMYK & RGB versions are use for long-term preservation of electronic documents. |
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PDF/X-1a |
Commercial Printing |
Typically used for ads, focus is on reducing variables to ensure reliable printing |
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PDF/X-3 |
Commercial Printing |
Similar to PDF/X-1a, but supports a color-managed workflow and some RGB images |
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PDF/X-4 |
Commercial Printing |
Similar to PDF/X-3, but supports live transparency |
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.
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