The Logical Blog by IconLogic

Adobe FrameMaker and Captivate: Merging Multimedia With Print PDFs

by Kevin Siegel   

There's no trick to creating a PDF these days. Simply open a document and, if you've got Adobe Acrobat on your computer, choose Adobe PDF when you print.

Creating a PDF that will engage your reader is another story. One way to engage the reader, besides stellar content, is to add images. Of course, there's no trick to adding images either... and everyone's doing it.

If you really want to make a splash when it comes to PDFs, you've got to engage the reader like never before... and interactive eLearning is the way to go.

In the image below, I've created a FrameMaker document. You can see there's nothing particularly special about the text (beyond the promise of an Adobe Captivate simulation). 

 

After clicking where I wanted the simulation to appear, I chose File > Import > File and opened a SWF I had published earlier using Adobe Captivate. Just like when importing a graphic, I was met with the Imported Graphic Scaling dialog box. I selected 150 dpi to make the imported Captivate simulation a bit smaller in my FrameMaker document.

After clicking the Set button, the Captivate simulation appeared in my FrameMaker document as a large box.

I wanted the simulation positioned below the text, and I didn't want it to be cropped. I right-clicked the frame and selected Anchored Frame.

I changed the Anchoring Position to Below Current Line, changed the Alignment to Right, and removed the check mark from Cropped. Then I clicked Edit Frame.

And that was all there was to it. I created a PDF by choosing File > Save as PDF. Upon opening the PDF, the simulation appeared immediately after being clicked. And I was delighted to see that the simulation remained as interactive from within the PDF as it was when accessed via a web server.

Even better, when I found an error in the Captivate simulation, I was able to return to the FrameMaker document, right-click the imported SWF, and chose Edit With Adobe Captivate.

The source Captivate project opened pretty quickly in Adobe Captivate. I fixed the error and exited Captivate, at which point the project was republished and the SWF contained in FrameMaker automatically updated.

After re-saving as a PDF and opening the PDF with Adobe Reader, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Captivate simulation had been updated.

If you would like to see a demonstration of the Captivate-to-FrameMaker-to-PDF workflow, click here to see a video I created on the IconLogic YouTube channel.

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Looking for training on Adobe Captivate? We offer multiple live, online Adobe Captivate classes each month including Introduction to Adobe Captivate and Advanced Adobe Captivate. Need the training in-person? We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.

 

Adobe FrameMaker 9: Table Rules

by Barbara Binder

Ever wondered how to edit the rules listed in FrameMaker's Table Designer? When you are designing a new table format, or refining an existing one, you need to make decisions about how the ruling lines should look in your tables. When you go to the Ruling properties of the Table Designer, you are presented with 10 lists of available ruling styles:



In a new, default document, each list looks like this:



But what if you have other plans for your table rules? Let's say you'd like a thicker line than Thick, or perhaps want to use any color other than the default black?

Did you know that you can add/edit ruling styles through Custom Ruling & Shading? I didn't think so. This is one of my regular polling questions in my FrameMaker classes, and most students simply stare blankly at me when I ask the question. Based on my many years in front of FrameMaker students, this particular feature is not one I'd label as "discoverable" (Adobe-speak for a feature you'll easily find and figure out on your own).

Here's how to modify the ruling line lists:

1. Choose Table > Custom Ruling & Shading.
   
   
2. Click on one of the ruling styles in the list (I picked "Thick") and then click the Edit Ruling Style button.
   
   
   
   
3. Now, what you do on the Name line will impact how the styles lists are modified:
   
   
   • If you leave a default name you will update the existing style;
     
   • If you type a new name, you will leave the default styles alone, and will be adding a new style to the list.
     
4. In my example, I'm adding a new style called "Thickest". Pick the color, pattern, width (which means height), and whether you want a single or double line. I'm going with a 6 pt Forest Green rule.
   
   
   
   
5. Click Set to add/modify the ruling style, but don't click Apply! That would assign your new rule to whatever is selected in the table. Instead, just close or collapse the panel.
   
   
   
   
6. Return to Ruling properties in the Table Designer and drop down any of the lists, and presto! Your new (or improved) ruling style is ready to go!
   
   
   

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If you are new to FrameMaker and want to get up to speed quickly, join IconLogic's instructor-led, online Introduction to Adobe FrameMaker 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.

Adobe FrameMaker: Defining Bookmarks

by Barbara Binder

Bookmarks are navigational links listed in the Bookmarks pane in Adobe Acrobat (and Adobe Reader) that display page content in the Document pane. I use them as an always-visible, clickable table of contents.

To that effect, I normally create bookmarks that match my table of contents. For example, if my table of contents lists the chapter titles, along with the first and second level headings, then I make sure my bookmarks do the same thing. Here's how:

1. Open a completed FrameMaker document or book.
   
   
2. Choose File > Save as PDF (or File > Save Book as PDF).
   
   
3. Name the file, and then click Save.
   
   
4. Click the Bookmarks tab at the top of the PDF Setup dialog box:
   
   
   
   
5. Leave Generate PDF Bookmarks selected. Press the [Shift] key on your keyboard and click the right-pointing arrow between the Include Paragraphs and Don't Include lists. (Shift-clicking will push everything over to the Don't Include list).
   
   
6. Scan the Don't include list and double-click only the paragraphs you want to include in the bookmark list.
   
   In my example, I'm moving ChapterTitle, Heading1 and Heading2 back to the Include Paragraph list.
   
   
7. Take a moment to set up the hierarchy, or Bookmark Level, by using the double chevrons to indent the secondary, and in my example, tertiary titles.
   
   
   
   
8. Click Set to generate the PDF.
   
   
9. If you don't immediately see the bookmarks in the Acrobat file, choose View > Navigation Panels > Bookmarks.
   
   
   

The bookmarks panel will list the paragraph text for the paragraph tags that you specified, and you can expand and collapse the various heading levels, based on how you indented the paragraph tags with the double chevrons in step 7.

If you are publishing your PDF electronically, don't forget to make the Bookmarks Panel and Page the default under  File > Properties > Initial View in Acrobat because you can't count on the average reader to know how to display bookmarks:

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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.

Adobe FrameMaker: File Info and MetaData and PDFs... Oh My!

by Barbara Binder

As a long-time Adobe Acrobat instructor, I've spent many hours showing Acrobat students how to modify and enhance their PDF documents. They learn how to add bookmarks, links, movies, document properties, and more.

These are great features that should be part of any interactive PDF document, but if you put them directly into the PDF, you will overwrite them if you ever have to enter corrections into the source file and then regenerate the PDF.

A much more efficient workflow is to do as much work as possible in the source files. In this article, I want to show you how to enter  document information directly into FrameMaker so that it will be in the PDF document as soon as you create it.

File information, called metadata, is often added to the document properties of a PDF document to make it easier to search. (You can view the properties by choosing File > Properties, and clicking the Description tab.) To enter this information into FrameMaker in advance of the PDF conversion, follow these steps:

1. Open a FrameMaker document (this also works for a book file).
   
   
2. Choose File > File Info.
   
   
3. Enter your metadata into the following dialog box (if you are not sure what to add into the various boxes, please see the notes at the bottom of this article).
   
   
   
   
4. Click the Set button.
   
   
5. Save the document.
   
   
6. Choose File > Save as PDF.
   
   
7. After naming the PDF, choose your favorite conversion settings and click the Set button.
   
   
8. When the file opens in Acrobat, choose File > Properties > Description to see the metadata displayed in the resulting PDF.
   
   
   

Notes on XMP Fields:

• Title: Use a good, descriptive document title.
  
  
• Author: Identify the person or group responsible for the document.
  
  
• Subject and Keywords: Can be used either alone or together, to categorize documents by type.
  
  
• Copyright: Copyright information.
  
  
• Web Statement: The location of a web page describing the owner and/or rights statement for this resource.
  
  
• Job Reference: Supply number or publisher's job references.
  
  
• Marked: If the information in the file is copyrighted, pick Yes. If in the public domain, pick no. When unsure, pick Unknown.

***

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.

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.

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.

Adobe FrameMaker: Multiple Spaces Between Sentences

by Barbara Binder

Have you ever tried to type multiple spaces between sentences in a FrameMaker document and found yourself unable to do so? Have you ever wondered why you couldn't do it? I mean, you can do it in MS Word!

The answer is simple... "Because you shouldn't!"

Was that a bit harsh? Did you find that answer wanting? I was afraid you'd say that. If you took the time to read this far in my article, you are probably pretty determined to add extra spacing between your sentences.

Before I show you how to allow for this in FrameMaker, please take a moment to pick up any professionally typeset publication sitting within reach. (By "professionally typeset" I mean anything you paid money for: a book, newspaper, magazine and not a party invitation sent by your next door neighbor.) Look at the spaces between the sentences--how many do you see? I'm betting that there is just a single space. And you didn't even notice the spacing until you looked, right?

Typing a single space after punctuation is the standard for professionally typeset publications. The whole two-spaces-after-punctuation thing showed up as a response to the very hard to read Courier element that was standard on the IBM Selectric typewriter. Sadly, the generation that learned to type on a typewriter communicated that style to people learning how to type via word processors and they then demanded the same style from their page layout folks.

The FrameMaker team knew all of this and, in an effort to help you avoid this common error, they created a feature called "Smart Spaces." When it's on, you can press the spacebar all you like in FrameMaker, but you'll never get two spaces in a row. In my opinion, it's an awesome feature!

From my years in the classroom training, I know that this little discussion will convince most of my students to try to stop double spacing. But I also know that there are people out there who will look me straight in the eye and say, "but I want double spaces" (and the usually unspoken "and I don't want you or my computer to tell me what to do"). For them, I sigh quietly, and tell them to choose Format > Document > Text Options and deselect Smart Spaces.

***

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.

Adobe FrameMaker: Multiple References to One Table Footnote

by Barbara Binder

Footnotes in FrameMaker are pretty straightforward. Place your cursor where you'd like the footnote reference to appear and choose Special > Footnote. If your cursor was in the body of the footnote, the note will appear at the bottom of the page. If your cursor was in a table, the footnote will appear directly below the last line of the table. (If you are new to footnotes, click here for a review of the basics.)

What do you do when one table has multiple references to a single note? I use one of two techniques:

Add a Cross-Reference

1. Start by adding a footnote via Special > Footnote.
   
   
2. Click on the note under the table and jot down the Paragraph Format (FrameMaker defaults to TableFootnote).
   
   
3. Create a Character Tag for superscript:
   
   
   1. Press Ctrl+D to open the Character Designer.
      
      
   2. Press Shift+F8 to set the Character Designer to As Is.
      
      
   3. Name the Character Tag Superscript and click twice in front of Superscript to activate the command.
      
      
      
      
   4. Click Apply (NOT Update All) to create the new format, and then be sure to UNCHECK Apply to Selection before clicking Create.
      
      
      
      
      
4. Place your cursor back in the table where you want to place a second reference to the first footnote.
   
   
5. Choose Special > Cross Reference.
   
   
6. Set the Document to Current, the Source Type to Paragraphs, and the Paragraph Tag to TableFootnote (or whatever Paragraph tag you jotted down in step 2).
   
   
   
   
7. A list of all the TableFootnotes in the document appears.
   
   
8. Scroll to find the one you want to reference, and click it.
   
   
9. Create a Reference format for the footnote references:
   
   
   1. Click the Edit Format button in the lower right corner.
      
      
   2. Change the Name to Superscript.
      
      
   3. Delete everything on the Definition line and replace with <$paranumonly[TableFootnote]>.
      
      These building blocks tell FrameMaker to turn on the Superscript Character Tag you created earlier and then they pull the paragraph number only (not the text, or any additional punctuation you may be using) of the tag called TableFootnote. You do not need to reset the formatting back to Default Para Font after the paranumonly building block--it resets itself.
      
      
      
      
   4. Click Add, Done, OK (to losing History, if activated) and Insert.
      
      
      
      

There you go! If you need to reference the note a third or fourth time, its way easier because you've done all the hard work.

1. Click your mouse where you want the next cross-reference to go.
   
   
2. Choose Special > Cross Reference.
   
   
3. Click TableFootnote.
   
   
4. Click Insert.

If you end up adding or deleting the table footnotes, you'll find that these will all update automatically when you update your references, or update your book.

Cheat

True confessions. When I feel fairly confident the footnotes won't undergo edits that will force renumbering, I'll just type in the letter of the note and superscript it. Shhhh. That's our little secret.

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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.

Adobe FrameMaker: Working with Fixed Spaces in Dialog Boxes

by Barbara Binder

Last week we talked about adding fixed spaces to FrameMaker documents. As a quick recap, here's the list of shortcuts:

• Em space: Esc spacebar m (or Control+Shift+Spacebar)
  
  
• En space: Esc spacebar n (or Control+Alt+Spacebar)
  
  
• Thin space: Esc spacebar t
  
  
• Figure space:  Esc spacebar 1 (one)
  
  
• Non-breaking space: Esc spacebar h (or Control+Spacebar) 

But what if you want to enter the shortcuts above into a dialog box? Or maybe you need to use one to separate the run in heads in Paragraph Designer. In that case you will need the following list as well:

• Em space: \m or \sm
  
  
• En space: \sn
  
  
• Thin space: \i or \st
  
  
• Figure space:  \#
  
  
• Non-breaking space: \  (space)

 

For example, I like to space out my em dashes with thin spaces on either side. That's a quick and easy Find/Change:



And, I like to use en spaces to separate my run in heads from the text that follows:



Finally, I can correctly anticipate the non-breaking space in my Cross Reference format when I see the "\ " in the Heading & Page building blocks between page and <$pagenum>.

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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.

Adobe FrameMaker: Working with Fixed Spaces in a Document

by Barbara Binder

When most of us think of spaces, we think of pressing the spacebar and moving on. Did you know that FrameMaker supports additional spaces? Em, en, figure, thin and non-breaking spaces are all available if you just know how to ask for them. Unlike spacebar spaces, which are proportional to the characters around them and can expand and contract when you justify a paragraph, these five spaces are all fixed width spaces.

Here's a quick list for you:

Em space Esc spacebar m (or Control+Shift+ Spacebar)

An em space is typically the width of a capital letter M in any given typeface. In FrameMaker, if your type is set to 12 pts, the em space is 12 points wide. I use them when I want a big fat space and I don't feel like setting a tab. In the first image below, the run-in head is separated by a spacebar space. In the second image, it's an em space.



En space Esc spacebar n (or Control+Alt+Spacebar)

An en space is half the width of the M space in any given typeface. For example, in 12 point type, the en space is 6 pts wide. I use them when I want a fixed space and I don't feel like setting a tab.
In the image below, the run-in head is separated by an en space.



Thin space Esc spacebar t

The thin space in FrameMaker is 1/12th the width of an en space. Continuing with the example of 12 point type, the thin space would be 1 point wide. My personal preference is to space out my em dashes with thin spaces on both sides. The first image below shows em dashes without any spacing around them, the second image shows thin spaces on either side.




Figure space Esc spacebar 1 (one)

The figure space is the width of the number zero in any given typeface. This one is really handy for scooting the numbers in a table over so that the varying columns line up on the right hand side, when I don't feel like setting a tab. In both images, the numbers all have a center alignment. In the first image, the first two cells have fewer digits than the rest, and the center alignment is apparent. In the second image, I inserted a figure space at the beginning of the first two cells, and everything lines up perfectly.



Non-breaking space Esc spacebar h (or Control +space)

A non-breaking space is used to keep two words from breaking across lines. In the first image, the number 6 is all alone on the line. In the second image, a non-breaking space was added between May and the number 6, so now they both move to the next line together.

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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.