Re: PDF Creation Add-on

[Hedley Finger]

Dov Isaacs wrote:
 Absolutely YES!

 - Dov

   
 -Original Message-
 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of
 Paul Findon
 Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 2:33 AM
 To: FrameUsers List
 Subject: PDF Creation Add-on

 FM8 installs the PDF Creation Add-on. Is it best to uninstall this
 before installing Acrobat Pro 8 (along with CS3 Design Standard)?

 Paul
 __
 

I bought the Technical Communications Suite with FM8, Acro 8, etc.  The 
FM help so DO NOT uninstall Adobe PDF Creation as it is required to 
generate PDF files from FM documents.  Who is right?  Can you keep it 
and just use good old print to Adobe PDF virtual printer?

Regards,
Hedley

--

Hedley Finger

28 Regent Street   Camberwell VIC 3124   Australia
Tel. +61 3 9809 1229   Fax. (call phone first)
Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558
Email. Hedley Finger [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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Re: question about overrides

[Mike Wickham]

 I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we
 add text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of
 Page we might not want.

Create a special paragraph format called PageBreak. Give it a large  Space: 
Below Pgf: value, say 600 pt. Then insert this paragraph before the item 
you want to force to the next page. It functions similarly to Special Page 
Break, but has the advantage that FM doesn't see it as an override, and 
removing overrides leaves it in place.

Mike Wickham



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Trouble with pdfing

[Jackie Connors]

Hi there,
   
  I recently upgraded from Frame 7 to Frame 8. I uninstalled Adobe Acrobat so I 
could use the PDF Creation add-on. But I cannot seem to PDF my books. Is anyone 
else having this kind of trouble? 
   
  Thanks
  Jackie



Jackie Connors
884-5227



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PDF Creation Add-on

[Doug Cuff]

 We don't now remember having *uninstalled* anything about FM
 before upgrading Acrobat.

The good news is that it's easy to tell whether the PDF Creation Add-on is 
*still* uninstalled.
Follow the usual Start  Settings  Control Panel path if the add-on is still 
installed, it will
appear in the Add or Remove Programs control panel. I seem to recall it's under 
Adobe PDF Creation
Add-on. I invite corrections.

 What should we do now?

It's at moments like this that I'm glad there are so many people more 
knowledgeable than me on this
list. At least one of them will chime in shortly.

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Opening same-document links in a new window

[Jo Watkiss]

Each of our product manuals is published as a single PDF file.  Within
them there are frequent cross-references to destinations in the same
file.  We have received a request for these links to open in a new
window.  We insert these links as normal cross-references in FrameMaker.
 
Is it possible to achieve this without manually changing the links after
the PDF file is generated?
I know the user can do this with right-click  open link in new window,
but it seems this is too difficult for them.
 
Any suggestions much appreciated.
TIA.
(FrameMaker 6.0, Acrobat Professional 8)
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Problem with embedded Excel table

[Jeff Schweiner]

I'm having a problem when embedding Excel tables into FM8. In looking at the 
archives, a similar post was made on this on May 27, without a solution.  

 

I do a File - Import - Object - MS Office Excel Worksheet (with the Create 
New box checked) to embed a spreadsheet.  On screen, the spreadsheet looks 
fine.  When I print the file (even with a blank spreadsheet), the worksheet 
prints as a solid black box.  Also, if I convert to PDF, the embedded 
spreadsheet turns into a solid black box in the PDF file.

 

I expanded the anchor frame that holds the embedded spreadsheet and shaded it. 
This confirmed that only  the spreadsheet is colored black.

 

I can successfully embedded a Word, PPT,  and Visio file without this problem.  

 

I tried this with Frame 6 and get the same problem only with Excel tables. 

 

I poked around in Excel and don't see anything in the menus that would cause 
this.  I can shade cells in Excel, and on screen, the FM file reflects the 
shaded cells.  But when I print, the whole spreadsheet is solid black.

 

I'm running FM8 version 8.0p277 with Windows XP SP2 and Office 2007.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

 

 

--

Jeff Schweiner

Hardware Engineering Writer

Cray Inc.

(715) 726-4801

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PDF Creation Add-on

[Austin Meredith]

>>FM8 installs the PDF Creation Add-on. Is it best to uninstall this
>>before installing Acrobat Pro 8 (along with CS3 Design Standard)?
>Yes.

This is scary. We are presently using versions 8 of Adobe FrameMaker 
and Adobe Acrobat Professional, after having used versions 7. We 
upgraded FrameMaker7 before upgrading Professional7. We don't now 
remember having *uninstalled* anything about FM before upgrading 
Acrobat. If there is something wrong with our situation, what would 
the problematic symptoms be? What should we do now?

PDF Creation Add-on

[Hedley Finger]

Dov Isaacs wrote:
> Absolutely YES!
>
> - Dov
>
>   
>> -Original Message-
>> From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at 
>> lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of
>> Paul Findon
>> Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 2:33 AM
>> To: FrameUsers List
>> Subject: PDF Creation Add-on
>>
>> FM8 installs the PDF Creation Add-on. Is it best to uninstall this
>> before installing Acrobat Pro 8 (along with CS3 Design Standard)?
>>
>> Paul
>> __
>> 

I bought the Technical Communications Suite with FM8, Acro 8, etc.  The 
FM help so DO NOT uninstall Adobe PDF Creation as it is required to 
generate PDF files from FM documents.  Who is right?  Can you keep it 
and just use good old print to Adobe PDF virtual printer?

Regards,
Hedley

--

Hedley Finger

28 Regent Street   Camberwell VIC 3124   Australia
Tel. +61 3 9809 1229   Fax. (call phone first)
Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558
Email. "Hedley Finger" 

PDF Creation Add-on

[Dov Isaacs]

You cannot simultaneously have both the FrameMaker "PDF Creation Add-on" and
Acrobat installed on the same system. The "PDF Creation Add-on" is really a 
castrated
version of Acrobat 8 Distiller. Does the Technical Communications Suite really 
force
the installation of the "PDF Creation Add-on" or was it an option? You certainly
don't need it if you have full Acrobat!!

- Dov

From: Hedley Finger [mailto:hfin...@handholding.com.au]
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 1:28 AM
To: Dov Isaacs
Cc: Paul Findon; FrameUsers List
Subject: Re: PDF Creation Add-on

Dov Isaacs wrote:
Absolutely YES!

- Dov


-Original Message-
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of
Paul Findon
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 2:33 AM
To: FrameUsers List
Subject: PDF Creation Add-on

FM8 installs the PDF Creation Add-on. Is it best to uninstall this
before installing Acrobat Pro 8 (along with CS3 Design Standard)?

Paul
__


I bought the Technical Communications Suite with FM8, Acro 8, etc.  The FM help 
so DO NOT uninstall Adobe PDF Creation as it is required to generate PDF files 
from FM documents.  Who is right?  Can you keep it and just use good old print 
to Adobe PDF virtual printer?

Regards,
Hedley

--

Hedley Finger

28 Regent Street   Camberwell VIC 3124   Australia
Tel. +61 3 9809 1229   Fax. (call phone first)
Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558
Email. "Hedley Finger" 

PDF Creation Add-on

[Art Campbell]

Acrobat is included in the Tech Comm Suite.
Therefore FM doesn't ask to install the helper application, according
to my sometimes foggy memory because there isn't any reason to.

Art

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 4:27 AM, Hedley Finger
 wrote:
> Dov Isaacs wrote:
>> Absolutely YES!
>>
>> - Dov
>>
>>
>>> -Original Message-
>>> From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at 
>>> lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of
>>> Paul Findon
>>> Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 2:33 AM
>>> To: FrameUsers List
>>> Subject: PDF Creation Add-on
>>>
>>> FM8 installs the PDF Creation Add-on. Is it best to uninstall this
>>> before installing Acrobat Pro 8 (along with CS3 Design Standard)?
>>>
>>> Paul
>>> __
>>>
>
> I bought the Technical Communications Suite with FM8, Acro 8, etc.  The
> FM help so DO NOT uninstall Adobe PDF Creation as it is required to
> generate PDF files from FM documents.  Who is right?  Can you keep it
> and just use good old print to Adobe PDF virtual printer?
>
> Regards,
> Hedley
>
> --
>
> Hedley Finger
>
> 28 Regent Street   Camberwell VIC 3124   Australia
> Tel. +61 3 9809 1229   Fax. (call phone first)
> Mob. (cell) +61 412 461 558
> Email. "Hedley Finger" 
>
> ___
>
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-- 
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 "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent
and a redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson
 No disclaimers apply.
 DoD 358

question about overrides

[Deirdre Reagan]

Hi all, good morning.

FM 8.0, XP.

This is really a best practices question.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a discussion about overrides, and how
they should be used rarely or not at all.

So I thought about that and started to watch our use of overrides.

We use overrides all the time.  For instance, if a figure would be
better placed at the top of the next page, we create that override
(our figure tag is set at Anywhere).

We also used Top of Page when we want to keep a paragraph from
breaking over two pages.

Is it really preferable to create a paragraph tag for each instance of
formatting?  I'd end up a lot of one-time-use-only tags.

Also, most of these overrides occur in the editing process, after the
content has been established and we are focused on making the document
look professional.  Should I be creating tags as I edit the document,
rather than override the existing tag as I make layout decisions?

A second question, now that I'm really thinking about this:

I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we
add text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of
Page we might not want.  But I haven't been able to find a "keep
together" option, like Word has for keeping lines of text together.
Next Pgf is similar, but it works differently in significant ways.
You can't Next Pgf a single paragraph, for instance, but you can keep
it whole without forcing it to the top of the next page in Word.

Anyway, any comments and insight into the override / editor's role /
tidying up the document / is there a "keep together" issue would be
most welcome!

Thanks,

Deirdre

question about overrides

[Owen, Clint]

Deirdre,

In my opinion, Top of Page type overrides to force improved pagination
much more acceptable than other types of formatting changes. One of the
last steps in our process is to go through the document and check for
awkward pagination. Then we move figures and tables around or force a
heading to the next page to improve the look and flow. If something else
changes, we just have to do it again. It just makes a better product.

Clint


Clinton Owen | Senior Technical Writer | Crane Aerospace & Electronics |
+1 425-743-8674 | F: +1 425-743-8113


-Original Message-
From: framers-boun...@lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Deirdre
Reagan
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 7:42 AM
To: Framer's List
Subject: question about overrides

Hi all, good morning.

FM 8.0, XP.

This is really a best practices question.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a discussion about overrides, and how
they should be used rarely or not at all.

So I thought about that and started to watch our use of overrides.

We use overrides all the time.  For instance, if a figure would be
better placed at the top of the next page, we create that override (our
figure tag is set at Anywhere).

We also used Top of Page when we want to keep a paragraph from breaking
over two pages.

Is it really preferable to create a paragraph tag for each instance of
formatting?  I'd end up a lot of one-time-use-only tags.

Also, most of these overrides occur in the editing process, after the
content has been established and we are focused on making the document
look professional.  Should I be creating tags as I edit the document,
rather than override the existing tag as I make layout decisions?

A second question, now that I'm really thinking about this:

I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we add
text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of Page we
might not want.  But I haven't been able to find a "keep together"
option, like Word has for keeping lines of text together.
Next Pgf is similar, but it works differently in significant ways.
You can't Next Pgf a single paragraph, for instance, but you can keep it
whole without forcing it to the top of the next page in Word.

Anyway, any comments and insight into the override / editor's role /
tidying up the document / is there a "keep together" issue would be most
welcome!

Thanks,

Deirdre
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question about overrides

[Jim Owens]

If you want a page layout that FrameMaker cannot deliver automatically, 
then overriding the template for the printed output is your only option.

The alternatives are to devise a template that produces a flawless page, 
or at least an acceptable one, every time; or to lower your standards 
for page layout and just print whatever your template produces.



Deirdre Reagan wrote:
> Hi all, good morning.
> 
> FM 8.0, XP.
> 
> This is really a best practices question.
> 
> A couple of weeks ago, there was a discussion about overrides, and how
> they should be used rarely or not at all.
> 
> So I thought about that and started to watch our use of overrides.
> 
> We use overrides all the time.  For instance, if a figure would be
> better placed at the top of the next page, we create that override
> (our figure tag is set at Anywhere).
> 
> We also used Top of Page when we want to keep a paragraph from
> breaking over two pages.
> 
> Is it really preferable to create a paragraph tag for each instance of
> formatting?  I'd end up a lot of one-time-use-only tags.
> 
> Also, most of these overrides occur in the editing process, after the
> content has been established and we are focused on making the document
> look professional.  Should I be creating tags as I edit the document,
> rather than override the existing tag as I make layout decisions?
> 
> A second question, now that I'm really thinking about this:
> 
> I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we
> add text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of
> Page we might not want.  But I haven't been able to find a "keep
> together" option, like Word has for keeping lines of text together.
> Next Pgf is similar, but it works differently in significant ways.
> You can't Next Pgf a single paragraph, for instance, but you can keep
> it whole without forcing it to the top of the next page in Word.
> 
> Anyway, any comments and insight into the override / editor's role /
> tidying up the document / is there a "keep together" issue would be
> most welcome!
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Deirdre
> ___
> 
> 
> You are currently subscribed to Framers as jowens at magma.ca.
> 
> Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
> 
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> 
> Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
> http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
> 
> 

question about overrides

[Lester C. Smalley]

Fine-tuning the layout as the very final step before print is really the
only place where such overrides are acceptable.  Then, when starting the
update for the next edition, import formats from the template (or
document itself) and remove overrides so you are back to only using the
defined formatting again until it's press time.

I avoid many of these overrides by defining a special "Page_Break"
paragraph tag that has a very small (6 pt) font size, zero space above
and large (999 pt) space below.  I can insert this BEFORE any item that
needs to be forced to a new page, and not resort to applying a "top of
page" setting as an override to those items.  Of course, this still
suffers the possibility that added text earlier results in an undesired
'extra' page break. 

If I am reading your request correctly regarding keeping lines of text
together, that is controlled by FrameMaker's Widow and Orphan setting.
FM will not split a paragraph if it has fewer than twice this number of
lines, e.g. if the Widow/Orphan value is 7, then a paragraph has to have
at least 14 lines to be split over a column/page break (as fewer lines
would not allow both 7 widowed lines and 7 orphaned lines.)  The
downside is that you cannot specify different settings for widows and
orphans, it is a single choice for both.

Finally, I don't understand your statement "You can't Next Pgf a single
paragraph" - can you clarify what you mean?  It certainly seems
possible, but would be an override, which you're trying to avoid or at
least minimize. 

On Friday, June 27, 2008 10:42, Deirdre Reagan wrote:

| Hi all, good morning.
| 
| FM 8.0, XP.
| 
| This is really a best practices question.
| 
| A couple of weeks ago, there was a discussion about overrides, and how
| they should be used rarely or not at all.
| 
| So I thought about that and started to watch our use of overrides.
| 
| We use overrides all the time.  For instance, if a figure would be
| better placed at the top of the next page, we create that override
| (our figure tag is set at Anywhere).
| 
| We also used Top of Page when we want to keep a paragraph from
| breaking over two pages.
| 
| Is it really preferable to create a paragraph tag for each instance of
| formatting?  I'd end up a lot of one-time-use-only tags.
| 
| Also, most of these overrides occur in the editing process, after the
| content has been established and we are focused on making the document
| look professional.  Should I be creating tags as I edit the document,
| rather than override the existing tag as I make layout decisions?
| 
| A second question, now that I'm really thinking about this:
| 
| I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we
| add text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of
| Page we might not want.  But I haven't been able to find a "keep
| together" option, like Word has for keeping lines of text together.
| Next Pgf is similar, but it works differently in significant ways.
| You can't Next Pgf a single paragraph, for instance, but you can keep
| it whole without forcing it to the top of the next page in Word.
| 
| Anyway, any comments and insight into the override / editor's role /
| tidying up the document / is there a "keep together" issue would be
| most welcome!
| 
| Thanks,
| 
| Deirdre

- Lester 
---
Lester C. Smalley  Email: lsmalley AT infocon DOT com   
Information Consultants, Inc.  Phone: 302-239-2942 FAX: 302-239-1712
Yorklyn, DE  19736   Web: www.infocon.com   
---

question about overrides

[Peter Gold]

Overrides that are created during the final editing and layout pass,
to control page, frame, and column breaks, can be removed in one
action by using File > Import > Formats to import the file into
itself, and choosing to remove overrides. Of course only remove these
overrides from a copy of the saved edited file. This is easier than
creating new paragraph formats for each unique instance, then cleaning
up these unique fixes in preparing the material for the next revision.

HTH

Regards,

Peter
__
Peter Gold
KnowHow ProServices

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 10:00 AM, Owen, Clint
 wrote:
> Deirdre,
>
> In my opinion, Top of Page type overrides to force improved pagination
> much more acceptable than other types of formatting changes. One of the
> last steps in our process is to go through the document and check for
> awkward pagination. Then we move figures and tables around or force a
> heading to the next page to improve the look and flow. If something else
> changes, we just have to do it again. It just makes a better product.
>
> Clint
>
>
> Clinton Owen | Senior Technical Writer | Crane Aerospace & Electronics |
> +1 425-743-8674 | F: +1 425-743-8113
>
>
> -Original Message-
> From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
> [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Deirdre
> Reagan
> Sent: Friday, June 27, 2008 7:42 AM
> To: Framer's List
> Subject: question about overrides
>
> Hi all, good morning.
>
> FM 8.0, XP.
>
> This is really a best practices question.
>
> A couple of weeks ago, there was a discussion about overrides, and how
> they should be used rarely or not at all.
>
> So I thought about that and started to watch our use of overrides.
>
> We use overrides all the time.  For instance, if a figure would be
> better placed at the top of the next page, we create that override (our
> figure tag is set at Anywhere).
>
> We also used Top of Page when we want to keep a paragraph from breaking
> over two pages.
>
> Is it really preferable to create a paragraph tag for each instance of
> formatting?  I'd end up a lot of one-time-use-only tags.
>
> Also, most of these overrides occur in the editing process, after the
> content has been established and we are focused on making the document
> look professional.  Should I be creating tags as I edit the document,
> rather than override the existing tag as I make layout decisions?
>
> A second question, now that I'm really thinking about this:
>
> I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we add
> text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of Page we
> might not want.  But I haven't been able to find a "keep together"
> option, like Word has for keeping lines of text together.
> Next Pgf is similar, but it works differently in significant ways.
> You can't Next Pgf a single paragraph, for instance, but you can keep it
> whole without forcing it to the top of the next page in Word.
>
> Anyway, any comments and insight into the override / editor's role /
> tidying up the document / is there a "keep together" issue would be most
> welcome!
>

question about overrides

[Stuart Rogers]

Deirdre Reagan wrote:
> Hi all, good morning.
> 
> FM 8.0, XP.
> 
> This is really a best practices question.
> 
> A couple of weeks ago, there was a discussion about overrides, and how
> they should be used rarely or not at all.
> 
> So I thought about that and started to watch our use of overrides.
> 
> We use overrides all the time.  For instance, if a figure would be
> better placed at the top of the next page, we create that override
> (our figure tag is set at Anywhere).
> 
> We also used Top of Page when we want to keep a paragraph from
> breaking over two pages.
> 
> Is it really preferable to create a paragraph tag for each instance of
> formatting?  I'd end up a lot of one-time-use-only tags.
> 
> Also, most of these overrides occur in the editing process, after the
> content has been established and we are focused on making the document
> look professional.  Should I be creating tags as I edit the document,
> rather than override the existing tag as I make layout decisions?
> 
> A second question, now that I'm really thinking about this:
> 
> I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we
> add text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of
> Page we might not want.  But I haven't been able to find a "keep
> together" option, like Word has for keeping lines of text together.
> Next Pgf is similar, but it works differently in significant ways.
> You can't Next Pgf a single paragraph, for instance, but you can keep
> it whole without forcing it to the top of the next page in Word.
> 
> Anyway, any comments and insight into the override / editor's role /
> tidying up the document / is there a "keep together" issue would be
> most welcome!
> 
> Thanks,

It's normal procedure to tidy up page layouts as a last step after 
content editing.  There are different methods that can be used to 
accomplish the task, but there is no advantage to creating single-use tags.

You can override the pgf tag as you do now.  The advantage is that if 
content changes and you need to tweak layout again, you can simply 
import pgf formats from the current document and tell FM to remove 
overrides in the process.  This is safe only if you restrict overrides 
to a very limited set of purposes and can confidently remove them all.

Some people like to avoid overrides completely, and use a different 
technique to bump pgfs to the next page.  Create a "pb PageBreak" pgf 
tag that has a font size of 2pt and a space after of 999pt.  When you 
want to bump a pgf to the following page, insert a blank pgf before it 
and tag it with the page break tag.  You can supplement this method with 
simple cut/paste operations to reposition figures and captions, tables, etc.

As for keeping the lines within a single pgf from breaking, Keep With 
Next Pgf obviously doesn't apply.  Instead, increase the Widow/Orphan 
value on the Pagination tab, or use the page break tag method.  (MS 
Word's keep together option will still force a pgf to the next page if 
it doesn't all fit on the current page.  You'll get the same effect in 
FM by setting Widow/Orphan to a high value.)

HTH,

-- 
Stuart Rogers
Technical Communicator
Phoenix Geophysics Limited
Toronto, ON, Canada
+1 (416) 491-7340 x 325

srogers phoenix-geophysics com

In matters of politics, I never believe anything until it's officially 
denied.

question about overrides

[Mike Wickham]

> I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we
> add text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of
> Page we might not want.

Create a special paragraph format called PageBreak. Give it a large  "Space: 
Below Pgf:" value, say 600 pt. Then insert this paragraph before the item 
you want to force to the next page. It functions similarly to Special> Page 
Break, but has the advantage that FM doesn't see it as an override, and 
removing overrides leaves it in place.

Mike Wickham

question about overrides

[Deirdre Reagan]

Thanks all -- the concensus seems to be to create a special tag that I
can add to force the page break without creating an override.

Lester, to answer your question, there are times when we want the
whole paragraph to stay together. In Word, we highlight the paragraph
and choose Format > Paragraph > Keep Lines together.

A number of people have let me know that changing the Widow / Orphan
option in FM will allows me to keep paragraphs of a certain size
(seven lines, let's say) from breaking over two pages.

So that's good.

All my questions have been answered!

I really appreciate everyone's knowledge and willingness to share.

Deirdre

On 6/27/08, Lester C. Smalley  wrote:
> Fine-tuning the layout as the very final step before print is really the
> only place where such overrides are acceptable.  Then, when starting the
> update for the next edition, import formats from the template (or
> document itself) and remove overrides so you are back to only using the
> defined formatting again until it's press time.
>
> I avoid many of these overrides by defining a special "Page_Break"
> paragraph tag that has a very small (6 pt) font size, zero space above
> and large (999 pt) space below.  I can insert this BEFORE any item that
> needs to be forced to a new page, and not resort to applying a "top of
> page" setting as an override to those items.  Of course, this still
> suffers the possibility that added text earlier results in an undesired
> 'extra' page break.
>
> If I am reading your request correctly regarding keeping lines of text
> together, that is controlled by FrameMaker's Widow and Orphan setting.
> FM will not split a paragraph if it has fewer than twice this number of
> lines, e.g. if the Widow/Orphan value is 7, then a paragraph has to have
> at least 14 lines to be split over a column/page break (as fewer lines
> would not allow both 7 widowed lines and 7 orphaned lines.)  The
> downside is that you cannot specify different settings for widows and
> orphans, it is a single choice for both.
>
> Finally, I don't understand your statement "You can't Next Pgf a single
> paragraph" - can you clarify what you mean?  It certainly seems
> possible, but would be an override, which you're trying to avoid or at
> least minimize.
>
> On Friday, June 27, 2008 10:42, Deirdre Reagan wrote:
>
> | Hi all, good morning.
> |
> | FM 8.0, XP.
> |
> | This is really a best practices question.
> |
> | A couple of weeks ago, there was a discussion about overrides, and how
> | they should be used rarely or not at all.
> |
> | So I thought about that and started to watch our use of overrides.
> |
> | We use overrides all the time.  For instance, if a figure would be
> | better placed at the top of the next page, we create that override
> | (our figure tag is set at Anywhere).
> |
> | We also used Top of Page when we want to keep a paragraph from
> | breaking over two pages.
> |
> | Is it really preferable to create a paragraph tag for each instance of
> | formatting?  I'd end up a lot of one-time-use-only tags.
> |
> | Also, most of these overrides occur in the editing process, after the
> | content has been established and we are focused on making the document
> | look professional.  Should I be creating tags as I edit the document,
> | rather than override the existing tag as I make layout decisions?
> |
> | A second question, now that I'm really thinking about this:
> |
> | I'm really bothered by the Top of Page as an override, because if we
> | add text to the front end, that override is going to force a Top of
> | Page we might not want.  But I haven't been able to find a "keep
> | together" option, like Word has for keeping lines of text together.
> | Next Pgf is similar, but it works differently in significant ways.
> | You can't Next Pgf a single paragraph, for instance, but you can keep
> | it whole without forcing it to the top of the next page in Word.
> |
> | Anyway, any comments and insight into the override / editor's role /
> | tidying up the document / is there a "keep together" issue would be
> | most welcome!
> |
> | Thanks,
> |
> | Deirdre
>
> - Lester
> ---
> Lester C. Smalley  Email: lsmalley AT infocon DOT com
> Information Consultants, Inc.  Phone: 302-239-2942 FAX: 302-239-1712
> Yorklyn, DE  19736   Web: www.infocon.com
> ---
>

PDF Creation Add-on

[Doug Cuff]

> We don't now remember having *uninstalled* anything about FM
> before upgrading Acrobat.

The good news is that it's easy to tell whether the PDF Creation Add-on is 
*still* uninstalled.
Follow the usual Start > Settings > Control Panel path if the add-on is still 
installed, it will
appear in the Add or Remove Programs control panel. I seem to recall it's under 
Adobe PDF Creation
Add-on. I invite corrections.

> What should we do now?

It's at moments like this that I'm glad there are so many people more 
knowledgeable than me on this
list. At least one of them will chime in shortly.

Opening same-document links in a new window

[Jo Watkiss]

Each of our product manuals is published as a single PDF file.  Within
them there are frequent cross-references to destinations in the same
file.  We have received a request for these links to open in a new
window.  We insert these links as normal cross-references in FrameMaker.

Is it possible to achieve this without manually changing the links after
the PDF file is generated?
I know the user can do this with right-click > open link in new window,
but it seems this is too difficult for them.

Any suggestions much appreciated.
TIA.
(FrameMaker 6.0, Acrobat Professional 8)
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Problem with embedded Excel table

[Jeff Schweiner]

I'm having a problem when embedding Excel tables into FM8. In looking at the 
archives, a similar post was made on this on May 27, without a solution.  



I do a File -> Import -> Object -> MS Office Excel Worksheet (with the Create 
New box checked) to embed a spreadsheet.  On screen, the spreadsheet looks 
fine.  When I print the file (even with a blank spreadsheet), the worksheet 
prints as a solid black box.  Also, if I convert to PDF, the embedded 
spreadsheet turns into a solid black box in the PDF file.



I expanded the anchor frame that holds the embedded spreadsheet and shaded it. 
This confirmed that only  the spreadsheet is colored black.



I can successfully embedded a Word, PPT,  and Visio file without this problem.  



I tried this with Frame 6 and get the same problem only with Excel tables. 



I poked around in Excel and don't see anything in the menus that would cause 
this.  I can shade cells in Excel, and on screen, the FM file reflects the 
shaded cells.  But when I print, the whole spreadsheet is solid black.



I'm running FM8 version 8.0p277 with Windows XP SP2 and Office 2007.



Any help would be greatly appreciated. 





--

Jeff Schweiner

Hardware Engineering Writer

Cray Inc.

(715) 726-4801