Rick Henkel - FrameMaker-Related Stuff

A friend of mine just told me that Anderson Erickson gallon of milk will be going up 53 cents May 1 (tomorrow). He also said to expect a gallon of milk to be about $4.00 this summer. His mom is general manager of a gas station/general store and passed that information to him.


I have no idea whether he's right, but I thought I'd note it so I can remember his prediction this summer.

I know that some FrameScript writers use some text editors that they have to pay for. But I'm cheap, so I found a free one that I really like. ConTEXT is a programmers' text editor that includes highlighters for many types of languages. FrameScript is one of the special highlighters that you can download. I find it much easier to write and edit scripts using this highlighter. I make lots of mistakes, and it helps to have the text editor point some of them out to me.

I also use ConTEXT when I edit my pdfmark code. There was no highlighter for this code, so I've developed my own as I've gone along.

Pluck seems like an interesting tool. It's site claims you can do the following:

* Share any web page with anyone

* Communicate through WebLink notes

* Drag-and-drop to Share

* Collaborate and organize the web

* Create private and public folders

* Automatic synchronization

* Share a WebLink or an entire folder

I haven't played with it enough to know whether I like it. It does include an RSS reader that looks promising, although I really love Bloglines.


(I'd give credit to the appropriate blogger for this link, but I can't remember where I found it.)

On the xml-doc list, someone posted a message about the updated version of Syntext Serna, a "portable true WYSIWYG XML editor."

I've downloaded the trial version, and I'll use it as I go through my XML Weekend Crash Course training guide.

Seems like everyone is creating a browser toolbar these days. Here's ESPN's beta version. At first glance, it doesn't seem too bad. I can customize which teams I want news for on my toolbar. Looks like the different buttons are highlighted when new stories are available.

I think I'll still probably use their RSS feeds to get most of my news though.

The FrameMaker WebRing includes several sites that you can peruse to find very helpful information about FrameMaker. If you're just trying to find good Frame sites, this WebRing is a good place to start.

I'm astounded by the headline and some of the comments in this article. Even if you don't agree with the war, you shouldn't spew this kind of invective against anyone who dies for our country. I have a high school friend who recently came back from Iraq. I'd be extremely offended if I heard anyone making similar comments about him.

Like many people, I've ended up with IM addresses from several different providers. One company that I worked for wanted us to use AOL IMs. Another wanted us to use Yahoo!. Then they changed their minds and wanted us to use MSN. As a result, I've got different people set up to contact me using different IM providers.

Trillian works perfectly for me. It's an IM client that allows you to set up multiple accounts from multiple providers. So I can log in to all three accounts with one IM client.

Trillian comes in two flavors. You can buy the Pro version, or you can use the free Basic version. I haven't bought a single piece of software in ten years, so of course I use the free version. Works fine for me!

I just received an invitation to create a Gmail account. I think Google's done a very good job of creating unbelievable anticipation for this service. I can't believe I'm actually excited about being able to open an e-mail account. I'd say that I'm a dork, but I know that I'm not the only one who feels that way.

I'd nearly given up on my Yahoo! e-mail account because of the number of spam messages I was getting--over 500 each day. Then I stumbled across 0Spam.com. It's a free, online spam catcher that works with POP accounts as well as Hotmail and Yahoo!. You provide a white list of terms and e-mail addresses, and it strips everything else from your account into your 0spam repository. A quick glance at those messages allows me to restore those few that I want to keep. The rest I can dump with one click.

I now have my Yahoo! account back. Of course, this may be moot once I can get a Gmail account. :-)

Q: I just opened my file, and there’s already an asterisk in the status bar, even though I haven’t made any changes. Even if I close this file without making any changes, FrameMaker prompts me to save it. Why?

A: By default, FrameMaker automatically updates cross-references, system variables on body pages, and text insets marked for automatic updating. When you open a document, FrameMaker automatically updates references, and displays an asterisk in the page status area of the status bar to indicate the document has been modified.

You have a table in which the last row appears by itself at the top of a page. You want to force the second-to-last row to roll with the last row. You can do this by formatting the row.

How To: Formatting a row to keep with the next row

1. Insert your pointer in the second-to-last row.
2. Open the Table menu, and click Row Format. The Row Format dialog box appears.
3. In the Keep With area, select the Next Row check box.
4. Click Set. The second-to-last row rolls with the last row.

The name itself is reason enough to download this tool. :-)

Crap Cleaner is a freeware system optimization tool that removes unused and temporary files from your system, allowing it to run faster and more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space.

If you want to see the graphics or insets that your file references, you can use a FrameMaker generated list. The list includes the file name and full path for all the referenced items in the document. You can use such a list if you think the document references a graphic or inset that is in the wrong location.

How To: Creating a list of referenced items

1. With your document open, open the Special menu, point to List Of, and click References.

2. Click Yes on the message box that appears to confirm that you want to create a stand-alone List of References.

3. On the Set Up List of References dialog box that appears, move the appropriate item to the Include References field:

Move Imported Graphics to generate a list of all the imported graphics in the document.

Move Text Insets to generate a list of all the insets in the document.

4. Click Set.

FrameMaker generates a list of the references items in that document. You can use the list to determine whether some items are imported from the incorrect location.

I'd used Resource Hacker before, and I've been wanting to customize my Outlook Today page ever since the MSNBC version went away. So these instructions were perfect.

If you need to create a hypertext link from a word or group of words within your document to another area of your document, you use the Hypertext command on the Special menu.

How To: Creating a hypertext link

1. Navigate to the destination location for your link.

2. With your insertion point at the beginning of the line of text to which you want to link, open the Special menu, and click Hypertext.

The Hypertext dialog box appears.

3. In the Command drop-down list, select Specify Named Destination.

The Syntax field shows a description of the information that you must define for the hypertext link to work accurately. The newlink value appears automatically, indicating that you are creating a new hypertext link.

4. In the Syntax field, place your insertion point after the space that follows the newlink value.

5. Type a name for the link.

6. Click New Hypertext Marker.

The Hypertext dialog box remains open. Do not close the dialog box; you will use it later in this procedure.

7. Navigate to and select the word or group of words that you want to make the hypertext link.

8. Apply the desired character tag to the selected text, and leave the text selected.

The character tag tells FrameMaker exactly where to place the link.

9. In the Command field on the Hypertext dialog box, select Jump to Named Destination.

10. In the Syntax field, the gotolink value appears automatically, indicating that you are identifying the destination of your hypertext link.

11. In the Syntax field, place your insertion point after the space that follows the gotolink value.

12. If you are linking to a destination within the same file, simply type the link name after gotolink.

If you are linking to a destination within a different file but in the same book or folder, type filename.fm:.

13. Click New Hypertext Marker.

14. Press CTRL+ALT, hover over the hypertext, and click to verify that the hypertext link takes you to the appropriate place within your document.

It is important that you type the link name exactly as you initially created it in step 5. You will receive an error message if FrameMaker cannot find a link that matches the name that you specify after the gotolink value.