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Rick Henkel - FrameMaker-Related Stuff

Comments and tips related to Adobe FrameMaker

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Wednesday, June 30, 2004
 
ButtUglySoftware

I have to mention this one, if for no other reason than to get to say the name of the software company. ButtUglySoftware has some tools for cleaning up various Internet and XP items. CleanCache is for users of IE, and CleanMOCache is for users of Mozilla/Netscape/Firefox/Opera.

I'm still running Win98 and Win2K, so I haven't tried these tools. But if you can't trust software from ButtUglySoftware, what can you trust?


(0) comments
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
 
Unfairenheit 9/11

I'm obviously not a Michael Moore fan. Evidently, Christopher Hitchens at Slate isn't either.


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Monday, June 21, 2004
 
Gmail for the Troops

Rather than sending invitations to complete strangers, I've decided to send invites to complete strangers fighting for my way of life. Gmailforthetroops.com and Gmail4troops.com are two sites where you can put your Gmail invitations to good use.


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Friday, June 18, 2004
 
EServer Technical Communication (and Technical Writing) Library

One of the mailing lists I'm on (I can't remember which one) had a reference to the EServer Technical Communication (and Technical Writing) Library. At first glance, it looks like a pretty impressive set of reference materials. Perhaps the best part is the XML feed that you can use to track the latest additions.


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Tuesday, June 15, 2004
 
Yahoo! Mail improvements

Yahoo! Mail is apparently trying to keep up with Gmail. As of this morning, I now have 100MB of storage in my Yahoo! account. They've changed their interface a bit, too.

But I'm afraid that it might be too little too late.


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Monday, June 14, 2004
 
Finding text that has change bars applied


Q: How can I find text that has change bars applied?

A: You can use the Find/Change dialog box.

Using the Find/Change dialog box to find text with change bars applied

1. Press CTRL+F to open the Find/Change dialog box.

2. In the Find list, select Character Format.

The Find Character Format dialog box appears.

3. Press SHIFT+F8 to set all of the values to As Is.

NOTE: You may have to manually delete the value in the Size field.

4. Click the Change Bar check box twice to make the check mark active.

5. Click Set.

The Find/Change dialog box reappears.

6. Click Find to find the occurrences of text with change bars.


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Friday, June 11, 2004
 
Firefly

Earlier this week, I attended training for Firefly, a software simulation tool from Knowledge Impact. Firefly is incredibly easy to learn. I know nothing about software simulation tools, but I knew how to use this tool within a few hours. (I usually am a quick study when it comes to learning how to use software.)

The e-learning developers at my company are excited about the template feature of Firefly. You can create a screen or item, modify it so that it's exactly what you want, and then save it as a template item. You can then import that template item into other simulations. For example, if you have a standard account screen that should always display the same sample user account information, you can set up the screen once, save it as a template, and then have all the developers in your company import that screen into their e-learning simulations.

I threw together a quick simulation for creating a new document in FrameMaker to show you some sample output from Firefly. Use the prompts to move through the simulation.

I did notice a few oddities. For example, watch for small boxes in front of the keyboard combinations on the FrameMaker menus. The Firefly trainer said that she'd never seen that before and that it must just be something in the way that Firefly captures Frame's menus.

The other oddity was how painfully slow the application ran on my PC. When I'd test a simulation, I sometimes had to wait over five minutes for the simulation to close so I could go back to the tool for editing it. But colleagues with newer PCs didn't have similar slow performances. I think the specs on my PC are closer to the minimum required rather than the recommended, so that might have something to do with that problem.

All in all, I think this is a great tool . . . if your department can afford it. As with all the simulation tools, it ain't cheap.


(2) comments
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
 
6.0.2 Updates for Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader

Adobe has just released updates for Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader.

The updates "addresses multiple known issues . . . including support for forms that use Adobe's XML forms architecture, creation of barcode-enabled forms, and a security update."


(1) comments
Thursday, June 03, 2004
 
Gmail enhancements

Google has added two great enhancements to its Gmail beta.

First, you can now create a signature for your messages. That's a standard option with other e-mail providers, but it was missing in the early stages of the beta.

Second, the taskbar (in Windows) now tells you how many new messages you have. Now you don't have to keep checking to see whether you have anything new. One glance at the taskbar tells you.

Both enhancements are great additions.



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