Adobe Magazine Mar/Apr 1995 PageMaker Q&A

Adobe_Magazine_March_April_1995_Cover
Adobe Magazine March/April 1995 Cover

For a few years I wrote PageMaker and Acrobat Q&A sections for Adobe Magazine. This is the March/April 1995 column.

The article is scanned into Acrobat and its OCR functionality was used to recognize the text. While OCR is a wonderful invention, the cleanup process (I pasted the content into Word and did it there) is more time consuming than expected. Note that Adobe Magazine didn’t provide bylines for Q&A articles, though the authors are listed as contributors in small print in the credits, as can be seen on the last page of the scanned PDF at the bottom of this post.

This article’s mention of Aldus Technical Support’s then-innovative use of fax machines, with its FaxYI program, to disseminate helpful information brings back memories.

Also note that, because this originally appeared in print form, a narrow column forced some scripting code to wrap when, in fact, in the code editor it shouldn’t. Therefore, we used a special symbol, 〽, to denote hitting a space and not enter, so the reader knew to keep two lines separated in print together on one line in the script. To bring attention to this, the character is highlighted. Naturally a web page can usually accommodate longer lines, but in the interest of continuity, the text below is pasted exactly as it appears in the magazine, complete with the 〽 character and the yellow highlight background color.

Q: Occasionally when I place a TIFF in PageMaker, its right side seems to get cut off a little. Why?

A: When PageMaker imports a 1-bit (black-and-white) TIFF that contains extra white area around the image, it will automatically crop the graphic for you. Unfortunately, PageMaker occasionally miscalculates where it should crop the graphic, and you end up with a TIFF image slightly clipped—usually along its right side.

Fortunately, it’s easy to correct this problem. Just select PageMaker’s cropping tool and pull the handles of the TIFF outward to uncrop it. You can also prevent this from occurring by saving your 1-bit image without any extra peripheral white space. If you want to avoid this problem altogether, you can save your 1-bit images in another format (EPS, for instance) that PageMaker will not crop during import.

Q: Sometimes I can’t get a word to hyphenate, even with a discretionary hyphen—I end up having to use a regular hyphen instead. Why does this happen?

A: This generally happens because PageMaker, using a complex system of hyphenation and justification rules, determined that a word break was not necessary at the end of your line. Discretionary hyphens only become active (turn into hyphens and make words break) under special circumstances—in other words, a discretionary hyphen isn’t a “forced” hyphen that can make a word break regardless of the word’s position. For instance, a discretionary hyphen will never make a word break if that word isn’t the last word on the line.

If you’re having trouble fig­uring out why PageMaker thinks it shouldn’t break a word that contains a discretionary hyphen, check the following:

Make sure the Hyphenation feature is turned on. If the hyphenation feature is off, discretionary hyphens won’t work. Click your text tool somewhere in the paragraph with which you’re having the problem, then select “Hyphenation… ” from the Type menu. In the “Hyphenation” dialog box, make sure the “on” option is selected.

micro tip

If you want a word to hyphenate at a certain point and it isn’t already doing so (perhaps because it’s a word PageMaker’s dictionary doesn’t recognize), don’t use a regular hyphen—if your text rewraps, that hyphen could end up in the middle of a line. Instead, use a discretionary hyphen (Ctrl + – in Windows; Command + – on a Mac). A discretionary hyphen is only visible when called into action—in other words, when the word in which it appears is at the end of a line and needs to break. At other times, the discretionary hyphen remains discreetly invisible.

Check your hyphenation zone—it might be too large. If hyphenation is turned on and you’re using left-aligned, unjustified type, the most likely cause of your problem is a hyphenation zone that’s too large. Whenever you use left-aligned type, PageMaker uses the hyphenation zone to determine whether it can break a word at the end of a line—PageMaker will wrap a word to the next line, instead of hyphenating it, if the word begins within the hyphenation zone (the hyphenation zone could have been more aptly named the “no hyphenation zone”). In this manner, the hyphenation zone setting determines how ragged the right side of unjustified type is.

If you think your hyphenation problem may be related to a hyphenation zone that’s too large, click inside that paragraph, select “Hyphenation…” from the Type menu, and decrease the “Hyphenation zone” setting until your word hyphenates and you like the amount of raggedness this creates along the right side of your unjustified lines. To achieve a consistent effect throughout your publication, build your hyphenation-zone setting into your styles.

See if your word-spacing settings need fine tuning. If you’re using justified type, PageMaker may not be hyphenating your word because it was able to justify your line by expanding or compressing your word spacing within the minimum and maximum word-space values you set in the “Spacing attributes” dialog box. Here’s why: There’s a special order to the steps PageMaker takes when it tries to justify a line. First, it tries to compress your word spacing to as much as the minimum value you set in the “Spacing attributes” dialog box. Next, it tries to expand your word spacing up to the maximum word-spacing value. Only if these steps don’t allow it to justify the line will PageMaker try to hyphenate your word.

If this happens to you, you should try giving PageMaker a little less leeway to compress and expand your word spacing. By default, PageMaker’s word-spacing minimum value is 50% and its maximum word-spacing value is 200%. Many professional typographers recommend less extreme minimum and maximum values for more consistent-looking, readable type. Try setting your minimum value to approximately 80% and your maximum value to around 130%.

Check your “Limit consecutive hyphens to” setting. If you’re still having problems, check to see if the line immediately preceding the line with which you’re having a problem ends in a hyphen. If so, PageMaker may not be hyphenating the next line because of a low “Limit consecutive hyphens to” setting.

Open the “Hyphenation” dialog box and take a look at the “Limit consecutive hyphens to” setting—if it’s set at “1,” or “2,” or any other number, PageMaker won’t hyphenate any more than that number of consecutive lines. Increase the setting for more hyphenation or, if you want to disable this feature altogether, enter “No limit” for unlimited consecutive hyphens (this is PageMaker’s default setting). Doing so might be a good idea for very narrow columns, which tend to have awkward breaks if not adequately hyphenated, but may not be the best choice in other situations—two or more consecutive lines ending in hyphens can be visually disruptive. Be sure to proofread your copy carefully if you use the “No limit” setting.

micro tip

You can also use discretionary hyphens to prevent specific words from hyphenating. To do so, place the discretionary hyphen (Ctrl + – in Windows, Command + – on the Mac) immediately before the word’s first character.

Make sure that word hasn’t been set not to break. If you’ve tried everything else and your word still won’t hyphenate, it could be that you inadvertently did something to prevent it from breaking. Highlight the word and select “Type specs…” from the Type menu. In the “Type specifications” dialog box, make sure the “No break” option isn’t turned on—if it’s on, select the “Break” option instead to allow your word to break.

If the “No break” option wasn’t selected, another possibility is that you entered a discretionary hyphen right before the first character in your word—this will also prevent your word from hyphenating. To make sure there isn’t a discretionary hyphen there (it won’t be visible) click just to the right of the first character in your word, and press the left arrow once—this should place you between the word and the discretionary hyphen, if there is one there. Then press the backspace key one or more times, until you erase the space before the word, and retype the space.

For more information on PageMaker’s hyphenation feature, see Adobe’s Straight Talk paper titled, “Hyphenation and Justification in PageMaker 5.0.” It’s available as document #500307 on the Adobe FaxYI system, (206) 628-5737.

Q: I looked in the PageMaker manual for information on one of the Additions and had a difficult time finding anything about it. Where can I find this Information?

A: The Additions have their own manual, Aldus Additions for Page­Maker 5.0, that shipped with PageMaker. This manual covers the Additions that came with the program—for instance, “Display pub info,” “Drop cap,” PS Group it,” and others. One exception is the “Update PPD” Addition, which is covered not in the Aldus Additions manual, but in PageMaker’s online help.

Information on any Addition that did not ship with PageMaker should come with that Addition. Some of these Additions, including the “TrapMaker” Addition (Macintosh only) and “lnfoPublisher” (Windows only), are available from Adobe. Information on these Additions is available on the Adobe FaxYI system—dial (206) 628-5737 and follow the recorded instructions.

Most of the Additions available for the Macintosh and Windows versions of PageMaker 5.0 are created and marketed by independent developers. Many of these Additions, and information about them, are available from the Plug-In Connection, which can be reached at (800) 685-3547. Additions available through the Plug-In Connection include Azalea “POSTNET,” which allows you to create bar codes in PageMaker; Integrated Software lnc.’s “AA Shadow” Addition, which lets you create a drop-shadow effect for any object on a PageMaker page; and Zephyr Design’s “Zephyr Grids,” which provides an easy way to create a grid system.

Q: Is there a way to replace or remove a color that has been applied to multiple objects?

A: Yes. You can either remove the color altogether—and have PageMaker assign black to the objects that had been assigned that color—or replace it with another existing color. To remove a color, select “Define colors…” from the Element menu. In the “Define colors” dialog box, select the color you want to remove and click the “Remove” button. If that color is assigned to any objects, PageMaker will display a dialog box that gives you the option to change those objects to black or to cancel the color removal.

If you want to change one color (let’s call it “Color1″) to another color (which we’ll call “Color2”), so that any objects assigned Color1 become Color2, follow these steps:

  1. In the “Define colors” dialog box, select the color you want to replace (Color1) and click the “Edit…” button.
  2. In the “Edit color” dialog box, change the name of Color1 to that of Color2. Be sure to spell it exactly the way the replacement color is spelled: use the same spacing, capitalization, and hyphenation. Otherwise, you’ll simply change the name of your first color.
  3. Click “OK.” PageMaker will display a dialog box that says, “Change all Color1 items to Color2?” If you click “OK,” PageMaker will return to the “Edit color” dialog box, where you can click “OK” again to complete the process. All the items that had been assigned your Color1 color will now be assigned the Color2 color, and your Color1 color will no longer appear on the Colors palette.

Note that you cannot remove or replace a color imported with an EPS file that you still have in your publication. Such colors are preceded by a “PS” icon on the Colors palette. You can, nevertheless, replace a non-EPS color with an EPS color.

Q: When I use the “Display pub info” Addition to see what fonts are in my publication, it often lists fonts I’m sure I didn’t use. Where are these fonts coming from?

A: The “Display pub info” Addition not only lists the fonts you actually use in your publication, but also those listed in your publication’s styles (including ones you didn’t use), your publication’s defaults, and the font the Story Editor uses to display text. That’s because the Addition works by listing all the fonts currently installed on your system and checking which ones are required for your publication.

Here’s how you can check your publication to find out where your “mystery” fonts are. First, select “Preferences…” from the File menu, and click “Other…” in the “Preferences” dialog box—that will open the “Other preferences” dialog box, which lists what font the Story Editor uses to display text. If this is a font you’re not using elsewhere in your publication, and you don’t want “Display pub info” to list it, change your Story Editor font to something you do use elsewhere in your publication.

Next, check your styles. Select “Define styles…” from the Type menu, and in the “Define styles” dialog box scroll through your list of styles, clicking on each one as you go, and make a note of what font it uses—this information will be displayed beneath the style list. It’s a good idea to remove styles you don’t need—especially if they list fonts you aren’t using elsewhere in your publication. Doing so will help reduce the size and complexity of your publication file, as well as prevent the “Display pub info” Addition from listing these fonts.

Finally, you can find out what your default font is by making sure no text is selected (an easy way to do this is by switching to the pointer tool) and selecting “Font…” from the Type menu. Whatever font is selected is your default font. If that’s a font you aren’t using in your publication, change it to something else.

After you’ve completed these steps, save your publication by selecting “Save as…” from the File menu, then run the “Display pub info” Addition again. If it still lists fonts you think you didn’t use, try opening your publication again and using the Story Editor’s Find feature to figure out where the fonts are in your publication—sometimes such fonts are assigned to single characters or are applied to overset text or text on the pasteboard.

If you use the Macintosh version of PageMaker 5.0, you can also use Aldus CheckList to find out what fonts you’ve used in your publication. Aldus CheckList is a stand-alone application that can analyze a PageMaker or PostScript file and list a variety of information about it. For instance, CheckList can tell you what fonts have been used in a publication, the pages on which each font appears, and whether the font is used in a PageMaker story, a PICT, or an EPS. CheckList also provides information on a publication’s styles, links, and print settings. It’s available directly from Adobe Customer Services at (800) 628-2320.

Q :The last Issue of the magazine had a tip on making non printing text. Is there a way to make graphic elements nonprinting?

A Yes—you can use PageMaker’s Scripting feature to make graphics as well as text blocks nonprinting. Nonprinting elements are handy to use as notes or visual signals to colleagues or service providers, or as guides to help you lay out your publication.

The following scripts take advantage of the scripting language’s “suppressprint” command. This command allows you to determine whether a PageMaker object prints or not. For more information on the “suppressprint” and other scripting commands, see the Aldus PageMaker 5.0 Script Language Guide, available from Adobe Customer Services at (800) 628-2320. If you’re not familiar with scripting or any type of macro language, don’t worry—all you need for these steps is a little curiosity and some typing skills.

Script 1: Turns a text block into a nonprinting element

To create the following script, open the Story Editor and select “New story” from the Story menu, then type the following text exactly as it appears below. Do not use any tabs. In addition, do not use typographer’s quotes (you may need to temporarily turn off the “Use typographer’s quotation marks” option in the “Preferences” dialog box). The following code contains the symbol “”—when you see this symbol, do not press the Return or Enter key to start a new line. Just press the spacebar once.

definecolor "non-repro blue, 
0, 0, 1, 40, 100, 100
printink "non-repro blue", 0, "",""
suppressprint 1
textedit
textselect +textblock
color "non-repro blue"

Next, select “Export” from the File menu, and select “Text-only” from the Format pop-up menu. Enter a name for your script—whatever name you choose will be what appears in the “Run script” dialog box, so use something easy to remember, like “off_text” (if you use PageMaker for Windows, your script name must be eight characters or less) or “nonprinting text block.” Then, save your script in the SCRIPTS folder or directory—in Windows, it’s a subdirectory of your PMS directory; on the Mac, that folder is located within your “Aldus PageMaker 5.0” folder.

To use your script, select a text block with the pointer tool (if you select text with the text tool, the script won’t work). Then, choose “Run script…” from the Additions submenu of the Utilities menu. In the “Run script” dialog box, select the script you named, and click “OK.”

The script will do the following: First, it defines a color called “non-repro blue” and sets that color to be nonprinting (in other words, unchecks that ink in the ink list of the “Separations” section of the “Colors” print dialog box, so you won’t get a “non-repro blue” plate if you print separations). Next, using the “suppressprint” command, it changes the entire text block into a nonprinting element. Then the script will select all the text in the text block and set its color to non-repro blue. Although the non-repro blue color doesn’t cause the text to be nonprinting, it will help flag the text as a non-printing element.

Script 2: Turns a text block back into a printing item

To create this script, follow the directions in Script 1 to turn the following text into a script-name it something like “on_text” or “printing text block.”

suppressprint 0
textedit
textselect +textblock
color "Black"

To use this script, select the pointer tool and click on a text block that’s currently defined as a nonprinting element. Select “Run script…” from the Additions submenu of the Utilities menu, select your new script from the “Run script” dialog box, and click “OK.” The script will change your text block back into a printing element and assign its color to black. (If you want your text to be some other color, you’ll need to change it manually.)

Script 3: Turns graphic elements into nonprinting Items

The following script turns graphic elements (PageMaker­drawn lines, boxes, and ovals, as well as imported graphics) into nonprinting elements. When you see the “” symbol, do not press the Return or Enter key to start a new line—just press the spacebar once.

definecolor "non-repro blue", 
0, 0, 1, 40, 100, 100
printink "non-repro blue", 0, "", ""
suppressprint 1
color "non-repro blue"

Before running the script, use the pointer tool to select the graphic elements you want to make nonprinting. The script turns the object or objects you had selected into non­printing elements and applies the “non-repro blue” color to them. (lf you run this script on an imported color graphic, it won’t change the object’s on-screen colors.)

Script 4: Tums graphic elements into printing Items
suppressprint 0
color "Black"

This script will turn off the “suppressprint” command for the selected objects and assign them the color Black. If you want your object to be some other color, you’ll need to change it manually. If your object is an imported color graphic that should not be assigned any color, select it and choose “Restore original color” from the Element menu.

PageMaker Tip (PC/Mac) – Guides be gone

It’s easy to get carried away with PageMaker’s ruler guides during the design process—sometimes, before you know it, your screen is a maze of cyan lines obscuring your layout. Here are a few ways to eliminate this visual clutter:

  • If you want to hide your ruler, column, and margin guides temporarily, press Ctrl + J (Windows) or Command + J (Macintosh). This keyboard shortcut deselects “Guides” from the “Guides and rulers” submenu of the Layout menu. (And, on a related note, pressing Ctrl + J or Command + J twice very quickly is a great way to force PageMaker to redraw your screen without zooming into a different portion of your page.)
  • If you want to restore your ruler, column, and margin guides to the positions you defined on your master page, select “Copy master guides” from the Layout menu. (If this item is grayed out, deselect the “Lock guides” option on the “Guides and rulers” submenu of the Layout menu.)
  • If you want to get rid of all your ruler guides, not just copy the ones from your master pages (especially if your master pages are where all the clutter is), hold down the Shift key while selecting “Guides” from the “Guides and rulers” submenu of the Layout menu—this will erase all the ruler guides from the current page. If this has no effect. make sure you deselect the “Lock guides” option from the same menu before trying it again.

PageMaker Tip (PC/Mac) – Send in the clones

Many drawing applications offer a “cloning” feature—a way to paste a copy of an object directly onto its original. There’s no “Clone” command in PageMaker’s menus, but you can get the same effect anyway. To clone an object in PageMaker, select it with the pointer tool, and press Ctrl + C (Windows) or Command + C (Mac) to copy it to the clipboard. Then press Ctrl + Shift + P (Windows) or Command + Option + V (Mac) to paste a copy of the object onto the original. One handy use of this is to get two identical objects lined up horizontally—clone the first one, then Shift-drag the clone (which keeps its motion horizontal).

The scanned article complete with images and fun outdated advertising:

Mark Iverson Adobe Magazine March/April 1995

 

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