The following is file put out by Aldus (as far as I know) that is a FAQ for Pagemaker. (Personally, I like our's better :-). I think this one originated on Compuserve. Geof. [gwp@cs.purdue.edu] ============================================================================== Aldus PageMaker Q&A Here are the answers to some questions recently asked about Aldus PageMaker. If you have a question, or would like to share a tip, please write us: Editor, Aldus Magazine, Aldus Corporation, 411 First Avenue South, Seattle, WA 98104-2871. Please include your name and phone number in case we need more information. If we print your tip, we'll send you an Aldus Magazine sweatshirt. Q. What is an APD file? I don't have one my particular printer model, but can I still print from PageMaker? A. An APD (Aldus Printer Description) file provides PageMaker the information it needs to output to a given printer including which fonts the printer has built in, how much memory it has, what paper sizes it can handle, and so on. APD files are used only with PostScript printers; QuickDraw printers have their own drivers which don't use APDs. APDs are usually installed when you install PageMaker. Once installed, you choose the APD for your particular printer through the "Printer" pop-up menu in the "Print" dialog box. If you don't have an APD for your particular printer model, and you're using a 300-dpi PostScript laser printer, you may be able to print using the APD called "General." This APD is designed to help PageMaker print to the typical 300-dpi printer that has standard paper sizes and memory capacity. It may not work, however, if your printer has a different resolution, printing an odd paper size, printing a PostScript to disk file, or using a print spooler (which keeps PageMaker from communicating directly with the printer). In those cases, you can probably print by modifying another APD that has similar characteristics (such as memory and resident fonts) as the one you're using. To do so: 1. Make a copy of the APD you want to modify. (These are located in the APDs folder in the Aldus folder, which is inside the System Folder.) 2. Using any word processor, open the copy of the APD and find the line that reads: Product: "(Printer name)" 3. Highlight the text between the quotation marks, including the parentheses, and delete it. Product: "" 4. Save the file as a text-only or ASCII file, giving it your printer's name plus ".apd" at the end (so if your printer was named "MegaLaser," you'd name the file "MegaLaser.apd"). Store it inside the APDs folder. 5. Start PageMaker and open the file you want to print. In the "Print" dialog box, choose your printer in the "Printer" pop-up menu, make your other print options and click "OK." Finally, if this new APD doesn't work, contact the printer manufacturer to see if they have available an APD for your printer. Q. What is the custom vertical ruler used for? A. You can set the measurement units for PageMaker's vertical ruler independent of the horizontal ruler. This is a great help when you want to align elements based on the leading of the body copy. You may, for example, want to position baselines, graphics, or rules to align across a page in even increments of your leading value. By also turning "Snap to rulers" on, you can drag any element up and down and have it snap neatly to the tick marks. To customize the vertical ruler increments, open the "Preferences..." dialog box, click "Custom" for the vertical ruler measurement, then type in a value for the increment. Usually, this ll equal the leading of the primary text in your document. Q. How can I print a black-and-white composite of my page to a Black/White printer without having colored objects print as screens? A. PageMaker 4.0 always prints colors as screens, unless you choose to print spot color overlays. To print color objects as solid objects, you must either print using the Apple printer driver, or first make all the objects black in PageMaker (yes, there's a quick way to do it). To print with the Apple driver, hold down the Option key as you choose "Print..." from PageMaker's File menu. You'll get the standard Apple "Print" dialog box, which allows you to choose "Black and white" (for colors as solids) or "Color/Grayscale" (for colors as screens). Make your seleion, click "OK," then check the "Larger print area" and "Unlimited downloadable fonts in a document" options in the next dialog box, and print as usual. Keep in mind, however, that the Apple driver is not customized to handle PageMaker files like the Aldus driver. TIFF images may print slower, and you may lose some compositional effects such as fine kerning and set width settings. If using the Apple driver is not satisfactory, you can print colors as solids by quickly removing all the colors from the color palette, so that all objects default to Black. To do this, make a copy of the file, open it, then choose "Define colors..." from the Element menu. One by one, select the colors not listed in italics, and click "Remove" for each. Click "OK" and print as usual. (Note: This change won't affect colors in placed EPS or PICT files, only in TIFF images and PageMaker text and lines. Black in EPS and PICT graphics will print as solids; other colors within them will still screen to mimic the secondary colors.) Q. What is the "View last error message" for in the "PostScript print options" dialog box? A. This selection has two basic functions: 1. It forces PageMaker to retain contact with the printer until the page actually comes out of the printer. (Ordinarily, PageMaker sends out all the file information, makes sure the priner receives it, then withdraws from the printing task. Thus some time may elapse between when the last bit of data was received and when the printer actually spits out the page.) This makes PageMaker send the data to the printer one "packet" (bundle of information) at a time instead of several, and to wait for confirmation that the first packet was received before sending the next one. 2. If the page doesn't print properly, this option forces the printer to send back an error message that stays on the screen until you click "OK." (Often, such error messages flash only briefly, or not at all, leaving you in the dark about why a file didn't print.) All these functions make this option a useful diagnostic tool for finding out why a printer mysteriously drops a print job. In addition, if you run up against a "PageMaker has lost contact with your printer..." problem, using "View last error message" may help determine if the problem is related to an over-busy network. A file that prints fine with the option turned on, for example, may indicate that PageMaker's standard batch of data packets is too large to get through without being interrupted by a busy network. If this is the case, you should take steps to break the network into multiple zones, or consider investing in "traffic controller" software. Q. When I open and close a PageMaker file, the modification date changes even though I didn't alter the file in any way. Why? A. This has to do with PageMaker's mandate to do a "mini-save" each time you open a publication or perform a significant task (such as printing, working in the Story Editor, or turning a page). This mini-save capability is meant to help recover your most current work in case your computer system crashes or suffers a power failure. Since opening a file makes PageMaker mark a mini-save and prepare it for your alterations, the file is in effect "modified." Hence the modification date changes to the current date and time. Q. I'd like to create more than one contents listing for my PageMaker publication: one for the chapter titles, one for the illustrations, and one for the tables. How can I do this? A. You can easily produce any sort of contents listing using the table of contents (TOC) feature. The trick is to assign a paragraph style to the particular kind of element you want listed (say, table titles), then to set only that style to be included in the TOC before you generate the listing. This method is particularly helpful for creating lists of illustrations and lists of tables in long documents. Here are the details: 1. For each kind of TOC you'd like to create, define a style and apply it to the appropriate text throughout the document. For example, in this case you may have styles called "Chapter Title," "Illustration Caption," and "Table Title." 2. In the "Define styles" dialog box, select only one of these new styles, click "Edit," then click "Para...." Check the "Include in TOC" option and et the dialog boxes. (You'll need to make certain that none of your other styles have this option checked, as well.) 3. Choose "Create TOC..." from the Options menu, make your formatting selections, then click "OK." When the loaded text icon appears, pla the text on the appropriate page in the publication. 4. Return to the "Define styles" dialog box and edit the style from Step 2 to uncheck "Include in TOC." Next, edit one of the other styles so that it's the only one to be tagged for inclusion in the TOC. 5. Create the second TOC as you did the first, only be sure to deselect the "Replace existing TOC" option before you click "OK." If you don't, TOC 2 will replace TOC 1! 6. Continue in this manner until you've generated contents listings for all the styles you'd like. Q. I used a registered trademark ((R)) in an Aldus FreeHand 3.0 EPS that I placed into PageMaker, but the symbol doesn't print. What can I do? A. Aldus FreeHand 3.0 prints option characters (such as(tm), (R), and (C)) in their fonts, rather than converting them to the Symbol font, as FreeHand 2.02 did. Currently, however, the (R) character that you typically get by typing Option + R doesn't correctly map to its original font during export; thus it prints as a blank space from PageMaker. You have several options to get around this problem. First, you can type the special character in the Symbol font in Aldus FreeHand. You'll need to use a different keystroke than usual, however: Option + [ (left bracket) for a serif mark (") or Option + Shift + 0 (zero) for a san serif mark (). Another method is to type the (R) symbol as usual, only put it into its own text block and convert it to paths before you export the file. Since it's no longer considered text, Aldus FreeHand won't map it to any font. (Note: You'll need the outline font for Symbol for the convert to paths to work. The Symbol outline font is supplied with Adobe Type Manager.) Q. Should I check "Include images" when I make a separations file from PageMaker that I plan to put through PrePrint at a service bureau? Does this mean I won't need to give the bureau my placed graphics? A. Checking "Include images" when you make a separations (.sep) file makes PageMaker store any placed grayscale or color TIFF, DCS, or paint-type files in the .sep file. In most cases, however, you don't need to do this because the .sep file will already include the links information that tells PrePrint where to find the images. Leaving this option unchecked also keeps the .sep file small. One instance in which you'd want to check "Include images" is when you've enhanced an image using PageMaker's "Image control" function. In this case, selecting"Include images" makes sure the image and its enhancement information are stored within the .sep file. To retain this information through PrePrint, make sure your service bureau doesn't either relink to the original graphic file or convert the image's color to process colors. Because "Include images" doesn't deal with anything but images and paint-type graphics, you should still provide your service bureau with originals of any other graphics that aren't stored in the PageMaker publication. Whether you also supply other files depends on the service bureau. Some prefer that you send the original publication file, all linked images and graphics, plus the .sep file. Others request that you send only the PrePrint Separation file that you printed as PostScript to disk from PrePrint.