best use of graphics in FM

[rebecca officer]

Hi Ken

There're certainly a lot of better options than your flow!

Working from PDFs, my I'm-in-a-hurry flow would be:

1. Open PDF at 100%
2. Open SnagIt.
3. Set snagit to automatically save files as PNGs with incrementing
numbers in filenames.
4. Set snagit to capture a Region, which lets you drag the mouse to
select exactly what you want.
5. Take the snapshots for the whole book. It takes a few seconds to
capture each - definitely under 10 seconds, probably well under once
you're on a roll.
6. Open the FM document.
7. At each point where I wanted a screen snapshot, use File > Import to
import it at 96 dpi. That automatically inserts it in an anchored frame,
centered, at the size it was in the original PDF. Only takes a couple of
seconds per file.

If you can't live with centred figures, I'm pretty sure there was a
plugin that let control that across a document.

If your manuals are being printed, 96dpi isn't good enough so you may
need to experiment. But I'll bet your workmate's flow gets the content
in at screen resolution.

Cheers
Rebecca


>>> Ken Poshedly <poshedly at bellsouth.net> 03/23/12 11:02 AM >>>
First, thanks to all who have written to me both on-list and off-list.
It’s 
certainly good to have a support group of those likewise addicted to
this 
software. (Maybe at an FM conference we can go around the room for
introductions 
like at an AA meeting, “I’m Ken and I’m a FrameMaker user.”)

Second, I’m still checking possible solutions to see if I cold convince
my 
coworker to add graphics to FM docs correctly, but it seems like a lost
cause 
because he simply doesn’t see the need to do anything other than copy
and paste. 
For new images, he simply opens the folder with photos taken of a new
machine, 
copies a photo and directly pastes it into an anchored frame in his FM
document.

He’s asked me to come up with a better way, but I already know that to
him, only 
speed counts, and he takes literally no longer than 20 seconds or so to
do it 
his way:
	* Have pdf document open and anchored frame in FM document
already in place.
	* Screen-shot the art (using PrintScreen32 which allows cropping
before doing 
the capture).
	* Paste it into anchored frame and size it as-needed.
My clumsy, more complicated, admittedly longer but correct method (using
an 
existing pdf file with required images) is to: 

	* Have pdf document open and anchored frame in FM document
already in place.
	* Extract single page with a required image from a multi-page
pdf file.
	* Open the pdf page (or photo) in art software and crop away
unneeded material 
to leave only the image.
	* Assign an art control number (from our existing acn excel
file).
	* Save the cropped pdf in the existing art control number file
folder.
	* Import the saved PDF image from the ACN folder into anchored
frame in 
FrameMaker and re-size it as-needed
	* Type the art control number inside a text box and place it
inside the lower 
right corner of the anchored frame.
Third, thanks to Shlomo Perets for his suggestion for me to uncheck the
box for 
“Generate Tagged PDF” as a fix to see if I could properly generate a pdf
file on 
Wednesday afternoon. It worked. (Specifically, I unchecked the box for
“Generate 
Acrobat Data”.)

-- Ken in Atlanta




________________________________
From: Shlomo Perets <shlomo2 at microtype.com>
To: Ken Poshedly <poshedly at bellsouth.net>
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Sent: Thu, March 22, 2012 6:49:03 AM
Subject: Re: best use of graphics in FM

Ken,

You wrote:

>First, I very much appreciate the various on-list and off-list replies.

>I'll try a few things myself this evening after getting home (61 miles 
>each way) regarding the graphics to see what I can do as a speed test.
>
>Second, I just did some minor edits to a series of FM files created by
my 
>coworker and tried to create a pdf of the book. And yep, a big glitch 
>occurred right near th
e beginning during distilling. Here's the text
from 
>the log file created by distiller:
>
>%%[ ProductName: Distiller ]%%
>%%[Page: 1]%%
>%%[Page: 2]%%
>%%[ Error: typecheck; OffendingCommand: pdfmark; ErrorInfo: StOBJ 
>--nostringval-- ]%%
>
>Stack:
>/StOBJ
>{/StOBJ}
>/Obj
>-dict-
>
>
>%%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%%
>%%[ Warning: PostScript error. No PDF file produced. ] %%
>
>*****************
>
>Notice that distiller gave up the ghost at or after page 2 of the file 
>during the book printing which should have resulted in a 254-page
manual. 
>I've done a visual check of pages 2 and 3 (the copyright page would be
pdf 
>page 2 and page 1 of the comprehensive TOC would be pdf page 3) and
either 
>there's nothing obviously wrong or I'm blind.
>
>Could someone explain the cryptography from the log file, specifically 
>line 4 (Error: typecheck . . .) and what follows it?


The Distiller error is related to having Tagged PDF turned on in
FrameMaker.

Turn off "Generate Tagged PDF" (Format > Document > PDF Setup, Tags tab,
of 
from within your Save as PDF / Print dialog box), then try converting to

PDF again.


Shlomo Perets

MicroType, http://www.microtype.com
FrameMaker/TCS training & consulting * FM-to-Acrobat
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