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<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Verdana>How is SnagIT integrated into the Frame
interface?</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT face=Verdana>-Gillian</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
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style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=art.campbell@gmail.com href="mailto:art.campbell@gmail.com">Art
Campbell</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=poshedly@bellsouth.net
href="mailto:poshedly@bellsouth.net">Ken Poshedly</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=framers@lists.frameusers.com
href="mailto:framers@lists.frameusers.com">FrameMaker Users List</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, March 21, 2012 5:29
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: best use of graphics in
FM</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>My take on your questions:
<DIV>1. SnagIt from TechSmith, which is integrated into the FM interface.
15-30 seconds or so if you use automated naming.
<DIV>2. No, you should take the time to do it right the first time.</DIV>
<DIV>3. Quality of the document has a direct relationship both to how
customers view the company and its products, and likely reduces calls for
support. And... the quick and dirty method only works for the current writer.
It'd be really hard for any other writer to maintain or change.<BR>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><BR clear=all>Art Campbell
<A
href="mailto:art.campbell@gmail.com"
target=_blank>art.campbell@gmail.com</A><BR> "... In my opinion, there's
nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a redheaded girl." -- Richard
Thompson<BR>
No disclaimers
apply.<BR>
DoD 358<BR><BR>I support <A href="http://www.TheGrotonLine.com"
target=_blank>www.TheGrotonLine.com</A>, hyperlocal news for Groton
MA.<BR><BR><BR>
<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 9:59 PM, Ken Poshedly <SPAN
dir=ltr><<A
href="mailto:poshedly@bellsouth.net">poshedly@bellsouth.net</A>></SPAN>
wrote:<BR>
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class=gmail_quote>
<DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT-FAMILY: times new roman,new york,times,serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<DIV>FrameMaker 8.0 on a PC with Windows XP Professional<BR><BR>Except for
bloated file sizes, in the long run, does it really matter if you reference
graphics or if you embed them inside your publications?<BR><BR>My coworker
is a guy who was tech pubs manager at another heavy equipment company but
was convinced by our employer to move south from PA for this job. He comes
for a primarily graphics background, having started a long time ago as a
pen-and-ink tech illustrator. His writing skills are fair at best, but he
considers himself an authority on tech pubs because he had been the manager
of his group. And our company never did fulfill its promises to him if he
left his previous employer.<BR><BR>While we do get along pretty well, we do
differ on this aspect of FrameMaker graphics -- to embed or to
reference?<BR><BR>We are the only two tech writers -- with no tech pubs
manager -- and we work in metro Atlanta, Georgia, for a multinational
Chinese company in which the Chinese engineers in Shanghai and elsewhere
over there write the original documentation for heavy machinery in the
Chinese language (taking as long as they want), then send the stuff to a
group of kids in their 20s (sorry, but I'm way past that age) in Shanghai
who are not even allowed anywhere near the machinery but simply translate
the stuff as best they can into "Chinglish". The machinery and their books
are then put on ships and my coworker and I are then told we have two weeks
to "Americanize" the Chinglish stuff. That means reformatting, reorganizing
and rewriting the stuff for American heavy equiment owners.<BR><BR>Thus, we
have next to no time to do things correctly. And I've been told over and
over that for the most part, "technical writing" does not exist as a
profession in China and it is simply assigned to anybody and everybody.
Their books look absolutely beautiful and they know how to mimic our page
layouts, but it all breaks down when one tries to use the books to actually
operate this extremely dangerous machinery because the terms, grammar,
punctuation, etc., are all so inconsistent, incorrect and well, you get the
idea. And the U.S. president of the company is only here in the U.S. for
about 4 years and follows ONLY the Chinese methods. (For one thing, no
salary increases; you simply stay at your starting level or quit. And, by
the way, very few if any promotions. I'm there 3 years and looking to move
on.)<BR><BR>Unfortunately, at his prior location, another FM user (more
knowledgeable than my coworker) showed my coworker what I call a "hack" to
get a document done in a fraction of the time that it would ordinarily take.
Specifically, he uses "PrintScreen32" to take screen shots of existing
graphics in the Word or pdf Chinglish books we get from the home office and
then pastes them directly into his FM document. No muss, no fuss -- and no
record of any filename or any other details about any of the graphics in his
documents.<BR><BR>He also does this with text blocks (sometimes entire
pages) from the Chinglish books and simply pastes those text blocks into his
FM documents. The results are horrendous because no real editing can
be done (and errors in the original text abound). He simply creates small
FrameMaker text blocks over incorrect words or sentences and types in the
few words or sentences needed to fix something. So his FM documents are
pretty much "pictures" of text with white boxes of corrected words that give
his pages that "ransom-letter look".<BR><BR>This method allows him to
"complete" a document much faster than doing it what I call "the right
way".<BR><BR>I, on the other hand, have no problem with taking screen shots
and saving them as legitimate graphics with an art control numbers (as
listed in an Excel file created just for this purpose) that can be either
referenced or embedded in other documents. It's true that my method takes a
few steps more (thus more time), but the result is a findable graphics that
can be reused over and over. (I also know how to copy text and properly
paste it in an FM document.)<BR><BR>Many of our graphics are used again and
again, and many are one-timers. Plus, embedding pert near 100 or 200
graphics in a document tends to create a humongous filesize. For instance, a
225-page manual done by my coworker as described above (that I've had to
completely redo correctly with edits throughout following its technical
review) and that has over 200 embedded graphics and text blocks was about
800 megabytes in size. I routinely get a warning that there may not be
enough computer memory to open the document, but it does open, taking about
45 seconds or more. He says that it is poor software and refuses to admit
that his way is stupid. The file is smaller since I've redone it.<BR><BR>So
the questions are:<BR>* Does anybody here have a fast way of saving
screenshots as legit graphics for later reuse, and if so, what is your
method and how many seconds would you say it takes?<BR>* Am I being too
controlling on this matter? (I suspect yes.)<BR>* If I'm not too controlling
in this, are there any other arguments I can use to bolster my side of the
story?<BR><BR>Th-Th-That's all folks!!<BR><BR>-- Kenin
Atlanta<BR><BR></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR>_______________________________________________<BR><BR><BR>You
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