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Newsgroups: comp.text.interleaf,comp.answers,news.answers Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!uhog.mit.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!convex!news.ssc.gov!fnnews.fnal.gov!nntp-server.caltech.edu!draco.macsch.com!usenet From: leaf-faq-editors@cs.umb.edu (The Interleaf FAQ list Editors) Subject: Interleaf FAQ -- Frequently Asked Questions for comp.text.interleaf Message-ID: <interleaf-faq_766260023@macsch.com> Followup-To: comp.text.interleaf Summary: This posting contains a list of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers) about the Interleaf documentation system. It should be read before posting anything to the comp.text.interleaf newsgroup. Keywords: Interleaf FAQ Sender: todd@macsch.com (Todd Williams) Supersedes: <interleaf-faq_763585211@macsch.com> Reply-To: leaf-faq-editors@cs.umb.edu Organization: The Interleaf FAQ list Editors Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 18:00:48 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Expires: Sun, 26 Jun 1994 18:00:23 GMT Lines: 1364 Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu comp.text.interleaf:2036 comp.answers:4901 news.answers:18041 Archive-name: interleaf-faq Version: $Id: interleaf.faq,v 1.9 1993/09/17 01:54:44 todd Exp $ Posting-Frequency: monthly, on the 13th Posting-Agent: post_faq.pl, by Jonathan Kamens *** INTERLEAF FAQ -- Frequently Asked Questions for comp.text.interleaf *** This "FAQ" document is arranged into 4 major sections: 1. Introduction - General info 2. Administration 3. Importing/Exporting, 3rd party tools, customizing 4. Miscellaneous user questions and then broken down further, in outline form rather than "FAQ list" form. All section and sub-section numbers are in the form "a.b.c.d", and begin in column 1 for easy searching in your favorite editor. 1. Introduction 1.1. What is Interleaf? Interleaf, Inc. provides software and services to allow organizations to build, integrate and manage document systems. Interleaf software covers the full range of document processes: accessing information, developing text and graphic documents, putting them through their review and revision processes, distributing them electronically or on paper, and managing the entire process. "Interleaf 5" is a document authoring and composition package. It provides an integrated set of tools for creating compound documents: word processing, graphics, data-driven business charts, tables, equations, image editing, automated page layout, book building- including automatic index and TOC, and conditional document assembly. It includes several features engineered to support the production of large and complex document sets, including: centralized control over parts or all of a document (format and/or content), global search and replace/change on individual graphics objects regardless of specific orientation or position, and revision management. Also available is the optional Developer's Toolkit (DTK) for customizing or extending the capabilities of the above authoring tool. DTK is used to write programs in Interleaf Lisp. Interleaf Lisp is similar to Common Lisp, but it also contains an extensive set of classes, methods, and functions for examining and changing almost all Interleaf objects, including documents and their contents. DTK includes an editor, debugger, compiler, listener, interpreter, and on-line documentation. Lisp code developed with DTK, or even written with an ordinary editor, can be executed by the stock system, so that customization or the provision of special functionality is not limited to installations with DTK. In fact, much of the distributed system is written in Lisp. Another option for Interleaf 5 is "Interleaf 5 <SGML>" which provides complete support for creating structured documents in SGML. Other products available from Interleaf include the following: "RDM" (Relational Document Manager) organizes, tracks and manages documents and data, and automates every stage of the document lifecycle. "Worldview" distributes information from virtually any source in document form for online viewing on virtually any computer. It combines electronic viewing with hypertext navigation and full-text retrieval. 1.2. What platforms does Interleaf run on, and what are the latest versions? **as of April 1993** WORKSTATION PLATFORMS: The current release of Interleaf's product for document creation is Interleaf 5, version 5.3 (the successor to Interleaf's "Technical Publishing Software," or TPS 4.x.) Interleaf 5 is currently available on the following workstation platforms: DG Aviion, DEC VAX/VMS, DEC Ultrix, HP 700, HP 300/400, HP/Apollo (Domain), IBM RS/6000, Motorola Delta 8000, Sun-3, Sun-4, Silicon Graphics Iris. ALTERNATE GUIs: The "standard" version of Interleaf 5 provides a UI consistent across all the platforms it runs on. Versions of Interleaf 5 that support the standard GUIs are currently under development. The first of these is Interleaf 5 for OPEN LOOK. Interleaf 5 for OPEN LOOK takes advantage of the OPEN LOOK UI by supporting drag & drop, push pins, sliders, menu buttons and more. Also, each document, folder, drawer, etc. can be open in its own top level window (with window manager borders, etc.). Interleaf 5 OpenLook was released in Dec 1992. Interleaf 5 will be available with a Motif UI sometime in 1993. DOS: (386/486) Interleaf 5.2.02 for DOS began shipping in June 1992. This is the currently shipping North American release. Interleaf 5.3.1.1 began shipping in March of 1993. The 5.3 release includes international localizations for French, German and Italian, Full Revision Tracking, support for DEC Pathworks, improved/additional video device driver support, and better support for running from within a Microsoft Windows 3.1 environment (as a DOS application). Since Interleaf has not completed work on the remaining localizations for Dutch, Spanish and Swedish interfaces, this release is seeing limited distribution even in North America. The additional languages and other new features will be included in the upcoming release, Interleaf 5.4 for DOS. Customers can upgrade from Interleaf IBM Publisher 3.x. (aka version 1.x) to version 5.2.02 or wait for version 5.4. Interleaf 5 for DOS is interoperable with the UNIX and VMS based versions. It includes all the functionality of the workstation-based product (tables, equations, charting, graphics, etc.) plus some additional features that allow the user to run in Microsoft Windows 3.1 environments without extra memory managers or special set-ups. Features planned for v5.4 include 32-bit color image support and a quicker install procedure. There is also a Windows/NT "Win32S/NT" version planned which includes a new font hierarchy to greatly reduce disk footprint. General shipment of Interleaf for DOS, version 5.4, including 5.2 to 5.4 upgrades to contract customers, will take place in summer 1993. Interleaf is working on a version of Interleaf 5 for Microsoft Windows. MAC: The current version is Interleaf Publisher for the Mac, version 3.6. This product does not conform to the Mac UI, and is no longer available from Interleaf. Interleaf 5 for the Mac (with a real Mac interface) is planned for release later in 1993. 1.3. How much does Interleaf cost? Well, I don't know if Interleaf wants all their retail prices quoted here, so let's just make some qualitative statements. There are several different "options" for Interleaf 5, including DTK, Revision Tracking, and Book Catalogs. The "base model" Interleaf license is *very* competitive with FrameMaker, or other similar systems. Adding the above options can be quite expensive. Many sites use a network pool of many inexpensive "basic" licenses plus a few expensive "full blown" licenses. It has been noted that universities receive a tremendous educational discount, and that commerical and educational license costs for Interleaf and its competitors differ greatly depending on which country you live in and which platform you are buying. In the US, full-blown Interleaf 5 is available to accredited colleges and universities for dling. Terms for institutions of higher education in other countries (and for businesses and individuals as well) vary by country. 1.4 How does Interleaf compare to {FrameMaker,IslandWrite,WordPerfect,etc.}? This is a religious and/or political issue for many, and it is very hard to provide an objective answer. Therefore, I will just summarize a few majority opinions from the frequent discussions in the newsgroup. Frame is generally considered to be a "mid-range" application; it is easy to learn, but experienced users find complex tasks difficult or impossible. Many users hate the "toolbox", "Mac/PC-like" interface. Interleaf is thought of as a "high-end" system; it is difficult to get started, but expandable and powerful when advanced tasks must be done. While many new users abhor the UI, a seemingly equal number of experts praise it. Interleaf's document creation metaphor is object oriented and structured in approach, in contrast to the page-layout orientation of many "Desktop Publishing" products like Quark, PageMaker, etc. This is often a widely misunderstood difference when comparing Interleaf to other "similar" products. IslandWrite, WordPerfect, MS-Word, et al. are considered low-end applications. Interleaf is moving to the standard GUIs. I5OL is available now, I5XM will be Fall 1993, followed (TBD) by I5Windows and I5Mac. 1.5 How can I find out more information about Interleaf? Interleaf, Inc. Prospect Place 9 Hillside Avenue Waltham, MA 02154-9524 USA 1-617-290-0710 US and Canada toll-free service numbers: Customer Support Center 1-800-688-5151 support@ileaf.com Customer Support Center--passwords 1-800-688-5151 password@ileaf.com Training Registration 1-800-685-LEAF Interleaf Direct (product orders, 1-800-955-LEAF identify nearest office) User Groups, ICON, product literature 1-800-756-LEAF There are over 50 Interleaf USER GROUPS worldwide. For information on the nearest one, or for assistance on starting one, contact Interleaf at 1-800-756-5323 (outside North America, call 1-617-290-0710, x3326). To receive Interleaf's quarterly NEWSLETTER and product announcements, just send a request to "add me to your mailing list" to the home office in your country. Include your name, title, company, mailing address and telephone number. Also let them know which Interleaf products you're using, and on which computer platforms. Send it to the attention of "Marketing." The "Leafline" BULLETIN BOARD is available to all Interleaf users. It provides a basic interface through which information, files and clipart can be shared by Interleaf and between users. The modem dial-in number is 1-617-290-4996. Modem settings are "standard": no parity, 8 bit, 1 stop bit. Online prompts will ask you to register your name and address. You should have access within 24 business hours. If you need assistance, contact 1-800-666-5323, x3326 (outside North America, call 1-617-290-0710 x3326). Bundled with service contracts in North America is 24-hour dial-in access to Customer Support's comprehensive "Releaf24" knowledgebase. Contract customers can request "Releaf24 Registration Guidelines" by calling 1-800-688-5151 or by sending email to support@ileaf.com. Some subsidiaries outside the US plan to offer this soon. ICON (Interleaf Users CONference) is an annual international event. ICON offers users the opportunity to interact in-person with Interleaf people as well as other users. Sessions are presented by Interleaf staff and users. A developer's track is also offered for experienced programmers developing Lisp applications. ICON `93 was held in Orlando, FL at the Hilton at Walt Disney World Village Feb 28 - Mar 3. ICON `94 will be held April 17-20 at the Hyatt Regency on San Diego Bay, CA. Registration costs U.S. $650 which includes all sessions, Showcase, materials, dinner dance and most meals. Over 800 users attended ICON93. Adam Harrison maintains an ANONYMOUS FTP site for Interleaf items. On potemkin.cs.pdx.edu (131.252.20.145), see the pub/ileaf directory. Bob Morris also has an ANONYMOUS FTP site. On ftp.cs.umb.edu, see the /pub/interleaf directory. Many Lisp scripts such as "autodate" (discussed later) are in the /pub/interleaf/lisp directory. Contributions of interesting Lisp scripts are welcome. This newsgroup is archived in /pub/news, and comp.text.sgml and maybe some other stuff may be archived soon. Ftp.cs.umb.edu will ultimately offer mail-server and GOPHER and perhaps WAIS access to these materials. Many local Interleaf user groups and other companies/organizations publish their own NEWSLETTERS. One very popular one is published by Deborah Graham of GenRad, Inc. For more info, contact her at djg@genrad.com. You can receive her newsletter via email at no charge. Another Interleaf FAQ document is published by Julie Barker (julie@harston.cv.com) for Computervision R&D Ltd. employees. Contact her for more info; we may try to make her FAQ available via anonymous ftp in the future. Occasionally, patch tapes (such as the recent "5.3.1" and "5.3.1.1" releases) are available to fix bugs and/or add functionality between major releases. Contact your local sales representative for this information. 1.6 What does FAQ mean? FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. Hard-working volunteers construct FAQ lists for many newsgroups. For more important details, please read the introductory postings in news.announce.newusers. 1.7 Why doesn't this FAQ contain info on <your-topic-here>? This FAQ is biased toward the UNIX Workstation platforms, but that is probably a function of the popularity of Interleaf on various platforms, the popularity of competing products, and the areas of expertise of the FAQ editors. If you have valuable information that we missed, or if our assumptions that you are running UNIX confuse things, we welcome your suggestions on how to improve this document. If something in the FAQ doesn't work for you, it may be due to the version of the software you're running, or which platform you're running it on. Most of the active newsgroup contributors and FAQ editors seem to be running very recent versions of Interleaf (i.e., 5.3 or later) and have UNIX workstation platforms, usually including SunOS. This FAQ is *NOT* intended to be a substitute for the standard Interleaf documentation. Hopefully it will contain the most frequently occurring issues that are hard-to-find or absent from the documentation. 1.8 Should I post my question to comp.text.interleaf? - Understand the introductory information in the news.announce.newusers newsgroup. Be sure to read the "Rules for posting to Usenet" posting. - Read this FAQ. It is posted regularly and archived at several sites. - Post to local.test or misc.test if you've never posted before. If your question is still unanswered, post it. Be sure to include all the necessary information as appropriate such as: The version of Ileaf you are running. (which patches, too) The hardware platform you are on. The version of your Operating System and/or windowing system. How much memory and/or swap space you have. What type of printer it won't print on. etc. This information is also important when you are asking your question via email to someone. 1.9 Who wrote this awesome FAQ? Where shall I send my donations? :-) Thanks to the following FAQ contributors: _____name_____ _____email_____ ____claim-to-fame_______ David Buchholz buck@ileaf.com ILEAF Product Manager Heidi Daitch heidi@ileaf.com ILEAF Brian Diehm briand@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM newsgroup contributor Ted Fabian tpf4434@tm0006.lerc.nasa.gov ileaf admin Anna Fang annaf@riss.hq.ileaf.com ILEAF Amy Farrell Amy.K.Farrell@tek.com ileaf admin/user expert Deborah Graham djg@genrad.com GenRad newsletter Aner Daniel Haug haug@austin.lockheed.com newsgroup contributor Stephen Keller stephenk@zeugma.lmc.com newsgroup contributor Christine King bcking@ileaf.com ILEAF lead VMS engineer Steven King king@rtsg.mot.com newsgroup contributor Alek Komarnitsky alek@spatial.com newsgroup contributor David Lightman dalight@afterlife.ncsc.mil newsgroup contributor Robert Morris ram@cs.umb.edu Lisp guru, FAQ editor Nils-Peter Nelson npn@cbnewsl.cb.att.com newsgroup contributor Bret Pettichord ? former ILEAF QA Bill Rea billr@ims.com FAQ editor Danny Schales dan@engr.latech.edu newsgroup contributor Randy Smith smithrh@marlin.rtsg.mot.com ileaf admin, ng contributor Eric Sosman eric@ileaf.com ILEAF VMS engineer George Snyder gjs@inmet.com newsgroup contributor Chris Talbott chris@ews7.dseg.ti.com newsgroup contributor Anne Tice tice@dg-rtp.dg.com newsgroup contributor Todd Williams todd@macsch.com UNIX sysadmin, FAQ editor Brian Wong Brian.Wong@corp.sun.com newsgroup contributor Dorene Woodrow dbw@ileaf.com ILEAF You can mail to the Ileaf FAQ Editors at "leaf-faq-editors@cs.umb.edu" 2. ADMINISTRATION 2.1 Interleaf administration vs. UNIX administration of Interleaf The Interleaf System Administration manual provides procedures that require the administrator to be running Interleaf, manipulating icons, etc., and running Interleaf programs like printer_install and prhost_install -- is this really necessary? No. But Interleaf has mixed feelings about providing "Interleaf procedures" and "UNIX procedures" for the same tasks. Most of the Interleaf procedures have easy UNIX shortcuts, but use them at your own risk. Two examples: The Interleaf equivalent of "ln -s" takes several mouse/menu operations; Some administrators edit their printers.lsp file directly (or have their custom shell script do it), never running the printer_install or prhost_install programs. In the DOS version of Interleaf 5, many of these tasks have been simplified and moved into the hands of the end users. For example, prhost_install and printer_install have been merged into one program which is run by the user from within Interleaf 5 itself. 2.2 Printing 2.2.1 Can I create PostScript files on the desktop in Interleaf 5? Yes. The administrator runs printer_install and creates a new "printer" named "PostScript" (or whatever). Choose filtering on the desktop, the "Other PostScript printer" model, use the NULL.PPD file, face down output, and choose *not* to spool to the printer. Whatever menu name you chose (I suggest "<PostScript File>") will now appear in the printer menu. When selected, it will output to a PostScript file in the current directory. The filename will have a suffix of "_ps" (no, Interleaf hasn't learned the ".ps" UNIX convention). [the previous paragraph works fine on the 5.3 Sun version of ileaf; for other platforms, your mileage may vary] Adventuresome hackers can simply insert the following into their /interleaf/ileaf5/data/printers.lsp file (on UNIX hosts): ( :netname "PostScript" :menuname "<PostScript>" :filt-args ("-ppd" "NULL.PPD" "-ft" "3") :pdltag "ps" :filter "pl2ps" :install "ps_install" :ps-type1 ("-ft" "3") :ppdfile "NULL.PPD" :rvopt " " :european " " :physical-printer "PostScript" :spool "n" :filter-loc "desktop" :type "ps" :model "Other PostScript printer" :id :bsd-other-ps ) On Interleaf 5 for DOS, this comes as a default setup. 2.2.2 Can Interleaf 5 create Encapsulated Postscript files (EPS files)? Yes. Beginning with Interleaf 5.3, you have the ability to create EPS 3.0 files as an option under the printer pulldown menu. To add this functionality simply add another printer using printer_install. Select "EPS File" as the printer type. This will add EPS to your PRINT menu. When printing to EPS, the EPS file will contain one entire page (including page #, etc.). In Interleaf 5 for DOS, add the "-EPS" option to the switch settings for creating PS files in the Printer Setup Tool, and save this as a new menu entry ("Create EPS File"). If you want to filter an object that will be placed on a page in some other program, you'll need to set the document size appropriately. (Unless there is some other way to let Interleaf know where the boundaries of the object are.) Since a typical EPS file is one graphic object, you can set the frame size to "Contents," then back to "Fixed" to see the actual size of the graphic. Then, open the Page property sheet and enter the frame height and width values as the page size. (If someone knows a better way, we'd like to hear about it.) There are some subtle differences between PostScript files and EPS files. Each format has its appropriate uses, so both are discussed here. See the comp.lang.postscript FAQ for the gory details. One idiosyncrasy of Interleaf-generated EPS files is the line %%BoundingBox: (atend) Some programs insist on having the BoundingBox at the beginning of the document, so if you have an application which chokes on ileaf EPS, move this line to the initial comments section. 2.2.3 Are there special problems with SPARCprinters using NeWSprint? Maybe. Some users have noted problems with SPARCprinters, and other note problems with certain fonts or frames or bullets looking "dirty". Make sure you have the right PPD file. [This section is still under construction. If you have info to add, please send a summary to the editors] 2.2.4 Printerleaf-to-PostScript The pl2ps command can be very useful in debugging printing problems. Create a printerleaf (*.pl) output file by selecting "Printerleaf" in the Printers menu. Now you can convert this to a PostScript file by running pl2ps. Execute "pl2ps -usage" for a summary of options. A typical invocation would be: % pl2ps -v -ppd NULL.PPD -i docname.pl -o docname.ps The -v (verbose) flag is useful for debugging. You must always specify a PPD file -- this is a good way to test PPD files. 2.2.5 PPD (PostScript Printer Definition) Files Adobe PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files describe how to use the standard and special features (hardware and software) on a specific PostScript printer. This would include things such as which fonts are resident, if duplexing is supported, how many trays exist and which paper sizes are available. PPD files are created by the printer manufacturer, not Interleaf. Interleaf only includes a few of the most popular ones on its distribution tape. Interleaf PPD files are located in the /interleaf/ileaf5/data/ps directory. These files are usually named with the printer's designation and the version of Postscript being used (e.g., LWNTX470.PPD means Apple LaserWriter NTX with Postscript version 4.70). Since the Apple LaserWriter is the simple, standard least-common- denominator of printers, you can probably get by using the default APPLE422.PPD file if you are running Interleaf 5.0 through 5.3.0. If you are using version 5.3.1 of Interleaf, you can probably get by using the NULL.PPD file. If these files don't work (i.e., you still can't print), or if you want to use advanced capabilites your printer may have, you need to get the correct PPD file for your printer. How to get PPD files. If you have a printer that isn't on the Interleaf tape, you can obtain PPD files directly from Adobe. Adobe has an automated mail server that can e-mail PPD files (and a bunch of other stuff) directly to you over the Internet. To find out what PPD files are available send mail to: ps-file-server@adobe.com. In the body of the message, on the first line, type: "index PPDFiles". The server will send you a list of the PPD files it has available. For information on hover, send another e-mail message to ps-file-server@adobe.com. In the body of the message, on the first line, include one word: "help". The server will send you a message describing how to access information. All the PPD files on the Adobe server follow the version 4 PPD specification. This means that you must upgrade to version 5.3.1 or higher of Interleaf to use type-4 PPD files. Contact the printer manufacturer if you need an older type-3 PPD file. 2.2.6 How do I suppress the Interleaf header page by default? The administrator should change the Print->Properties in the original document, which lives in the SYSTEM CREATE cabinet; then any new documents created will inherit those values. This change is probably effected most easily when the administrator has created a MASTER SYSTEM5 CABINET icon on his desktop -- see the administration manual for details. 2.2.7 Where can I get more specific information about my Brand XYZ printer? See the comp.periphs.printers and/or comp.lang.postscript newsgroups. 2.2.8 My output seemed to go to the printer, but nothing printed! One good way to debug PostScript printing problems is to download a PostScript error handler program. This is a simple PostScript program that you "print" to your printer (but no output is generated). You now have an error-handler "loop" running until printer power is cycled. If your Interleaf output generates improper PostScript code, instead of silently exiting, you will get an error message printed on a page of output, which may be of use to a PostScript guru, your printer vendor, etc. You can get an error handler from the Adobe mailserver (see "PPD files", above). 2.3 Licensing /******************************************************************************/ /*********************THIS***SECTION***UNDER***CONSTRUCTION********************/ /******************************************************************************/ 3. IMPORT-EXPORT, 3rd party tools, customizing 3.1 Importing information into Interleaf 3.1.1 Importing files /******************************************************************************/ /*********************THIS***SECTION***UNDER***CONSTRUCTION********************/ /******************************************************************************/ 3.1.2 How do I get the name of the document into my file? To put the document name into a frame--typically a header or footer frame--type Escape-@ into a text string. Some distributions may use the key binding Escape-n. This won't work in microdocuments. This is parallel to putting in page numbers with Escape-#, or the date with Ctrl-X d. The Lisp command "(tell *document* mid:get-name)" will return a string with the document name. I suppose one could automate the insertion of this string in much the same way as the autodate program (q.v.), though I'd be interested to see something simpler. This is such a useful capability that I hope someone posts a nice solution. 3.1.3 How do I get the date into my file? If working in a book with a catalog, you can place the date in a shared component or shared-content frame within the catalog. Turn frame and/or component exports on. Then you only need to update the catalog when the date changes. If not working in a book, you can tag the document with an attribute for "date" and use Effectivity Control to control what date appears in the document. In Interleaf 5, you can use the Ctrl-x d command in a component or microdocument to insert the current system date, although it will not update automatically each time the document is accessed. Lisp scripts can be written to insert a date that will change dynamically, or to change the format of the date. Bob Morris has written some active document Lisp code will make the current date appear in a document automatically when you open it. It will also give you the option of freezing the date upon closing the document, i.e. "deactivating" the document at close time. The latest version of this Lisp application is named "autodate", and is available via anonymous ftp ftom ftp.cs.umb.edu in the /pub/interleaf/lisp/ directory. 3.1.4 How can I make "form letters" where name/addresses are pulled in from external sources? The January 1992 issue of "Foliage", the newsletter of the Northeast Interleaf User's Group, had an article on how to do this with ASCII markup. The general idea, which I have modified somewhat from the article, is to define components such as <address>, <salutation>, <letter1>, and so on in an Interleaf document. Use "Global apply" or "Unify all" to make sure the component masters match what you see on screen. Save <letter1> with contents, and turn on its "Shared contents" property. Turn on the "Start new page = yes" property of The first component in the letter, e.g. <date>. Save the document as ASCII, with a name such as letter_master.doc. Have your database write out a file such as: <!class defaults, fill = blank> <!Include definitions /home/my/desktop/letter_master.doc> <date>December 2, 1992 <address>John Smith <address>1111 Home Street <address>Anytown, USA 02000 <salutation>Dear Mr. Smith: <letter1> <date>December 2, 1992 <address>John Q. Public <address>222 Any Place ... The <!class ...> is needed only if your external data contains multiple lines of text within a component. Since line breaks are not significant, and a blank line repeats the preceding component, the following is equivalent: <!class defaults, fill = blank> <!Include definitions /home/my/desktop/letter_master.doc> <date> December 2, 1992 <address> John Smith 1111 Home Street Anytown, USA 02000 <salutation> Dear Mr. Smith: <letter1> ... If you load this file into Interleaf, or print it using Interleaf command line parameters, Interleaf will expand the shared <letter1> content in each instance. Substituting external data into the text of the letter is much harder. It requires tricks with inline components, which are extremely ugly in ASCII markup. See the Interleaf File Formats manual for more details. 3.1.5 Importing Graphics -Postscript The psfilt program is used to import PostScript into an ileaf document. As of ileaf5.3, it is bundled with ileaf free of charge. -bitmap, TIFF, GIF, etc. /******************************************************************************/ /*********************THIS***SECTION***UNDER***CONSTRUCTION********************/ /******************************************************************************/ 3.1.6 FrameMaker---to--->Interleaf Interleaf has a Frame to Interleaf filter called "miffilt" which, at last report, was in beta test. It is planned for release in Summer 1993 for SunSPARC, HP, IBM RS-6000, Ultrix, and DOS. It will work with Interleaf 5.3 and will be included in the Interleaf Motif release. The filter will be available at no charge - FREE!!! See also the "Interleaf-to-Framemaker" section below about Filtrix by Blueberry Software. 3.2 Exporting information from Interleaf 3.2.1 Exporting Interleaf documents to PostScript format You can create PostScript or, beginning with v5.3, Encapsulated PostScript (EPS 3.0) documents if your administrator has installed the printers appropriately. See the administration section for information on this, plus other filtering caveats. 3.2.2 Exporting Interleaf PostScript into troff The following problem has been noted: Interleaf, like many other proprietary packages, assumes that its PostScript output is part of a larger (Interleaf- generated) PostScript file. Each fragment makes assumptions about the environment, e.g., counting on certain macros or variables to be defined, perhaps through a prologue. The troff postscript postprocessor would have to know about every such environment for every proprietary package a priori, and put it in the prologue for you. Every now and then something works, often enough to lead you to believe it will always work. If you, it's a bit like taking a C function that requires global variables and never initializing them. PostScript is, indeed, a programming language, not just a printer format. 3.2.3 Exporting Graphics Many users are confused about how to export graphics. Some users report success when saving the Interleaf document as a PostScript file, then using other packages to convert the PostScript to whatever format is desired. Also, once you've got PostScript, use the GNU package GhostScript to convert it to PBM (Portable Bit Map), GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), or PCX (PC Paintbrush). GhostScript is available at all the popular GNU ftp sites. These file formats are all compile-time options, so if you've already got GhostScript at your site make sure it has the right formats compiled in. If you need a format other than one listed above, convert to PBM first then use the PBMPLUS suite of conversion filters to convert PBM to whatever you need. PBMPLUS handles a ton of file formats, and is available at many popular ftp sites. If you're not on a Unix system, GhostScript is available for MS-DOS and VMS, and PBMPLUS is available on the Amiga (and possibly other platforms). You can also find other graphics conversion programs for most platforms. PBM and GIF formats in particular are rather common, so if you can convert to one of those it's likely you can find something to convert to the format you really want. Beware of converting multiple page documents to a graphics format. Most graphics formats don't really have the concept of "page". GhostScript will still do the conversion, but will convert each page as a separate image. That's good. Unfortunately, it puts all those images in the same file. That's bad. It's pretty easy to write a sed, awk, or perl script to split multiple PBM images out of a single file; I've never really tried it for the other graphics formats. You can go through these steps to produce an image file suitable for faxing via faxmodem! Tell GhostScript to use a resolution of 210x98 dpi; this is the resolution of a fax machine. (Use 210x196 dpi for "fine" mode.) PBMPLUS includes a filter for PBM to Group 3 FAX. 3.2.4 Interleaf---to--->FrameMaker A third-party tool called Filtrix by Blueberry Software claims to support Interleaf-to-Frame and vice versa, but at last report, the Interleaf TPS 4.0 file format was the latest supported. Blueberry's number is 1-707-829-5443. It is unknown whether a version that supports ileaf5.3 is planned. It is still possible to use the product by filtering Frame to TPS4.0 and then converting to Ileaf5. And to go the other way, you can convert your Ileaf5 document to TPS4 before you filter it to FrameMaker. Frame Technology Corp. now has an Interleaf to FrameMaker filter, called "ileaf2mif". For a while, Frame was offering it free to new with new purchases, and advertising it as "the Ultimate Interleaf Upgrade". Some users report reasonable operation, but others note that it will not handle equations, etc. Like Filtrix, it only handles the TPS4.0 version of Interleaf. Users report: "I've used the Interleaf->Frame filter ileaf2mif on Suns to translate Interleaf files to MIF for end use on PC. The filter does a reasonable job of handling Interleaf 4.X ASCII format files, but fails on Interleaf 5.3 ASCII format files. You can convert within 5.3 to a 4.X format ASCII, but there are still things in the resultant file the Frame filter doesn't like. The only way I could make this transfer work was convert our 5.3 files to 4.X; invoke Interleaf 4 and save the converted files once again from Interleaf 4; then run the filter on the 4.X files. This worked fine. The large caveat here is that Interleaf 5.3 supports many features not available in 4.X. If you depend on any of these new features, you might be out of luck. We have only a few documents in this unfortunate situation; they will continue on as Interleaf docs for the time being. Another potential problem is you must have Interleaf 4. I never did isolate what the differences were between 4.X ASCII and 5.3-converted-to-4.X ASCII. It might be possible to hand edit (or sed edit) the files." "The final hurdle in filtering is that Interleaf and Framemaker philosophies for handling shared content, graphics objects, page layouts, you name it, differ enough that the MIF files produced by Frame's ileaf2mif filter are at best poorly structured Frame files. To be fair, they do make reasonable compromises and the job of improving translated files is far easier than the job of hand translating Interleaf documents to Framemaker." "[Frame's Interleaf-to-Frame filter] is OK, but no raves. It ...can't handle all the autoreferencing since the two codes use such different models. I converted a 900 page manual with lots of references and figures. It took me about a month to get things back to an auto-updating state in Framemaker. Oh well, at least it beats retyping." 3.3 Third Party Tools Contact Interleaf at 1-617-290-0710, x2381 for a list of current Interleaf business partners, and a brief description of products which work with Interleaf. 3.3.1 Spelling/Grammar Checkers Chris Talbott reports: My group has had Avalanche's ProofPositive in-house for about a year now, and it seems to be a fairly nice grammar/style checker. It's based on the Houghton-Mifflin engine, and it's pretty quick. ProofPositive is an Interleaf layered application which runs against an open document on your desktop. It's got a fair level of control over which rules it uses and how sensitive it is (e.g. how badly an infinitive has to be split before it complains), and it has a Dictionary/ Thesaurus program as well. Our only complaint with it is that it won't work non-interactively (a key concern for us, maybe not for you). Apparently, a future release of PP will allow you to define your own grammar rules. Oracle produces a grammar checker for Interleaf called CoAuthor. It seems like it offers roughly the same capability that ProofPositive does, for about the same price. It uses its own UI, however, instead of the native Interleaf one. 3.3.2 SQL Chris Talbott reports: A third-party tool called Smartleaf allows SQL calls to be embedded into Interleaf components, to pull information from databases into a formatted Interleaf documents, for example. Smartleaf is produced by Database Publishing Software in Woburn, MA. (617-938-0018) They also produce a document comparison tool called Smartleaf/Compare. We've had Smartleaf/Compare in-house for about as long as we have had ProofPositive. The tool is useful for such things as comparing an archived version of a document/book with the "current" version (especially if several revisions have come between the documents in question). As of Apr 1993, the comparison algorithm is not as robust as might be desired, and the options for marking the changes in the "difference document" are less than stellar, but their 3.0 release (in alpha test Apr 1993?) is supposed to have greatly improved the algorithm and the marking options. Database Publishing is also involved in developing applications for CALS/SGML support. 3.3.3 Clip Art For the GenRad newsletter, Deborah Graham uses a demo package from: Fusion Graphics, 1728 Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, 1-805-494-8411. They have an extensive collection of clip art that is compatible with Interleaf and other systems. See also the discussions about the Leafline bulletin board. 3.3.4 Graphics tools XV is a shareware program by John Bradley of U. Penn. It can read and write GIF, PM, PBM, X11 bitmap, Sun Raster, PostScript, JPEG, and TIFF file formats, and is a very useful translation tool. It is available via ftp from ftp.cis.upenn.edu in the /pub/xv directory. IslandPaint, from Island Graphics, is a good bitmap (or raster) graphic editor. It can read TIFF, GIF, Group3 FAX, Sun Raster, and X11 bitmap files. It can write TIFF and Sun Raster files that Interleaf can filter into pasteable graphic images. Islandd Graphics, is a good object drawing editor. It can read and edit EPS, EPS objects, CGM, HPGL, PICT, and Frame 3.0 MIF drawings. It writes EPSF, EPSI, TIFF, CGM, and Frame 3.0 MIF file formats. Interleaf can directly paste in EPSI drawings (and display them on screen as of v5.3.1) CorelDraw, from Prior Data Sciences, is a drawing program that imports and exports "most standard graphics formats such as TIFF and EPS". 3.4 Customizing tips 3.4.1 Startup options Many startup options for Interleaf are configurable via X11 resources. See chapter 1 of the Interleaf 5 System Administation manual. Startup options start on page 1-8. Xresources are on pages 1-14 through 1-16. One favorite addition to $HOME/.Xdefaults files is Ileaf.geometry: 1141x869+0+0 which works well on Suns to make the desktop window cover the whole screen. Many startup options can also be handled with command line options. 3.4.2 Mouse Buttons How can you change the default mouse buttons on a site-wide basis? Edit /interleaf/ileaf5/english.cab/Custom.cab/profile.drw/init.lsp (english.cab may be a different name, depending on the installed language). Each Interleaf user has a symbolic link to this file from their ~/desktop/System5.cab/Custom.cab/profile.drw. Uncomment the three Lisp commands shown below, and edit them to specify the desired system default actions. ;;; ;;; Mouse button mappings: ;;; ;(tell *wn-wmgr* mid:set-props :left-button :select) ;(tell *wn-wmgr* mid:set-props :middle-button :menu) ;(tell *wn-wmgr* mid:set-props :right-button :extend) Any user with a customized profile (e.g. created with Profile Tool) will get the settings from the profile, overriding these defaults. 3.4.3 Keyboard mapping Many users have asked about changing the function/behavior of certain keys. Some complain of "no R1 key on the Sun keyboard", or want "a delete-to-the-right key like TPS4.0 had". One solution is to use xmodmap(1). This, however, is not a "within Interleaf" solution -- xmodmap will change the keyboard mappings for the whole login session. One small example of xmodmap is the following command, which will make the "Del" key on the right hand keypad of a Sun (keycode 57) perform the function of the "Cut/L10" key ("F20"): xmodmap -e keycode 57 + F20 3.4.4 Default document templates The documents in your ~/desktop/System5.cab/Create.cab are those which you see when you press the menu button with nothing selected on the desktop, and then pull right a submenu on "Create". Note that some files in this directory are typically links into the master cabinet. You can remove these links and create your own, or use the more popular method of creating your own subdirectory (called "mytemplates.fdr" for example). Put your template documents there, and then pull right thru Create->mytemplates-> to create new documents. For site-wide templates, the administrator can place templates in the Master System5/Create.cab/Templates.fdr. Each user will have to execute Custom-->Misc-->Update in their Templates.fdr to get these new templates. 3.4.5 Changing the color of the desktop With the User Interface Painter, you can make your desktop and icons any color you want. You first need to turn on the UI Painter in the Custom->ToolMgr. Then you can select a default color scheme from Create->Tools->UIPainter, and modify it if you wish with the color editor. To make the change permanent, copy the UI Painter icon you created into your System5--Custom--profile drawer. Some users report that use of the UI Painter causes more frequent occurrences of SIGSEGV and SIGBUS signals. Revision Tracking has also been blamed for this. 3.4.6 Creating color documents By default, when you try to Edit->Color, you just get shades of gray. You must create any colors you want to use by first going into the Palette->Color Editor (document name menu Misc-> pull right menu). See your hardcopy Interleaf documentation for details. These colors can be made site-wide by modifing the Master document in the Master System5 cabinet. 3.4.7 Creating User defined patterns By default, interleaf gives you 16 patterns. To add to these, use the Pallette->Pattern editor. Again, site-wide patterns should be added to the Master document in the Master System5 cabinet. 4. MISC USER QUESTIONS 4.1 How can I print "DRAFT" diagonally across the background of each page? Create a frame in a component and designate the placement as "underlay" through the frame props. Enter text string "DRAFT" using ctrl-O, convert the text to outline, size it, edit it to a light shade of gray, then rotate it. Make the frame shared content, and set props to Repeat=Begin, Anchors_Page=Yes so that it will show up on every page of the document. 4.2 Is there any way to rotate microdocuments? No. If you need to rotate text, use ctrl-O text strings (hit ctrl-O inside a frame, then enter text). You can only rotate ctrl-O text strings in 90-degree increments. To get anything else, convert to outline. 4.3 How can I search and replace with a tab or hard return? In order to search for, or replace with, a tab or a hard return, preface the tab or return key with the <esc> key. (This is the ALT key for the IBM RT, and F11 on DEC/Ultrix and VAX/VMS.) 4.4 Can I get international characters on my U.S. based version of Interleaf 5? Yes, with your cursor in the text area, choose Create->Char, then choose the desired font. Extend the menu and you will see the international characters. You can also get these through keys as described in the online document Compose_Sequences under System5->Release Notes. 4.5 Will fast startup under Interleaf 5.3 help with performance? The fast startup options available under Interleaf 5 (5.3) reduce the amount of time it takes to bring up a desktop. However, once the desktop is up, no other performance gains are realized. Interleaf documentation explains the optional fast startup commands available. Note that any administrative changes made after creating the ileaf.fst file, such as an added printer, will not take effect until you rebuild the ileaf.fst file. 4.6 How can I capture popups in Interleaf 5.3 under OpenWindows? At the UNIX prompt, type % sleep 10; capture You'll then have 10 seconds to setup the popup to be captured. The capture box will appear and mouse control will be transferred to it. The middle button will give choices of Move, Capture, Size and Quit. Capture will create an image.img file, placed in your home directory, that can be pasted into a document. 4.7 Keyboard types If Interleaf won't start with error messages like: In system startup file: Error: Wrong argument type: nil (logand 32767 (x-keycode-to-keysym 12 0)) then you need to specify your keyboard type with the -keyboard switch: ileaf -keyboard keyboard_type "none" is a valid keyboard type, but you won't have any key mappings, like page-up/page-down. The choices in 5.3 are: apollo, aviion, dec, hp, rs6000, sun_type3, sun_type4, none. (The command switches are in the System Administration manual.) If you have a Sun Type 5 keyboard, you need the "patch tape" which brings Interleaf 5.3 to 5.3.1. 4.8 Does Interleaf read this newsgroup? "Lots of us at Interleaf, from all walks, read the messages. And we're very glad this newsgroup is up and running. But we also recognize that this is a medium for our users, not for Interleaf, Inc. So, we are encouraging Interleafers not to jump into discussions prematurely. Our unofficial policy is that if a Leafer has an answer to a question which other users don't appear to be responding to (or if it's a request for information that really should be addressed by us), then we'll reply privately. There may, of course, be occasions where a public reply makes most sense, so we won't rule that out." 4.9 Why does my tutorial crash? Many problems were noticed with the tutorial in v5.2. Many of these were fixed in v5.3. Paranoid users who wish to run the tutorial might rily rename their desktop directory before running the tutorial, and then rename it back when finished. 4.10 Why doesn't Interleaf have an indent command or keystroke? It's not appropriate for Interleaf to have a simple indent command. Property Sheets are germane to the point of structured document editors. If you "merely" indent without changing the document objects, you are essentially imputing structure from format. This is a Bad Thing as it makes it very difficult to edit structure later on. On the other hand, format deduced from structure, as provided by many systems with "style sheet"-like mechanisms, is easy to edit. Also, it does not lead to confusion when the format is to be changed. For a most dramatic example, see "Can Structured Formatters Prevent Train Crashes?", J. Andre, Electronic Publishing---Origination, Dissemination and Design (EP-ODD), v. 2 #3, pp169-174, October 1989). However, it is possible in Interleaf 5 to provide keyboard actions which will edit structure as well as content. Bob Morris has written some Lisp which will do this for the indentation toggling problem. Contact him for more info. 4.11 Memory leaks Interleaf has been known to allocate large amounts of virtual memory and never give it back. If you get an "out of memory" message, try exiting Interleaf and trying the operation again. Users who remain logged in for days/weeks/months with Interleaf running the whole time exacerbate this problem. You can use the UNIX "pstat -T" command to view the amount of virtual memory being used. Under HP-UX, use "/etc/swapinfo -t" instead of pstat. HP-UX has some memory leak problems in the vfork() call that can be fixed with kernel patch PHKL_0743 for HP-UX 8.07. Patch PRA # 93-15 for Interleaf 5.3.1 is available to address memory leak problems. Some sites have already worked around this problem by running on workstations with large amounts of memory and swap space. 4.12 Runaway processes; exiting Interleaf If Interleaf is not exited properly, it may continue to run. Sun OpenWindows users, for example, may logout via the OpenWindows menu's "Exit". This will cause Interleaf to continue to run, consuming memory and cpu time. 4.13 How do I get a clock permanently on my desktop? Copy the Clock.lsp Lisp program to your profile drawer. Any Lisp programs in your profile drawer will be run every time you start Ileaf. For UNIX types: % cp /interleaf/ileaf5/english.cab/Custom.cab/No_Selection.cab\ /Misc.drw/Clock.lsp ~/desktop/System5.cab/Custom.cab/profile.drw (note that the above is one line, and that I broke the pathname in the middle) For Interleaf types: open System5->Custom->No_Selection->Misc copy the Clock Lisp icon open System5->Custom->profile paste the Clock Lisp icon at the bottom right. Lisp hackers can now edit your copy of Clock.lsp, and change the font/window size/window postion/etc. 4.14 I created a file in my desktop directory but Interleaf doesn't see it! Any files created under your desktop directory by processes other than Interleaf (e.g. from a UNIX shell prompt) while Interleaf is running do not appear as icons. Conversely, files removed still have icons displayed. To make newly created files appear, choose Custom->Rescan. Automatic rescan can be set in your profile using the profile tool, but since it slows things down it is disabled by default. Also use Rescan when removing files, but remember that any FileName.doc will have a .@FileName.doc file associated with it for icon positioning. If you don't remove both files, you'll get strange behavior later. 4.15 What are all these funny UNIX filenames? What's this Mona Lisa icon? If you cd to your desktop directory and do an ls -a, you may see things that don't seem to correspond to the icons Interleaf shows you. These are documented on pages 1-6 through 1-8 of the System Administration manual, along with the meaning of each type of icon. 4.16 Is there any way to count the number of words in an Interleaf document? If you have a lot of documents and want to automate this, you may well find it easier and faster to run unix shell scripts which: 1. Run Interleaf in batch mode to make the files interleaf ascii. 2. Run textfilt to strip markup. 3. Use the UNIX wc(1) program to count words. Bob Morris has written some Lisp code which will count words. It may or may not be useful to you. Ask him for details. 4.17 Is there a way to sum up and/or sort a row or column in a table? David Lightman reports that there is a simple Lisp script available from the Leafline (q.v.) which sorts a column in ascending ascii. Also he has written some Lisp scripts to sum a column (sorry haven't done rows), along with changing the attributes of row components based on a value you enter (simple database query idea). Contact him for more info. 4.18 Is there a way to view an Interleaf document without starting Ileaf? This is what Interleaf's WorldView product can do. (q.v.) 4.19 When I try to fill a box, I get a diagonal line instead! This is a bug that occurs when you use "Zoom" (in the pulldown menu under the "View" bar just below the filename). It occurs only when "View" is different than "x1". Use "Zoom" for text only. If you want to zoom in on a graphics object, inside the frame use the pullright menu option Misc->View->Magnify->Larger. 4.20 Big blank white squares On some systems, after you dismiss a menu or other popup over the desktop, the space under the menu will remain as a blank white square, instead of refreshing. The fix for this is to edit the .Xdefaults file and add: Ileaf.popup.saveUnder: true Take special care to have the correct capitalization of this string. This behavior seems common on workstations running the X11R5 server. 4.21 How do I start a new page with component xyzzy? Select the component xyzzy, open its props, and click on Page props. Set the start new page to Yes. 4.22 How do I line up columns? (spaces don't work) Use tabs and set the spacing on the Tab Property sheet for the component. You can also use this to align numbers on a decimal point. Better yet, use tables. 4.23 How do I combine two separate documents into one? Select the first document and open it. Select the second document and cut it. Now move to the point in the open document you want to place the cut document, and execute paste in the COMPONENT BAR. 4.24 What useful Lisp scripts come with interleaf? If your administrator has installed leafware from the distribution tape you have access to a many UNSUPPORTED Lisp scripts. One that may prove useful is keyboard-typo (a better name is auto-quote). This automatically puts in an open qoute or close quote as required; it also changes the - to a hyphen instead of a minus sign. Another useful script is iconify, which allows you to hide your open document window and gives you back your desktop space so you can find another document. There is also a script to mail an ascii stripfiltered version of your document to a person you specify. 4.25 What is "Interleaf-J" ? That's the Japanese (kanji) version of Interleaf. It is reported to have slightly greater memory/swap requirements than the English version. 5. Platform-Specific questions 5.1 DEC VMS Note that most of this information can be found in the RELEASE NOTES. 5.1.1 What are the most common issues users encounter when installing and configuring Interleaf 5 on DEC VMS? To install Interleaf 5, a minimum of 20K free disk blocks is required on the system disk. This is used as temporary file storage in SYS$UPDATE during VMSINSTAL. This is temporary file storage, not permanent. Should the installation fail due to insufficient disk space on the system disk, some files may be left kicking around in SYS$UPDATE. These should be deleted prior to rerunning VMSINSTAL. In some cases, Interleaf 5 gets installed with incorrect file ownerships and file protections. The installation procedure attempts fail if the identifier [SYSTEM] does not exist. This can be fixed by setting the files ownership to [1,4], and resetting file protections to WORLD READ/EXECUTE. For example: $ SET FILE/OWNER=[1,4]/PROT=W:RE disk:[dir...]*.*;* If the Interleaf top level home directory is created prior running VMSINSTAL, WORLD protections must be set to READ/EXECUTE. If running TPS4 and Interleaf 5 concurrently, do not change the IWS symbol definition for Interleaf 5 as this is called for other routines such as PRINTER_INSTALL and LICENSE_INSTALL. Do not install FMU in the Interleaf 5 hierarchy. This will cause problems with LICENSE_INSTALL and possibly other routines. 5.1.2 What can I do to increase the performance of Interleaf 5 under VMS? Some performance gains can be acquired by properly tuning the system. Adjusting working sets so that the Interleaf user has access to all available free memory can help. This can be done by doing the following: Run WSMAX.COM to find out how large the SYSGEN parameter WSMAX can be set. $ @IWS5$BIN:WSMAX Add the value that WSMAX.COM provided to MODPARAMS.DAT $ SET DEFAULT SYS$SYSTEM: $ EDIT MODPARAMS.DAT (add or modify the value of MIN_WSMAX to the one provided by WSMAX.COM) Modify the UAF records for the Interleaf user(s) by setting their WSEXTENT to be equal to the value supplied by WSMAX.COM $ RUN AUTHORIZE UAF> MODIFY user/WSEXT=XXXXX !where user = the Interleaf username and XXXXX = WSMAX UAF> EXIT Now run Autogen to set the SYSGEN param WSMAX and reboot $ @SYS$UPDATE:AUTOGEN SAVPARAMS SETPARAMS $ @SYS$SYSTEM:SHUTDOWN When the system comes back up, these changes should be in place. 5.2 DOS 5.2.1 How is the performance of Interleaf on the DOS platform? One may assume that since Interleaf is often slow on a workstation, it must be unbearable on a DOS machine. "Not so!", say the DOS Interleaf users. Bob Morris reports that his 33mHz 486 with 8MB memory and a 12ms IDE disk is faster than his SPARCstation 1. [Brian Wong protests that a SS1 uses the technology of 5 years ago, and is not a fair comparison] Note that most workstation users have to deal with multitasking operating systems that do not dedicate 100% of their cycles to running Interleaf, plus they often NFS-mount the executables and/or the data. A workstation with a fast local disk would be a different story. 5.2.2 How can I run stuff from the command line under DOS? With I5 DOS all of the filters and print programs are implemented as Dynamic Link Libraries (DLL's). This means that the command line invocation requires a slight twist. All of the same I5 programs exist (pl2ps for example) but have an extension of ".i5". These files must be run from the command line with the loader "i5load.exe". The way to run the filters is then (while cd'd to \ileaf5\bin): C:\ILEAF5\BIN> I5LOAD PL2PS.I5 -v -ppd NULL.PPD -i docname.pl -o docname.ps *** END OF INTERLEAF FAQ *** ================================================================================ -- Todd Williams UNIX Systems Supervisor todd@macsch.com (213) 259-4973 MacNeal-Schwendler Corp. ("MSC"), 815 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90041 >> "Solaris 2.0 --- It's enough to make you leave the company." -Rob Kolstad <<