Step and Repeat is available in PageMaker 4.0. Do this: select and Copy the object or shape. Paste with the Option key held down. The new copy is squarely on top of the original. Drag the copy to a new location (in one drag). Option/Paste again and the third object will be in the same relation to the second object as that object is to the first object. Continue Option/Paste to position more copies in the same relationship.
Hey! Anyone still using PageMaker 3.0 has no right telling anyone not to buy PageMaker 4.0. Don’t they know that the bug-free 3.X version was and is 3.02? So bug off until you are regularly running 3.02. Then give us your sage advice.
If you see those ads in magazines to upgrade a 128k Mac to a Plus for $849, remember that the street price for a new Plus hovers around $895. The 512 to 1 meg upgrade for $699 is no bargain for the same reason. Give that 128k Mac to a child for Christmas and treat yourself to a Plus or better.
It’s nice that Design Studio free rotates text, but PageMaker users have an easy way to do that. Select the text block. Copy. Open QuickDraw with a QuickKey. Paste. Select. Choose free rotate. Rotate. Select, Copy, close DeskDraw, Paste.
If you know how Design Studio free rotates, you can also see that this is just as fast, or faster.
Whew! Did you know that Adobe recommends turning off ATM before installing fonts or putting outline fonts into the System Folder? Anyone know why?
Give PageMaker a big partition under Multifinder, if you have a lot of RAM. If you can, give it 3.5 megs. It only uses it when it really needs it, remember.
How do you identify a sick Finder when your hard disk fails to show up? Boot with your Emergency System Disk (you do have one, don’t you?). If the hard drive now shows up, open an application and quit it. Eject the floppy. If the Mac lets you do this without hollering for the floppy, the Finder is sick but the System is OK. (Thanks, MadMacNews, Madison WI MUG, from AppleSac News.)
In quirky applications, if you always use Save As... under a new name, you will always have the intact original to fall back on. Use DiskTop to delete the backup to the backup without leaving the program if you wish.
People “in the know” are recommending using ResEdit 2.0b2 instead of 1.2. There never will be a final 2.0, so the next “release” version will probably be 2.1xx or whatever. It is said that 2.0b2 is more stable than 1.2 anyway. (Thanks, UseNet.)
If you are using an early version of DiskDoubler and want to retain the uncompressed original, or the compressed original when unstuffing, duplicate it first, since early versions of DD eliminate the originals going either way—compression or de-compression. Upgraded versions give you a choice.
I get a lot of calls for help on this one: The person got a dialog box "Disk is Full" when trying to Save, or at any old time while working in a document. Simple: Use Save As..., Drive to a disk with a lot of space left on it and Save it there. If you use the same name, remember which is your latest version (the one you just saved). Safer yet, name the Save As... version Document.2 to let you know that it is later than Document.1 (the original).
Here is an easy backup if you use DiskTop. At the end of a day, open DiskTop. Click Find. Use the created and modified boxes to show today’s new or changed documents. Click Retain. Select the documents to back up. Select a destination drive or floppy. Copy the files.
Now get down on your knees and thank CE Software for all their wonderful products.
If you want to sort by a different column heading in DiskTop, just click on that column’s heading.
When resetting the heap size (with HeapSize from CE Software, natch) try increasing it by the number you saw at the left end of the System bar in “About the Finder…” even if that is a very big number. I vouch for that!
Widgets from CE is another way to change the System Heap size. See the article in this month’s Mouse Droppings. Then you’ll know why you might want to change the Heap size.
And to clean up all the CE Software hints, remember that CE Software won Best Customer Support two years in a row. Aldus was #2 and Macreations and Microsoft tied for number Three. I have tested Microsoft’s tech support, and it is superb. Best I have ever encountered.
Remember, tech support is important, folks, so support these companies like crazy. Even if you do bitch about Microsoft’s failure to follow the Macintosh interface on occasions.
Fast page turning in PageMaker is just a keystroke away. Command/Tab moves ahead a page. Add the Shift key to go backward. Repeated Tab presses with the correct modifier(s) held down expresses you that number of pages without showing intervening pages.
Option/page view selection changes all pages in the document to that view.
Shift/click a page icon make it Fit in Window.
If you are using TIFF images, remember that the Clipboard and Scrapbook lose the 300 dpi quality of TIFF. Watch it.
We don’t really make use of our ability to use both hands at one time when we use computers, according to Byte, as reported in the McMUG newsletter from Ukiah, CA.
This may be one of the next big advances in computer use. Seriously!
One more time. Will all you ex-typists quit hitting that space bar to indent or line up columns? Please! Use the paragraph indent for paragraph indents, and use tabs for columns or tables. Remember, the tab key is a big No-No for paragraph indents, too.
A test of Syquest mechanisms vs. Bernouillis had Syquests with 360 sector errors to 12 for Bernouilli. Drop, read and write tests were included. (Thanks, Type World.)
ATM 2.0 should be readily available by the time you read this. (Why do I stick my neck out like this?) It’s twice as fast (Glory, Hallelujah!) and includes Font Prober, which adds a font faster than Font/DA Mover 3.8. Better screen display is also promised.
Remember the Dumbo Professor from U of Delaware who says that Macs cause poor writing? One facet of her argument is that the variety of fonts made writers focus on format over content. A Type World reader opines that using Courier as a default font would solve this “non-problem,” if indeed there is a problem.
The reader suggests a creativity contest between Mac and IBM writers. She thinks the Mac would win in a walk. So do I! After all, the Mac is a right brain computer.
I would also suggest a contest in which writings by Mac and IBM writers be graded for readability and comprehension by “the rest of us,” and definitely by no one in academia.
Who wants to read a thesis (boring)? Or would you rather read something by Tom Clancy, who writes all his stuff on a Mac?
BTW, I am getting about two letters a month deriding the Dumbo Professor from U of Delaware. The latest one calls her paper a “crock.” We will make El Dumbo famous yet!
Finally, her paper contains words spelled incorrectly.
If you just “fool around” with HyperCard, here is a simple way to make a menu. Make rectangular buttons one beneath the other. Decorate your “menu” with Paint tools. You can hide the menu by scripting the top button (the menu name) to “show” each menu button. A second script can hide them all except the menu title button.
George Beekman’s HyperCard in a Hurry is getting nice reviews. The last one I saw was in Apple’s Library User Group newsletter. H-in-a-H is cited as easy to use and interesting. $16.25 retail. Recommended for beginning HyperCard users. Beekman is a member of CMUG.
Do you realize how easy it is to have Word open up with your font, style, size, paragraph indents, etc.? Select Define Styles… (You are in Full Menus, aren’t you?) Pick Normal. Go to the various menus, option boxes, etc., and pick the font, size, style, indents and all that stuff you want Word to open up using. Click Set Default. Say yes when asked if you want the changes recorded.
Nothing could be simpler.
Same song, second verse. Default margins can be changed by typing them in the Document… dialog under the Format menu.
If you are translating IBM docs to the Ma, or vice versa (heaven forbid), take a look at Word for Word by Mastermind, $149. It has 600+ conversion possibilities and does not require the use of Apple File Exchange.
If you have a 128k Mac, get a load of this TSI upgrade. A Gemini II at 50 MHz for $3695. It will run your 128 6200% faster than a plus, or 525% faster than a IIci. It comes with an auxilliary power supply (of course!), a fan and a high speed SCSI port. If you want to hobble along at 33 MHz instead, it’s $2095. 40 MHz for $3095. The SE upgrade price is lower in each case.
If you open a lot of DAs in Multifinder, you may want to give DA Handler more memory. You have to use ResEdit. Open ResEdit. Open System Folder, Open DA Handler, Open SIZE, Open SIZE=1 and change Size from 16000 to a larger number. For starters, 32000 should do it. That gives DA Handler 32k instead of 16k. (Thanks, Washington Apple Pi.)
If you want a simple name and address database, HyperCard is not the first choice, unless you are a moderately good HyperCard programmer.
On the other hand, a new product by Danny Goodman, HyperPort, $79.95, exports text in or out of HyperCard with some amazingly simple results.
For instance, your HyperCard sample address stack has names on the first line, address on the second and city, state and zip on the third line, yet the whole thing is one field. HyperPort can take that stack (after you prepare it a little), and export it with separately tabbed first name, last name, street address, city, state and zip columns.
Of course, conversely, HyperPort will then let you build a new stack and import this tab delimited text back into a stack with SEPARATE fields for each of the name/address field items.
Did that get your attention?
HyperPort comes with HyperCard 1.2 and 2.0 versions, so your upgrade precedes the arrival of HyperCard 2.0. Neat idea.
The shareware PM4 Short Cuts DA is recommended by MacinTouch in MacWeek as a shorty help file. It lists tons of shortcuts in 9 selectable windows. $10.
Desktop Manager INIT is touted as speeding up the Finder. Rebuild the desktop after installing. Available from informal sources, but will be a part of 7.0. We’ll try to get it on a DOM soon.
If you run Desk by Zedcor, be sure you use System 6.0.5 so that everything works right.
LaserWriter drivers 6.0 and 6.01 have bug fixes in them, so even if you don’t print out in color, it is wise to upgrade to one of them. (Thanks, David Ramsey in MacWeek.)
Don’t forget, if your programmers switch is installed, you may be able to recover gracefully from a crash. Push the programmer button (not the reboot button) and type this at the > prompt, exactly, with spaces as indicated, and returns only where indicated:
SM O A9F4 Return
G O Return
Be sure to observe the spaces after the M, O and G.
If you don’t know what the programmer switch is, don’t install it.
Also, rebooting with the reboot button on the programmer switch is better than shutting off the power and switching it back on again at the back of the computer. So maybe you will want to learn about the programmer switch.
If you find inexpensive copies of shrink-wrapped Mac software in discount stores, check the upgrade policies for these applications. Sometimes recent purchase entitles you to a free or low cost upgrade. In other cases, you need to have registered at a much earlier date. Check it out and buy accordingly.
Someone asked about a VT-300 terminal emulator. Thanks to member Dick Thies we now know that the latest version of MacTerminal has it.
In MacDraw, when you specify a 75% reduction in Page View… you get a full 100% page with a 75% image, showing true WYSIWYG. (Thanks, Dick Thies, CMUG member.)
How many occurrences of a word are there in your document? If you need to know, any word processor (Word is one) with a Change… menu item can help. Type in the word in the Find box, tab to the Change To box and type it in again. Be sure both entries are identical. The Mac will now find the number of occurrences without actually changing the word in question. (Thanks, Kim Mosley, CMUG member.)
If you are limited by the grayscale fills allowed in PageMaker, use Define colors… and place zeros in all the color boxes except Black. Set Black to whatever gray percentage you wish. To use this fill, specify Solid fill, select the shape and select the graytone you created. If you select a percentage in the Fill menu, you will get a percentage of your percentage, which is not what you really wanted. Is it?
I spend so much time hunting for hints for Mouse Droppings, sometimes I forget to use them myself. As you may remember, I recommend the “punishment” method for learning shortcuts. If you start to “do it” without using a shortcut and suddenly remember the shortcut, STOP what you are doing, return to the keyboard and use the shortcut. If you religiously do this, you will find that you use more and more short cuts effectively.
Now if I could just remember to do this myself!
One of my weaknesses is not using Command/P to initiate printing.
Well, slap my fingers.
Disk storage is always a problem. Diskette Gazette has at least 24 different storage systems for Mac disks. Diskette Gazette will send you a sample of their newsletter if you ask. 2278 Trade Zone Blvd., San Jose, CA 95131.
If you haven’t mastered the use of curly quotes (“ ‘ ” ’) vice inch/foot marks (" ' " '), try doing a Find… for inch and foot marks before your final Save. (CHECK QUOTE MARKS)
Same goes for two spaces at the end of sentences. Do a Change… from two spaces to one space.
If you are steeped in typing methods, also do a Change… for all double hyphens, replacing them with a Shift/Option/hyphen, which gives you a proper em dash. That's what the pros do.
Kiwi Envelopes 3.0 bombs with System 6.0.5. Forewarned is forearmed.
You can use PageMaker's preferences to show TIFFs at high resolution. Screen redraws will take longer. Or just place the TIFF with the Command key held down, or hold down the Command key while doing a screen redraw. (Thanks, Personal Publishing.)
