You can store Master Pages as pages in a Scrapbook. Then when you want to use one, just Copy and Paste from the Scrapbook to the Master Page.
To do variations on an advertisement or a page layout in PageMaker, do all the common items on a Master Page. Now you can build a half dozen versions easily on pages 1-6 by inserting unique material or placements on each page.
If you checked Facing Pages in the Page Setup dialog box, and you subsequently want to remove Master Items from one of a pair of facing pages, go to the Page Setup dialog box and uncheck Facing Pages. This will make it easier to create a single non-standard page.
After you have fooled with guidelines on a page, you can reset them to match those you started with on the Master pages by using the Copy master guides item in the Page menu.
You can number all the pages in your document automatically. Select the location on your Master page. Place your cursor there and type Command/Option/P. On the actual pages, the correct page number will now automatically appear.
Of course you can’t use this option if you are locating page numbers on opposite sides of 5-1/2x8-1/2 pages appearing on a single 11x8-1/2 template. You’ll have to manually number them in that case. But if you are using facing pages, you can designate a page number on both the left and right facing pages. PageMaker will number them correctly.
You can use any font, size and style when specifying the page number location. Just set font, size and style before typing the Command/Option/P keystroke.
You can define areas on the Master pages with guidelines pulled from the rulers. You may want to use them to designate where certain text or graphic blocks will appear on certain pages. The presence of these guidelines on other pages doesn’t hurt a thing. You just won’t be using them on those pages.
One way to cover up Master Page items which you don’t want on a certain page is to use “electronic whiteout,” or rno border/no line shapes and reversed lines, to hide unwanted items.
Text wraps on Master pages have no effect at all on pages of the document.
TEXT
One way to get text larger than PageMaker’s 127 point maximum is to type the text in MacDraw (using a LaserWriter font, of course), save as a PICT and Place it in PageMaker. You can now also distort the text by stretching it horizontally or vertically.
To let text overlay a corner of artwork, use a borderless white filled box beneath the text. Manipulate the layers with the Send Beneath and Bring to Front commands.
If you have poured a column of text in the wrong width, grab one of the bottom handles on the text block and raise it until only the top and bottom text block lines remain. Click in the plus (+) mark and repour the text correctly.
If you typed your text directly into PageMaker, there is a way to save a copy as a word processing file. Use the Export item in the File menu. If your insertion point is sitting in the story to be exported, the entire story will export. If you want just part of the story, highlight it, and that portion is what will be exported.
Once you have invoked the Place command to import text, you can limit the area in which the text will appear by click/dragging the mouse to define the area. If you want the text to keep flowing into the next available space(s), use AutoFlow from the Options menu. This option will even create new pages when it runs out of the pages you have already defined. Watch out! The new pages will be unformatted, unless a Master Page dictates a specific layout. You can also stop AutoFlow at any time by clicking the mouse.
Learn to define identical styles in Microsoft Word and PageMaker. In this way you can create text in Word that will import into PageMaker retaining all the fancy formatting you carefully set up in Word.
Convert Quotes, when checked in the Place menu, will turn straight “inch/foot” marks ('/") into appropriate curly quotes (‘/“ and ’/”). Here’s a trick. If you need an ending quote mark (single or double), just clicking behind the last letter preceding the quote mark and hitting the quote key will not give you a correct ending quote. Backspace out the last letter or punctuation and then retype it followed by the quote mark. Now the mark will be an ending, not a beginning, quote mark.
How do you preserve line length when copying a block of text? If you click in the text block with the pointer tool before copying, you preserve line length when you Paste. However, if you select the text with the Text tool (A), line length will not be preserved when you copy.
If you try to Paste too much text (more than about 64K), when you get the alert, change to the pointer tool and Paste. At least you will have whatever text has been loaded into the text tool.
Text gets pasted according to where the cursor is. If it is an insertion point, blinking in your copy, the text gets Pasted there. If, on the other hand, the pointer tool has been selected, the block of text will appear centered on the screen.
To make incoming Pasted text appear in a particular rectangle, click/drag the proper size of rectangle immediately before you Paste.
To line up items vertically in PageMaker, go to the Preferences… dialog box and set in the appropriate spacing under Vertical Ruler: Custom.
To edit a style fast, hold down the Command key and select the style in the Styles palette. This will take you directly to the Edit style dialog box. The same trick works with the Color palette. Click a color with the Command key held down and you are in color editing mode.
Clicking on any Tool in the Toolbox unloads a text tool loaded with a graphic or text. If you make a mistake and load up the text tool when you didn’t mean to, just click any tool.
Another recovery method for crashed MacWrite files: Import the file into Pagemaker or Word, or any program that imports MacWrite. If you get it, move it to the Scrapbook, open a fresh MacWrite document and Paste.
Justifying Headlines in Pagemaker. In Pagemaker 2.0 and newer you can make the last line of a multi-line headline justify. Here's how.
• Type the entire head with no carriage returns
• Select the headline and go to the Paragraph menu item
• Turn off automatic hyphenation and say OK.
• Choose Justify
• Place a space after the last word. Add XXX's following the space until they wrap to the next line
• Pull up the text block handle to hide the row of XXX's.
The headline is now fully justified.
Real Mac Users Don't… Don't use the default tabs (every half inch) in Word 3.01 if you are going to change fonts, sizes or styles, or if you are going to take the material into PageMaker. Pull down the Paragraph menu and set some "real" tabs.
You have just changed type style for the next line. You type a word. You decide it is the wrong word. You delete it and type in a new word. Your font and style revert to the font and style of the previous line or to the default font. Damn! Another trip to the menu bar.
If you want to replace the word and retain your new formatting, highlight back to, but not including, the first letter on the line. Now start your new word. Next, go back and delete the first letter on the line. You have preserved the formatting without another trip to the "bar" -- menu, that is.
To keep an entire story from shifting around in Pagemaker when you make a small change on one page, Cut and immediately Paste the text block you want to work on. This block is now isolated, connected to no other block. Change to your heart's content.
To select an entire table as a single paragraph in Word for export to PageMaker, select the entire table less the paragraph marker for the final line. Go to the Change… menu item under Search. Enter ^p in the Find box and ^n in the Change To… box. The result is a table which is one paragraph. This makes it easier to export it without tabbing problems, and also means you can box it in Word, since it is a single paragraph.
Typography experts tell us that 11 point type is far more readable than 10 point. Think about it. Yet, since none of the PostScript fonts come in 11 point, you have to either look at crappy output on the screen, or type in 12 or 10 and change to 11 at the last moment. If this is your dilemma, try Font Sizer and create an 11-point size.
Sometimes someone sends you a word processor file prepared with a program you don’t have. Since PageMaker imports more word processing programs than most, open PageMaker and see if you can “Place” your document. Once you have it in PageMaker, you can take it to the Scrapbook, or create a backup file in a word processor which you do own — most notably Word 3.0X, which is created almost next door to PageMaker’s Aldus Corp.
Or, if you have the commercial First Aid Kit (not Apple’s Disk First Aid), or any other repair utility which allows you to see and copy the text in a file. (Thanks, Eugene, OR MUG.)
If you have Works 2.0, be cautious. Some bugs are reported, especially in converting old Works documents to 2.0, importing Works text into PageMaker, and a problem in saving files to 400k disks (don’t!). Keep up with the problems or wait for the bug fix.
In both Word 3.01 and Pagemaker 2.0a, hold down Command/Option/t to set a default indent. Repeat as many times as you need indent space. (MacValley Voice, Burbank, CA MUG.)
How do you do fractions in PageMaker? Aldus says do it this way:
Let’s use 3/4 for our sample. Select the 3 and make it SuperScript. Leave the slash alone. Select the 4 and size it to match the 3. Do NOT make it SubScript. By the way, the SuperScript is automatically 7/12 of the original text size, so multiply the original text size by 7/12ths to get the right size for the denominator.
To force a paragraph to start at the top of a column in PageMaker, select it, go to Paragraph dialog box and set “Space Before” value to the total height of the image area on the page (11” page, 1/2” top and bottom margins, equals a 10” space for the value).
If you fool with the right hand margin marker in Word 3.0 when preparing text to dump into PageMaker, the columns won’t pour correctly.
In the first place, that triangle you fooled with on the Word ruler isn’t a margin marker at all. It is a right indent marker. No wonder your text won’t pour correctly. PageMaker thinks you want the right side of the text indented! That’s exactly what PageMaker does with your text.
So, to avoid this, set your column width in the Page Setup box of Word. You adjust the right margin until it results in the exact column width you want to achieve.
If you have text already “done wrong,” go ahead and import it anyway. Select it and go to the Indent menu item (Command/I). In that dialog box, move the right indent, if needed. If it appears to be in the right place, just close the dialog box. Back on your page, the text now flows to fill the column. Alternately, you could go to the Paragraphs menu item under the Type menu and set Right Indent to 0. Either way works.
Check your spelling in Pagemaker (huh? in Pagemaker?). Yup. Use the hyphenation dictionary. Place your cursor in front of the suspect word. Spacebar the word forward until the word either hyphenates or moves entirely to the following line. If it hyphenates, it is probably spelled correctly. If it refuses to hyphenate, the hyphenation dictionary couldn’t find it, and it is probably spelled incorrectly. (Thanks Alan Hansberry, Bellvue, WA.)
Another idea is to use Word Finder DA and ask for a synonym. Word Finder will tell you if the word is not in its repertoire.
Sometimes you want to shrink or stretch text in Pagemaker. I'm talking about making it unnaturally wide or tall — not just changing point size proportionally. There are two ways to do this without leaving Pagemaker.
One is to use the DA DeskDraw, Draw or Scribbler. Any one will let you type in a headline, then Cut or Copy it, Paste it into Pagemaker and stretch away.
The other idea is simpler. You must use SmartScrap — not Scrapbook. Type your text in Pagemaker. Cut or Copy it and Paste into SmartScrap. Immediately use the selection rectangle and Cut or Copy the text, Pasting it back into Pagemaker.
Now you can stretch to your heart's content. Remember, you must use the selection rectangle in SmartScrap. This turns your selection into a PICT. If you Cut or Copy the entire SmartScrap page, you get your text block back in Pagemaker, and it won't have handles for stretching. Just a plain vanilla text block.
To import a Word 3.0X document cleanly cleanly into Pagemaker, try a Save As… first in Word and assign a new name. This disables the Fast Save option, which screws things up.
Outline text imported into Pagemaker from MacDraw may not print on the LaserWriter. If this happens, type the text directly into Pagemaker instead.
Pagemaker loves to screw around with your bitmapped fonts. Some great Imagewriter fonts, which look good printed out on the LaserWriter, act like spoiled children in Pagemaker. Pagemaker tinkers with fonts more than most programs. Of course you can try to fix these fonts. I fixed several this way — others refused to respond to my first aid. To try to fix these fonts, open the FOND resource for the font in ResEdit. Look for Flag Word in the resulting dialog box.
Change the first number to a 6.
How do you know if you have problems in the first place? Letters pile on top of each other and then suddenly leave a huge space, then print another letter.
Pagemaker greeks text below six points in size. This is why you see gray lines instead of words sometimes. Greeking lets Pagemaker rebuild a page much faster. When you are not physically editing text, you might want to change this option to greek below 12 points, or something like that. Then change it back when you have to edit the text.
Pagemaker accommodates proportional leading, which lets you mix sizes of type in a single line without those awful spacing problems in the leading.
If you are a Word 3.0X user, you may have trouble placing tabs in Pagemaker. Nothing happens in Pagemaker until you select the lines to contain the tabs. Just letting the cursor blink in a line won’t let you set tabs for the whole paragraph.
Some people don't understand why you see all those gray bars instead of text in many views of Pagemaker pages. That's called greeking. (I guess that's because it looks "like Greek to me.")
Greeking lets Pagemaker 2.0 save changes and redraw pages lightning fast, because in a greeked mode, Pagemaker doesn't have to read text, just know that it is there. If you gotta see the words, take it up in steps to 50%, 75%, actual size or 200% until it is visible.
Believe me, it's worth it.
Does your whole publication in Pagemaker shift, moving things on many pages when you add or delete a few words in a multi-page article? Select the block of text you will be changing. Cut it. Now Paste immediately. If you look at the bottom windowshade you will find it no longer has a '+' in it, denoting continuation.
You have just made that text block a separate entity. Changes you make in that text block will not affect any other part of your publication.
If you Cut and Paste the entire page, it will isolate that page from other pages, but internal relationships on the page will remain "workable."
If your Word columns typed to precise width pour into Pagemaker as narrow partial-width columns, try formatting column width in Word using the measurements in Page Setup instead of dragging the right margin icon.
If you use Page Setup instead of the margin markers in Word to change column width, the text will place in PageMaker filling the entire column width. If you didn’t do it that way, or the text refuses to go all the way to the right margin marker, do a Command/I and drag the right margin marker over to the correct margin measure. If it doesn’t need to move, return to your document and PageMaker will have adjusted it correctly anyway.
Do your own font substitution on LaserWriter documents. Change New York to Times and Geneva to Helvetica, so you can see the result on screen before sending it to the LaserWriter. If you let the LaserWriter make the changes for you, your spacing may no longer please you.
You can still use Imagewriter fonts on the LaserWriter. Just follow this rule: Keep the largest possible size of the font in the system, since that is what the LaserWriter looks for when it is trying to print your font decently.
Are some of your LaserWriter fonts less than perfect? One sign of a poor quality LW font is that line lengths don't stay WYSIWYG when you print out. There will be unpredictable gaps between words.
For best results in PageMaker, type your text in a word processing program for which there is a filter. These currently include Word, WriteNow, Works and MacWriter. Others will be added when either PageMaker or the word processor company make a filter for that program.
To easily flow two or more stories starting on the same page to a number of different pages, do this:
1. Flow story A onto the source page. It will have a plus where you stop it.
2. Flow story B onto the soruce page. It will have a plus where you stop it.
3. Click the plus at the bottom of story A.
4. Drag a small text block on the pasteboard, close to, but not overlapping the page. This block will contain just a few lines of story A.
5. Repeat with story B (and any other stories to be continued).
6. Turn to the first target page on which a story will be continued.
7. Grab the appropriate text block from the pasteboard and place it.
8. Click the plus where the story needs to stop.
9. Repeat step 4.
10.Keep turning to other target pages and repeat steps 7 through 9.
If you haven’t tried Semi-Automatic text flow, do so now. With Semi-Auto, when text reaches the bottom of a column, or hits a graphic, the loaded text tool appears automatically. Of course, you can “unload” it by clicking in the Toolbox. Semi Auto gives you a lot of control. To get Semi Automatic text flow from the keyboard, hold down the Shift key and click on a + mark at the bottom of a text block. You can toggle back and forth to fully Automatic with Command/click.
If you are using Semi-Automatic Text Flow and wish to stop flowing text, click the loaded text tool on any tool in the Toolbox. This also works with a loaded graphics cursor which you decide you don’t need after all.
Would you like better screen images of your installed LaserWriter and LaserWriter Plus fonts? It's available. Adobe has "family" sets of each font which include a bold, a bold-italic and an italic version of each font. Installing these (if you have room -- another reason to buy a hard disk) will give you far more readable screen text. Better LaserWriter output, too, by the way.
These extra fonts help the most in word processing programs, although there is some improvement in desktop publishing applications.
The disk of fonts is $50 from Aldus, although they can be downloaded from BBS' around the country.
Want to use downloadable Postscript fonts? Most IBM programs don't support that. Also, if you trundle in to a LaserWriter facility to print out stuff with oddball fonts on it, forget taking your hard disk with the installed fonts along if you are using an IBM. The machine you plug into has to have the same disk controller card.
Macintosh owners don't have to even know what a disk controller card is, much less worry about the host computer having "the right one."
The custom vertical ruler can help you line up text in adjoining columns. Set the vertical ruler to the point size of your text. Now use Snap to Ruler when you place adjacent columns of type.
Wild, long horizontal text blocks which get in the way all of the time are common headaches for new PageMaker users. To contain any text in a reasonable horizontal width, click and drag a width for the text. This works both with the text tool and with the loaded text cursor.
If you have one of the extended keyboards, you can use the arrow keys to move through or select text. Add the Shift key if you want to select. Add the Command key, too, to select word at a time instead of character at a time.
Grayed out fonts in your font menu are fonts used in the current document which are not in the System you are now running. Install them or substitute other satisfactory fonts before printing.
For speed, change font sizes from the keyboard. Command/Shift < or > move you through PageMaker’s standard sizes, which are 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, 30, 36, 48, 60 and 72. Add the Option key to move you ONE point size at a time (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, etc.).
There are three hyphens in PageMaker. There is the regular hyphen, Command/hyphen (disappears when it is no longer needed, due to text changes previous to the hyphen). There is also a non-breaking hyphen to keep two words together. It is Option/hyphen. Using the optional hyphen (Command/hyphen) is a good standard practice.
To kern manually, like tightening Ti or Yo, go to the 200% view, place the cursor between two letters to be kerned. Command/Backspace will decrease the space by 1/24th of an em space per click. Shift/Command/Backspace will increase the space at the same rate. An em space is a square space the size of a letter in a font -- the letter M was for merly used. Thus an em space is relative to the size of type used. This is not a sci entific explanation, but is good enough for "the rest of us."
Of course you all know how to click the plus sign at the end of a story and continue the story elsewhere. But, did you know that you can click at the TOP of a text block and pour a block which will PRECEDE the current block. The new block will contain text starting at the first line of the current block, removing it from that block to the newly created block.
If defining new Styles is frustrating for you, join the club. Here is an easy out. Format a short paragraph in the desired new style. Use the desired indents, margins, tabs, font, style, size, etc. For ease of use, make the text of this paragraph tell you all about it’s characteristics. Park this block on the pasteboard next to the page, but not overlapping it. To use this new style, Copy the block using the pointer tool. Paste it, highlight the text and start typing. The text you type will be formatted exactly like the sample paragraph. Alternatively, you can Copy or Cut the new text to the Clipboard, then select the Pasted sample style block. Now Paste, and the new text from the Clipboard is reformatted per the sample block.
Here is a clue about Leading. Let’s say you manually set the leading of several paragraphs (a text block) of copy to 12 point Times, set on 16 (Times 12/16). Now you decide that you want certain material within that text block to be Automatic leading. The only way to preserve the two kinds of leading in a single text block is:
• Choose Automatic Leading WITHOUT the cursor in any text block, and WITHOUT any text being selected.
• Place the insertion point where you want the automatically leaded copy. Start typing. The new material will be auto-leaded.
Initial oversized caps should be assigned the same leading as the smaller text in the paragraph. Be sure Proportional is selected in Spacing Attributes dialog box.
If you are constructing a new table in PageMaker, be sure you use Tabs, and NEVER use the spacebar. Be sure you use flush left justification, not centered or fully justified. Trust me.
Be sure you use tabs, not spacebar, for material following a bullet or asterisk if you are using full justification. In an attempt to space out the lines to full justification, PageMaker will leave varying spaces after the bullet, making an unsightly wavering line.
Do you always find that you have your favorite styles available in PageMaker? Let me whisper a secret word—Template. Create a template document containing ALL of your styles. Since it is a template, it will open a COPY when you use it. Open this template whenever you want access to all your styles. You could make other templates with “sets” of styles and name them accordingly, too.
To learn how to use PageMaker’s style sheets, read C.J. Weigand’s book, “Using PageMaker,” Que Publications, $24.95. Trying to condense the information on style sheets into a few hints would be counter-productive.
Taking text to the Clipboard or Scrapbook with the pointer tool retains column width (text block width). Use the A Text tool and text will wrap to whatever margins are presented when the text is Pasted back into PageMaker.
This is tricky, and maybe of no use. Select a text block with the pointer tool. Hold down the Shift key and select two or three more text blocks. Copy. Now place your text tool cursor in the middle of any text block and Paste. All the text blocks you clicked on to Copy flow in at the insertion point IN THE ORDER CLICKED.
Once you have a loaded text tool, you don’t have to let it be in charge! Drag a specific rectangle and the loaded text will pour into the space you allotted.
Either the keyboard arrow keys on extended keyboards, or the numeric keypad on Plus keyboards can move you up, down, right and left. The numbers 2,4,6 and 8 do it on the numeric keypad.
The spacebar puts a space between words, but if you want the two words separated by the space to remain on the same line together, use one of the Mac’s non-breaking spaces. Command/Shift/M or N or T give you decreasing sizes of space. Option/Spacebar gives you a space proportional to the font you are using.
To type an em space (the width of the letter M in the current font), use Command/Shift/M. Half of that, an en space, is Command/Shift/N. Half an en space is a thin space, so use Command/Shift/T. Option/spacebar is a fixed space which varies with the size of the font in use. All of the above spaces are non-breaking. Words separated by non-breaking spaces always appear together on the same line. Word wrapping does not separate them.
There is a non-breaking hyphen, too. It is Option/hyphen.
Ever have trouble lining up a column of figures at the beginning of lines? Like items numbered 1 through 20. Starting with 10, the 1 through 9 do not fall under the second figure.
Do this. Type 01, 02, 03 etc. through 09. Type 10 through 20 normally. Now highlight each leading 0, one at a time, and select Reverse Type from the Type menu. The hidden 0's will make everything line up right.
Here’s an easy way to do a drop cap. Select lines one and two. Type in the default leading size for that size of type MANUALLY. You must do it manually. Now enlarge the initial cap until it suits you. Kern as desired manually.
Another way to do a drop cap is with a PICT letter which you text wrap into place.
Two or more lines of large type, as in a headline, tend to get very spacey in the leading department. Take a look and consider tightening the leading.
Do you sometimes misplace reversed text? When composing reversed text, do one of two things: 1) compose it across the boundary of the shaded object, so that half the text is on white and half on the shaded area. When everything is right, and the text has been reversed, place it precisely on the shaded area. 2) compose the reversed text and leave one extra, unreversed symbol. That way you can find your reversed text, even if it slips away from its shaded background. Remove the unreversed character before you print. Don’t forget now.
It is usually best to keep headlines and bylines as separate text blocks. Then if you want to change some attribute of the text formatting, you won’t be screwing up the headline or byline in the process.
To make a headline span three columns of text when it is currently in one column, select the headline text, Cut it, click and drag a headline text block across three columns, and Paste. This works for any change of width for a piece of text.
If you have a story which you have flowed onto pages 4, 5 and 6, and page 5 looks just right, you can isolate it by selecting the entire page, then do a quick Command/X, Command/V. This will Cut and Paste the page, at the same time isolating it from pages 4 and 6. To be safe, pages 4 and 6 should also be Cut/Pasted in the same way. Saves you lots of problems later on!
But be careful! When you isolate one part of a story, other parts are still linked to each other, and layout changes you now make can attach parts of page 4 to page 6 if you don’t keep close track of what you are doing. That’s why I advise: Isolate one part of a story—isolate them all.
The point of isolating text is to prevent movement of parts of the story on other pages from affecting text on the finished, correct page, which you want to remain exactly as it is.
For less crowded dots in a tab leader, type period followed by a space in the optional leader symbols box.
If you lose track of reversed type in Pagemaker, type an unusual symbol at the end of the typed material. "Unreverse" the symbol. Back the symbol out last thing before printing.
Outline type is transparent in Pagemaker.
To rotate type in Pagemaker, type it in MacDraw, rotate it there, save as PICT and import it into Pagemaker. Now you can shrink, stretch or distort it in Pagemaker.
Can you read the first letter of each line, or is it partially hidden by non-printing guidelines or column guides? Go to Preferences and set the Guides to Back. Now your text shows in front of the guides and is no longer hidden.
TEXT WRAPPING GRAPHICS
PageMaker redraws the text each time you click on any of the boundary lines of a graphic while in Text wrap mode. To make several changes to the boundary, hold down the spacebar while doing your clicking and dragging. When you are through, let up on the spacebar and the graphic will be rebounded one single time.
Do your captions jump around when you are wrapping text around a graphic? Create a “no shade, no line” box big enough to contain the caption.
Using the same method, you can float a “pull quote” across several columns of text and into a blank box created for it.
Another way to handle captions is to allow a deeper bottom (or top) margin in the Text Wrap dialog box. Put your caption within this space.
Creating new points in Pagemaker 3.0’s Text Wrap mode uses up beaucoup memory. Save often. Don’t wait for the message that tells you you are permanently locked out of your document. If your document starts acting funny, or a wrap won’t take a new click, Save As… immediately. Do not wait to Pass Go or Collect $200.
As you may have discovered, Master page graphics in PageMaker can’t be wrapped with text on pages of the publication — just on the master page. To get around this, draw a “no shade/no line” box or oval to match the graphic shape. Now specify Text Wrap and simulate wrapping the graphic by wrapping your invisible shape. You can see where it is in Text Wrap mode, because the wrap border will be showing. You have to redo this on each page which needs the wrap.
You can specify negative numbers in the Text Wrap dialog box. This will permit text to print on top of that portion of the graphic.
Snap to Guides affects standoff handles when reshaping them around a graphic.
Captions which can be fitted entirely within the standoff area in Text Wrap will appear normally. Increase the standoff area until it will accomodate any caption you want for the graphic.
There are two ways to prevent continual screen redraws when custom text wrapping a graphic. One is to hold down the spacebar while making many changes. Let up on the spacebar and the screen redraws one time. The other way is to custom wrap the graphic out on the pasteboard. No redrawing will take place until you drag the graphic onto the page.
Try not to text wrap a graphic so that text “jumps” across it. That is hard to read. If you can, split a column gutter between two columns, so that text on the left wraps around the left of the lefthand column, and text on the right wraps around the right in the righthand column.
Yes, you can wrap text with text. Place a PageMaker box or oval big enough to contain the entire text block to be wrapped. Make the box shade none and its line pattern none and send it to the back. Try this on a drop cap, for instance.
Text Wrap is one of PageMaker’s default selections. The shipped default is NO wrap. You may want to make the default some kind of wrap which you use the most. Set the wrap option before you open an existing or new PageMaker document. Your choice becomes the default.
When shaping your standoff boundary for a text wrapped image, the Shift key will constrain your moves to vertical or horizontal. Also, Snap to Guidelines can help you shape your standoff boundary.
PRINTING
Since PageMaker includes smoothing algorhythms for MacPaint images, place them in PageMaker and print them out there for better looking output.
Aldus Prep is needed when printing out a document. It is not necessary when you are constructing the document. If you are cramped for space, only install AldusPrep when you are ready to print. And as long as you are using Aldus Prep, you won’t need LaserPrep during either preparation or printing of PageMaker documents.
In the Print… dialog box, you can specify that the pages be printed out with page 1 first. The default is reverse order, so that the first page comes out last, on top of the stack. If you check the Collate box, an entire document gets printed out before the second copy is printed, instead of all copies of each page being printed before the next page is printed.
If you print at more than 100% or print a page size larger than 8-1/2x14, you will have to check the Tile option, which prints out your document on more than one sheet of paper. Otherwise you will be missing part of the image.
What does the Proof print choice do? It prints out your document with text only. Graphics will be marked with placeholders, but will not print. This saves a lot of time printing proofs.
If you want any ImageWriter fonts you use in creating a PageMaker document to print out correctly on a LaserWriter, be sure to click off on Substitute fonts in the Print… menu.
Experiment with the effect of using Smoothing in the Print… dialog box when printing out bit-mapped graphics. Examine the results for blocked up areas and calculate the time it take to print. Sometimes using Smoothing is a good idea—sometimes not.
If your Mac tells you that it cannot print with the current specifications, it may mean that your LaserWriter type is not the one currently selected in PageMaker’s Printer-specific options dialog box. Click on Change at the bottom of the Print… dialog box to see the options available. This box is also a place where you can see the maximum print area available on any specific page size selected. This gets very important when you want to use legal size paper, since the LaserWriter won’t print very near the edge of the paper. Be sure you check the available print area before doing any work on the document.
In order for a printer to appear in the Printer-specific options dialog box, you must have installed the .apd file for that printer, either in the PageMaker folder or in the System Folder.
If you print out a PICT graphic and it doesn‘t look right, Change the driver to the Apple driver and see if it improves the output. Don’t forget to change it back to Aldus Prep when you are done.
Another item to check if your image does not print correctly is the orientation of Tall or Wide. This choice appears in TWO places, and it must be the same in both places. It appears in the dialog for creating a New PageMaker document, and it also appears in the Printer-specific options dialog box. Check and make sure they are both set the same way.
What is the Image set of Mirror and Invert check boxes for? If you want to print transparencies emulsion side up (instead of the normal down), use Mirror. If you want a negative of your document, use Invert.
Use SuperGlue to "print" your image (text and graphics). Now reimport the image to Pagemaker and you can stretch, shrink or distort it to fir a specific area, or to indulge a particular layout whim.
Before you decide on a laser printer for use with PageMaker, consider these criteria: PostScript capability, speed, memory for downloaded fonts, graphics capability, font size limitations, landscape orientation, built-in fonts, paper bins, paper kinds, envelope feeding, paper weights, and application compatibility.
If the LaserWriter takes more than 45 minutes to print a Pagemaker document, turn the LaserWriter off and on again and try one more time. I hate to do this, but sometimes it is necessary.
OK, so you have learned not to trust the accuracy of Pagemaker 3.0X crop marks on a LaserWriter printout. Use a Linotronic and everything will be OK, except your pocketbook. (Thanks, The Active Window, Boston Computer Society, MUG.)
Envelopes Made Easy. We all know how the LaserWriter doesn't like to print too close to the edge of the sheet, which make a decent return address on an envelope almost impossible.
Here comes Fast Forms, which lets you print way up into the upper left corner. So close you will have to adjust the template to move it further down and in.
To manually feed legal size paper with a normal paper tray installed, use the Options dialog box in the Page Setup for LaserWriter drivers 4.0 and newer and check the bottom box, Larger Print Area.
Works like a charm.
For journal-quality graphs, make them in CricketGraph and paste them into MacDraw. Diddle with them, then Laserprint the result.
Use the precision bit map option and even LaserWriter fonts will look better. To test this, type a 12 point capital letter C in Times Bold and print it out with and without the precision bit map option checked.
Now use a loupe (the kind the printer uses to tell you how much better his output is than your LaserWriter 300 dpi) magnifying glass and examine the printout.
Thanks, AMUG News from Alaska.
To squeeze "just a little bit more" on a page, select A4 paper size in the Page Setup box. Thanks, Paul Vilandre, Menlo Park, CA.
When making overhead transparencies on the LaserWriter, hand feed the foils (transparencies), but do not specify manual feed. This way you get the foils automatically slipsheeted with plain paper. Thanks, Paul Vilandre, Menlo Park, CA.
If you need material from two applications on one LaserWriter printout, print out the first application, leaving room for the second application material. Now pump up the second application and hand-feed the first printout through. I usually do 2-3 copies so I can goof up safely. Thanks Paul Vilandre, Menlo Park, CA.
To "digitize" a photo when you lack a scanner, leave space for the photo and print everything else out. Now combine the photo and the printout using a good quality office copier.
I said good quality, and if screens are available for this copies to enhance photos by imparting a dot pattern, try it, too.
If you use more than one mode for your LaserWriter, buy a 40¢ knob #274-403 from Radio Shack. It fits the mode switch with a clamp and makes it easier to change.
Another way to keep the LaserWriter from printing a test sheet when you turn it on: Pull the paper tray out about an inch until the green light is on steady. Then shove it back in.
The other ways? Widgets from CE Software and writing in PostScript code to effect the change.
Widgets is by far the simplest.
If your 300 dpi LaserWriter master is photographed at 50%, you get a 600 dpi master. This means that the 300 dpi master you use must drawn at 200% of the desired final size. Try other percentages for even finer resolution. Don’t forget to use double the size of the type you want to see in the output, too.
Is your Helvetica spread out when you print it on the LaserWriter? Open ResEdit, Open System, Open FOND (not FONT), Open Helvetica ID=21. Scroll to ExtraWidth for Bold. Change $0155 to $0000. Close by using Quit from the File menu. Say yes when asked if you want to save the changes. Do not change ExtraWidth for Outline (in case you were thinking of doing that), because that will crowd the Outline text. (Deadline Mac)
I recently read a front page article in a MUG newsletter describing a way to refill your own LaserWriter cartridges.
Don't! Not only don't, but don't have it refilled by anyone who does it as the article describes. They tell you to drill a hole and refill it through the hole.
No, no, no! To refill a cartridge safely, it should be disassembled, cleaned, adjusted and checked for wear or abnormalities. Be sure that your cartridge refiller does exactly that.
Oh, and the article says you can refill six times. Maybe. Sometimes. But three times is more like it. After that, most rechargers will tell you that you are on your own.
If you are using System 6.0.2, the Text Smoothing option in Page Setup does wonders for bit-mapped fonts printed out on the LaserWriter. Leave the Smoothing option unchecked unless you are using bitmapped graphics or ImageWriter fonts. Smoothing and Font Substitution slow down printing when they are checked. (Thanks, Club Mac of Monterey.)
Some hint books tell you how to print on both sides of your paper with the LaserWriter. You should know that Canon specifies that the LaserWriter has 0% (that's zero percent, folks) tolerance for printing on both sides of the paper. Some copiers recommend "not more than" 10, 15. 0r 20 percent double sided copies. Apple and Canon say NYET! Your LaserWriter was not designed for double sided copying.
You can format correctly for the LaserWriter, even if you don't own one. Install the LaserWriter driver in your System Folder. Now Open Chooser, click the LaserWriter. Now select Apple Talk. Return to your application. Documents prepared in this way are formatted correctly for LaserWriter output.
You can print out forms and letterheads on the LaserWriter. Load the pre-Lasered PageMaker forms or letterheads in the paper tray and fill in the form on screen. Delete the form and LaserWrite it. Load the forms in the paper tray with the “business side” down, head first.
LaserWriter II NTX’s have a ghosting problem. When text is above a graphic (higher on the page), a ghost of the text will show up on top of the graphic.
Apple has a fix for you. Print three copies. The third one will be much better.
Thanks a lot! Fix it!
High print density settings on the LaserWriter should produce better blacks, but lower settings give a cleaner, sharper edge on objects and letters. Take your choice. If the printout is a final, use darker. If the printout is a camera ready master to be printed, use lighter.
To stop printing out a test sheet every time you fire up your LaserWriter, use Widget from CE Software (Shareware) to cancel this operation permanently. If you want to check how many copies have been run, Widget has a menu choice to let you find out.
If you want to resume printing the test sheets, Widget also lets you do that.
Using Tall Adjusted in the Print dialog box for the Imagewriter will make your PageMaker printout a good match for what LaserWriter output will look like. If you want to just "look" but not print, click OK to start printing, then cancel the job (Command/period) and your screen will now reflect what the Tall Adjusted page will look like, and therefore what the LaserWriter output will look like.
Chain four LaserWriters together — each with a different color of toner. Now go get Turk International's Color Laser Press to link them up. Presto, you have color PageMaker printout. The color press is $1500.
Don’t leave items on the pasteboard when sending the document to a Linotronic. The Lino likes to look at the pasteboard items, even though it does not print them. Time is wasted.
Do you buy cheap copier paper because it only costs a couple of bucks a ream? Well, maybe for proofs and playing around. But for heaven’s sake, not for camera ready masters and opriginals made for clients!!!! Get some good stuff. Good stuff is defined as BRIGHT WHITE, SMOOTH, THICK paper. Two that come to mind are SuperMax Opaque 60#, Smooth or Polished, by Howard Paper Mills, and Office Machine Paper #1176, White, 24#, Long grain, by Weyerhaeuser.
If you turn up your nose at paying $6-8 for a ream of great paper, please listen and at least try 25 sheets before you dismiss this idea. I’m here to tell you that all but the most parsimonious will change over to one of the great papers for client use. Hey, is 1.5 cents a sheet too much? Naw!!!
When printing bitmapped graphics, try the Smooth option in the Print dialog box. It can help.
Holding down the Command key while clicking to select an object cycles you through the available objects beneath that point until the one you want gets selected.
A full page Image grayed out in Image Control makes a great background for a poster, filier, or page in a newsletter.
To use the Apple Page Setup instead of Aldus’, hold down the Option key as you select Print.
For a quick proof printout, specify Proof Print in the Print dialog box. This places an X where each graphic goes. The result is a very fast printout with text only plus X’s for graphics. Text which you have converted to PICT will result in an X, though.
If you find you need to change printer specifications, be sure you save your document AFTER you make the changes, or they will not be retained.
If you need to Tile a large document, consider using Manual Tiling. Auto Tiling almost always gives you too much overlap. All you need is the width of the margin on your PageMaker document. With Manual Tiling, you place the zero marker at the upper left corner of the region you want printed for each sheet. Two main advantages are less sheets of paper used, and control over where the page breaks come, so you can avoid splicing a line of text together on a seam.
PICT images sometimes print better using the Apple printer driver. Give it a try.
If you feel you need smoothing on five pages out of twenty, don’t check smoothing for the entire document. Print the five pages with smoothing, and the rest without. Smoothing takes extra printing time.
Unless you can think of a real good reason, don’t check Substitute fonts in the Page Setup box. Substitute a satisfactory LaserWriter font BEFORE you print. The most common mistake is using New York, Geneva and Monaco where Times, Helvetica and Courier are good LaserWriter substitutes. But YOU do the substituting. Trust me—the LaserWriter will screw it up!
When should you use Aldus Prep? Most of the time. Use Apple’s driver for some PICTs, when you want to print “in background” under MultiFider, or when you need to batch print a bunch of files.
Transparencies on LaserWriter? I touched on this before. Use only materials which will withstand the heat.
Bill Bauldry reports in Mouse Times (Goleta, CA MUG) that Chartpak Audio Visual film and Xerographic film Cat. # AFX50 work well.
By all means, make sure you use a type which can "stand the heat," or it will melt in your LaserWriter.
Oh, boy!
James River Corporation offers 17 papers for Laser printing. They are under the ProTech label. For samples and more info, call 800-258-0372.
I'll mention my favorite paper for the LaserWritr again: SuperMax Opaque, smooth, M650, Text 95 White, 60 pound, Howard Paper Mills, Inc., Dayton, Ohio.
Publications which will be bound, with facing pages, need to be created with a larger Inside Margin (Page Setup dialog box) than the other three sides, to accommodate the center space taken by staples, glue binding, or other binding methods. For example, use 1/2 inch on all but the Inside Margin. Make it 3/4 inch.
If, like most LaserWriter owners, you have no 8-1/2x14 tray, it is a pain to hand feed legal paper. But there is one great reason to do so. You can print an 8-1/2x11 layout which includes a top or bottom bleed on legal paper and retain the bleed on the printout. Just trim the excess carefully. To check a publication with bleeds which will be printed on a Linotronic, print it on 8-1/2x14 paper, then trim to the bleed line and check it over.
If SuperSpool or SuperLaserSpool won't work, try leaving their files on the open desktop where your Mac can find them more easily.
Always protect LaserWriter cartridges from light. They ARE light sensitive. This include empties which you intend to recharge or sell. Use the light-tight bag it came packed in. If not, use black plastic and tie it up light-tight.
If you are printing on the LaserWriter and get a message, “document is OK but can't be printed,” click off the Faster Bit Map Printing in the Page Setup box.
To underline for the LaserWriter, use Shift/hyphen in Helvetica or Times fonts.
I don’t have muddy blacks on my LaserWriter Plus output! Really? How do I do that? Spray the muddy areas with clear, matte art fixative. I am currently using Grumbacher Tuffilm Fixative, Cat. No. 549, $4.95 for a 12-3/4 oz. aerosol spray can. You cannot believe how much this peps up black areas until you try it. Experiment with the amount of spray. Too little fails to pep up the muddy areas. Too much will spread the toner into white areas. Just right is easy to achieve, however.
Compressed air is good for your LaserWriter! Get a can of the stuff and dust out your LaserWriter from time to time.
By the way, you do clean off the corona wire regularly, don't you? If you don't know what I am talking about, run -- don't walk -- to your Apple dealer and have them explain it to you.
What does it mean when your LaserWriter's yellow light flashes?
Well, if your yellow light is double-blinking, it's getting information from the Macintosh. If it is single-blinking, it's doing internal Postscript processing.
Your LaserWriter makes some erroneous assumptions. If you choose a paper size different than your paper tray and print feeding manually, the LaserWriter assumes that the paper being fed is the same size as the tray. Some of the document may be missing.
For instance, try printing a legal document on manually fed legal paper with a Letter-size tray installed.
The fix is to go to Larger Print Area option, which will print out the document correctly. You do have and use the latest LaserWriter and LaserPrep drivers, don't you?
A brand new LaserWriter can have output readings ranging from 28 to 200 pages, depending on the hours of testing time it received. That's official from Apple. We (kings and newspaper editors use “we” in referring to themselves) know of a sale in whch the LaserWriter had something more than 3,500 pages noted on the first test sheet it spit out.
Whoa, there!
He has a new one now! But not until he bitched like crazy.
You can print to within a quarter inch of the edge of letter size paper with the LaserWriter. Use the Options menu in Page Setup to select the larger print area option.
If the LaserWriter takes more than 45 minutes to print a Pagemaker document, turn the LaserWriter off and on again and try one more time. I hate to do this, but sometimes it is necessary.
Cheap laser fonts may print better if you include every screen size available in the System.
Scanned images are better with the smoothing turned off.
Have you run color out of your LaserWriter yet? Here are three ways:
• Use color paper stock, which gives you black on color instead of black on white (simple, huh?)
• Make three (or more) copies of your page — one for black, one for brown and one for blue for instance. Strip the black copy of all text and graphics which are to be brown or blue. Strip the blue copy of black and brown, and strip the brown copy of blue and black text and graphics. Run the black copy. Remove the black toner cartridge and replace it with a blue toner cartridge (they cost more!) and run the blue master hand-fed on the black output sheet. Now change cartridges once more and run the brown copy hand fed. You now have three colors on white (or on a color if you used color stock). Toner cartridges also come in red and green — other colors may also be available.
• Treat a completed black on white copy with Pizzazz color foils, attaching the desired color over appropriate areas with low-adhesive tabs. Run the sheet back through the LaserWriter manually once or twice and remove the foil and tabs. The colors include gold, silver and metallic colors. (Desktop Corporation, P.O. Box 7336, Boise, Idaho 83707, (800) 426-0306.
Aldus says that the following spoolers work with PageMaker 3.0X and Aldus Prep: Laser Share, Laser Speed 1.6, Super Laser Spool 2.0, Tangent Spool and Laser Server. People I talk to much prefer SuperLaserSpool.
If you lose the backmost smoothed polygon when printing Mac Draw files on the LaserWriter, place a "throwaway" no fill, no border polygon behind the backmost polygon. Let the LaserWriter chew away on that instead of your valuable work. Don't smooth this throwaway polygon.
For acetate overlays from the LaserWriter, manually feed 3M-503 Clear Acetate sheets. Never use acetate unless you KNOW the brand you select is suitable to withstand the heat it will encounter in the LaserWriter.
Be sure to switch your LaserWriter off and back on when moving to or from Pagemaker. Pagemaker uses its own Prep file—Aldus Prep. It takes up room in the LaserWriter's RAM. You don't need two Prep files in there, so reinitialize the LaserWriter when moving to and from PageMaker.
MANIPULATING GRAPHICS
An imported PICT image in Pagemaker is sometimes cropped in too close, and you lose part of the image. Before copying the PICT image, place a narrow borderless/no fill rectangle on the offending size -- usually the top. The imported image will think it has to include the rectangle, giving your real image plenty of breathing room.
If you use the Place command, you can hold down the Command key while resizing a graphic and it jumps to graphic arts sizes at 96%, 72%, 48% and 24%. It only works with a Place command, so what do you do when the graphic is on the Clipboard or in the Scrapbook? Copy and Paste the image into DeskPaint DA or Canvas DA. Either one will let you save the image as a MacPaint document. Do so. Now you can return to PageMaker and use the Place command to pick up the image. Now the little Command key trick will work for you.
For a quick pica ruler, take a screen dump of a Pagemaker page at 100% with the ruler in view. Doctor the ruler up in MacPaint or your favorite graphics program. Put it in the Scrapbook and import it when you need it.
PICT images imported to Pagemaker from MacDraft 1.2a disappear at 200% view. Only the text will show. But it will print out OK. To see everything at 200%, take it to MacDraw, save it as a PICT file with ANOTHER NAME. Take this MacDraw PICT file into Pagemaker. Everything will look OK (Thunder Enlighening, Thunder Bay, Ontario, MUG)
If you place an EPS file in a page layout program, be sure the source EPS document is on the disk when you print, or you won't get Postscript quality printout.
This is not just a Pagemaker hint, but it is useful there. To move a really tiny object, when the cursor gets in the way so you can’t see where you are placing the object, draw a medium size box out on the pasteboard. Now Shift click the box and your tiny object. Place the cursor on the box and move it. Watch your tiny object. When it is in place, click off anywhere and delete the box.
MacPaint and FullPaint work nicely this way, too. Old MacPaint users (pre 2.0) have a “hot spot” in the lower left corner of the screen. Lasso a small item, then run your cursor around in that corner until it looks like a arrow. Hold down the mouse and drag. The object will move.
If you work with logos or symbols which are frequently used, line them up on the pasteboard and they will travel from page to page with you, readily available. To use one, click on it, Command/C to copy it, and Command/V to paste the copy into your document.
Bitmapped images look great in Page maker 2.0 if they are reduced to 96%, 72%, 48%, or 24% in printing. But how do you tell when you get to one of these percent ages when you are hauling away on a cor ner of the graphic?
Easy! Hold down the Shift key (to re tain proportion) and the Command key. This combination will force your graphic to stop at one of the chosen sizes listed above, and no other. Always use this method of cropping, even if you want the image full size -- take 96% if you can -- it's worth it in terms of results.
If you have a TIFF file and Pagemaker 3.0 refuses to place it, take the TIFF to Image Studio. Save it there as TIFF. Place this one in Pagemaker. Make sure your original TIFF file is available when Pagemaker tries to print the Image Studio version. You will get a bitmapped printout if it isn’t there.
Didja ever import a graphic in Pagemaker and then couldn’t let text run into the white space around the graphic? Here is the secret: if you use the lasso, only black pixels get captured, and your letters, or another graphic, can show through. If you use the marquee, the white background in the rectangle comes with the graphic. Not that you can’t run text over the white box area if you are sure the text is in front, but it is cleaner and smoother with the lasso.
Select Print in Pagemaker; now select Print Postscript for a file of miniature PageMaker pages which you can then place in another Pagemaker document.
Do you import MacDraw objects into Pagemaker? And does Pagemaker clip the edges? I have said this before, but here goes again:
Draw a no fill, no border box around the object in MacDraw. Group the object and its box. Now when you place this object in Pagemaker, Pagemaker will have to chew on your no fill/no border box, not on your drawing.
Publish! magazine suggests importing a whole page of clip art into Pagemaker, then using the cropping tool to crop down to what you need.
Guess what? Pagemaker remembers the entire page in memory, and unless you need to change the selected area later, don't do it that way. It takes a ton of k for each page of clip art. Crop in your graphics program, or import the graphic into CheapPaint, DeskPaint, Canvas 2.0 DA, or some similar DA graphics program and clean it up. Now you can save k in your Pagemaker document by importing only what you will be needing.
Of course if you don't care how big the Pagemaker document gets, go ahead and import the whole page.
You can copy miniature Pagemaker pages into other Pagemaker pages by holding down the Option key while selecting Print. Now select Print Postscript for a file you can place on another Pagemaker page.
Create measuring boxes or text window shades with precise vertical measurements for repeated use in measuring things in Pagemaker. Leave them on the pasteboard area and drag them into the page to measure as needed. If you use text windows as tools, you can have the text define the use of that tool.
You can save a headline in Pagemaker, or a whole page, for that matter, and "place" it like any other text or graphic. This means that it can then be resized, stretched, shrunk, or expanded.
In the Print dialog box, hold down Option and select Print. You get another dialog box. Check EPS and anything else that appeals to you. Click Print and you are back in your document.
But residing on disk is a new file containing your headline or page. Place it like you would any graphic. Now you can stretch, crop or scale to your heart's content.
Here’s how to make a screened line in PageMaker. Use the rectangle tool. Draw a very narrow rectangle. Working at 200 or 400 percent, size it to suit. Now fill it with your choice of gray and click on No Lines for the border. (Seattle DBUG News.)
Draw in MacDraw twice as large as your desired figure. Print out at 50% on the LaserWriter for excellent smoothness.
TIFF files you use in PageMaker must be present when you print out the document, so leave the TIFF file on the same disk as the PageMaker file. If you can’t find the TIFF file during printing, you get a 72 dpi bitmap instead of 300 dpi.
The message you get when opening a PageMaker document with a TIFF file in it says that the TIFF file is not found. That doesn’t mean it isn’t somewhere on your disk. It’s just that PageMaker isn’t going to look for it. That’s your job. Find it and press Link.
TIFF files used in PageMaker can be edited in a Paint program which handles TIFFs. As long as you do not change the name of the TIFF document, the edited version will print, and not the original.
Pasting and Placing graphics produce different results. Placed graphics have opaque backgrounds, pasted graphics are transparent. Placed graphics can be scaled to great looking sizes. Pasted graphics give no clue as to good scaling sizes. You are on your own. Also, Placed text is transparent, pasted text is opaque. Just the opposite of graphics.
Have you ever placed an entire Scrapbook? And why? The why is easy. Because using the Place command instead of a Copy and Paste, means that your imported graphic will scale to PageMaker’s magic graphic arts sizes.
When you place a Scrapbook, images are Placed in the order of their number in the Scrapbook, starting with page 1. So, if you put something in the Scrapbook which you will be needing soon in PageMaker, Paste it up near the front of the Scrapbbok.
When the Scrapbook is placed, you keep clicking pictures into PageMaker until the one you wanted is Placed. At that point, click the Scrapbook placing incon in the Toolbox, and it will forget the rest of the Scrapbook.
The most efficient way to use the Scrapbook to Place a specific image is to make sure that this image is on Page 1 of the Scrapbook. That makes it easy. Also, remember, you can start new Scrapbooks specifically to hold certain graphics for PageMaker. PageMaker’s Place command can see your Scrapbooks, even if they are not named “Scrapbook File.”
To draw a line in a precise location, first pull a ruler guide to the desired location, then draw the line with Snap to Rulers checked.
Once a PageMaker line is drawn, it doesn’t matter which tool drew it. When you click on the line and grab a handle to resize it, you will have to use the Shift key to keep it straight.
When you click on text or graphics to move them, if you immediately start the move, the content disappears and you get a bounding box, which lets you position the item correctly. If you prefer, pause a moment before dragging, and you get a dotted line border and a real image of the contents which you can see as you drag. Pausing while dragging a handle of a graphic forces PageMaker to redraw the image again. This way you can keep checking on your progress as you drag by pausing for a redraw.
To regain the correct proportion on a PageMaker graphic which has been stretched, hold the Shift key down while you click on any handle.
Try graying out a Paint or TIFF image and using it as a background for your text. Gray it out with Image Control.
What takes longer redrawing times? Here are a few things:
• color—turn it off
• ungreeked text—change greeking in Preferences
• facing pages—work without Facing Pages checked
• graphics—input them last
In Image Control, click-dragging across the graph will align the bars to the path you dragged, no matter how curved the line is.
If you are working on a color-capable Mac, be sure you work in black and white in PageMaker unless you are making some real use of the color. Color slows down redraw in PageMaker.
Both TIFF and EPS images revert to 72 dpi bitmaps when passed through the Clipboard.
EPS images can be converted to PICT by holding down the Option key while copying to the Clipboard. Now the PICT can be pasted (not placed) into PageMaker and still retain high resolution.
When you draw a thick line if you drag carefully you can place the line on either side of the crosshair. It will snap back and forth.
USE FLY EAST PICTURE (NOT SAME) AND MY PRINTING PRESS PICTURE
There are a lot of different TIFF formats, unfortunately. If you find one that won’t place in PageMaker, take it into DeskPaint or some other program whose TIFF files you know do import. Save As the TIFF there, and now you can place it in PageMaker.
Double lines in the PageMaker line selection menu will leave a nice white reversed line when placed on a black background. This is a quick way to get a reversed line.
Navigating Around PageMaker
Although only five views are provided in PageMaker’s menu, there are actually seven views available. To see “Fit in World” which displays the entire pasteboard, hold down the Shift key while selecting Fit in window from the Page menu. To see a 400% view, hold down the Shift key while selecting 200% size from the Page menu (don’t use the keyboard equivalent—it doesn’t work.
If you click the mouse button where you want to center Actual size (100%) view, PageMaker will center that point on your screen as it goes to Actual size.
Command/Tab moves you forward one page. Command/Shift/Tab takes you back a page.
Switching from Fit in Window to 100% view and back again is available by keystroke. On 2.0 or later versions of PageMaker it is done with a mouse click while pressing the Option/Command keys. On earlier versions, Command/click does it. And the Option key lets you drag the screen in any direction with the mouse.
PageMaker turns pages if you use Command/Tab to go forward, or Shift/Command/Tab to go backward. (Thanks, MacValley Voice, Burbank, CA MUG.)
Hold down the Shift key (isn't that a marvelous key?) while selecting Fit in Window and you get… FIT IN WORLD. This view shows you the entire pasteboard, even when in facing pages mode. Makes it handy to store lots of often-used graphics all around the pasteboard. Aldus didn't put this one in the manual -- shades of Bill Atkinson!
Always start a new document with more pages than you really need. It’s easier to delete unused pages than to keep adding new ones. Also, you can use an “extra” page as a scratch page to try out layout ideas.
If you break a document larger than 128 pages into smaller pieces, split it evenly. Don’t try to cram 128 pages into the first section and another 20 into the second. If you decide to make additions of more than a page in the first 128-page section, you will run into problems and will have to transfer pages into the second section. Leave breathing room.
One quick way to move around the screen is to select the pointer tool and press the mouse. Start dragging a “selection” rectangle. When your selection rectangle hits the edge of the screen, the document will scroll. Start this rectangle outside of any existing text or graphics block.
To zoom in to 200% at a specific location on the page, point the cursor where you want to zoom in and press Shift/Option/Command as you click the mouse.
PageMaker Versions
Be sure you are getting Aldus publications for PageMaker owners. Currently there is Master Pages, a bi-monthly pub with lots of excellent hints and tutorials.
Don't convert Pagemaker 1.2 documents to 2.0X or 3.0X if you don't have to. They are a lot of trouble to patch up. Keep 1.2 around. Keep the old Aldus Prep on a handy floppy and stick it in the drive when asked. I often do this for clients whose original work was done in 1.2. Of course I make their new documents in the latest available version.
Where did Aldus get that name? I know, I know, it's for Aldus Manutius. a16th century scholar, entrepreneur and inventor of italic type.
But where did Brainerd and his cohorts come up with that? In a library in Corvallis, Oregon, while they were thumbing through a book on the history of publishing.
On that same swing down through Oregon, Brainerd became convinced that business offices needed publishing software more than their first market target -- newspapers. (Old Oregon Magazine, Spring 1987)
Speed up Pagemaker 2.0 and up. Put the hyphenation documents in the System Folder. It has to hunt for them if you place them elsewhere. Same goes for the Pagemaker Help file. (Bill Davis, ClubMacMidwest)
If you are using one of the early versions (1.0 through 2.0) of PageMaker, it is safer to use Cut to get rid of text blocks instead of using the Backspace key, which can crash early versions of PageMaker.
PageMaker on a 512k Mac with no hard disk requires that you use a version prior to 3.0, since later versions are too big for an 800k disk. You may also find yourself doing a lot of disk swapping. The correct technique for disk swapping is to remove all unneeded desk accessories and fonts from your System. Place your source documents and art on the System disk. The PageMaker application goes on the other disk. Save your document to a third disk, saving to it periodically. This setup results in the least amount of disk swapping.
Pagemaker 3.0X is a good upgrade. Be sure you move up to it if you have a hard disk. It will:
• flow text automatically throughout a page or document, with keyboard control
• provide style sheets -- user definable
• include 30 templates
• support spot color
• wrap text around graphics in several ways
• give you independent horizontal and vertical measuring preferences
• optional greeking
• precision alignment of side by side text
• new keyboard shortcuts
• extra pages for text overflow
Pensacola (FL) MUG found a dialog box in Pagemaker 2.0a that says: "Cannot select text. Internal error: bad hole record index detected by line walker. 7107:5506." It seems that there were empty text blocks on the page. The user inadvertently tried to pour text into those areas. Removing the blank text blocks solved the problem.
If an old version of PageMaker is going to remain on your hard disk after you upgrade, be sure to place the old version in a folder labeled PageMaker X.XX (the old version’s number). This is particularly true during the upgrade process. To properly upgrade, PageMaker’s installer needs to see the old version in a folder named PageMaker X.XX, where X.XX is the old PageMaker version number. Be sure the Aldus Prep and .apd files for the old versions are inside this folder during the installation of the upgraded version.
Pagemaker 2.0 works more smoothly with Multifinder and/or with lots of DAs if you use FEdit or MacSnoopy and change 0102 011F to 0102 01FF. (Thanks Mouse Tracks from Portland (OR) MUG.)
Some people say they crash PageMaker 3.01. I run PageMaker at least three hours a day. I run 17 INITs, 32 DAs, 11 FKEYs and 68 fonts. If you have a reproducible bug which you get with PageMaker 3.01 and a clean 6.02 System set, please let me know about it. Drop me a line.
It is PageMaker bashing time out there in Quark and ReadySetGo country. As for me, I’ll trust PageMaker to take the time necessary to give me every feature I really need in due time. And they will leave the great PageMaker interface basically alone. But I do expect them to keep up—or else.
PageMaker works sort of like putting things together with rubber cement and an Exacto knife. I like that. On the other hand, if you want to write a long book with most pages formatted the same way, consider ReadySetGo.
Anyone who hasn't upgraded from Pagemaker 1.2 to at least 2.0, try this:
Get someone to let you create a document in 2.0 or a later version, saving it at intervals. Then print it out and time the process.
Now go back to 1.2 and create the same document, saving the same number of times. Now print it.
I'm here to tell you, you will kill to get 2.0 or 3.0X after you go back to the waiting game in 1.2.
And I didn't say anything about changing type sizes in one point increments with keystrokes, or changing column widths by grabbing a handle.
Or lots of other stuff.
START SORTING HERE
Make liberal use of the non-printing guidelines you can pull down from the top ruler bar, or from the left ruler bar. They will help you line up items on pages.
As soon as you have fully mastered PageMaker, you can remove to Help file to a storage disk, saving that space for other uses. If you ever need Help, calling for it will prompt you to insert the disk with the Help file on it.
If PageMaker freezes up, try this if PageMaker will let you: Copy each page into the Scrapbook. Now open a new, blank PageMaker document and paste the pages into it. It won’t always work, but it’s worth a try.
To leave the Help file instantly available after a single use, choose Close from the Guidance menu, not the close box on the Help window, and Guidance will remain active in the window bar for your next use.
Using Items From the File Menu
You can create a custom size PageMaker document by checking Custom in New under the File menu and filling in the desired size
Using Start page #: in the Page Setup dialog box, you can number the first page of your document anything you wish. This is handy when you are doing a document in sections. Start each section with the appropriate page number.
If you are embarked on a dangerous part of your creation, the Open publication dialog box lets you open a Copy of your document. This leaves your original document safe and sound while you try something new on the Copy. Decide which one will be your new working copy after you finish making changes on the Copy. The default in the Open publication dialog box is Original. You’ll have to check Copy if that is what you want.
The Save As… choice in the Save publication dialog box has several uses:
1) You can save a copy of your document as a template for future use.
2) You can change the name of your document, and throw the other copy away later.
3) You can save your document (or a copy of it) to another disk or location.
4) Save a copy wth a different name while retaining an unchanged original.
5) Save As… also removes Revert material which PageMaker keeps hanging around, so that you can go back to a previously saved version. This slims your document down considerably. Just be sure you won’t be needing to Revert, because a Save As… with the same name will delete the copy of your document which had that capability.
When you are working in PageMaker, are you sometimes frustrated because when you click on a graphic or text which is right on top of a guide line, you move the guideline instead of the text or graphic? Go to the Preferences… dialog box and set the Guides to Back. Now when you click on any item located on top of a guideline, it will be selected, and not the guideline.
If it is easier for you to measure something in PageMaker by starting at zero, grab the dotted cross-hairs in the upper left corner of the screen and position the zero point where you want to start measuring. You can always return the zero point to its original location by grabbing the cross-hairs again and dragging them back to the starting point.
Command/U will toggle Snap to Guides on and off. If you need to precisely position an item near, but not at, a guideline, turn off Snap to Guides.
If you have a color-capable Mac, use Color Palette (Command /K) under the Options menu to mark a word, phrase, sentence or text block in a distinctive color, reminding you to come back later and correct a name, supply a missing fact, or otherwise question a particular part of a document.
To get a new color for your Color Palette, hold down the Shift key while you select Edit… in the Edit color dialog box.
You can use any of the menus you wish to while the text or graphic tool is loaded. Only when the cursor is in the main screen area will it be a text or graphic tool.
Items dragged to the pasteboard area will not be deleted when you delete a page.
For Math Cripples (Like Me). To figure out the decimal equivalent of a fraction in Pagemaker, go to the Indents/Tabs menu. Click on the ruler at the fraction value you want to convert. The decimal equivalent will appear in the right side of the dialog box. (Thanks, Linda Spaulding, MacValley Voice, Burbank MUG, Calif.)
Mac II owners running PageMaker should work in black and white until the last minute, then switch over to color for any necessary color work. PageMaker runs a lot faster in black and white.
If you run into problems in PageMaker, don’t forget that it is possible to use an Exacto knife and rubber cement, just like you used to. Sometimes low-tech beats the crap out of high-tech solutions. Smart Maccers know when to use low-tech.
The presence of Vaccine INIT may prevent PageMaker 3.0.1 from installing correctly. Remove it from your System, install PageMaker, then put Vaccine back in.
To make lo-o-o-o-ng fat fonts on the LaserWriter type them in MacDraw and import into PageMaker as a PICT. Now drag one of the buttons to make your text long and wide or narrow and very tall. The LaserWriter printout will produce smoothed text in the aspect or proportion you stretched it to.
If you Save As… a Pagemaker document, you save about 40% of the memory required, since the Save As… version does not retain a “Revert” copy. Of course if you start making changes, Pagemaker builds that “Revert” copy, and you lose the advantage quickly — but for storage on completion of a document — great!
Does PageMaker open up with the defaults you prefer? Or do you have to set them by hand every time?
You can set any non-grayed out item as a default while you are on PageMaker‘s gray desktop (no document open yet). These defaults will be used on any new document you open from then on.
On the other hand, to set defaults for a specific document or a template, wait until you have an open document. Click the pointer tool in any blank area of the screen. Now any menu selections you make will apply to that document, or if it is a template, to all copies of the template you open.
For a quickie Save in PageMaker, click the current page number icon. Turning or deleting a page also saves. These mini-saves permit a Revert if needed. You’ll revert to the last menu or Command/S Save.
To save a PageMaker document after a crash, open the largest PMF00X (not PFM000) file in the System Folder. Do NOT rename it until it is on the screen. Delete the PMF00X file later on.
If you have an extended keyboard (with the F1 through F15 keys plus the Shift key) PageMaker lets you select tools by keystroke. Shift plus the F1 through F4 keys select the pointer, diagonal line, perpendicular line, and text tools, respectively. The Shift key plus the F5 through F8 keys select the square rectangle, rounded corner rectangle, oval and cropping tools, respectively.
If you are using Font Sizer to produce nice looking screen representation of oddball font sizes, and don’t feel you have room for all of the different sizes of a font you would like to have present, make ONE size of the font, but make it the largest you will be using. This one size will give you a 90 to 95% better view of ALL the smaller sizes of that font. This method will give you “pretty good,” instead of “perfect.” Font Sizer is by U.S. MicroLabs, Austin, TX.
Do you ever need to rotate text in Pagemaker? If you are tired of leaving Pagemaker to do it in MacDraw or some other such program, why not try the Canvas DA, which will let you rotate text without leaving Pagemaker.
I have seen several instances of faulty leading in MUG newsletters using Pagemaker to manually "wrap" text around a graphic. To avoid this mistake, first click on the uppermost of the two text blocks. Drag a guide line down until it exactly covers the bottom line of the text block. Now click on the lower text block and drag it until its top text block line exactly covers the guide line you pulled down. Click away from the text blocks and you will see that your text is properly spaced.
Don't forget to "Save As…" any Pagemaker document to skinny it down to a decent size. The other day I took a 308k Pagemaker 3.0 document down to 49k!
How can that be, you ask? The culprit in this case consisted of pages of graphics which were placed in Pagemaker and then cropped to a tiny portion of the entire page. Pagemaker dutifully remembers all that cropped off art — just in case you decide you want it later.
When you "Save As…" all that unused graphic is discarded. Even if you don't have this situation, try a "Save As…" anyway. Bet you save some space!
If the last line of your story in Pagemaker has too much leading above it, place your cursor after the last character and hit Return once. Notice the difference in leading.
To line forms in Pagemaker, construct a set of lines that are spaced exactly right. Select them together with a selection rect angle and drag them off to the pasteboard area. When you want to use that configu ration, drag the set of line next to, but not on top of the area where they are need ed. Now it will be easy to place new lines which match the spacing of your template. When finished, drag the tem plate set of lines back to the pasteboard. Be sure no part of the lines is within the page you ar working on.
If you create a Pagemaker document with the page range in Page Setup accidentally set to 1 to 0 pages, you may not notice that you have built your document on the R page! It won’t print. To correct this situation, Select the entire R page. Open a New Pagemaker document with the page range set to 1 of 1 and Paste into page 1 of the new document.
How about three ways to get Postscript letters bigger than 127 points in Pagemaker? Maybe you didn’t know that, contrary to the manual, Pagemaker will let you fill a page with a single character!
• Create text in an object oriented program (MacDraw, MacDraft, etc.) Save azs PICT, import with a Place command in Pagemaker and grab the lower right corner and stretch. Holding the Shift key down preserves proportion.
• Do the same thing without leaving Pagemaker by creating the letters in either Draw or Scribbler. Now Place and stretch.
• Best of all, type the letters directly into Pagemaker. Cut them, Paste into SmartScrap (not the regular Apple Scrapbook). Now use the marquee tool in SmartScrap to select just the letters. Don’t Cut the entire SmartScrap page. Now Cut just the selection and Paste back into Pagemaker. Stretch as desired.
Remember, if you Cut the entire SmartScrap page, you get a text block in Pagemaker, and you can’t stretch text contained in a text block.
What does “Last Modified” mean in Pagemaker 3.0? Just that you opened and closed your document at that time. That’s all it takes to change the date, so watch out.
Try this with Send to Back. Just hold down the Command key and click where the objects are. They will cycle into active mode as you click.
How do you get a screen dump of the Option or Shift/Option keyboard characters in KeyCaps?
Resources from San Diego MUG says press the Option key, hold down the mouse button with the cursor away from the KeyCaps window, while still holding the mouse button, press Command/Shift/3. Now press the Option key again before releasing the mouse.
For Option/Shift keyboard, use Shift/Option in both places above where only Option was used.
If you take these KeyCaps images into PageMaker, you can reduce them to as small as 24% of original and they will turn out beautifully. Be sure to hold down the Shift and Command keys while reducing to insure "graphic arts" sizes which will print well at 300 dpi.
Pagemaker Quickies
• 400% view? Hold the Shift key down while selecting 200%.
• Hold the Shift key down while going to Page # X and you get a slide show of all pages of the document. Stop it by clicking on the chosen page.
• Shift/Revert reverts to the last mini-save instead of the last Save.
• Shift/Edit in Define Colors gives you the Apple color wheel instead of the editing menu.
• Option/Print gives you the Apple Print dialog box instead of the Aldus version. Now hold down Option while selecting OK, and you get Apple's LaserWriter option dialog box.
• Command/Click a style name to bring up its editing box.
• Command/Click a color to edit it.
To start Pagemaker documents on a left-hand page, number your document starting with page 2 instead of 1.
For 101 Great Desktop Publishing tips, get the September 1987 issue of Publish!
Option key while selecting Spacing recomposes the entire document, updating to fonts in current System.
Shift key while selecting Go to Page = slide show of all pages in the document.
Shift key while selecting 200% = 400%.
Suggested size for a Stepping Out screen for PageMaker is 640x710 pixels.
If you have a "loaded" System Folder, why not make a Storage Folder within the System Folder. Drag seldom used LaserWriter font icons, drivers for printers not currently in use, etc., into this Folder. When they are needed, drag them out and reboot. This saves a lot of clutter in the System Folder.
LaserFX, a program with 30 special effects for the regular LaserWriter fonts is available for $195.
You can use up to 1,000 feet of Apple Talk cable between a Mac and a LaserWriter.
NEED AN ARTICLE ON SAVES, MINI-SAVES, REVERTS, SAVE AS, ETC. P. 92 in Weigand’s book for a starter.
NEED DEFAULTS ARTICLE (RE BOTH PROGRAM AND DOCUMENT DEFAULTS)
You don’t have to completely de-select Facing Pages to do one special page. Temporarily de-select Facing Pages, remove Master page items from the “special page,” then re-select Facing Pages and finish your document. Now, before you print, de-select Facing Pages again for the target pair of pages. The document will now print correctly.
You can place either text or graphics outside of the designated margins. The material will print as long as you don’t exceed the limits of PageMaker or the printer you are using.
If you can’t move the Zero point, look at the Zero Lock command in the Options menu and uncheck it.
If you are working in picas, you can set measurements in inches in dialog boxes. Or you can type in picas when working in inches, etc. Just use these initials to tell PageMaker that you are departing from the standard working measurement: i for inches, m for millimeters, p for picas or points and c for ciceros. Like this: 3p6 equals 3 picas and 6 points, or 4i equals 4 inches.
On extended keyboards, Control/Shift F1 through F8 select tools from the Toolbox. The F1 to F8 are left to right, top row of tools first.
INCLUDE A TOTAL LIST OF KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS. DO IT ALPHABETICAL BY ACTION AND BY KEYSTROKE COMBINA TIONS.
If you add an odd number of pages to an existing PageMaker document, check all succeeding pages to make sure your layout remains intact.
Use the guidelines you can pull out of the rulers liberally. They help define areas for things, and will react to Snap to Guides, to permit better placement of graphics and text blocks.
Try Thumbnails one of these days. For example, if you have a 16 page document, ask PageMaker to print out Thumbnails at 16 per page. You get a neat sheet with 16 little images of your pages on it. The more thumbnails you ask for per page, the less readable the little suckers are. The default is 16. You can have as many as 64 and as few as 2 per page.
