Technical Tips

On this page, we present some handy downloadable files and interesting links. To download PDFs without opening them in a Windows browser, right-click the link; on a Mac, Control-click or click-and-hold the link. By the way, if anyone finds an error or important omission in these files, please let me know! Last update = 23 June 2001.

Frame Things

	The infamous Word2Frame document describing tips and techniques for converting from Word to Frame or Frame to Word. At the end of the file is a Word 97 macro you can use (on a MIF) to change the first line of tables to a heading row.
	An example of how to set reversed type without using a table. Handy when you want your reversed type to be picked up in the TOC (when it's in a table, it can end up out of order). MIF file.
	Simple two-column table of the most common fonts, TT on one side, PS on the other, that I use for checking Frame's font substitution tables. If you're not familiar with Frame, don't let the phrases "regular, regular, regular" scare you.
	Same as above, as a Frame MIF file (156 KB).
	Over the years I've developed (what I think anyway) is a pretty nifty font conversion section of the maker.ini file. It covers lots of common PostScript <> TrueType conversions, some Bitstream <> Adobe, and a few other items.
	A set of files illustrating some of the interesting things you can do with Frame in the student testing environment. Among other things, it includes examples of using conditional to turn off test answers, using anchored frames to circle correct answers or show fill-in-the-blank answers, and an example of an OCR-type answer page where the ovals are filled in for the leader but hidden for the student. Includes native FM7, MIF, and an EPS. Click the icon for a zip file; click here for a stuffed file.
	A Web-based help system for FrameMaker. This opens a new browser.

General Topics

	There and back again: Working between Acrobat and desktop publishing applications. Creating a PDF is easy, but sometimes you have to go the other way. This page talks about what's available to help.
	A write-up of my personal approach to organizing fonts, and how to execute it in ATM Deluxe. Valid for Macintosh and Windows.
	Whom to blame? A short story that illustrates how you should take caution when placing blame on an application, an operating system, etc.
	Trying to figure out how to set up Frame to deal with numbering such as Table 2-3, Figure 2-4? Considering using chapter-page numbering? After you read this, maybe you won't want to bother.

Frame versus Word

In general, a very good resource to call upon happens to be the Word newsgroups such as word.numbering and word.formatting.longdocs. These groups are full of posts from people at the end of their rope: "Help! Word screwed up my numbering" or "My document is trashed and won't open!" There are few of these problems that could not be solved quickly and easily in FrameMaker.

	How to give a Frame vs. Word Demo: A picture is worth a thousand white papers.
	A site maintained by Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) discusses why one should not use Word's book (master and subdocuments) feature . . . a feature one uses to try to create a book, an everyday task in Frame. (This page does not work in Safari.)
	Link to external Web page that has collected more Word versus Frame links than I have here. Click the "FrameMaker vs. Microsoft Word et. al." link at the top.
	A diatribe from a Word expert. Worth reading.
	A white paper from DigiPub Solutions Corp. It's a PDF you'll see on the page that appears. (Note: Appears broken right now.)
	A nicely written paper contrasting strengths and weaknesses. By Alex Ragen, Technical Publications Manager, Check Point Software Technologies, Ltd.