A Beginner's Guide to Adobe Framemaker
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a beginner’s guide to adobe framemaker by Julia Basal, Melissa Mahoney, & Michael Sullivan a beginner’s guide to adobe framemaker by Julia Basal, Melissa Mahoney, & Michael Sullivan acknowledgements We would like to thank Professor Janine Solberg for her guidance and editorial input. Special thanks goes to our teaching assistants Garrett Russell and Ismail Eddafali for their excellent tutorials in class and patient assistance in the PWTC computer lab. Finally, we would like to thank our classmates for their support and humor during times of stress. iii introduction For those not involved in the world of technical writing, Adobe FrameMaker may sound like a photo-editing or framing-design application. Its a program that you probably hadn’t heard of until your first technical writing class or perhaps even until the first job that you applied for. But you may have gathered that for many tech writing jobs, FrameMaker is a staple for recommended knowledge. So why is a relatively unknown program like FrameMaker such a big deal anyway? FrameMaker is the industry standard for building long documents in the world of tech writing. Want to write a 1000-page manual on a user interface? No problem. FrameMaker handles large and intricate documents in a simple editing interface called Unstructured Authoring much better than home word processors like Microsoft Word. Are you drafting instructions for a website that has separate procedures for Free Mem- bership versus Premium Membership? Simply write one document for both, tagging the text specific to each version of the software with a function called conditional text. FrameMaker allows you to single-source your content, meaning that you can create mul- tiple final outputs from a single source text. Need content that can be incorporated into your company’s DITA scheme or Content Management System? Done. FrameMaker has a Structured Authoring mode that allows you to create documentation in XML format. For these reasons and more, knowledge of FrameMaker has become one the most sought-after skills for any starting technical writer. However, FrameMaker does have a bit of a learning curve. While FrameMaker may share some common characteristics with other Adobe programs like Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, in others it is a whole new animal. That’s why we created A Beginner’s Guide to FrameMaker to bring you through the basics of creating your first document and to lead you in the direction of its more advanced features. Within these pages you’ll learn how to: • Create new blank documents, documents from templates, and master pages in the Unstructured Authoring mode • Modify text through paragraph and character tags • Insert graphics and tables and how to manipulate them within a document • Compile several files into one book with an automatically generated table of con- tents and index • Produce your document in print or online While this manual doesn’t include information on advanced features like tagging condi- tional text or working in the Structured Authoring mode, the basic skills covered here will allow you to create functional, professional, and efficient documentation in no time. iv table of contents acknowledgements . iii introduction . iv table of contents . v chapter 1: getting started . .1 1.1 creating a new document . .2 1.2 using and modifying an existing template . .3 1.3 creating headers, footers, and page numbers . .4 1.4 creating and editing master pages . .5 1.5 applying character and paragraph tags . .6 1.6 saving a work. .8 chapter 2: working with graphics . .9 2.1 inserting a table and applying a new table tag . .10 2.2 importing a graphic . .12 2.3 adding a text frame into a master page . .14 2.4 wrapping text around a graphic. .15 2.5 inserting an anchored frame. .16 chapter 3: organizing content using books. .19 3.1 creating a book . .20 3.2 adding page numbers to a book . .21 3.3 saving a book. .22 3.4 creating a table of contents . .23 3.5 formatting a table of contents . .24 3.6 adding tab leaders to your table of contents . .26 3.7 preparing your document with index markers . .28 3.8 creating your index. .29 3.9 formatting and titling your index. .30 chapter 4: publishing your work . .33 4.1 printing your document. .34 4.2 creating a PDF document . .35 4.3 creating HTML . .36 index . I v This page has been intentionally left blank. vi chapter 1: getting started 1.1 creating a new document FrameMaker is often used to publish lengthy materials, but the work is generally not authored in one unified piece. Instead, FrameMaker uses a system in which many Docu- ments are created and then combined into a Book. Creating a Document is simple and is similar to creating new documents in other Adobe programs. creating a new document 1. Boot Adobe FrameMaker. A pod appears which contains the following options: • The option to reopen Recent Items • The option to Create New items • The option to create new documents using pre-made Templates • The option to view various Resources and Adobe pages 2. Under Create New, select Document. The New dialog box appears. 3. From the top of the dialog box, select either Portrait, Landscape, or Custom lay- out. If you select either Portrait or Landscape, a new document opens with the ori- entation you have selected. If you select Custom, the Custom Blank Paper dialog box appears with the following options: • Page Size: Select a standard size for the pages with the drop-down menu or enter your own values in Width and Height. • Columns: Enter the number of columns you want to appear across the page in the Number field, and provide a distance for the col- umns to be spaced apart in the Gap field. • Column Margins: Enter the distance from the edge of the page of all four sides using the Top, Bot- tom, Left, and Right fields. • Pagination: Use the Single-Sided or Double-Sided options to choose how the book will be printed. Use the drop-down menu to select which side the first page is printed upon. • Units: Use the drop-down menu to change the units that the options appear in. 4. Format the custom page layout as you desire. 5. Click Create. A new document opens with the custom layout. note: European A3, A4, A5, and B5 options will still show up as a default with inches selected. 2 1.2 using and modifying an existing template FrameMaker comes with several templates for letters, memos, reports, newsletters, outlines, and books that you can use to get started on a document that you need to complete quickly. Using templates allows you to focus on the content instead of the layout. However, you can also modify templates to your own specifications and then save them as new tem- plates in your personal template folder. using a template To use a template: 1. From the menu bar, select File > New > Document. The New dialog box appears. 2. From the lower left corner of the dialog box, click Explore Standard Templates. The Standard Templates dialog box appears. 3. From the left-side of the dialog box, click through the template options to see a small preview of each. When you find a template you like, do one of the following: • Click Create: This will create a blank document with the template layout and some placeholder text. • Click Show Sample: This will open a sample document with filler text to show you what a full template might look like. You can work inside this document and make changes to it, however, it might be more time consuming as you will have to replace all of the filler text with your own. Click through the template options to see a small preview. Click Create to open a blank template with placeholder text. Click Show Sample to open a template complete with filler text. 4. Click into the body area of the document and begin entering your text. Note: To create a personalized template, access the Master Pages by clicking View > Master Pages. Adjust the template then click File > Save As and save the template in the desired directory. Save the template with a new name so that you don’t overwrite the original. 3 1.3 creating headers, footers, and page numbers Headers, footers, and page numbers can all be edited within the master pages that you cre- ate in 1.4 Creating and Editing Master Pages. Header and footer elements already exist within master pages that you create. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will create a footer with an author name and page numbers, and a header with chapter titles. to create a footer with text 1. From the menu bar, click View > Master Pages. 2. Click within the body of your A master page. note: You can tell you’re in master page A because the left-hand side of the bar at the bottom of the page will read Flow: A. 3. From the bottom of the page, click within the Footer element. note: You can tell that you are in the footer element because the left-hand side of the bar at the bottom of the page will read Footer. 4. Type the author’s name in the footer. 5. Press the Tab key once to center the text, or twice to right-justify the text. 6. From the menu bar, click File > Save. Your footer is saved. The footer appears on every page that the master page is applied to. adding page numbers to your footer 1.