Demonstration/discussion of techniques for improving and enriching PDFs authored in FrameMaker, and how to achieve these goals automatically and consistently, using TimeSavers general settings and/or TimeSavers hypertext markers placed in individual FrameMaker files.

1. Better PDFs with
FrameMaker-to-
Acrobat TimeSavers
Shlomo Perets, microtype.com

2. 1
Additional info and examples
■ “36 Ways to Improve Your PDFs
with TimeSavers/Assistants”
www.microtype.com/ImprovePDF.html
■ TimeSavers/Assistants Showcase
www.microtype.com/showcase.html
■ TimeSavers info, order form
www.microtype.com/TimeSavers.html

3. 2
Next TimeSavers/Assts webinar
Walkthrough: From static PDF to rich
interactive PDF using FrameMaker-to-
Acrobat TimeSavers/Assistants
Monday, March 14, 2011
(10-11am PDT)

4. 3
Four phases in PDF creation
■ Create (the PDF from a FrameMaker
source file)
■ Enhance (additions with Acrobat tools)
labor-intensive, repetitive process which
cannot be re-used in future versions
■ Test (does everything work and look OK?)
■ Distribute (web, CD, software)

5. 4 Create Enhance Test Distribute
FrameMaker
Save as PDF
PostScript
files
Acrobat
? Reader
Distiller Search
Optimize
PDF file
Optimize
?
PDX
Catalog (Full-text
index)

6. 5
PDF = final format!
PDF is essentially a non-revisable format
● Paragraphs converted to lines, single lines
might be converted to multiple segments
● No document structure and flow
● Editing text in Acrobat may result in letter
spacing problems
● Some Acrobat editing operations might have
unexpected results

7. 6
Enhancing PDFs in Acrobat
■ Features added in Acrobat “disappear”
when you redistill (after changing
FrameMaker source files)
■ It is not practical to re-create features
every time the source file is distilled
■ Quality control considerations

8. 7
“Avoiding” Acrobat?
■ Rely on FrameMaker automatically-
generated data as much as possible
● Cross-references converted to Acrobat links
● Hypertext commands converted to Acrobat
links
● Selected paragraphs converted to bookmarks
● Text flows converted to articles
● DocInfo, DocView, Cropping, Destinations

9. 8
“Avoiding” Acrobat?
CONTINUED
■ Add other features to your source
FM files using FM-to-Acrobat TimeSavers
and Assistants (TimeSavers add-ons):
● Form Assistant
● Navigation Assistant
● Multimedia Assistant
● 3D Assistant
● Presentation Assistant

10. 9 Create Enhance Test Distribute
FrameMaker
with internal
PDF
definitions
PostScript Save as PDF
files Acrobat
? Reader
TimeSavers/
Assistants
Search
Distiller
Optimize
Optimize
PDF file
?
PDX
Catalog (Full-text
index)

11. 10
Added value
For electronic documents to effectively
replace printed manuals, you must
provide added value:
■ Interactivity
■ Useful bookmarks
■ Cross-document search
■ Multimedia

12. 11
Added value
CONTINUED
■ Document initial view settings
■ Document information fields
■ Notes
■ Custom named destinations
■ Page labels
■ Index (PDX) automounting

13. 12
TS bookmark controller
■ Collapse the bookmark hierarchy to
first or second level
■ Remove paragraph numbering
■ Merge bookmarks
■ Colorize/style bookmark by text/level

14. 13
TS bookmark controller
CONTINUED
■ Extract figure/table bookmarks
■ Add & sort quick-access bookmarks
■ Change/remove bookmark start
■ Re-order custom bookmarks

15. 14
TS link controller
■ Globally control link attributes, such as:
● Highlight style
● Border line width
● Line style and color
(underline = visible on screen, non printing)
■ Force cross-file links to open in a
new window

16. 15
TS specific bookmarks/links
Using pre-defined shortcuts in hypertext
markers:
■ Point to URLs, e-mail feedback
■ Point to other PDFs, media or data files
■ Common Acrobat actions (e.g. Search)
■ Acrobat JavaScript