Acrobat 4 OnLine Help Deficiencies

[Dan Emory <danemory -at- primenet -dot- com>]

Below is the procedure on pages 111-112 of the Acrobat 4 Online Guide 
regarding the
setup of Distiller PPD's on Windows Platforms. I have annotated the 
information where
it is erroneous, misleading, or incomplete. This example typifies the total 
inadequacy of
Adobe's documentation of the Acrobat product.

Setting up a Distiller printer (Windows)
The AdobePS printer driver and an Acrobat Distiller PPD are included in the
default Acrobat installation. You can set up additional Distiller printer 
drivers?
for example, if you need to have both an RGB printer and a CMYK printer, or if
you want to have different printers for different applications.
=============================================
<Annotation: This is very misleading.  You can set up multiple Distiller PPDs
(in addition to the one that's initially installed) in the XTRAS subfolder of
the Distiller folder but the online guide does not describe how you do it.
There are four more (uninstalled) Distiller PPDs in the
Utilities\Drivers\PPD Files\Windows folder of the CD, but these are 
strictly for
Asian languages. If they are needed, they must be copied from the CD
to the XTRAS folder under Distiller. If there is anything about installing
these PPDs when they are needed, I haven't found it in the online Guide.>
===================================================
For each Distiller printer, you need to select a PPD and a destination 
folder for the PDF output.
The AdobePS printer driver uses a folder called PDF Output in your Acrobat
folder as the destination for PDF files. You can change this to another folder,
which can be helpful if you prefer to keep PDF files in another part of 
your hard
drive or if the drive with the PDF Output folder is full.
========================================================
<Annotation: The above statement pertains to the procedure below, which
has nothing to do with creating additional Distiller PPDs. The procedure
below tells you how to set up a printer that uses a Distiller PPD after that
PPD exists in the XTRAS subfolder.>
===================================================
To set up a printer to use the AdobePS driver and a Distiller PPD
(Windows):
1 Launch the setup utility for AdobePS Printer Driver from the Drivers folder
on your Acrobat CD.
==================================================
<Annotation: It's not in the Drivers folder, it's in Utilities\Drivers\ 
Win95&98.
What's more, there are no less than 5 files named setup in that folder.
If the user has used Windows Explorer, and that user is not very experienced,
he/she could easily select the wrong one, or just give up.
================================================
2 Follow the online instructions to progress through the introduction, accept
the license agreement, and copy the setup program to your local disk.
3 Choose Local Printer as your printer type, and click Next.
4 Locate the Xtras folder in your Acrobat Distiller folder, select an Acrobat
Distiller PPD in the list, and click Next.
5 Select FILE: in the list of ports, and click Next.
6 Follow the online instructions to proceed with the setup, and click Exit when
you are finished.
7 Choose Settings > Printers from the Windows Start menu.
8 Do one of the following:
In Windows 95 or 98, right-click the printer you want to use, and choose
Properties. Click the Fonts tab, click Send Fonts As, choose Type 42 (for
TrueType fonts) or Outlines (for Type 1 outline fonts) from the pop-up menu,
enter 1 as the threshold, and click OK. Click OK in the Properties dialog box.
In Windows NT, right-click the printer you want to use, and choose
Document Defaults. Click the Advanced tab, select TrueType Font Download
Option under PostScript Options, select Automatic or Native TrueType (for
TrueType fonts) or Outline (for Type 1 outline fonts), and click OK.
Note: Entering the threshold value in Windows 95 or 98 ensures that TrueType
fonts will not be converted to Type 3 fonts in a PostScript file. Type 3 
fonts can
cause PDF files to be unnecessarily large. Instead, the fonts will be 
converted to
Type 42 or Type 1.
======================================================
<Annotatioin: Step 8 seems to imply is that the only thing one must do to
set up a printer is to select how fonts are to be treated. There are many,
many more settings than this.>
====================
| Nullius in Verba |
====================
Dan Emory, Dan Emory & Associates
FrameMaker/FrameMaker+SGML Document Design & Database Publishing
Voice/Fax: 949-722-8971 E-Mail: danemory -at- primenet -dot- com
10044 Adams Ave. #208, Huntington Beach, CA 92646
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