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>I am in the process of converting our biweekly newsletter into PDF
format
>and I have run into some problems.
>Its been simple to convert the frame file into a PDF, but how do you
index it?
There are two kinds of 'index' in this context: (1) you can add a
generated
index to a Frame document by editing index markers to control the
content
and sort order, as described in the Frame book; (2) you can add
a computer-generated index a running a program called Acrobat Catalog
over one or more PDF files. You can do both if you like.
>The online help says to go to Index|New, but I don't have an Index
menu!
You're looking at the help file for Acrobat Catalog, provided with
Distiller, which does indeed have this menu item. I'm pretty sure
that Adobe currently ships all of this stuff with Frame.
>I would like to set up an index to cross reference product names,
>product issues and dates. Can Acrobat handle this?
If you create a traditional index with Frame, as you commonly would
for print production, then you have complete control over the content
of the index. When viewed through Acrobat Reader, the index entries
are hypertext jumps. If you generate an index with Catalog, then you
have no direct control over its content. A Catalog is basically a
precompiled full-text search, with Boolean operators, extracted from
the indexed document.
>Is it easier to combine multiple files into one big Frame file and then
>convert to PDF or convert each file and then use the insert file
command
>in Acrobat to combine the files into a large PDF.
There's a third method: print to the * file name, yielding a nest of
interlocked PostScript files, and then run them through Distiller.
All of these methods have advantages and drawbacks. Which way
is 'best' or 'easiest' opens a large topic that I can't help you with
right now. I'm skeptical of the 'Insert file' method. For most people
most of the time, aiming at translating a brief existing document
without
redesigning it too much, the 'giant pdf' method is a safe place to
start.
>I've been converting each file and then combining them in Acrobat
>since each page is "tweaked" to print on a single piece of paper.
Ouch! I strongly suspect that you can find a better way, provided
you know Frame reasonably well.
>When I tried to combine two files together the text wrapped strangely
>and the template and header are wrong.
I've never tried merging documents like this. Its bizarre behavior
hints that you are following an unusual path.
>It seems like it would be easier to convert to PDF and then tweak
>the bookmarks instead of having Distiller create the bookmarks from
paragraph tags.
To my ears, it's much easier to set it up once and then forget about it-
but then I'm working with 1000 page programmer manuals, not a short
newsletter. Tweeking bookmarks in Exchange can be frustrating. If you
are setting up a newsletter for periodic, ongoing production, then maybe
you need to design a new template that doesn't require so much manual
adjustment.
Steve Pendleton (spendlet -at- cognex -dot- com)
Technical Writer DeLuxe
Cognex, Acumen Products Group
Portland Or
