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Several times lately I have proposed what seemed like obvious (to me) solutions for automating repetitive tasks at work and have been met with delight from coworkers who didn't realize such things were possible.
In the spirit of sharing such revelations, then, I give you my current Tips for Tech Writers:
1 - If you have a sequence of repetitive tasks you perform on PDFs for publication, you can probably create an Adobe .sequ batch file to do them for you. For example, I just set one up that does the following:
- delete comments
- set viewing options
- prompts for document properties
- sets security
Run the batch file (Acrobat -> Advanced menu -> Batch Processing), save your file, and voila! All those tedious steps collapse into one.
2 - Likewise, if you're using the same settings over and over for generating PDFs from FrameMaker through Distiller, save them as a .joboption and set it as your default. That way, you don't have to redo all your settings for each new book you're working on.
3 - Not related to automation, but handy to know anyway: If you need to fake text on or in a dialog box, Paint is your friend. No really. Paint is too simple for most things, but the one thing it does really really well is match the standard Microsoft GUI font (MS Sans Serif).
I adore TechSmith Snagit for taking screen shots, but when it comes to finessing the text, back to Paint I go. (Ohho, looks like there's a Snagit for Mac now. Excellent.)
In the spirit of sharing such revelations, then, I give you my current Tips for Tech Writers:
1 - If you have a sequence of repetitive tasks you perform on PDFs for publication, you can probably create an Adobe .sequ batch file to do them for you. For example, I just set one up that does the following:
- delete comments
- set viewing options
- prompts for document properties
- sets security
Run the batch file (Acrobat -> Advanced menu -> Batch Processing), save your file, and voila! All those tedious steps collapse into one.
2 - Likewise, if you're using the same settings over and over for generating PDFs from FrameMaker through Distiller, save them as a .joboption and set it as your default. That way, you don't have to redo all your settings for each new book you're working on.
3 - Not related to automation, but handy to know anyway: If you need to fake text on or in a dialog box, Paint is your friend. No really. Paint is too simple for most things, but the one thing it does really really well is match the standard Microsoft GUI font (MS Sans Serif).
I adore TechSmith Snagit for taking screen shots, but when it comes to finessing the text, back to Paint I go. (Ohho, looks like there's a Snagit for Mac now. Excellent.)
