High DPI settings for Windows
Not all apps behave the same with regard to resolution settings in Windows. For example, I saw a sizing issue in Adobe FrameMaker 2020 recently, after I’d adjusted my monitor to resolve a “fuzziness” issue. In all fairness, the fuzziness issue had more to do with Windows running on VMware Fusion, and the fact that…
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FrameMaker 15.0.7 released
With my work on the 2020 Intro to FrameMaker course, the 2020 New Feature videos, and my own books and courses, I haven’t spent much time lately on FrameMaker 2019, but today I noted an interesting thing: When using the FrameMaker connector to Adobe Experience Manager, my Fm 15.0.6 was locking up. Sure enough, when…
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FrameMaker Digital Book Sale!
To celebrate the release of FrameMaker 16 (Summer 2020 release) for the month of August I’m giving the Tech Comm Tools community 40% off of the new digital versions of my books. To be clear, the FrameMaker 2020 Structured EDD workbook is already available (both print and digital), and the update to both the FrameMaker…
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Amazon Affiliate Links
Here are #techcomm products on Amazon that I’ve purchased and recommend. I use this list to reorder as needed, but they are also Amazon Affiliate links.Using them or clicking the banner above supports Tech Comm Tools without affecting what you pay on Amazon. Networking/Hardware Batteries and cables Not seeing what you need? You can still…
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RoboHelp 2019 and SharePoint
My friend and colleague, Tammy Van Boening recently shared her experiences with RoboHelp 2019 with regard to using SharePoint Online for version control. She’s written two detailed posts about specific issues on her site, and you can get to them using the links contained in this post. Tammy is a fantastic contract scientific technical communicator,…
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A new toy, and a content marketing opportunity
(Skip the Intro section to get to the outline of how I crafted a funnel for eBike referral income.) Intro/Background On Tuesday (May 19, 2020) I felt like a little kid on Christmas morning. That’s because the RadRover5 eBike I ordered on April 9 finally arrived! Given the COVID-19 lockdown, I suppose I should be…
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Resolving Adobe Installer Issues for Windows
Just a quick outline of the steps I take when Adobe installers won’t work. Got a favorite tip not covered here? Please add to the comments below and I’ll update the list. Run installer from a local drive This is first on the list because it may be the only thing that keeps you from…
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UI requests for FrameMaker
SPOILER ALERT: I’m planning on an update to my Working with Content Fm reference book soon, and would love to get these UI elements tightened up in time for that next version. -Matt While teaching a structured authoring class recently, I noted a few things that would improve the FrameMaker authoring experience. I’ve grouped into…
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Setting up HTML5 Navigation in FrameMaker output
Basic HTML5 output from FrameMaker is quite easy and looks surprisingly good. It’s when you want to move beyond the default choices and formatting that you will need to get creative. Such is the case when setting up the navigation panel, or the TOC, in a number of the HTML5 layouts. If your FrameMaker HTML5…
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Labeling Warnings and Cautions in FrameMaker 2019 HTML5 Output
While I love the formatting of my warnings, notes, and cautions in my FrameMaker projects, I don’t love what I currently have to go through to get formatted labeling in the HTML5 output for those projects. This post goes into CSS and HTML5 template topics, so if you don’t like going “under the hood” you…
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Stepping up from Word to Adobe FrameMaker
Learn why FrameMaker is so much more efficient than MS Word for documentation and how you can transition your complex Word documents into Adobe FrameMaker 2019 without skipping a beat. This post, a recap of my free webinar for Adobe in January 2020, will show you: Advantages of using FrameMaker instead of Word Best practices…
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Clearing out Color8 from Fm docs and autonumbering in structured docs
FrameMaker docs sometimes contain odd color definitions, often the result of importing specific graphic types into the content. Today we discussed strategies for identifying, correcting, and removing these definitions from one or more docs. We also had a general discussion around setting up structured applications for mil-spec (government) structure models, and we discussed options for…
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DITA World recordings now available
DITA World was a big success, and (with over 5500 registrants) Stefan Gentz and I were certainly worn out after hosting the 3-day event on October 9-11, 2019! We had great sessions on DITA development, including Lightweight DITA and DITA 2.0. We also had lots of information on iiRDS (an Internet of Things standard) and…
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Session notes from Oct 3 online office hours
Thanks to everyone in my Oct 3, 2019 free office hours session. We had a great lineup of questions from the Tech Comm Tools community, and here’s a recap of what we covered along with a link to the recording: 00:30 Discussion of the (lack of) Object Properties link in the View menu. See my…
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Help me fix an incorrect menu label in Fm 2019
A student in my free Intro to FrameMaker 2019 course noticed that the View > Toolbars > Object Properties menu item brings up an interesting toolbar, rather than the Object Properties pod. Here’s a snap of the toolbar that displays using Fm 15.0.4.751: Even more interesting, the toolbar that comes up has a button (circled…
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