Computer Graphics Survey

Importing and Formatting Text

Using PageMaker 6.0 on MacOS Computers

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Before beginning the project

If you are working in the ACG Lab click to read these important notes before you start the tutorial. This section of the directions contains information that pertains specifically to the way the ACG Lab operates. It may not apply if you work on the project elsewhere.


Tutorial Description

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Setting Up for Work

  1. Start up (or wake up) the computer.
  2. Create a folder on the desktop for your work.
  3. Insert your Zip disk in the drive.
  4. Find and launch the program PageMaker.
    the Adobe PageMaker 6.0 icon
  5. Use the File-->New command to create a blank new document. You can leave the Document Setup settings at the default values (shown in this picture), then click OK.
    the Document Setup dialog
  6. Immediately save your document to your folder on the desktop, using the menu command File-->Save.
    saving to a folder on the desktop

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Import Text

  1. Use the File-->Place command to display a standard 'Open' dialog box.
  2. Drag to draw a box within the document window. This creates a text column--a portion of the page where you can put type.
    drawing a text box
  3. The box disappears as soon as you release the mouse button. The contents of the text file you selected appear on the page.
    typing at Fit to Window size
  4. Notice that the type is very small. It is so small that PageMaker replaces it with a grey bar (called greeking) instead of wasting time rendering type you could not read anyway. To be able to read your type, change the display magnification using Layout-->View-->Actual Size.
    typing at Actual Size
  5. To be able to select and modify your text, choose the the Text tool by clicking on its icon in the Toolbox (it's the icon marked with a capital 'T'). If the Toolbox is not on the screen, display it by choosing it in the Window menu.
    the text tool (top-right in the toolbox)
  6. You are currently looking at the Layout View of your PageMaker document. For more convenient text entry and/or editing, switch to the Story Editor by clicking the Text tool anywhere in your text, then using Edit-->Edit Story.
    typing in the Story Editor window
  7. Now examine the text you just imported:

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Edit Text

  1. Selecting Text
  2. Erasing
  3. Replacing
  4. Moving and replicating

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Breaking Off Text Blocks

  1. We must resort to this workaround so that when we later create links within our web page they will work properly.
  2. To make room at the top of the page, use the arrow tool to select the text block, and drag down its top windowshade handle:
  3. PageMaker will shift the text down, leaving some empty space at the top of the page. Use the text ('T') tool to drag over the first part of your text, selecting it. Make sure to include the main heading and the entire table of contents, but leave out the body of the page.
  4. Use the Edit-->Cut command to remove the selection and place it in temporary storage (the clipboard).
  5. Still using the text tool, draw a new text block in the top part of the page which you cleared earlier.
  6. When the flashing insertion bar appears at the top-left corner of the new text block, use the Edit-->Paste command to transfer to it your table of contents.
  7. To verify that the table of contents and the body of the page are indeed in separate blocks, choose the arrow tool, then use the Edit-->Select All command. The outlines of the two blocks should be displayed.
  8. Now repeat the same steps to break off each section of the body of the page into its own text box. Make sure that for each line in the table of contents there is a matching section in a separate block. Be careful to retain the correct top-to-bottom sequence for your text sections.
  9. After you are done separating all the sections, again choose the arrow tool and use Edit-->Select All to verify that all the blocks are in place:

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Add Style Sheets

  1. Now we are ready to mark up our text. If the Styles palette is not on the screen, display it using the Window menu. It should list just a few default styles, as shown below:
  2. Use the Utilities-->PageMaker Plug-Ins-->HTML Author command. PageMaker will notify you that it is verifying your document: an error message might appear if you have created elements (such as boxes and circles), which will not export to the web file--just tell PageMaker to proceed. After completing verification, the HTML Author dialog box will appear:

    We will return to this dialog in the next session to complete the conversion to a web page. For now, click on the 'OK' button to let PageMaker know that you intend to mark up the document for the web. A message will appear saying that the appropriate style sheets are being added to your document.
  3. You should now see many more entries in the Styles palette, as shown at the end of this section of the handout.
  4. All of the style sheets with names that begin with "HTML" will translate to valid web page formats (as we'll see in the next session, HTML is the markup standard that makes web pages work with many different programs on a wide variety of computers).

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Apply Style Sheets

  1. To apply the style sheets, use the text tool to select a portion of your type, then click on the name of the appropriate "HTML" style sheet in the Styles palette (make sure not to use any of the non-HTML styles). Notice that, because of a limitation in the way PageMaker style sheets work, only whole paragraphs can be marked up this way (you won't be able to mark up a word by itself without affecting the surrounding type).
  2. Once the style sheet is applied, the type will be reformatted to show an approximation of the way it would look in a typical web page. Keep in mind, however, that the actual appearance of a web page is (and should be) partly outside the control of the designer.
  3. Your choice of style sheets will depend on the relative emphasis you want to give to different parts of your text. In the example shown here, the main heading was marked as "HTML H1", the lines of the table of contents as "HTML Unordered List", the subheads at the beginning of each section as "HTML H3", and the rest as "HTML Body Text".

    By following this link, you can see what the example page looks like in the browser you are using now.

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Winding Down

  1. When done, make sure to save, then use File-->Quit to exit PageMaker.
  2. Copy to your Zip disks your PageMaker document, which will be needed again in the next session.
  3. Shut down or send to sleep the computer.

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Notes

Desktop Publishing Beginnings

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Electronic Publishing

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Workaround

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Style Sheets

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Re-arranging Text

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Information specific to the ACG Lab

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This document originally at <http://acg2.fullcoll.edu/FACULTY/CORSI/LEARN/OVERVIEW/OV020MAC/INDEX.HTM>
Copyright 1998-2000 by Sandro Corsi.
Last modified 2000-08-28.
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