Single-Sourcing Solutions, we always talk about the ease of use and the out-of-the box advantages to Arbortext suite of products. We don’t always talk about the sizable API that opens the entire application to developers. Yet, for many of us, this was one of the primary advantages that drew us to the Arbortext platform.  This last year, we discovered that this ability to tweak every aspect of the product and the content that comes out as a result is no longer so obvious to people who are new to the eco-system.

With any dynamic publishing system, you get the benefits of reuse and topic-based authoring. The Arbortext API is one of the real differentiators. It’s one of the true advantages you get by choosing Arbortext: Nearly every corner of the application is open to developers at no additional fee. An Arbortext customer’s ROI improves as they grow because the platform is open to them and grows with you.

Thus, the Arbortext Monster Garage is born!

This new series is designed to teach Arbortext users how to leverage their investment in the Arbortext product line so as to continually grow their ROI. The series will showcase users from the communitydemonstrating techniques, tips and tricks that they have used in the past, discoveries they have made, and showcasing new features.

The series will run twice a month, on the second and fourth Fridays. Each session is scheduled to run in 30 minutes including set up and questions. The calendar has been published in advance, so that you can see what’s coming and sign up for the sessions you’re most interested in. Because the sessions are pre-scheduled, we figure it will be easy to attend because you can block out that 30 minutes on your calendar well in advance.

The series includes sessions for beginners as well as for expert users. It is divided into several tracks that are titled with the same sense of humor that inspired the series, such as “Content Paint Job”, “Cafe con UI”, “Living the XUI”, “Experimenter’s Lab”, “Composition Drag Race”. All sessions are intended to address those areas where the rubber meets the road. The series will draw “shop coach” presenters from the community, including staff from PTC, Single-Sourcing Solutions, customers, and other PTC partners.

Recently I have changed my overall approach. Instead of waiting until a document is nearly finished, I look for errors throughout the process of working on the document. This approach requires that Arbortext Editor’s preferences be set to check spelling as you type.

As you work on a document, watch out for words that have red squiggly lines beneath them. Arbortext uses these lines to highlight possible errors.

When you right-click a word that has been highlighted, a context menu appears with spelling suggestions (if available) and various spell check options, such as Ignore All and Add to Dictionary.

If any problems are found, Arbortext displays a window that lists the errors. I usually find that my document contains a bunch of broken cross references.

Notice the first sentence in the upper part of the window: “Double click the left mouse button on any object in error to position the cursor at the point of error, or to cycle through occurrences of the error.”

This statement is not particularly helpful with respect to broken cross references. What you need to do is double-click the underlined phrase “show ids”. This action causes the IDs and ID References dialog box to appear. From there, look for any rows that have the word “MISSING” in the Element column.

To record a macro, you go to the Tools menu, point to Macros, and click Record New Macro. The dialog box that appears allows you to specify a name, the file where the macro will be stored (more on that in a second), and a description.

For the macro storage location, you need to determine the scope. The default choice enables you to use the macro with any file. The other two choices enable you to use the macro only with the current document, or with all documents of the same type. I haven’t yet felt the need to change the default choice.

Specify the information, click OK, and then perform the actual steps. When you are done, click the Stop Recording button.

To run a macro, place your cursor in the appropriate place and use the Alt+F8 keyboard shortcut to display the list of recorded macros. Select the desired macro and click Run. The macro does its thing.

I recently started working on some SGML files that have large tables. I’m talking really large. I found that the performance of Arbortext Editor slowed considerably whenever I encountered one of these tables.

Then I received a great piece of advice: If you’re not working on tables, collapse them.

You can start by closing all of the tables in your file. Go to the View menu and select Collapse/Expand Divisions. Select the table element and click Collapse.

Now when you need to work on a specific table, expand that table, do whatever you need to do, and collapse it again when you’re done.

Let’s assume that you have an SGML file open and you know that a particular phrase or sentence is already a text entity — but you don’t know the unique name of the text entity. How can you easily figure out the name?

One of my co-workers said that she goes to the View menu and selects Text Entities. The content of the text entity is replaced by a tag that displays the name.

Then I told her my approach. Place your cursor inside the phrase or sentence and choose Entities > Text. The Text Entities dialog box appears with the entity highlighted.

My co-worker said that she liked my approach better. Sweet!

Arbortext Editor Help File

If you are using Arbortext Editor or other products, press F1 or, from the menu, Help >  Help Topics which opens the help file.

When you are reviewing emails from the Adepters mailing lists, the Arbortext User’s Community  (to Join, http://portal.ptcuser.org/p/st/ld/sid=s1_001), you will see a posting that states see help 7550. To view that help page, you type it from the command line.  If the command line is not visible,  turn it on from Tools > Preferences, category Window, and check the Command Line.

Starting a Help File from the Command Line

There are times when you will need to share some information from one of the help files. In order to retrieve the help file number, right click on the page, and get the properties.

Properties on a Help Page

The properties will open and you can obtain and share the help file (help 7550).

Obtaining the Help Number

In Arbortext Editor, you can view or collapse (or hide) elements and their content to make it easier to navigate through your document. Each parent element will display a graphic:

a minus graphic when the content is expanded.

a plus graphic when the content is collapsed.

Collapsed View

Notice:

next to sect1 element in the Document Map (left side)

next to the para element in the Document Map.

Collapse or Expand Divisions

You do not have to use the Document Map to collapse/expand elements. Assuming you have the elements listed as divisions in the document types .dcf file, you can expand and collapse elements.

1. From the menu, choose View > Collapse/Expand Divisions. A dialog box will open with the listing of elements contained in your document. You can collapse the content of any of the element names listed.
2. Choose an element from the list.
3. Click Collapse. In your document, all occurrences of the tag pairs are collapsed with only their titles displayed. The Cancel button changes to Close.
4. Using the same selection, click Expand or click on the expand button. The elements expand and the text reappears.
5. Close the dialog box by press Close.

Collapse/Expand Divisions

The sweep arrow tail has been created as a brush. I have a file already created in the file called, “Adobe Illustrator Startup RGB.ai”, which contains the brush. Download it and open the folder “C:\Program Files\Adobe\Illustrator 10\Plug-ins” (or where the application was installed). Rename the existing file “Adobe Illustrator Startup_RGB.ai” to anything you like and copy the download file into the folder. This file is for the RBG color profile only.

Usage

To generate a sweep arrow, launch Illustrator and open a “New” document, File > New. Select the radio button labeled “RGB Color” and click OK.

New Document

When the new file opens, make sure the following palettes are visible: Brushes. If not visible, from the menu bar Windows, toggle on the items.

Brush Menu

The New window should appear, it should be similar to this example.

Illustrator Desktop

Using the pen tool or other tools, draw an arc (tail is first point) whichwill become the sweep arrow shaft. The arc should be a simple two-points arc. The arc should be consistent and fluid. This may be drawn on the original illustration first (for best fit).

Line or Arrow Shape

With the line still selected, turn off fill and stroke (located on bottom of the toolbar).

Fill and Stroke

Click on the brush that looks like a sweep arrow tail in the Brushes window.

Brush Palette

The arc will change to a sweep arrow without a head.

Sweep Arrow Tail

With the line still selected and from the menu bar, select Filter > Stylize > Add Arrowheads…

Stylize Menu

Change the End to 10 and Scale to 180% and click OK. Note: if the head of the arrow is on the wrong end, change the End to Start (on add arrowhead).

Add Arrowhead

If the head of the arrow is not filled, select the head only and apply black fill. The sweep arrow is complete. The arrow can be sized (adjusted from the end point) or moved.