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DesignGeek E-Zine

Design software tips and techniques e-mailed to designers around the world every couple weeks, free. Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion, studio owner and a top Adobe and Quark trainer. Subscribe | Archives

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Latest Issue: DesignGeek #76, 6/11/09

Here's the current web site issue of DesignGeek. Issues get added here a few days after we e-mail them out. Previous issues are in the archives.

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  DesignGeek^®
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Tips and techniques for the digital designer

In this issue:
-- Interview w/Adobe's Mike Ninness
-- Pick-and-Place XML for Catalog Production
-- My Secret Search Shortcuts for the New Adobe Forums
-- First Come, First Served: Facebook Usernames
-- Discount Code for my InDesign Seminars

Issue 76, 6/11/09
Written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion
... for her clients, colleagues, random contacts and interested subscribers

** Want more tips? Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/amarie **

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Interview with Adobe's Mike Ninness
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I was catching up with one of my favorite tech podcasts, Techbyter Worldwide, a few weeks ago, when whose mellifluous voice do I hear coming out of my speakers but Michael Ninness's, talking about how great InDesign and InCopy CS4 work together.

I couldn't believe it! First, Techbyter is more of an omnibus, general computing technology sort of a show, yet here it was spending generous amounts of airtime on my favorite publishing niche. Second, I've never heard Michael interviewed in a podcast, period. He's the senior product manager for InDesign and InCopy, and you know Adobe keeps these guys hopping. I usually just run into him at conferences, RoadRunner-like.

To hear Michael wax poetic about InDesign scripting and the InCopy workflow for a solid ten minutes, go to the Techbyter podcast web page for the March 8, 2009 episode:
http://tr.im/techbyter0308

Podcast host Bill Blinn (a seasoned radio professional) thoughtfully extracted the two segments with Michael into stand-alone .mp3's. You'll find them in the top section of the page titled "InDesign and InCopy Play Well Together."  Or, you can listen to the entire 35 minute episode via the player at the bottom of the page.

As I said, Bill's TechByter Worldwide is one of my favorite podcasts. He covers Macs, Windows, and Linux with aplomb; and always from the perspective of an actual end user (who happens to know his way around operating systems). You can listen to any episode or subscribe to them all on the TechByter Worldwide page in the iTunes Store:
http://tr.im/techbtitunes

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Pick-and-Place XML for Catalog Production
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A few months ago my friends at Coe-Truman Technologies (a bunch of database/XML publishing brainiacs) in Chicago invited me over to take a peek at a new InDesign plug-in they were about to offer to their customers. My jaw dropped, it was one of the coolest things ever ... and this from a company who is not really that into InDesign! They come at it from the other end. Coe-Truman helps clients's marketing departments create, manage, and publish their databases to the web and to print, instead of fighting with IT over it. That web-based software is called Catapult Manage:
http://www.catapultmysales.com/data.asp

For the past few years, Seneca (my company) has been Coe-Truman's training partner. After their clients are up and running with Catapult Manage, we come in. We train their client's print catalog teams how to use the inData plug-in or XData XTension (both from EmSoftware) to automate catalog production in InDesign or XPress, using the layout template created by client's design staff.

Most of their specialty catalog clients have been migrating to InDesign, and publishing in general has been moving to XML, so Coe-Truman saw a way to make automated layout even easier with this neat XML plug-in they call Catalog Print. It lets the InDesign (CS3 or CS4) user create "page models" of how they want a product's data to look, kind of like snippets. Then designers just pick the products from a panel (that's interpreting the XML file) and say "Make it so." The data comes in matching the page model, still completely editable.

I'm going to be showing how it works with some real data and real catalogs next week during a free webinar they're putting on. And of course I'll be throwing in some InDesign production tips while I'm at it, since I won't be able to help myself. ;-) If you're laying out catalogs in InDesign, you should check it out! To register and learn more details, go here:

"Pick-and-Place"XML Publishing with Catapult webinar
Thursday, June 16, 2009; 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. CST
http://tr.im/xmlplugin

Note: Coe-Truman's Catapult Print plug-in only works in conjunction with their Catalog Manage service, which I linked to above. You can't use it with just any XML file (maybe one day ...). But if you're involved with creating catalogs and you're struggling with the data (who isn't?) Catalog Manage is definitely worth a look too. They'll be showing a little of that during the webinar as well.

Hope to see you there!

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My Secret Search Shortcuts for the New Adobe Forums
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Adobe totally re-jiggered their User-to-User forums a few weeks ago, the public bulletin boards where thousands of end users help each other out with questions about Adobe programs.

Adobe Forums
http://forums.adobe.com

They're using new forum software called Jivespace (http://jivesoftware.com) that brings the Adobe forums into the 21st century. For example, users can now upload and include files in their posts, format messages with HTML controls, show an avatar (a thumbnail headshot) next to their name, and even award points to fellow users who post an answer to their question. I assume the points can be traded in for candy necklaces or Hot Wheels cars at the Adobe store in San Jose.

Side note: I know I'm not the only end user who enjoyed a little karmic satisfaction seeing the corporate entity that is Adobe get the tables turned by having to deal with tech support on the Jivespace support forums. For example in this post (http://tr.im/adobejive) to the Jivespace support forum, an Adobe forum admin describes a frustration he had with a procedure. He asks, "Is this as designed or a bug?"and a Jivespace rep replies, "That would be more of a documentation bug than a bug in implementation." HA! "Documentation bug." Classic.

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The Search Problem
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One aspect about the new forums that's really aggravating is the Forum Search feature. When you're browsing or reading a thread in a forum, you often want to quickly search on a keyword or phrase to see if the topic has already been discussed in that program's forum.

But when you enter something in the ever-present Search field at the upper right of all the forum pages, the Jivespace software defaults to searching every single Adobe forum known to man. So the Search Results listing goes on forever, with hits to all sorts of irrelevant posts from other forums.

To restrict your search to a particular forum, you have to do an advanced search; but that page is hard to find, and once there, you have to select the forum from the worlds' longest scrolling form field. (Seriously, there are over five hundred forums in the list, and only 20 or so appear at a time.)

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The Search Fix
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So here's my secret: Learn the forum's ID number (I'll tell you how to do this in a minute), construct a URL search query that includes that ID, and save it as a bookmark or favorite in your browser. Now whenever you want to search that forum, just click the saved bookmark.

For example, the Community ID for the InDesign forum is 3359. Including that in the URL, as below, will get you immediately to the secret "Search the InDesign Forum" page:
http://forums.adobe.com/search.jspa?&resultTypes=MESSAGE&communityID=3359

Now, the web page it brings you to doesn't say "Search the InDesign Forum" (though it should); but trust me. It will. Enter something in the search field and hit the Search button, you'll see that all the resulting hits come from the InDesign forum. We have lift-off!

This one will jump you to the search field for the Photoshop (Windows) forum:
http://forums.adobe.com/search.jspa?&resultTypes=MESSAGE&communityID=3340

What if you want to search a few forums at once? Just string them together at the end of the URL. The forum ID for the Photoshop (Macintosh) forum is 3341, so to search both the Mac and Windows forums for Photoshop, include both IDs, like so:
http://forums.adobe.com/search.jspa?&resultTypes=MESSAGE&communityID=3340&communityID=3341

It's simple to find the community ID of any Adobe forum. Go to that forum's main page (where it lists all the discussions in the forum) and look at the Notifications area at the top of the right sidebar. Hover over or click the "View Feeds" link under the Notifications header; and the last bit of URLs for that RSS feed reveal that forum's community ID.

When you click the View Feeds link on the Dreamweaver forum, for example, you can see from the RSS feed URLs that the community ID is 2240:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/feeds/allcontent?community=2240
http://forums.adobe.com/community/feeds/announcements?community=2240
http://forums.adobe.com/community/feeds/messages?community=2240

So to create a URL that will search the Dreamweaver forum, use one of your existing search URLs (from above), but replace the ID number at the end with 2240:
http://forums.adobe.com/search.jspa?&resultTypes=MESSAGE&communityID=2240

Save it as a new bookmark (naming it "Search Dreamweaver forum" perhaps) and use as necessary.

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First Come First Served: Facebook Usernames
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Starting this Saturday, June 13, Facebook users will be able to reserve a username for themselves. That means that instead of telling people that my Facebook profile is here:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=716392983

I could say it's here:

http://www.facebook.com/anne.marie.concepcion

... or even use my Twitter account name:

http://www.facebook.com/amarie

... or anything I want, as long as it's at least five characters and contains only alphanumerics (the only punctuation allowed is a period, aka a  full stop), and no one has grabbed it first.

Yes, I'm contributing to bringing Facebook to a screeching halt by announcing this, but what the heck. At midnight EST on Saturday (11:00 p.m. Friday, CST), Facebook will allow you to set up your own unique username for your account. Instructions will be on your Facebook home page, or you can read the details here:

Facebook Usernames
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=90316352130

Once you create it, your Facebook username will be permanent! It can't be changed or transferred! So don't make a mistake!

Also, if you've set up a Facebook page for your business (like a mini website), you can reserve a username for that, too. Cool! I currently have Facebook pages for Seneca Design & Training,  DesignGeek, and InDesignSecrets. I'll be trying to get good page names, but in the meantime, feel free to become a fan of any or all of these.

Seneca Design & Training:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Seneca-Design-Training/7048810151

DesignGeek:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/DesignGeek/55908262227

InDesignSecrets:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/InDesignSecrets/51537498308

I've barely been promoting these pages, but Sherri (my wonderful assistant) has been populating the Seneca and DesignGeek page with posts during her "free time" and she'd love to see more people join in.

I'm doing a new title for Lynda.com in July called Online Marketing with Facebook and Twitter so expect to see lots of activities on our pages as I use them for testing things out. Please join in!

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Discount Code for my InDesign Seminars
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I'll be doing an all-day InDesign Seminar covering CS3 and CS4 in Boston on Monday, June 22; and in Minneapolis on Friday, June 26.  The producers are our friends at Mogo-Media (same guys who do the multi-day InDesign and the Creative Suite Conferences); and the main sponsors are CreativePro.com and InDesign Magazine.

InDesign Seminar Details and Registration
Boston: http://tr.im/idboston
Minneapolis: http://tr.im/idminny

To hear me speak on InDesign for a full day is worth a bazillion dollars, of course, but Mogo thought a better price point might be $125. Perhaps. ;-) And they're throwing in a 30-day trial to the Lynda.com training library and a 1-year subscription to InDesign magazine (for new subscribers) with the fee.

But wait, that's not all! Of course I was able to sweet-talk them into a discount for my closest friends. When you register, enter the discount code AMCTIME09 for 15% off the registration fee. (Actually, I found that discount code works for *all* the InDesign seminars from Mogo, so go crazy with it.)

We'll have tons 'o fun! Hope to see you there!

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MASTER THE LATEST DESIGN APPS WITH HERGEEKNESS!

Do you like what you read in DesignGeek? Find anything useful? Bring me or any of my hand-picked Associate Geeks in for a session or two of hands-on training for your workgroup; here in Chicago or any other city near an airport, and you can have this level of expertise all to yourself. Or, book our Online Classroom for live, on-line training from the comfort of your desk, for any size group. All training comes with three years of 24/7 follow-up support for each student by phone or e-mail.

To learn more, or hear what other clients have to say, contact us or fill out the no-obligation "Request a Training Quote" form on Seneca's site:
http://www.senecadesign.com/training/request.html

Recent training clients in Chicago and throughout the U.S. and Canada include Sourcebook (XML and ePub); Basin Electric (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign); Project Hope (InCopy/InDesign); Ontario Energy Savings (InCopy'/InDesign); and AHC Media (InCopy/InDesign)
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DesignGeek (tm) is a free monthly publication written by Anne-Marie "HerGeekness" Concepcion, a cross-media designer and authorized Adobe and Quark training provider. She owns Seneca Design & Training, Inc. in Chicago, Illinois (http://www.senecadesign.com).

To subscribe to DesignGeek or read archived issues, go to its home on Seneca's site:
http://www.senecadesign.com/designgeek/
(To unsubscribe, follow the link at the bottom of this page.)

Can't wait for the next issue of DesignGeek?
Follow her Twitter Feed: http://twitter.com/amarie
Read Anne-Marie's monthly "HerGeekness Says" column at CreativePro.com:
http://tinyurl.com/cpro-amc
And check out the tips she posts about Adobe InDesign and the InDesign/InCopy workflow:
http://indesignsecrets.com (blog and podcast co-hosted with David Blatner)
http://incopysecrets.com (with its own free e-zine, InCopyFlow)

Contact Seneca by phone at 312-946-1100 or e-mail at info@senecadesign.com

Copyright 2009 by Seneca Design & Training, Inc.
Please forward without cutting. Please contact Seneca for reprint permissions. We don't guarantee accuracy of articles. Company or product names mentioned in DesignGeek may be registered trademarks, we use the names in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement.
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