PageStream 2.1 from ZNET/DTP/Commercial
From: Shoou-yu Tang (al278@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 07/15/91-02:44:53 PM Z
From: al278@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Shoou-yu Tang)
Subject: PageStream 2.1 from ZNET/DTP/Commercial
Date: Mon Jul 15 14:44:53 1991
PageStream v. 2.1
Z*NET Magazine, June 12, 1991
Written by Vernon W. Smith
ACE of Syracuse Newsletter, Contributing Editor
PageStream 2.1 is the latest upgrade of the first fully professional
desktop publishing program for the Atari ST. Starting as Publishing
Partner, it changed briefly to Publishing Partner Professional and then
crawled through a series offirst-buggy-then-improving regenerations into
a program which leads the rest of the ST desktop publishers.
This newest version comes with a completely new User Manual and
QuickStart Manual which are the best yet produced by Soft-Logik
Publishing Corporation, P.O. Box 290070, St. Louis, MO 63129, Phone:
1-800/829-8608.
Although Soft-Logik has abandoned the three-ring binder which made page
changes easy to add, it has expanded upon it's well-organized, step-by-
step approach to using easily a complex program. The QuickStart Manual
uses two extended tutorials to cover the basics and painlessly introduce
a new user to functions which might otherwise be overlooked.
After completing a newsletter page and an organizational chart, you will
have learned not only how to import text and graphics, but also how to
use templates and create repetitive elements with a minimum of key
strokes and mouse movements.
The tables of contents and the index are comprehensive and 2.1 continues
the tradition of 1.8 and the original Publishing Partner in providing
sequential actions which are easy to remember with repeated use.
The most noticeable immediate difference appears on the screen. Using
the larger sizes of magnification, 200%, for example, type displays with
the same characteristics which will appear on the printed page. It is
much easier to adjust spacing and kerning between characters.
Another type of appearance has been improved, too. That is the dialogue
boxes which in 1.8 were plainer and more prone to the appearance of
garbage characters during multiple operations. The 2.1 boxes frequently
combine into one box elements which previously required two sequential
boxes. For example, special type applications such as backslant,
mirror, upside down, underline, etc., can now be selected from the same
dialogue box as the name and size of the font. Fill style and color can
be chosen in the same dialogue box. Previously, they were separated.
These changes may seem trivial in the telling, but to an experienced
user of earlier versions of PageStream they are quality improvements
shaving minutes off preparation time for a document.
An annoying bug in 1.8 was the way in which one had to complete
selection of justification in the Tag section of the Text Menu. Tags
enable the selection of several characteristics of text at one time so
that they can be saved for future implementation with a couple of key-
clicks. When justification was chosen, the dialogue box would appear
briefly and then dump the user back to the attributes dialogue unless
the left mouse button was held down and the cursor slid to cover the
category of justification desired. In 2.1, that bug is gone. Click on
the justification attribute and the dialogue takes its place (like the
other attribute boxes do) firmly ready for a reasoned choice.
A new feature which fits the description of quality improvement is the
thickening of the cursor when it appears in dialogue boxes, which makes
it easier to find. Where the cursor used to automatically come up at
the left of any area in which the left mouse button was clicked, it now
appears anywhere along the line. What this means in practical terms is
that where the speediest way to change a multi-digit entry under the old
system was to use Esc to clear the area and retype the whole thing, it
is now easiest to place the cursor to the right of the characters to be
changed and delete and reenter only specific changes.
I did run into a couple of problems in making the initial installation
and completing the tutorials.
I installed the program with all its fonts (Compugraphic CS Times, CS
Triumvirate, CS Garamond, and eight Soft-Logik creations) onto the F
partition of my Toadfile 44 Syquest Removable Hard Drive. The
instructions on changing the path for the fonts were skimpy and when I
first tried to type in text, I got a request to insert the floppy disks
from which I had made the installation. Because I was familiar with the
earlier PageStream, I knew that I had to go to the Global Menu at the
upper right of the screen to select Set/Save paths. Still, when I had
indicated that the path for all of the folders in the program were
F:\PGSTREAM\, the floppy disk request was repeated. I went back to the
Set/Save dialogue and discovered a new button labeled Manager which
brought up the fonts location dialogue box. The font paths here still
showed the floppy disks. Changing them completed the installation.
Although this procedure is described somewhat in the User Manual, it may
be confusing to a new user who relies on the QuickStart Manual for
setting up a hard drive.
A bug which has not entirely disappeared is the tendency of the screen
to repeatedly renew itself when text entries in a column reach the place
where a new section of the screen has to be displayed. Apparently what
happens with both 1.8 and 2.1 is that the speedy typist gets ahead of
the computer and at the point where the screen has to change, each
character triggers a refresh. The solution is to stop typing and look
carefully for the location of the cursor which is also blinking on and
off with the screen changes. Guide the cursor to the white area of the
vertical scroll bar and click on the left mouse button. The refreshes
will stop and work can continue. It does seem to me, however, that this
bug is less prevalent in 2.1. It does not do this every time as it did
in 1.8 but only on occasion.
In the tutorial on setting up a Drop Cap (a large initial to start a
paragraph made up mostly of smaller characters), I lost sight of the
initial when following the instructions. Again, I knew what to do from
prior use of the earlier versions of PageStream. I went to the Object
Menu and placed the text column in back of the initial. Since the
initial was in its own object area, this made it visible again. While
the Bring to Front and Send to Back commands are covered in the
tutorial, their application to this particular problem would not be
readily apparent to a new user.
I am always concerned when a tutorial doesn't do what it's supposed to
do and there were two other instances of this in the PageStream 2.1
QuickStart Manual.
Text can be linked from one column to another and if there is more text
in a column than it can hold a small plus sign appears at the lower left
of the column. When the newsletter tutorial is completed as the Manual
instructs, the last line of copy (a byline giving the supposed author's
name) disappears from the screen and from any printout which is made of
the page. The solution is to place the cursor in the white space
following the last visible line and press Backspace until the hidden
line reappears. The example simply has an extra line space between the
last line of copy and the byline.
A more complicated problem surfaces in the demonstration of Rotation of
a GEM symbol used as a company log in the organization chart tutorial.
PageStream (1.8 and 2.1) permits rotation by degrees. A dialogue box
not only allows for entry of specific numbers but also has a rectangular
box which changes to show how the rotation will look. (Skewing and
slanting are also possible from this box.) In the organization chart
demo, the GEM symbol which is imported has several layers of overlapping
sections. The tutorial explains this and shows the user how to group
and ungroup these layers. Unfortunately, it instructs the user to group
all the sections before making the rotation. It turns out that this
does not produce what the creator of the tutorial intended. An inner
section which is supposed to be diamond-shaped goes to a broken square
instead. It turns out that to get a match to the illustration shown in
the QuickStart Manual the GEM symbol has to be ungrouped and only the
extreme outside section rotated. Not a big deal to an experienced user,
but a real frustration to a new user who probably would not know what
was happening or what to do to correct it.
With 1.8, I used to enter text directly into the columns (as I am doing
now) with a user magnification of 125%. This was the magnification
recommended in one of the earliest versions of Publishing Partner as the
optimum operating mode. In 2.1, I find the 200% level of magnification
more desirable for direct text entry. Not only are the characters
easier to read, but at this size they show more of the characteristics
of the finished printed letters.
Those who were concerned because Soft-Logik spent a lot of time creating
an Amiga version which reached 2.0 before Atari, can be reassured that
the company has not short-sheeted its original Atari users with a look-
alike product. By mistake, I received the Amiga version in the fall of
1990. The manual was very similar to the Atari 1.8 manual although the
program itself had many of the features now appearing in the Atari 2.1
version. The new Atari manual is nothing like the older Amiga one. It
is completely produced with PageStream and output at 1270 dpi on a
PostScript imagesetter in a wire-bound format that reflects the best in
modern printing. No apologies are necessary to any other desktop
publishing platform for the quality of this program.
For users of previous versions of PageStream, there are a number of
desirable changes.
The Toolbox at the right of the screen now can be moved to any other
location. The Reshape Tool supports the modification of Bezier curves.
(What this means is that after drawing a shape, it is possible to change
it in specific directions which will be automatically smoothed out when
the operation is finished.)
According to the User Manual, it is possible to design a page as large
as 1200 foot (Yes, I said Foot) by 1200 Foot and as small as one inch by
one inch.
PageStream 2.1 allows up to six windows to be opened so that elements
can be pasted from one document to another.
Another change is called Smart Titles. If the title of a window is all
in lower case, there have been no changes since the file was last saved.
If the first character is capitalized, then alterations have occurred
which should be saved before closing the file.
Often you see commercial publications which have pictures extending all
the way to the edge of the page. These are called bleeds. They are
produced by printing on a larger sheet of paper than the finished page
so that when they are trimmed in a paper cutter they appear to end at
the cut edge. PageStream now supports this kind of production.
Combined with crop marks to guide a printer, this enables a level of
publication which has not been possible in Atari ST desktop publishing
programs.
Although designers of small newsletters are not likely to want to go to
the extra expense of bleed pages, this feature makes the Atari able to
compete at a higher level of professional magazine production.
The new PageStream 2.1 contains several keyboard equivalents for former
mouse-only instructions. For example, I mentioned earlier the
occasional need to click with the mouse on the scroll bar when repeated
refreshes tie up the screen. I notice that the keyboard equivalent for
this is Esc U and the next time I get the refresh bug, I'll see if it
stops the action as effectively as does the mouse click.
There is some confusion in my mind about the fonts change in PageStream
2.1. I was informed when I telephoned my credit card order to Soft-
Logik that it was not necessary to purchase new fonts to use the program
with my UltraScript packages of equivalents to the PostScript faces
found in many PostScript printers. (UltraScript is an emulation program
which allows PostScript files printed to a disk to be used with dot
matrix, deskjet, and laser printers.) PageStream 2.1 will print
PostScript files to disk but to match the PostScript printer fonts, the
User Manual recommends the PageStream Fonts Plus Pack which contains
outline font files, screen font files, and font metric files for 11 of
the most popular PostScript families: Avant Garde, Bookman, Chancery,
Courier, Dingbats, Helvetica, Helvetica Narrow, Palatino, Schoolbook,
Symbol and Times.
I can use all those fonts now with PageStream 1.8 because I have a
PageStream Disk A (converted from an earlier Publishing Partner Disk A)
which provides the screen font files and the font metric files.
However, the files from this disk do not show on the screen as they will
appear on the printout, so I expect I'll purchase the PageStream Fonts
Plus Pack which lists at $75.
PageStream also offers a Font Pack 1 at the same price which provides 14
more fonts.
For the moment, at least, I'm keeping both PageStream 1.8 and 2.1 active
so I can use either the new or the old fonts rather than experiment with
trying to mix them in the newer program. The Manual makes clear that PS
and PSF font files used in PageStream 1.8 should not be used in
PageStream 2.1.
I had expected kerning to default to automatic in 2.1 but it still has
to be invoked by selecting the type to be kerned and either batch
kerning the whole thing or manually kerning specific combinations. In
other words, it can be made automatic but it does not default to
automatic. Kerning is the process by which two letters like AV when
next to each other can be reduced in space so that they do not appear to
be abnormally far apart. When this text is viewed in a PageStream 2.1
page printout, it should show that it has been kerned. It does not show
on the screen as kerned, though.
I am not impressed with the Spell Checker. I never used the one in 1.8
and after spending almost 30 minutes spell-checking this document up to
this point, I am unlikely to use it again. It does not recognize plural
or past tense forms of common words. I also find it annoying that
company words like PageStream have not been added to the dictionary!
I'll save a discussion of graphics in the new PageStream 2.1 for another
time.
At this point, with two days of experienting with it, I am completely
convinced of the value of upgrading to the new program which lists new
for $299.95.
VWS, 315/474-0450.
==============================================================================Above appeared in Znet 91 issuse #29, the whole article as it were posted in the
magazine.
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