Gordon Woolf's Blog

Coping with long URLs

URLs are one the most difficult things to cope with in written material, whether that is text in printed form or on the Web.

One way to solve this in layout programs such as InDesign is to specify the URL as having "no language" (you can even set up a character style to specify "no language" as the language). InDesign will then only break the line when it has to and will not insert a hyphen.

But in most such programs, the way to deal with URLs has improved in the last couple of versions. The biggest problem is that if the URL is broken in a word which is in the program's hyphenation dictionary it will make it impossible to just select the web address and either click on it or copy it into a browser winodw. To a computer, the hyphen turns iot into aan entirely different address.

It is also common to use a "discretionary line break" linked with a character style to put the DLB after the @ sign or before the dot of .com

Some time ago (CS3?) InDesign's internal rules for line breaks changed to include the slash(/), back-slash(\), underscore(_), ellipse(...), commercial-at(@), any dash (en-dash, em-dash, etc). They also added some algorithms that allow breaks at periods within URLs but not abbreviations... that was definitely getting better at the time I stopped keeping track and is by no means easy to achieve.

There may now be even better ways to solve the problem and I would be surprised if it cannot also be done in the latest QuarkXPress.

My main point is that there are now ways to ensure that a web address is not broken by adding a hyphen and proofreaders should feel confident in marking bad URL breaks and perhaps even suggest some of the possible solutions. In checking proofs it is also worth ensuring that if an address does include a hyphen, it is one that is meant to be there and not one which may have been added because of a line break that no longer applies.

On web sites those responsible should also ask why they are using long URLs in a visible form, though I have to admit I have been guilty, as it does ensure that if web text is copied for use in other media that the URL is copied, and not just the text of a link. Where that is not likely, just embed the full address in the HTML code as an href attribute.

For MS Word the advice is to enter the URL in both the address and text-to-display boxes of the edit hyperlink dialog. You can then add a space within the text of the URL without upsetting the link, or better still, use the zero-width space character or a no-width optional break after a character in the URL such as a forward slash. This character has no shortcut key but you can allocate one in the insert special characters dialog if you need them often.

If you have a better way, let me know.

Create your own book on a Kindle

This article was first published in the July 2011 edition of PC Update, the magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group. The article refers to a Kindle-formatted file of this article, which can be Download here: Create your own book on a Kindle

Let us assume you have bought a Kindle, the best selling ebook reader from Amazon. In addition to some free classic novels and a couple of best sellers you may have bought. you would rather like to add the first draft of your own Great Australian Novel, or, more likely, the report you have been preparing for your local service club.

I looked at several methods and my first attempt used a page layout program I am used to, InDesign, which recently included abilities to output to ePub files that can be converted for the Kindle and other ebook readers.

That worked well, but it was complex and I am not about to tell MelbPC members that they should go out and buy programs in the four-figure price range.

Can it be done for nothing? The answer is Yes.

Firstly, what is a Kindle book file? As supplied by Amazon they usually have an .azw extension and appears to be a proprietary format though similar to the published .mobi format. which is the same as the Palm format with the .prc extension. Both of these are recognised by the Kindle.

All these formats are based on XML, eXtensible Markup Language, which brings us to the best known such language which is HTML, Hypertext Markup Language, as used by the vast majority of web sites. In fact, a restricted form of HTML, with a small number of extra tags, is as good a means as any to use for creating an ebook.

There is a very limited range of HTML tags which can be used for formatting a book to read on a Kindle. If you have ever formatted a web page then this will come as no problem to you.

The main ones you have to play with are the set of heading tags: <h1> to <h6> getting progressively smaller (and their associated closing tags </h1> etc; <hr /> for a horizontal rule; <i> and </i> for italics (or you can use the <em> tags for "emphasis"; <b> and /b> for bold (or use the <strong> set); and <blockquote> and close with </blockquote> for a long quotation inset from the left margin.

As well you can use a limited number of CSS (cascading style sheet) commands either in your HTML file or in a separate file that is linked as it would be for a web page and include that in the same folder. If you are used to working with CSS do not try anything far from the most common tags.

Among a very few specific mobi tags is <mbp:pagebreak /> for a page break (suprisingly this seems to be forgotten by many book converters -- a new page for a new chapter does make the whole production look professional). Note that there is a space before the ending slash.

A PDF of the tags which can be used is available from http://kindleformatting.com/ but here is a simple template which might get you going:

<html>
<head>
<title>My first Kindle book</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2>My first Kindle book</h2>
<h4>By firstname lastname</h4>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Based on a template published in PC Update, the magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group</p>
<mpb:pagebreak />
<h3>Chapter one</h3>
<p>Here goes all the text you need in as many paragraphs as you need.</p>
<mpb:pagebreak />
<h3>Chapter two</h3>
<p>Here goes all the text you need in as many paragraphs as you need. </p>
</body>
</html>

This is simple enough to edit in Notepad without getting lost in the tags, but you may find it simpler to use a Text Editor, most of which put the tags in a different colour to the text so that you can easily tell the difference. I currently use Gizmo but I have also used NotePads++ from http://notepad-plus-plus.org/ which is also free.

Calibre at http://calibre-ebook.com/ is a program which will manage an ebook collection for one or more ebook readers and will convert between formats as needed within the limits imposed by Digital Rights Management. But Calibre offers many options, often hidden from obvious control, so while it is a program I would recommend, it is easier for the beginner in this field (which was me a matter of a couple of months ago) to use simpler and more specific converters.

For this article I used the free Mobipocket Creator from http://www.mobipocket.com which is a French company that was bought by Amazon in 2005. It is simple to use in that you create a new blank publication and then drag in the HTML file and any required graphics files (plus the CSS file if you are using one), and then click on the Build icon. We will ignore the optional steps to add a cover page and a table of contents. Try these when you have achieved your first success. There is a clear Help file.

Once you have you file, you can then connect your Kindle and drag the completed file, which will have a .prc extension to the documents folder of the Kindle, ready to read.

This article is available as a PRC (Mobi) file at the link shown at the head of this blog post and is available as a Zip file with the complete article as an ebook ready to view on your Kindle and as an HTML file so that you may examine the original code.

Would you cut your editing or layout rates?

Whether you are editing books or articles, do you have a flat fee per page or hour, or are you prepared to cut your rates?

I am not suggesting that you should work for less overall, but there is a case for having discussions about the scope of your editing.

An example of the circumstances which can arise is the work which is being done to a budget. There has been an allocation within the budget for the work of editing and for layout. Both of these categories can sufffer from being near the end of the process and finding that costs have overrun at previous stages so there are only these last stages where cuts can be made. This may not be fair but it happens.

Sometimes layout work can be reduced by a degree of automation -- making the publication fit templates that already exist and reducing the complexity of the layout so there are fewer places where text has to run around illustrations. It may also be possible to run a long work over fewer pages by reducing text size so that production costs are reduced.

There are fewer ways in which editing costs can be cut.

Ways in which such costs can be reduced include reducing the time which will be spent on rewriting or on fact checking provided others in the process are prepared to take responsibility for such things being done at an earlier stage. Some of this comes down to a decision by the overall editor or publisher on whether the author is trusted (Nearly all author contracts require the author to take this responsibility and to indemnify the publisher).

It can mean deciding that the copyeditor is to increase the number of pages or number of words processed in each hour. Is quality to suffer? It may but there are times when a decision has to be made that the end result is "good enough".

This is a generally accepted process on newspapers and on many magazines. The deadline is fixed. As it approaches, so the final editorial processes which might have included rewrites come to focus on avoiding errors which would make the publication look bad. As the hands on the clock rotate ever faster you might hear a call to check proofs for "heads and intros" maybe with an added check to see that column ends read on to the top of the next column.

Fortunate is the editorial desk where a second edition will allow for more corrections later.

Similarly with freelance editing, the worker may have to work to a specific deadline. Sometimes the copyeditor may feel that quality has been compromised to the extent that he or she would rather not have their name associated with the work. However the skilled editor will still be able to justly claim that the limited job done is still better than it would be if a less skilled person had been involved.

So, do you insist on working to the standards you set for yourself or are you prepared to work to a budget and still feel that you did a good job in the circumstances?

Jack's an artist. That's what we need for the layout

It is a common question: The illustrator for my book is a talented artist, but should I ask him (or her) about doing the book layout?

It may also be suggested with magazine layout: he's a good artist, we should ask him to do our newsletter.

The real question should be to ask whether he has any experience and whether he wants to do the work. Then the publisher, or self-publisher, should ask himself or herself if they have time to cope with problems.

In a recent case the artist was being honest, and would have been prepared to put the time in (at his cost) to find out all the technical information he needed to know. However, there should be at least one person who has the professional knowledge of what makes a good book or magazine layout in the team.

The danger lies in the fact that publication layout and file preparation for printing is detailed, systematic work, and the skills for that are seldom those needed to be an artist and illustrator.

There are a few who manage to combine both skills but they are a minority and deserve every cent they can command. They will, for example, know that the uses of a book cover for thumbnails on the web or in catalogues and ads and possibly for posters as well as for the cover itself, puts severe restrictions on artistic talent.

More common are those designers and layout people who can take other people's illustrations and turn them into good looking and good working covers and pages and produce files which will print without problems. The person who creates good publication files and the illustrator and graphic artist may use much of the same software, but they tend to use it in vastly different ways.

The kind of questions one could ask someone who may be able to do this work could be whether he or she knows the common standards for relative margin widths, on the differences in specifications for different binding methods, and, for example if this includes, as is most likely, an all color cover, the maximum ink levels according to the printing process and paper stock.

He or she may not know the detailed answers but should know what you are talking about (even if you do not). Then (especially if there is time to go elsewhere if necessary), by all means give him or her a go.

Skating on the Photoshop sliders

I noticed that the occasional mono pages which one of our local newspapers runs had pictures which were very muddy. It's a strong possibility that they are preparing all their pages in colour and just accepting that some of them may be run in black and white but a little time really should be taken to adjust for the lack of colour before it becomes almost a forgotten art.

It's a couple of years since a DTP-er I know was having trouble coping with instructions from a printer that detailed their pic specs as no less than 5% highlight dot, 80% max shadow, and midtones of 35 to 40%. The printer then added that this particular press might want the midtones down by another 10 or 15%.

That seems like a lot of old newspaper presses I know. Though, on second thoughts, they'd be hard pressed to hold a 5% highlight dot. My instructions on one paper were to drag both sliders in Photoshop in significantly, then drag the gamma slider across most of the way: no point in talking numbers, this was like engraving with a chainsaw -- provided you could hardly see anything on screen, there was a chance the final result would be fine.

The really amazing thing is that the final results were quite good.

This is the skill in working without color, and it is a good idea to ask a printer to show you what the original looks like for any black-and-white photos that look good (and maybe to give you the file) so you can see what you have to produce. Once you know what an original should look like on your screen, it is less necessary to work by the numbers. And some of those movements in the sliders within Photoshop can be far more than you would try without seeing an example.

The same principles apply to photocopying. Color is more forgiving than mono, but it is still worth learning some of the old skills. They can produce better color pics too.

And why do some pages have to run in black and white? That is because it does not matter to a large web press whether it is printing one color or many. It is the total number of plates which matter. A press can have the paper run from the reel (web) in many different ways so if fewer color plates are needed then more pages can be printed in the one run. So, some late ads can be accomodated without a second run and collating the two sections if some of the existing pages can be printed in one color instead of four.

'Large print' is not just type set larger

An interesting suggestion I saw on a publisher forum a while ago was to produce a large print edition and to just reduce the pages of this to make the standard edition. The logic was that some of the readers for which the book was intended were sufferers of diabetes, which often brings sight problems.

Unfortunately the internationally researched standards for large print books, are not just an enlarged form of normal typesetting. And there is a big difference in producing books for those who are substantially sight impaired, and books for those of us who may have a slight deterioration in sight within the normal ranges of variation with age.

A chapter in the current edition of Type & Layout (the book by Colin Wheildon republished by The Worsley Press) -- although this is a chapter in the additional material by Geoffrey Heard -- does describe how preparing a book for the non-fluent reader is different to preparing a book for a fluent reader who may have minor sight problems, or no problems at all.

Just one quick example: although Wheildon's research showed that for reasonably fluent readers, justified serif type is by far the most readable, that is not true for someone who is less fluent, either through education or sight.

The chapter also includes information on the alternative of "Clear Type", a standard developed by the Royal National Institute for the Blind, with standards which, while being acceptable to a wide range of those with site problems, is more acceptable to others. While tending towards sans faces it does accept fonts with a good serif definition such as Bookman.

I would therefore warn against producing a smaller version of a large type, or even "Clear Type" book as a normal edition.

If the text of a book is correctly tagged in its preparation it would be a very simple matter to run it through with alternative layout specifications. I'd estimate an hour or two in a program such as InDesign, maybe even less in an entirely tag based layout program such as TeX.

There will need to be an entire new round of research into legibility on ebook readers.

How to start a publication

I get asked this question every month. The latest was:

I’m in a church that does not have a magazine and they want one. Can I start it? All I have ever produced is a sales newsletter for a firm I work for.

My reply is that I would be surprised if, in a typical organization of a few hundred people, I would be surprised if there are not other people who have had at least as experience as you -- perhaps for a school, business or service group. They may be a starting point and you can share your past experience.

Also look at what is being produced by other organizations -- and it is common for copies of locally produced publications to be sent to local libraries, so the librarian may also be a good contact. And while you may decide that your needs can be served by a home-produced publication, perhaps photocopied, a call at local printing businesses may also produce samples of publications, and an indication of other services, such as someone who can set up templates in a word processor or page layout program and help train in their use.

This kind of enquiry may also help to give some idea of costs, depending on what services have to be paid for and what can be done on a voluntary basis. You also have to make choices on whether a publication can be at least partly financed by advertisements, and how you will obtain editorial: can it be all produced by you and your members, or will you need to seek outside contributions.

Several of the chapters in my book "How to Start and Produce a Magazine or Newsletter" look at various ways of organizing a magazine and at the many levels of production from photocopying or laser printing to digital printing and to the uses of commercial and specialist printers.

Reading a print dialog

Can I print a selection of pages? That question came up recently in a discussion and I realised it is not always obvious.

Put simply, a good print dialog which shows a entry longish box named Pages, will usually let you enter non-continguous ranges. If you see two little boxes, labelled From and To, then you are stuck with one range.

In the first case you’ll be able to enter something like":

1-6,8-10,15-

That would mean pages 1 to 8, skip 7, then print 8 to 10, skip pages 11 to 14 and then print from 15 to the end.

There may also be a checkbox to select whether to print blank pages, but be wary that what you think of as blank may not look that way to the computer if there are headers or footers, or even just carriage returns.

Printer options are generally in the driver rather than being a selection from the printer itself, so they may be different between alternate drivers for the same printer -- there are major differences for example between the fit-to-page abilities of my Samsung laser under Windows XP and Windows 7. (It needs more clicks to make a web page fit to a printed page under the newer OS).

Another possibility is to make a PDF of the file since some PDF software, including Acrobat, give an option to  include blank pages, and you can also print by selecting ranges.

PageMaker works in Windows 7

It just needed the courage to do it: I've installed PageMaker 7 into Windows 7 and it is working with none of the problems which made me abandon a straight installation of PageMaker in XP and go for installing it within Virtual PC using Win98.

The only "problem" is the aparent slowness of loading multiple fonts in Windows 7 though I've just been told that you can just put all the .pfm and .pfb files into a new folder and drag the pfm files into the Windows font folder or go for the slow way with the additional possibility of selecting a well hidden option to keep the new fonts where they are.

But, contrary to some comments I found on the Internet, postscript fonts work fine with Windows 7. Also, when opening some files within PageMaker and getting the expected missing font dialog, I was able to select equivalent OpenType fonts and they seem to have worked -- i.e. Garamond Pro OTF for Garamond postscript font. I'd guess that some extended characters will give problems but I have not yet tested that.

Yes, I do most page layout work now with InDesign but I still like PageMaker. It is simple, ultra quick in Win7, and while I still often have to think how to do things with InDesign, it is second nature in PageMaker. And there are few things in basic page layouts which PageMaker cannot do.

UPDATE: See my own added comment following my move from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows 7 (But I'm still able to use PageMaker - in XP mode)