Jang F.M. Graat’s Magic FrameMaker Circus
We have packed spring and early summer with a total of seven exciting webinars with Jang F.M. Graat, Chief Technologist at The Content Era. We will take you on a ride and show you new and surprising ways to create compelling technical communication and other content with Adobe FrameMaker (2015 release).
And this is what we have scheduled for you:
- April 27: Magic Master Pages in FrameMaker 2015
- May 13: Plug-in Hybrid Documents – MySQL & Adobe FrameMaker
- June 2: Creating “Unbreakable Links” with FrameMaker (2015 release)
- June 23: WYSIWYN with FrameMaker (2015 release) – What You See Is What You Need
- June 30: Handling SVGs inside FrameMaker 2015
- July 13: Get a Grip – DITA 1.3 Customization and Constraints in FrameMaker (2015 release)
- July 20: Attribute-based Conditions Management in FrameMaker (2015 release)
[1/7]: Magic Master Pages in FrameMaker (2015 release)
Webinar Date:
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Recording:
Registration Fee:
ZERO!
How do you create automatic “this page intentionally left blank” markers without having to add them to your content? How do you restart page numbers half way through a chapter file? How do you make a page flip to landscape for wide tables (and back to portrait afterward)? How do you make images show up on the left pages while remaining aligned with the text on the right?
In this first webinar in the “Jang’s F.M. Circus” series, you will learn a number of techniques that allow you to make the master pages do what you need them to do. If you have been struggling with your document layouts, this is an excellent opportunity to learn how to make them work.
[2/7]: Plug-in Hybrid Documents – MySQL & Adobe FrameMaker (2015 release)
Webinar Date:
Friday, May 13, 2016
Recording:
Registration Fee:
ZERO!
Many documents use technical data, which ultimately comes from a database. Instead of manually copying the data into the documents, it might be a better idea to create a live database link. Using the built-in scripting capabilities of FrameMaker, this can easily be established.
In this second webinar in the “Jang’s F.M. Circus” series, you will discover a number of options for database connections, ranging from simple CSV text files to an SQL database running on a web server.
[3/7]: Creating “Unbreakable Links” with FrameMaker (2015 release)
Webinar Date:
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Recording:
Registration Fee:
ZERO!
Creating cross-references requires opening the target document, so that the target of the cross-reference can be pointed at. Apart from the hassle of this workflow, it may introduce new versions of the target document even if no content was changed in it. In a multi-author environment, the target document may already be open elsewhere, in which case you cannot even create the cross-reference.
In this third webinar in the “Jang’s F.M. Circus” series, you will learn about a technique that has none of the above disadvantages. Inserting cross-references can be made much more user-friendly and the links can be practically impossible to break. Also, a method to create cross-document links for both PDFs and HTML output is shown.
[4/7]: WYSIWYN with FrameMaker 2015 – What You See Is What You Need
Webinar Date:
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Recording:
Registration Fee:
ZERO!
Authors of technical information have different requirements than the users of that information. Authors might have a specific area of expertise about all product variants, whereas the user wants to know everything about one specific product. Having structured content and transformation scenarios available, both the authoring and usage environments can be optimized, as one method of organizing the content can be transformed into a totally different one.
In this fourth webinar in the “Jang’s F.M. Circus” series, you will see some examples of WYWIWYN environments from various business domains. You will learn about the basic techniques required to optimize both the editability and the usability of your content.
[5/7]: Handling SVGs inside FrameMaker (2015 release)
Webinar Date:
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Recording:
Registration Fee:
ZERO!
Modern publication channels use SVG for most of their graphics, especially when interactive media (hotspots, adaptive graphics) is used. FrameMaker can import and display SVGs, but with its built-in scripting capabilities the options for SVGs can be greatly expanded.
In this fifth webinar in the “Jang’s F.M. Circus” series, you will learn how shapes and texts from SVGs can be made editable in FrameMaker and how hotspots can be created without ever needing an SVG editing application. Also, you will learn how layers in SVGs can be used to create modular technical drawings.
[6/7]: Get a Grip! DITA 1.3 Customization and Constraints in FrameMaker (2015 release)
Webinar Date:
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Recording:
Registration Fee:
ZERO!
Nobody should use DITA out of the box without defining constraints on the available elements, as DITA has too many domains and elements for any real-life application. And while the configuration of DTDs can be somewhat of a challenge, the DITA 1.3 support in FrameMaker 2015 makes the definition of constraints very easy.
In this sixth webinar in the “Jang’s F.M. Circus” series, you will learn how to easily switch domains on and off, how to suppress individual elements, and how to make your own constrained templates available to your authors.
[7/7]: Attribute-based Conditions Management in FrameMaker (2015 release)
Webinar Date:
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Recording:
Registration Fee:
ZERO!
FrameMaker offers conditional tags and a powerful expression builder to handle conditional content. But in an XML environment, you really want to put those conditions in attributes instead of FrameMaker’s proprietary condition tags.
In this seventh and last webinar in the “Jang’s F.M. Circus” series, you will learn how to get the best of both conditional worlds, using ExtendScript to reflect the attribute changes in FrameMaker’s conditional text settings and an easy user interface to decide which content should be shown at any time.
About Jang F.M. Graat
Jang F.M. Graat, Chief Technologist at The Content Era LLC, has almost three decades experience in the technical communications industry. After studying Physics, Psychology, and Philosophy, he started on a fast-track career in the high-tech computer industry, working as a systems designer, marketeer, technical author, trainer, consultant, and programmer.Jang has delivered countless presentations and training courses around the globe. His talks were always entertaining as well as thought-provoking and met with enthusiasm and often a certain degree of bewilderment. Thinking inside a box is not one of his strengths. After being self-employed for 20 years, he has joined Tom Aldous at The Content Era, where he is developing his often revolutionary ideas into clever solutions. He has done tons of coding in ExtendScript, always trying to make the jobs of technical authors less tedious and more effective.You can also connect with Jang on facebook and follow him on Twitter: @4everJang