Desktop Publishing on the Apple II GS (Part 3)
By Mark Smith
Copyright (c) 1994 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
In the last part several aspects of document design were discussed. In this part we concentrate on text entry.
Enter GraphicWriter
At this stage you need to choose which DTP application you intend to use. The three principal contenders are Publish It!, AppleWorks GS or GraphicWriter. Of the three GraphicWriter (GW) is the most advanced and easiest to use. Most of what follows can be done in the other two applications but not as easily nor as well. I am not familiar with other packages such as Medley. From this point on I will be making reference to GraphicWriter.
Opening a new document
Open GraphicWriter and choose New from the File menu. A new file is opened. Give the document a name and save it.
Printer selection
Next go to the Control Panel and select the printer which will be used to print the final document. This is important because the choice of printer affects the Page setup options. If you change the printer after finalising the page setup and page layout options the printed copy of your publication will not look as you intended.
Page setup
Next go to the File menu again and select Page setup. From this dialog select Paper options and choose the size of paper you will be using, the orientation of the paper (portrait or landscape) and condensed printing. If you have selected a DeskJet or LaserJet printer you will also be given the option to scale the output both horizontally and vertically. For best results leave both at 100%. Press Return to go back to Page setup. Enter the values for margins but don't worry about the other options at this stage. Press Return again to return to your document.
Page layout
GraphicWriter has numerous options for laying out the pages of your publication. You should layout the page as determined during the planning phase (see part 2 for details). If each page will have common elements, such as page numbers, column guides or graphics, these should be entered on the master page(s).
You can now add to the document the additional pages required to complete it. These will display any items placed on the master page(s).
If you know what illustrations are to appear in the final publication you should allow space for them at this stage. Attempt to keep illustrations in step with text. Readers don't appreciate having to flick backwards and forwards to
view illustrations referred to in the text. As mentioned in the last part don't try to cram too much onto each page.
GW allows a variety of scaling options to view your pages. Apple-W will display a full page and is useful for assessing the overall appearance of each page.
Once the basic layout of your publication has been determined you may want to save the format for later use (a club newsletter, for example). Use the Save as.. command to save it under another name (e.g. News.format). Next time you need a particular type of layout this file can be opened and put to work.
Importing text
Before text can be imported a text object or objects need to be created. This is done by selecting the text cursor and drawing the outline of the object within the previously established guides. If required, text objects can be linked to allow your text to flow from one object to the next.
Place the text cursor inside the first text object and choose Import from the File menu. This opens a dialog box which requests which translator to use. Choose Teach and press Return. Select the Teach file with your text in it and press Return. GW translates the file into GW format and inserts the text into your GW document complete with original choice of typefaces, styles, etc. However, you will not have any paragraphing styles in your document.
Text may also be entered directly from the keyboard. On an accelerated machine this is feasible; on an unaccelerated machine fast typists will find themselves running well ahead of the screen.
My preference is to limit direct keyboard input to GW to editing of imported text.
Styling paragraphs
The paragraph dialog box is most easily selected using Apple-M. This dialog box gives you several choices such as justification, space between paragraphs, indenting of first and subsequent lines of the paragraph and the location of the right margin relative to the previously selected page dimensions. Press Return when finished to return to your document. You now need to step through the document selecting and formatting any other paragraphs to conform to your needs. The title might be centred, direct quotes indented left and right or a footer containing page numbers justified left or right.
Page names
One of the most useful and powerful features of GW is the facility to name the individual pages of the document. For example, you may be setting up a book. Books normally have a title page, foreword, contents page, etc. Each of these pages may be named in the Jump to Page dialog. Use Apple-J to jump to the dialog box for this option, select the page number to be named, enter the name and click on the Set
title button. If you need that specific page later it is easy to press Apple-J, find the name of the page you require, select it and press return. GW takes you straight to that page. This feature is even more useful if you have added or deleted pages elsewhere in the document. For example, chapter 2 may originally have commenced on page 40 but several modifications to chapter 1 have resulted in it moving to page 49. GW tracks these changes and moves the page name from page 40 to page 49. In any case you need only select the page by name to be taken straight there.
Save your work
Don't forget to save your document regularly. It is wise to save it under a few different names just in case a file becomes corrupted for some reason. Murphy's Law of DTP says that a file will become corrupted as it nears completion with a deadline to meet and sometime between midnight and 5 am. If the document exists under several names you won't have to backtrack to the beginning.
GW generates large files so for this reason it is best to use a hard drive or a network volume to save them. Files stored on floppy take a long time to save and load. This acts as a disincentive to saving and increases the risk of losing files. Besides this, I find floppies incredibly unreliable.
Use an accelerator
During the page layout and paragraph styling operations use your accelerator if you have one installed. These operations run slowly enough to be annoying on an unaccelerated GS. Furthermore, screen updates are much faster on an accelerated machine. It goes without saying that this makes the DTP process much more enjoyable and productive.
If you have been have been following the series so far you should have the basis for your publication in place. In the next part I'll tackle text styling, typeface selection and using Pointless to best effect.

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