Publisher’s Letter
Dear ATPM readers,
ATPM began life in April 1995 as a DOCMaker-only publication. Since May 1996, it has been available online in HTML format, as well as in the original DOCMaker stand-alone format. This issue—volume five, issue seven—ATPM is also available in Acrobat PDF format.
DOCMaker, HTML, and PDF—Oh My
ATPM readers have been requesting that we provide a PDF version. Well here it is. The three editions of ATPM all have exactly the same articles and content, except that some special files—like desktop pictures—are only available on the Web. (We figured most of you wouldn’t want to receive 8 MB attachments via e-mail). No format is best in all situations, so here is a brief overview of the three. Please fill out the form at http://www.atpm.com to let us know which you prefer.
In DOCMaker format, ATPM is a self-opening document. It’s optimized for reading on screen and makes it easy to navigate between articles. Stand-alone issues of ATPM require only about 1 MB of RAM to open, and run on nearly every Mac ever made Font and window sizes are fixed, however, and links are not clickable. A DOCMaker version of ATPM 5.07 is available at ftp://ftp.atpm.com/ATPM5.07.sit.bin.
The PDF version of ATPM is designed to be read on-screen, but it also prints very well (see below). The PDF format allows higher quality graphics and fonts, and more finely tuned layouts. Text and images can be magnified to nearly any size. In addition, hypertext links are clickable—they open right in your browser. Adobe Acrobat Reader is required and has steeper system requirements than DOCMaker, but it can run on nearly any type of computer. Adobe’s PDF format will be an integral part of Apple’s next-generation operating system—Mac OS X. An Adobe PDF version of ATPM 5.07 is available at ftp://ftp.atpm.com/ATPM507.sit (requires StuffIt Expander 5) and ftp://ftp.atpm.com/ATPM507.pdf (plain PDF).
The Web edition of ATPM can be read in any Web browser (although we recommend one that supports cascading style sheets). With this online version of ATPM, you download only the articles you want to read. Two special buttons at the bottom of each page let you increase the font size and format the page for printing. Naturally, all links in the Web version are “live,” and it is easy to navigate between articles and bookmark them for later perusal. The Web version of ATPM 5.07 is available at http://www.atpm.com/5.07.
Printing
I’ll be blunt: ATPM has never printed well. Until now. Many of you have written in over the years, asking for tips for printing the DOCMaker edition. There just weren’t any tips to be had. Everything in DOCMaker was lined up with spaces and blank lines (this is a big no-no ordinarily). Basically, we were faking the alignments. On a 72-dpi monitor, you can use really small spaces and make it look like things are aligned. You can’t fool a 600-dpi printer. Even worse, graphics were being broken across pages. In short, the best way you could print ATPM, prior to this issue, was to go to the Web version, click the Format Page for Printing button, and print each page individually. The PDF edition of ATPM is designed to be printed, as well as read on-screen. Most of the graphics are now vector art, which means that they look nice at any magnification or printer resolution. And we’ve embedded all the fonts you’ll need for maximum viewing pleasure.
PDF Viewing Tips
- You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader for free. If you have a Power Macintosh, Acrobat Reader 4 has better quality and performance. ATPM is also compatible with Acrobat Reader 3, for those with 680x0 Macs.
- You can zoom the PDF to full window width and scroll through articles simply by single-clicking anywhere in the article text (except underlined links).
- You can quickly navigate between articles using the bookmarks pane at the left of the main viewing window.
- For best results on small screens, be sure to hide the bookmarks pane; that way you’ll be able to see the entire page width at 100%.
- Try turning Font Smoothing on and off in Acrobat Reader’s preferences to see which setting you prefer.
- All blue-underlined links are clickable. Links to external Websites are reproduced in footnotes at the bottoms of pages, in case you are reading from a printed copy.
- You can hold down option while hovering over a link to see where it will lead.
We Want Your Feedback
This is the first significant redesign ATPM has gone through since 1996. We are certainly interested in any feedback you have for us. Do you like the new graphics? Are the PDF fonts too small? Whatever you have to say, we’re listening. Most importantly, please let us know whether you prefer DOCMaker format, PDF, or something else altogether. We do not have the resources to produce both DOCMaker and PDF versions of ATPM each month. Your feedback will decide which formats ATPM 5.08 and subsequent issues are published in.
Thanks for reading this far, and I hope you’ll enjoy this issue of ATPM!
Michael Tsai,
mtsai@atpm.com, is the publisher of ATPM.
Also in This Series
- Publisher’s Letter · May 2012
- Publisher’s Letter · July 2005
- Publisher’s Letter · August 1999
- Publisher’s Letter · July 1999
- Complete Archive
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