Re: Scripting Newbie
Re: Scripting Newbie
- Subject: Re: Scripting Newbie
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001 11:08:39 +0100
Bryan/Paul,
IIRC, somewhere in the Adobe manual it says that PDF Printer isn't
recommended for use on complex documents such as DTP files and that you
should use Distiller for these. This is based on memory, mind you, so you'd
best double-check the manuals yourselves. But I'm pretty sure about it.
At my last job there we once had big problems with artwork going jagged in
a batch of (supplied) PDF files. Worse, we only spotted this *after* the
job had come back from press; it wasn't obvious on our own lasers (which
are only 600dpi, after all) and got missed (ouchie) on the printer's
proofs. Having done a fairly hasty post-mortem at the time, I was pretty
sure the problem was due to them being output via PDF Printer instead of
Distiller (though I never got round to proving for certain).
IMHO, take care and test thoroughly if you do intend to use PDF Printer for
more than just Word files, or else just stick with Distiller. If you want a
desktop printer you can use for making pdfs via Distiller, use the desktop
printer utility to create one and set it up accordingly.
Paul,
I can't tell you if there's any way within PM6.5's scripting language to do
anything PDF-related (I know PM6 didn't, but v6.5 is more advanced).
PM6 had a copy of the scripting language guide on the installer CD, so if
you're got an old v6 CD you can use v6's scripting guide for a lot of
stuff; if not, you'll really need the book.
There's also a few sites on the web which cover PM's scripting system that
you might find of use. Here's some links:
http://www.hhansen.com/pmscripting/index.html
http://www.oz.net/~vsamarsk/PageMakerScripting.htm
http://www.svprint.com/pmscripting_folder/scripts_folder/as_scripts.html
In PM6 you could get various values and do a whole load of things (set
print settings, create text boxes, import text/graphics, etc); in 6.5 you
could do quite a bit more (though I never got that far; I just used a
combination of PM6-style scripting and AppleScript to get me by).
The good news about PM's (modest) AS support is that it allows you to run
PM scripts from an Applescript. I can't remember exactly how you write it,
but it's something like:
tell application "PageMaker"
do script "your PM script here"
end tell
Of course, since the PM script here is just a string, you can manipulate
that string any way you like within AS before you pass it to PageMaker.
Example:
Back at that last job again, I once wrote a set of AS scripts that would
output sample pages from our PM files, converting them to pdf for online
distribution. I had one script which would rattle through a folder full of
aliases to PM files, open each in PM, then set up a PM script containing
suitable print settings and send that script to PM. Then I batch-distilled
the ps files it put out to get my pdfs. Finally I had another script open
each pdf file in Acrobat and add a cover page (these were generated by a
third script using content from a products database and PM templates). All
very nice.
Now the bad news: before leaving that job I deleted the lot and wrote them
a manual on how to do the same job by hand instead. Gah. Whilst it all
looked great on paper, in that particular situation it didn't work nearly
as well in practice. Too many publications were just too crusty for an
automated solution to cope with: hoary old PM5 files, jobs made up of
multiple PM files (euwww), files containing PICTs (which are a disaster to
distill). Oh, and just about every file used different fonts (there was no
ATM set up to load them automatically as needed, and if I'd tried to
install them all beforehand it would have broken the MacOS). Yuk. In
hindsight I shouldn't even have bothered.
OTOH, had all the files had been in good nick and ATM installed it would
have worked like an absolute *charm*. Plus it'd still be going strong
today. (And I could've gotten you a copy too. Darn.)
Comments:
You may well be quickest to use PageMaker to print all your PM documents as
postscript files first without messing with any meta-information at this
stage (go away and make a looong cup of tea instead). Then run those
through Distiller as a batch job (another looong cup of tea) and, once
that's done, use Acrobat (the full version, assuming you've got it) to set
the meta-information in each file; you'll find it under File>Document
Info>General. (This last stage should be the fastest of the three - it's
the waiting for stuff to print to file and distill that's the slowest.)
Now, it's that first step which is the kicker (see my example above).
However, if your files are all in good order, fonts are all taken care of
and will all use the same print settings, then scripting the process should
be a practical option for you and is worth trying to do (either by using a
PM6.5 script or using a combination of PM and AS scripting if PM6.5 can't
do it alone). If not, you'll proably be best gritting your teeth, making
some very strong coffee and doing it all manually.
Hope that helps.
has