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Conference vaxuum::online_bookbuilding

Title:Online Bookbuilding
Notice:This conference is write-locked: see note 1.3.
Moderator:VAXUUM::UTT
Created:Fri Aug 12 1988
Last Modified:Mon Jul 15 1991
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:440
Total number of notes:2134

77.0. "Bold for <u> and <co> tags creates problems" by MTWAIN::SNOW () Fri Feb 03 1989 07:27

   PVAX writers used the <callout> tag to annotate firmware screens.
    This works fine in hard copy, but in the Bookreader, <callout>
    produces a bold number. Since some of the user input shown on the
    screen is also numbers (and also shown in bold), <callout> no
    longer works to annotate screens. 
    
    In other words, the Bookreader uses the same convention for
    callouts and user input. Is it possible for the Bookreader
    to use something other than  bold numbers for the <callout> tag?
    Or is there some other way to annotate screens in DOCUMENT?

    A coding example follows.
    
    <interactive>
    <s>PV_SCS_FMT_CHN  (0=SCSIA, 1=SCSIB)?   <u>1   <callout>
    .
    .
    .
    <endinteractive>
T.RTitleUserPersonal
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77.1CLOSET::UTTFri Feb 03 1989 15:028
    The problem is we have no reverse numbers in the video fonts, as
    we do in the Postscript and LN03 fonts. So I used a larger, bold
    numeral -- which has worked well so far because callouts are used
    primarily in code examples (no bf). I'm open to suggestions.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Mary
77.2A bracketed number?MTWAIN::SNOWFri Feb 03 1989 17:589
    I'm not sure what possibilities are available in the video fonts.
    Is there anything like the reverse numbers? Or are the video fonts
    somewhat limited? Even a bracketed number would be better for our
    purposes, but I'm not sure what's best for the Bookreader. What
    about a different or larger font?
    
    Thanks,
    
    Joyce
77.3VAXUUM::UTTSun Feb 05 1989 13:5911
    The video font possibilities are limited. There is nothing like
    reverse numbers. Brackets are a possibility. I could make the font
    still larger but I'm not sure how that would look. A different font
    might not work well: one problem with the video fonts is that, at
    the low resolution of 75 dots per inch, there's not a lot of
    differentiation between fonts. Hopefully, in the future DECwindows
    will support more fonts and things like publishing and special
    characters (such as reverse numbers). Higher resolution monitors
    will also let us get better effects from fonts.
    
    Mary
77.4Looking for monospaced user inputBOOKIE::HIGGSFri May 19 1989 15:2724
    I have a <U> problem online which is a little different.
    
    I document a word processing product which runs in bit mapped mode.
    When I show examples of user input on the screen, especially in
    relation to rulers, it is important that it be mono-spaced.  For
    example, the following example about setting tabs in a ruler is
    from a Getting Started book.  It is easy to reproduce here.  The
    first line shows the ruler.  The rest of the lines show user input
    and should be red print, or bolded for online:
    

    L---T---------------T----------------------T----------------T--------------R
    
        DATE            CONFERENCE             LOCATION         HOTEL
    
        May 1-31        New Markets            London           Claridge's
        June 1-30       Personnel Perks        Paris            Georges
        July 1-31       Encouraging Sales      Sante Fe         La Posada
    
    Using the <interactive> tag, with <S> for the ruler and <U> for
    the user input does not work because the bolded font is spaced
    proportionally, so the alignment, and therefore the point of the
    example, is lost.  Any suggestions?  
    
77.5DSSDEV::EPPESI&#039;m not making this up, you knowFri May 19 1989 15:4412
    RE <<< Note 77.4 by BOOKIE::HIGGS >>>

>    Using the <interactive> tag, with <S> for the ruler and <U> for
>    the user input does not work because the bolded font is spaced
>    proportionally, so the alignment, and therefore the point of the
>    example, is lost.  Any suggestions?

    What about using <code_example>, with <emphasis>(...\bold) around
    the user input part?  (Does <emphasis> work within <code_example>?)
    Of course, this wouldn't give you the right output for hard copy...

							-- Nina    
77.6CLOSET::UTTFri May 19 1989 16:5614
    The bolded font is not proportionally space; both the usertext and
    systemtext fonts are monospaced but the bolded characters are wider
    (because they're bold - more pixels).
    
    At the moment I don't think there is any way around this -- the only
    way we have currently to differentiate user text and system text is
    by a font change and *any* font change means different font metrics
    which means your alignment will be off. Nina's suggestion will have the
    same effect as the <U> tag. 
    
    I will give this some more thought but I'm not optimistic. At least
    not for V1 of the Bookreader.
    
    Mary