RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (Full Version)

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Jorge_Stanbury -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 1:26:28 PM)

Page 190
"Moving across a River hex side will also cause the crossing unit to initiate a shock attack unless the moving side has a presence of friendly units that are already in the hex that meet a threshold of strength when compared to the non-moving side."

It should be stated that the threshold is ~30% of the non-moving side AV




blueatoll -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 3:09:47 PM)

I sent a PM to Alfred. I've got 25 years experience in the publishing industry and the professional tools at my disposal to get the manual in and out of pdf e-book easily. Please do not use Paint to capture screen captures. Please use Snag-it or an actual screen capture tool. Paint will give you crappy captures with highly rastered images. I'd also recommend Paint.Net to resize and touch up screenshots.

I'm happy to help coordinate the actual production and technical construction of the documents.




geofflambert -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 3:38:32 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Don't get carried away.  I said there are certain technical issues to overcome.  And I keep repeating we are retaining the basic structure.

One great advantage I have is that I can look up my own posts as they usually already incorporate dev answers unearthed during the research.  There ought to not be too many subject areas I haven't posted on in the past.  Plus the hidden contribution from the devs.

Alfred


I would thank you greatly [&o] except for one technical reason: I barely read any of the original manual. [8|][:D] Do they archive threads and posts further back than they seem to in this forum?




Alfred -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 4:44:17 PM)

A professional PDF writer has informed me that they will convert the e-book to a Word document this weekend.  I have asked them to send it to me as it undoubtedly will be a far superior working document than the one I am currently working on.  Revising chapters 1-3 has already highlighted some of the technical problems which might be overcome with an improved working document.

As to archived threads and posts.  All are accessible in a forum search.

Alfred




bartrat -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 5:16:30 PM)

Please remove in the revised PDF the mention of a tutorial.




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 5:38:26 PM)

Going to read your linked thread in a second, meanwhile some comments.
quote:

ORIGINAL: Reg

quote:

ORIGINAL: witpqs

The compatibility will depend on what format the file is currently stored in. "There was a time" when Microsoft deliberately made their newer storage formats for Word and such have subtle incompatibilities with non-MS software. They swore off of that behavior a number of years ago. But note the skeptical quotation marks!

Given how old the current manual is, the doc is about guaranteed to be in a format that other software (such as LibreOffice) can read and write without problems. Because of Microsoft's better behavior, the same should be true of the newer MS formats if the document owner's insist on a newer Microsoft proprietary format. They should opt for an Open Document Format, as it is just that and they shouldn't lose anything in doing so.

It looks like there are multiple options for reading in PDF files; I'm looking for one that is a straight up import with retention of markup/layout. I'll get back to you.


I originally asked the question about tools as I suspected this might be the case.

You might like to look at this link: Semi OT: Seeking help with "indexing" of the updated PDF manual (for WitE - I am in charge for it)!

I have just uploaded the manual into Libre Office (thankfully no edit security) and as I suspected it imports it into Libre Draw not Writer. This is not the ideal tool for this task. ie text lines are individual entities not paragraphs which makes inserting text a real pain in the a#$$ (no automatic line overflow...). By the way, Acrobat writer works in exactly the same way.
I tested that and it loads it into either Draw or the slide maker program (forget the name at this instant). Not practical for the project as pagination is needed.

You did better than me getting it into docx (XML format) though I seem to remember OpenOffice could do something like this.
Not sure what you mean, I didn't get any PDF into XML? Maybe someone else's post?

What you really need is a copy of the original source file or run the current pdf manual through a MS Office converter to create an edititable source file (though document security can defeat that). PDF is not really an editable file format.

Once you have a good source file, Office 2007 will be just fine as an editor. Don't forget the humble screen print button of your computer - it works!! (Paste straight into Word and you can crop/edit/resize from there).
The problem with editing in MS Word (any version) is that it costs money for whomever has it. Using an open document format has the advantages of 1) more modern markup and 2) using any editor that properly support the open document standards.

There are several freeware pdf print drivers such as CutePDF (www.cutepdf.com) which I use (though it installs other unwanted stuff) which will output a pdf document from any application which can print (including office 2007) but will not include niceities such as index links.
This stuff is not necessary anymore as most or all modern stuff has built-in output to PDF. Heck, even when I print from an application there is a Windows driver there - built-in to the operating system IIRC - that will make a PDF instead. If you've got an older OS with older apps then those drivers are a great help.

As per the link above, the tool of choice I believe is Adobe InDesign Suite but it is as expensive as all getout.... (and has a learning curve similar to WITP-AE [:(] )

However, there seems to be offerings out there where you can "rent" software for a limited time period at a monthly rate. This might be a better option that buying sophisticated (and expensive) software for a single task. Adobe Creative Cloud

Best of luck!!

To the rest of you guys, keep your suggestions coming - don't let us derail the thread.... [:)]


I've found several tools that will convert PDF to Word format, which then can easily and accurately be read into LibreOffice (or most anything else) and saved as an open document text file. Many are online free conversions, but I suspect something that runs locally is more desirable here. I'm just still looking to see if I can find one that goes directly to open document format. Then of course comes testing things out.

The very worst case is that the text is obtained with some degree of markup, and then a manual clean up effort is the last step in the conversion process.




Yaab -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 5:38:32 PM)

ad bartrat:
I second this emotion.




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 5:42:57 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: witpqs

Going to read your linked thread in a second, meanwhile some comments.
quote:

ORIGINAL: Reg

quote:

ORIGINAL: witpqs

The compatibility will depend on what format the file is currently stored in. "There was a time" when Microsoft deliberately made their newer storage formats for Word and such have subtle incompatibilities with non-MS software. They swore off of that behavior a number of years ago. But note the skeptical quotation marks!

Given how old the current manual is, the doc is about guaranteed to be in a format that other software (such as LibreOffice) can read and write without problems. Because of Microsoft's better behavior, the same should be true of the newer MS formats if the document owner's insist on a newer Microsoft proprietary format. They should opt for an Open Document Format, as it is just that and they shouldn't lose anything in doing so.

It looks like there are multiple options for reading in PDF files; I'm looking for one that is a straight up import with retention of markup/layout. I'll get back to you.


I originally asked the question about tools as I suspected this might be the case.

You might like to look at this link: Semi OT: Seeking help with "indexing" of the updated PDF manual (for WitE - I am in charge for it)!

I have just uploaded the manual into Libre Office (thankfully no edit security) and as I suspected it imports it into Libre Draw not Writer. This is not the ideal tool for this task. ie text lines are individual entities not paragraphs which makes inserting text a real pain in the a#$$ (no automatic line overflow...). By the way, Acrobat writer works in exactly the same way.
I tested that and it loads it into either Draw or the slide maker program (forget the name at this instant). Not practical for the project as pagination is needed.

You did better than me getting it into docx (XML format) though I seem to remember OpenOffice could do something like this.
Not sure what you mean, I didn't get any PDF into XML? Maybe someone else's post?

What you really need is a copy of the original source file or run the current pdf manual through a MS Office converter to create an edititable source file (though document security can defeat that). PDF is not really an editable file format.

Once you have a good source file, Office 2007 will be just fine as an editor. Don't forget the humble screen print button of your computer - it works!! (Paste straight into Word and you can crop/edit/resize from there).
The problem with editing in MS Word (any version) is that it costs money for whomever has it. Using an open document format has the advantages of 1) more modern markup and 2) using any editor that properly support the open document standards.

There are several freeware pdf print drivers such as CutePDF (www.cutepdf.com) which I use (though it installs other unwanted stuff) which will output a pdf document from any application which can print (including office 2007) but will not include niceities such as index links.
This stuff is not necessary anymore as most or all modern stuff has built-in output to PDF. Heck, even when I print from an application there is a Windows driver there - built-in to the operating system IIRC - that will make a PDF instead. If you've got an older OS with older apps then those drivers are a great help.

As per the link above, the tool of choice I believe is Adobe InDesign Suite but it is as expensive as all getout.... (and has a learning curve similar to WITP-AE [:(] )

However, there seems to be offerings out there where you can "rent" software for a limited time period at a monthly rate. This might be a better option that buying sophisticated (and expensive) software for a single task. Adobe Creative Cloud

Best of luck!!

To the rest of you guys, keep your suggestions coming - don't let us derail the thread.... [:)]


I've found several tools that will convert PDF to Word format, which then can easily and accurately be read into LibreOffice (or most anything else) and saved as an open document text file. Many are online free conversions, but I suspect something that runs locally is more desirable here. I'm just still looking to see if I can find one that goes directly to open document format. Then of course comes testing things out.

The very worst case is that the text is obtained with some degree of markup, and then a manual clean up effort is the last step in the conversion process.

I wrote this reply before flipping the page and seeing the good news that the conversion process is covered! [:)]




blueatoll -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 6:45:03 PM)

RE - Adobe Indesign for creating the book:

I cannot imagine anyone putting together a 100+ page manual in InDesign unless they were clinically insane. It's not meant for book production and is cumbersome for anything over about 10 pages to use. Plus I know of no way to auto-generate an Index in InDesign. Save your money and do not get a subscription to Adobe Creative Suite Cloud. It's a year commitment, they save the files in a cloud-specific format that is difficult to export to desktop versions (flattening) and is not the tool to use here. As you mentioned, the learning curve is pretty steep as well.

If I had to guess, and I haven't cracked open the source code for the document yet, I'd say that this manual was originally published in either Frame or possibly Madcap Flare. Both are professional publishing tools. I'd be surprised if someone used Word to do this. Word also dislikes long manuals and book construction across files is cumbersome and replete with error. The other reasonable alternative is that this document was put together in Word and then transformed using WebWorks Publisher.

I'll know more after this weekend.




MBF -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 8:41:36 PM)

At the risk of sounding noobish - would Google Drive be appropriate for portions of this project and limiting who can see/share/edit etc ?




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 8:44:30 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: MBF

At the risk of sounding noobish - would Google Drive be appropriate for portions of this project and limiting who can see/share/edit etc ?

Google Drive would be fine for a place to share the document. Using Google Docs to edit the document there is a different story. It has steadily improved, but I don't know if it is up to the task being undertaken. I should say, I don't know 'how well' up to the task being undertaken.




MBF -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 8:50:58 PM)

Yeah - its good enough for the light weight stuff I do but certainly not a finished product yet (and given my role in education I want my material to have a sort of rough edge otherwise they will expect me to do finished product all the time which is definitely not my forte)




Reg -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/5/2014 11:14:41 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: witpqs

You did better than me getting it into docx (XML format) though I seem to remember OpenOffice could do something like this.
Not sure what you mean, I didn't get any PDF into XML? Maybe someone else's post?


Hi witps,

At the risk of de-railing the conversation again, when Office (2010?) went from .doc save files to .docx, the propriety file format went to XML (have a close look at a save file). This makes them a lot more portable and are easier to import into other conversion tools such as Calibre (e-book creator) - Hey look, another option...... [:D]

The comment above was a result of my dementia (TIC) - in the past I have had to convert files to docx before I could process them further. I just can't remember how I did it. [:(]

I only suggested Adobe Suite as PDF is their file format and they have developed some powerful tools to manipulate the documents. I bought a copy for my daughter so I have seen some of it's capabilities but I have not used it myself.

At least this conversation has brought up some options for Alfred. [;)]




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 12:21:52 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Reg

quote:

ORIGINAL: witpqs

You did better than me getting it into docx (XML format) though I seem to remember OpenOffice could do something like this.
Not sure what you mean, I didn't get any PDF into XML? Maybe someone else's post?


Hi witps,

At the risk of de-railing the conversation again, when Office (2010?) went from .doc save files to .docx, the propriety file format went to XML (have a close look at a save file). This makes them a lot more portable and are easier to import into other conversion tools such as Calibre (e-book creator) - Hey look, another option...... [:D]

The comment above was a result of my dementia - in the past I have had to convert files to docx before I could process them further. I just can't remember how I did it. [:(]

I only suggested Adobe Suite as PDF is their file format and they have developed some powerful tools to manipulate the documents. I bought a copy for my daughter so I have seen some of it's capabilities but I have not used it myself.

At least this conversation has brought up some options for Alfred. [;)]


Right, but I still don't remember getting files into docx. [:D] I might have misstated something at some point. Anyhow, that openess is part of Microsoft's new approach. docx can be read into LibreOffice easily as the older doc, if one is interested in using that suite. [:)]




Reg -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 12:22:40 AM)


Keep the content suggestions coming guys..... [:)]





bartrat -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 1:19:45 AM)

Google Drive:
PLEASE read the EULA for Google. Please read it very closely.
DropBox is my favorite.




Yaab -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 5:44:37 AM)

Political points

Manual, p.222

"The larger the size of the unit, the greater the Political Point expenditure required to change
the HQ. Costs are as follows:
»» Base – cost is a function of the airfield and port sizes.
»» Air Unit – cost is 4 times the number of planes (e.g., a squadron
of 24 planes would cost 96 Political Points to change)
»» Ground Units – the cost is a function of the number
and types of devices in the unit"

I would welcome more information about the political point cost per device type. It was a real eye opener to learn that a single field arty tube is worth 10 PPs.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3418333&mpage=1&key=







Mac Linehan -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 2:17:00 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: rockmedic109

This would be a monumental task with pay. Without pay.....I humbly stand here unworthy and in awe. Thank You.



rockmedic109 sums it up, Alfred. The revision will be well written, informative and absolutely First Class (and I would expect nothing else short of excellence).

We are in your debt, Sir.

Mac




SuluSea -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 2:25:06 PM)

Thanks Alfred!!

You are just the man to be doing this. It's no small task but I for one greatly appreciate your dedication. [:)]




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 5:50:34 PM)

There are some developer postings that I have cut & pasted into txt files on my hard drive for quick finding when needed. I'll post what I have. Some might be redundant with others' posts.

Regarding the optional aircraft ordnance filters. Here is a text attachment followed by a screen cap in a separate post.

Edit to add: I believe Ian/TheElf posted this and the following graphic.




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 5:51:09 PM)

AC filters screen cap:

[image]local://upfiles/14248/828D9C4CFA2A4E8BA4321D8200EE2823.jpg[/image]




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 5:53:27 PM)

Attribute field in scenario files (CSV). Original might have been from MichaelM, I edited it a bit for my understanding.




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 5:54:24 PM)

A bit on Barrage balloons.




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 5:55:35 PM)

JWE's post on drop tanks.




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 5:57:33 PM)

JWE's post on the engineer type squads in Babes, might be some included in newer scen 1/2. I realize you might not want this.




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 5:58:29 PM)

The latest that I saw posted on Hot Keys. Someone else might have more recent info.




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 5:59:26 PM)

A bit about HQ units in the editor/CSV scenario files.




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 6:00:52 PM)

From the latest release regarding the monsoon dates. Must be redundant with data you have already.




witpqs -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 6:03:34 PM)

Concerning supply. This is distilled down from an earlier developer post, as there were some changes after that post. I suppose this needs to be checked for current accuracy.




Skyros -> RE: AE PDF Manual Revision (9/6/2014 6:17:47 PM)

Alfred I did the original screenshots for the manual in snag it. I may still have them. They formatted them by putting a white border around them. .f you would like a copy of them send me a pm with your email and I will send them to you.

Good luck.




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