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How to Use Cropster and Slugger in Illustrator
While it's true that we don't have an Illustrator version yet for our Cropster and Slugger XTensions/plug-ins, you can still use them indirectly with one intermediary step. Create your crop setup or slug in Quark or InDesign, complete with dimension arrows, reg marks, etc. Then save as EPS or print to file. You can then open this up in Illustrator, Freehand or even PhotoShop. You may want to delete the outer bounding box and make a few minor adjustments. You can use this same technique to get the advanced shapes of ShapeMaker over to other graphics programs.
How to "Create Trimmed Document" on a Multi-page Document
The new Cropster has a powerful feature to create a new document to the trim size specified in the cropster dialog. Currently, this only works for single page documents. But if you've created Cropster setups on a number of pages, most commonly, front and back, you can use GLUON's product Cloner to break the document into two documents, then use Cropster's "Create Trimmed Document" feature on each. You can then recombine using thumbnail drag. It sounds like a lot of work but it only takes about 30 seconds...which save a lot of time. We'll be adding more power to both Cropster and Cloner in the future.
How to Copy Presets From One Computer To Another
Most GLUON XTensions and plug-ins allow you to save presets for convenient recall. If you need to share these settings with a co-worker, simply open your System Preferences Folder and locate the settings folder for the XTension, such as GLUON QC Settings. Inside this folder will be files with the names of your presets. Just copy the ones you need to the corresponding folder on another machine. All presets except for Slugger can be shared with anyone who has the same version. Slugger requires that they also have the same serial number.
How to Make a Slideshow or QuickTime Movie from a Printed Piece in XPress
If you have a document that was formatted for print, say 17 x 11 or 11 x 8 1/2, you can quickly turn it into a multimedia slideshow with GLUON's ProScale, XPressImage and our free PresenterActive. First, decide the size you'd like to output to be. If you wanted to run full screen on a 1024 by 768 monitor (common for projectors), go to the ProScale dialog, select scale by size, turn off constrain, then enter p1024 into the horizontal and p768 to the vertical box. Hit OK and watch the magic. After that, use XPressImage to export the pages as PICT files. Then drag the folder of PICTs over the PresenterActive icon where you can then add music, effects and export it as HTML, XML or a QuickTime Movie.
How to Speed Up ProScale's Document Scaling
Sometimes when scaling a multipage document, it's fun to watch ProScale resize each item, but to really see it fly, simply cluck into the document window while it's resizing. You can also speed it up by turning off the visuals in the dialog.
How to Collect Multiple Documents that Share Graphics and Fonts Without Redundancy
GLUON's QC Collect has a feature called Merge Collect and another feature called the Collection Bin which sits on the desktop. Simply drag your documents into the Collection Bin and Click the Merge Collect button. You will end up with one fonts folder and one graphics folder (if that option is used). If different graphics have the same name, new sub-folders will be automatically created. This cuts down significantly on archive sizes and FTP times.
How to Replace an Unknown Number of Multiple Spaces by a Specified Number
GLUON's QC is much more than a Quality Control and preflight tool, it's also a powerful find and replace tool. It can list all instances of more than one (or the number specified) spaces, then clicking on the listed item takes you to the text. At that point you have the option to click the Autofix Button and QC will replace the spaces with the one space (or the number specified). This can be done for a number of other text problems as well.
Get Each Letter In a Word to Have It's Own Little Blend
First use GLUON's free Outlines XT with the "Convert Letters Individually" setting. Slect the letters and apply the blend to the group. Each letter will now have a complete blend as opposed to the blend going across the entire word.
Export Ornate Letters to the Web
GLUON's WebXPress gives you the ability to substitute individual characters in a given font with an in-line GIF or JPEG file. You simply create a text file named like the font. Then add characters as needed to a list followed by a tab and the HTML you would like to substitute such as "<IMG SRC="gifs/A.gif" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0">" This text file is placed in the WebXPress Preferences folder. |
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