Chasing bugs is fun, but it takes time and attention away from the process of getting a monthly newsletter to press without too many typographical errors.

When I bought a Mac, I wanted to make a clean break from Windows, and Pagestream was the only reasonably priced DTP application that ran in Mac OS X and had the features I need. But besides all the other bugs I've been writing about, there was a typographical anomaly that had been introduced in October 2011, when I changed the font family in some paragraph styles, that I didn't notice until a few days ago while working on the March 2012 issue.

I had already installed an older version of Serif PagePlus in Windows in VirtualBox on the Mac, and had begun porting the newsletter to PagePlus. Yesterday, after fixing the typographical anomaly in PageStream, I finished porting the newsletter to PagePlus, and I'm now preparing the March issue in PagePlus. As for now, as far as I'm concerned, Pagestream is history.

I won't tell you what the typographical anomaly was, because (now that I'm no longer using Pagestream) it doesn't bother me, and if it bothers you you'll find out about it without my help.

Have fun.

--
Martin B. Brilliant - mbrilliant@alum.mit.edu
Mac OS X version 10.6.8
PageStream (non-pro) 5.0.5.8
Editor, The Jersey Heartbeat
www.heartsofjersey.org

Hi Martin,

I hope PagePlus is better for you. (no smiley!)

But, why didn't you tell us what the typographic bug was?
We might solve it (your fault, or, yes, a PGS bug). Yes, PGS does have
its bugs.
What I don't see why many of us still use PSG if it was that bad. Don't
tell me that PagePlus doesn't have bugs.

Anyway, we (I) hope to see you here again. If not for answering this
mail, then for using PGS again.

Theo

Op 25-2-2012 17:37, Martin B. Brilliant schreef:
> Chasing bugs is fun, but it takes time and attention away from the process of getting a monthly newsletter to press without too many typographical errors.
>
> When I bought a Mac, I wanted to make a clean break from Windows, and Pagestream was the only reasonably priced DTP application that ran in Mac OS X and had the features I need. But besides all the other bugs I've been writing about, there was a typographical anomaly that had been introduced in October 2011, when I changed the font family in some paragraph styles, that I didn't notice until a few days ago while working on the March 2012 issue.
>
> I had already installed an older version of Serif PagePlus in Windows in VirtualBox on the Mac, and had begun porting the newsletter to PagePlus. Yesterday, after fixing the typographical anomaly in PageStream, I finished porting the newsletter to PagePlus, and I'm now preparing the March issue in PagePlus. As for now, as far as I'm concerned, Pagestream is history.
>
> I won't tell you what the typographical anomaly was, because (now that I'm no longer using Pagestream) it doesn't bother me, and if it bothers you you'll find out about it without my help.
>
> Have fun.
>

--
PageStream Pro 5.0.5.8 on Windows 7 Pro 32 bits (Dutch), Python 2.7.1 and PySide 1.0.5
AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 215 Processor at 2.70 GHz and 2 GB RAM

On Tue, 28 Feb 2012, Theo Zweers wrote:

> Hi Martin,
>
> I hope PagePlus is better for you. (no smiley!)
>
> But, why didn't you tell us what the typographic bug was?
> We might solve it (your fault, or, yes, a PGS bug). Yes, PGS does have
> its bugs.
> What I don't see why many of us still use PSG if it was that bad. Don't
> tell me that PagePlus doesn't have bugs.
>
> Anyway, we (I) hope to see you here again. If not for answering this
> mail, then for using PGS again.
>

Is it the one where the letter combo "TH" comes out as a sort of united
single character in some fonts?

> Theo
>
> Op 25-2-2012 17:37, Martin B. Brilliant schreef:
>> Chasing bugs is fun, but it takes time and attention away from the process of getting a monthly newsletter to press without too many typographical errors.
>>
>> When I bought a Mac, I wanted to make a clean break from Windows, and Pagestream was the only reasonably priced DTP application that ran in Mac OS X and had the features I need. But besides all the other bugs I've been writing about, there was a typographical anomaly that had been introduced in October 2011, when I changed the font family in some paragraph styles, that I didn't notice until a few days ago while working on the March 2012 issue.
>>
>> I had already installed an older version of Serif PagePlus in Windows in VirtualBox on the Mac, and had begun porting the newsletter to PagePlus. Yesterday, after fixing the typographical anomaly in PageStream, I finished porting the newsletter to PagePlus, and I'm now preparing the March issue in PagePlus. As for now, as far as I'm concerned, Pagestream is history.
>>
>> I won't tell you what the typographical anomaly was, because (now that I'm no longer using Pagestream) it doesn't bother me, and if it bothers you you'll find out about it without my help.
>>
>> Have fun.
>>
>
>
>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bonnie Dalzell, MA
mailO box 9767 Baldwin, MD, USA 21013 | EMAIL:bdalzell@qis.net
shipping adddress:5100 Hydes Rd 21082 (Hydes Post Office closed Jan 2012)
Freelance anatomist, vertebrate paleontologist, writer, illustrator, dog
breeder, computer nerd & iconoclast... Borzoi info at www.borzois.com.
HOME www.batw.net ART bdalzellart.batw.net BUSINESS www.boardingatwedge.com

Well, it looks as though there are three questions I can answer (interleaved below).

On Feb 28, 2012, at 1:32 PM, Bonnie Dalzell wrote:

> On Tue, 28 Feb 2012, Theo Zweers wrote:
>
>> Hi Martin,
>>
>> I hope PagePlus is better for you. (no smiley!)
>>
>> But, why didn't you tell us what the typographic bug was?

I think I explained that. I don't need a fix because I'm not using Pagestream any more, and you don't need a fix if it doesn't bother you. It's really unimportant which one was the last for me. But my answer to the third question tells you which it is.

>> We might solve it (your fault, or, yes, a PGS bug). Yes, PGS does have
>> its bugs.
>> What I don't see why many of us still use PSG if it was that bad.

Maybe it's because you're not 80 years old and putting out a monthly newsletter with a deadline that's about three days after the last article comes in.

Maybe I'm getting old enough so I can't multitask as well as I used to. I just don't have the time or the patience to examine every detail to make sure there are no unintended changes from the previous month.

Maybe it's just because you use features of Pagestream that I don't need.

>> Don't
>> tell me that PagePlus doesn't have bugs.
>>
>> Anyway, we (I) hope to see you here again. If not for answering this
>> mail, then for using PGS again.
>>
>
>
> Is it the one where the letter combo "TH" comes out as a sort of united
> single character in some fonts?

No, it's the one in the masthead on page 2 where the list of officers is partly in bold face and partly in normal face, but from October to February the list of committee chairs is all in bold face. That occurred when I changed the typeface in the headings. You can see the changes in the newsletter PDFs indexed athttp://www.heartsofjersey.org/news.html

I noticed the change when I was setting up the March newsletter. I tried to change the bold face back to plain but it didn't change. I copied the text to a plain text editor, deleted it in Pagestream and copied the plain text back in, but as soon as I selected the heading "Committee Chairs" and applied the appropriate paragraph style, everything below it turned boldface.

The fix was to copy the Officers list, paste it in place of the Committee Chairs list and then change all the content. But by that time I realized that I was spending far too much time chasing bugs and not enough on the details of the publication I was producing.

So far the worst bug I've found in PagePlus is that it crashes unexpectedly. The workaround is simple and effective: restart it.

>
>
>> Theo
>>
>> Op 25-2-2012 17:37, Martin B. Brilliant schreef:
>>> Chasing bugs is fun, but it takes time and attention away from the process of getting a monthly newsletter to press without too many typographical errors.
>>>
>>> When I bought a Mac, I wanted to make a clean break from Windows, and Pagestream was the only reasonably priced DTP application that ran in Mac OS X and had the features I need. But besides all the other bugs I've been writing about, there was a typographical anomaly that had been introduced in October 2011, when I changed the font family in some paragraph styles, that I didn't notice until a few days ago while working on the March 2012 issue.
>>>
>>> I had already installed an older version of Serif PagePlus in Windows in VirtualBox on the Mac, and had begun porting the newsletter to PagePlus. Yesterday, after fixing the typographical anomaly in PageStream, I finished porting the newsletter to PagePlus, and I'm now preparing the March issue in PagePlus. As for now, as far as I'm concerned, Pagestream is history.
>>>
>>> I won't tell you what the typographical anomaly was, because (now that I'm no longer using Pagestream) it doesn't bother me, and if it bothers you you'll find out about it without my help.
>>>
>>> Have fun.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Bonnie Dalzell, MA
> mailO box 9767 Baldwin, MD, USA 21013 | EMAIL:bdalzell@qis.net
> shipping adddress:5100 Hydes Rd 21082 (Hydes Post Office closed Jan 2012)
> Freelance anatomist, vertebrate paleontologist, writer, illustrator, dog
> breeder, computer nerd & iconoclast... Borzoi info at www.borzois.com.
> HOME www.batw.net ART bdalzellart.batw.net BUSINESS www.boardingatwedge.com
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

--
Martin B. Brilliant - mbrilliant@alum.mit.edu
Mac OS X version 10.6.8
PageStream (non-pro) 5.0.5.8

Op 28-2-2012 20:03, Martin B. Brilliant schreef:
> Well, it looks as though there are three questions I can answer (interleaved below).
>
> On Feb 28, 2012, at 1:32 PM, Bonnie Dalzell wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 28 Feb 2012, Theo Zweers wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Martin,
>>>
>>> I hope PagePlus is better for you. (no smiley!)
>>>
>>> But, why didn't you tell us what the typographic bug was?
> I think I explained that. I don't need a fix because I'm not using Pagestream any more, and you don't need a fix if it doesn't bother you. It's really unimportant which one was the last for me. But my answer to the third question tells you which it is.

Martin, a bug is a bug. Even if I (or Deron) don't see it.
And an unknown bug can't be corrected. Maybe, I do have problems with
it, but I thought it was my fault.

>
>>> We might solve it (your fault, or, yes, a PGS bug). Yes, PGS does have
>>> its bugs.
>>> What I don't see why many of us still use PSG if it was that bad.
> Maybe it's because you're not 80 years old and putting out a monthly newsletter with a deadline that's about three days after the last article comes in.
>
> Maybe I'm getting old enough so I can't multitask as well as I used to. I just don't have the time or the patience to examine every detail to make sure there are no unintended changes from the previous month.
>
> Maybe it's just because you use features of Pagestream that I don't need.

Just turned 60.
And you are probably right (use other features).

>
>>> Don't
>>> tell me that PagePlus doesn't have bugs.
>>>
>>> Anyway, we (I) hope to see you here again. If not for answering this
>>> mail, then for using PGS again.
>>>
>>
>> Is it the one where the letter combo "TH" comes out as a sort of united
>> single character in some fonts?
> No, it's the one in the masthead on page 2 where the list of officers is partly in bold face and partly in normal face, but from October to February the list of committee chairs is all in bold face. That occurred when I changed the typeface in the headings. You can see the changes in the newsletter PDFs indexed athttp://www.heartsofjersey.org/news.html
>
> I noticed the change when I was setting up the March newsletter. I tried to change the bold face back to plain but it didn't change. I copied the text to a plain text editor, deleted it in Pagestream and copied the plain text back in, but as soon as I selected the heading "Committee Chairs" and applied the appropriate paragraph style, everything below it turned boldface.
>
> The fix was to copy the Officers list, paste it in place of the Committee Chairs list and then change all the content. But by that time I realized that I was spending far too much time chasing bugs and not enough on the details of the publication I was producing.

Mmm, I've seen PGS changes face after a paste (into the font which is in
Preferences / Type / Attributes). But if the text is still selected I
could undo that (giving it the correct Style again). The text after the
paste then is also in the correct typeface again.
Oh, I forgot to say that I use Text Styles (most of the time).

Just how I would address this. For what I've seen that column doesn't
change on a monthly base. So I could make it into a drawing (menu Object
/ Drawing / Make Drawing). Copy it from one document to another (each
month).
But, hey, I could go wrong here.

>
> So far the worst bug I've found in PagePlus is that it crashes unexpectedly. The workaround is simple and effective: restart it.

Oh, and you don't loose your work?
PGS has had that ability too. So I frequently save the document. Once in
a while PGS outruns me on that part (mostly busy with vector drawings,
an undo can sometimes be killing for PGS: it freezes), and I blame
myself not saving as I should.
Nothing is perfect.

Martin, I hope PagePlus does it for you!

Theo

>
>>
>>> Theo
>>>
>>> Op 25-2-2012 17:37, Martin B. Brilliant schreef:
>>>> Chasing bugs is fun, but it takes time and attention away from the process of getting a monthly newsletter to press without too many typographical errors.
>>>>
>>>> When I bought a Mac, I wanted to make a clean break from Windows, and Pagestream was the only reasonably priced DTP application that ran in Mac OS X and had the features I need. But besides all the other bugs I've been writing about, there was a typographical anomaly that had been introduced in October 2011, when I changed the font family in some paragraph styles, that I didn't notice until a few days ago while working on the March 2012 issue.
>>>>
>>>> I had already installed an older version of Serif PagePlus in Windows in VirtualBox on the Mac, and had begun porting the newsletter to PagePlus. Yesterday, after fixing the typographical anomaly in PageStream, I finished porting the newsletter to PagePlus, and I'm now preparing the March issue in PagePlus. As for now, as far as I'm concerned, Pagestream is history.
>>>>
>>>> I won't tell you what the typographical anomaly was, because (now that I'm no longer using Pagestream) it doesn't bother me, and if it bothers you you'll find out about it without my help.
>>>>
>>>> Have fun.
>>>>
>>>

--
PageStream Pro 5.0.5.8 on Windows 7 Pro 32 bits (Dutch), Python 2.7.1 and PySide 1.0.5
AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 215 Processor at 2.70 GHz and 2 GB RAM

On 2/28/2012 5:03 PM, Theo Zweers wrote:
> Op 28-2-2012 20:03, Martin B. Brilliant schreef:
> > Well, it looks as though there are three questions I can answer
> (interleaved below).
> >
> > On Feb 28, 2012, at 1:32 PM, Bonnie Dalzell wrote:
> >
> >> On Tue, 28 Feb 2012, Theo Zweers wrote:
> >>
> >>> Hi Martin,
> >>>
> >>> I hope PagePlus is better for you. (no smiley!)
> >>>
> >>> But, why didn't you tell us what the typographic bug was?
> > I think I explained that. I don't need a fix because I'm not using
> Pagestream any more, and you don't need a fix if it doesn't bother you.
> It's really unimportant which one was the last for me. But my answer to
> the third question tells you which it is.
>
> Martin, a bug is a bug. Even if I (or Deron) don't see it.
> And an unknown bug can't be corrected. Maybe, I do have problems with
> it, but I thought it was my fault.
>
> >
> >>> We might solve it (your fault, or, yes, a PGS bug). Yes, PGS does have
> >>> its bugs.
> >>> What I don't see why many of us still use PSG if it was that bad.
> > Maybe it's because you're not 80 years old and putting out a monthly
> newsletter with a deadline that's about three days after the last
> article comes in.
> >
> > Maybe I'm getting old enough so I can't multitask as well as I used
> to. I just don't have the time or the patience to examine every detail
> to make sure there are no unintended changes from the previous month.
> >
> > Maybe it's just because you use features of Pagestream that I don't need.
>
> Just turned 60.
> And you are probably right (use other features).
>
> >
> >>> Don't
> >>> tell me that PagePlus doesn't have bugs.
> >>>
> >>> Anyway, we (I) hope to see you here again. If not for answering this
> >>> mail, then for using PGS again.
> >>>
> >>
> >> Is it the one where the letter combo "TH" comes out as a sort of united
> >> single character in some fonts?
> > No, it's the one in the masthead on page 2 where the list of officers
> is partly in bold face and partly in normal face, but from October to
> February the list of committee chairs is all in bold face. That occurred
> when I changed the typeface in the headings. You can see the changes in
> the newsletter PDFs indexed athttp://www.heartsofjersey.org/news.html
> >
> > I noticed the change when I was setting up the March newsletter. I
> tried to change the bold face back to plain but it didn't change. I
> copied the text to a plain text editor, deleted it in Pagestream and
> copied the plain text back in, but as soon as I selected the heading
> "Committee Chairs" and applied the appropriate paragraph style,
> everything below it turned boldface.
> >
> > The fix was to copy the Officers list, paste it in place of the
> Committee Chairs list and then change all the content. But by that time
> I realized that I was spending far too much time chasing bugs and not
> enough on the details of the publication I was producing.
>
> Mmm, I've seen PGS changes face after a paste (into the font which is in
> Preferences / Type / Attributes). But if the text is still selected I
> could undo that (giving it the correct Style again). The text after the
> paste then is also in the correct typeface again.
> Oh, I forgot to say that I use Text Styles (most of the time).
>
> Just how I would address this. For what I've seen that column doesn't
> change on a monthly base. So I could make it into a drawing (menu Object
> / Drawing / Make Drawing). Copy it from one document to another (each
> month).
> But, hey, I could go wrong here.
>
> >
> > So far the worst bug I've found in PagePlus is that it crashes
> unexpectedly. The workaround is simple and effective: restart it.
>
> Oh, and you don't loose your work?
> PGS has had that ability too. So I frequently save the document. Once in
> a while PGS outruns me on that part (mostly busy with vector drawings,
> an undo can sometimes be killing for PGS: it freezes), and I blame
> myself not saving as I should.
> Nothing is perfect.

The only time I've had Windows XP 32-bit PageStream 5.0.5.8 actually
crash was while I was closing PageStream anyway. It has done this
several times but of course is not a problem, but I get a request to
report it. It has never frozen.

> Martin, I hope PagePlus does it for you!
>
> Theo
>
> >
> >>
> >>> Theo
> >>>
> >>> Op 25-2-2012 17:37, Martin B. Brilliant schreef:
> >>>> Chasing bugs is fun, but it takes time and attention away from the
> process of getting a monthly newsletter to press without too many
> typographical errors.
> >>>>
> >>>> When I bought a Mac, I wanted to make a clean break from Windows,
> and Pagestream was the only reasonably priced DTP application that ran
> in Mac OS X and had the features I need. But besides all the other bugs
> I've been writing about, there was a typographical anomaly that had been
> introduced in October 2011, when I changed the font family in some
> paragraph styles, that I didn't notice until a few days ago while
> working on the March 2012 issue.
> >>>>
> >>>> I had already installed an older version of Serif PagePlus in
> Windows in VirtualBox on the Mac, and had begun porting the newsletter
> to PagePlus. Yesterday, after fixing the typographical anomaly in
> PageStream, I finished porting the newsletter to PagePlus, and I'm now
> preparing the March issue in PagePlus. As for now, as far as I'm
> concerned, Pagestream is history.
> >>>>
> >>>> I won't tell you what the typographical anomaly was, because (now
> that I'm no longer using Pagestream) it doesn't bother me, and if it
> bothers you you'll find out about it without my help.
> >>>>
> >>>> Have fun.
> >>>>
> >>>
>

--
DAVID L. STEVENS -- TEAM AMIGA --
Windows XP user (:^(> on Acer Aspire 9810 2.16 GHz Notebook
2 GB RAM; 3 150-GB Hard Drives; CanoScan LIDE 20
Canon i860 & Brother HL-5050 PageStream v5.0.5.7 Pro
<http://home.comcast.net/~dave_stevens/home.html>
I do not necessarily agree with my taglines

***
If you wish to be a sucess in the world, promise everything, deliver
nothing.
Napoleon Bonaparte

As it turns out, I'm still using Pagestream, for the monthly meeting notice postcards. They're much simpler, one text frame on one page, no named styles, and I like Pagestream's ability to print 4-up to PostScript. Pagestream has bugs, but it has features.

Somewhat related note: I discovered that using ghostscript to generate a PDF from the .PS file, as in
gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -o output.pdf input.PS
produces a much smaller PDF file than using Preview. A PDF file can even be reduced to less than half its size with
gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -o output.pdf input.pdf

Totally irrelevant note: I'm looking into using the Mac version of Scribus for the newsletter instead of PagePlus in Windows in VirtualBox. Working in two different file systems runs into problems like permissions and ownership of files. Either way, I use the Gimp for bitmap image processing.

On Feb 28, 2012, at 6:41 PM, David L. Stevens wrote:

> On 2/28/2012 5:03 PM, Theo Zweers wrote:
>> Op 28-2-2012 20:03, Martin B. Brilliant schreef:
>>> Well, it looks as though there are three questions I can answer
>> (interleaved below).
>>>
>>> On Feb 28, 2012, at 1:32 PM, Bonnie Dalzell wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, 28 Feb 2012, Theo Zweers wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Martin,
>>>>>
>>>>> I hope PagePlus is better for you. (no smiley!)
>>>>>
>>>>> But, why didn't you tell us what the typographic bug was?
>>> I think I explained that. I don't need a fix because I'm not using
>> Pagestream any more, and you don't need a fix if it doesn't bother you.
>> It's really unimportant which one was the last for me. But my answer to
>> the third question tells you which it is.
>>
>> Martin, a bug is a bug. Even if I (or Deron) don't see it.
>> And an unknown bug can't be corrected. Maybe, I do have problems with
>> it, but I thought it was my fault.
>>
>>>
>>>>> We might solve it (your fault, or, yes, a PGS bug). Yes, PGS does have
>>>>> its bugs.
>>>>> What I don't see why many of us still use PSG if it was that bad.
>>> Maybe it's because you're not 80 years old and putting out a monthly
>> newsletter with a deadline that's about three days after the last
>> article comes in.
>>>
>>> Maybe I'm getting old enough so I can't multitask as well as I used
>> to. I just don't have the time or the patience to examine every detail
>> to make sure there are no unintended changes from the previous month.
>>>
>>> Maybe it's just because you use features of Pagestream that I don't need.
>>
>> Just turned 60.
>> And you are probably right (use other features).
>>
>>>
>>>>> Don't
>>>>> tell me that PagePlus doesn't have bugs.
>>>>>
>>>>> Anyway, we (I) hope to see you here again. If not for answering this
>>>>> mail, then for using PGS again.
>>>>>

... etc. etc.

--
Martin B. Brilliant - mbrilliant@alum.mit.edu
Mac OS X version 10.6.8
PageStream (non-pro) 5.0.5.8