Desk-top publishing: starting small, thinking big

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Nov, 1986 by Carol Terrizzi

Desk-top publishing: Starting small, thinking big Confronted with several cheerful-looking boxes of computer equipment one morning, I wondered who was going to unpack them for me--I was a publications designer, after all.

But no one ever arrived. As I struggled with wires, plugs, connectors and manuals, I realized that this computer could not do anything for itself. On top of that, I was surrounded by an office full of people who knew as little as I did about how to make it operate. The computer had found its way into my office because my publisher was anxious to take advantage of the "revolution in print technology." Through a process that I'm still not sure about, I was drafted into this revolution.

It was not until I was already in the trenches that my mechanical assistant's bugs, burnouts and literacy problems made themselves known. Imagine my surprise--after being assured that "You can't hurt it by experimenting"--when it blew up and started to smoke two weeks into the campaign. Our local computer dealer gave it a tag that read "DOA" (Dead On Arrival). So ended the life of the first foot soldier in the revolution. But a replacement was found, and the struggle continued.

Since those early days, our Apple Macintoshes and Apple LaserWriter have accomplished great things. From monthly newsletters, to promotional brochures, to conference materials, to books--they get jobs done quickly and inexpensively.

We chose the Mac/Laser Writer combination because of its affordability (under $10,000 for the computer, disk drive, Laser Writer and some software) and "ease of use." We wanted to explore using a low-end system in a small publishing environment. Keeping an "experimental" rather than a "production schedule" outlook during the process kept us from drop-kicking the system out the window many times.

Once we had our hardware, our next task was to get the computer to do something. This required analyzing how the work we wanted done was accomplished in the past, then purchasing software that could perform at least part of the job, trying it out--and hoping for the best (we believe in the 30-day trial period).

Selecting software

As you break a big job into small segments, you will probably find more programs that do part of, rather than the whole, process. Integration and standardization are hot issues in the corporate electronic publishing industry, but until hardware and software manufacturers work together to bring this about, we all need to remember, in the words of Elizabeth Berglund, publisher, Electronic Printing and Publishing, that "no one electronic publishing and printing system does it all--at least not yet."

After taking our software needs into account, I found fellow users to be the best source of reliable information for deciding what to buy and for solving ensuing problems once we did. The challenge for electronic publishers lies in tailoring available technology to produce specific kinds of print. You can hire an expert to do this for you, or you can join a users group. To use a piece of software or hardware to its best advantage, you have to know what it does, as well as what it does not do. Users, not manufacturers, will let you know what the problems are. Working with people who have hands-on experience in planning and implementing a publishing system is critical to its success.

We are fortunate to be located near Cornell University, which has a large computer services department and many publications. I've found many sympathetic and knowledgeable electronic publishers in our Cornell users group. Even though we are all as different as the print we produce, we do have "bugs" and "bombs" in common. And a monthly newsletter informs members about changes in software and hardware--often before major computer magazines do.

Getting started

We decided on PageMaker ($495) by Aldus Corp. as our page make-up software.

PageMaker seemed like a straight-forward program. We were shipped one of the first copies in August 1985. It was supposed to be released earlier, but proved to be yet another example of "vaporware." By the time we got PageMaker, our Mac system was already three months old. This is a good example of why it's a good idea to call the company that's advertising an item before you start planning next year's production schedule, based on having that item up and running. Many computer companies advertise a product before they have all the bugs worked out, leaving users panting for products that are not available--hence the term "vaporware."

During the wait, I experimented with Microsoft Chart, Microsoft Word, MacWrite, MacDraw and MacPaint. Now I was anxious to see how different graphic elements would integrate on a page.

Our editors work with Apple Ile computers and Appleworks, an integrated word processing, database and spreadsheet program. This meant I had to find a way to transmit copy from an editorial terminal (Apple Ile) to the Macintosh for processing into finished pages. This was done by connecting the two computers with a long printer cable. Using Apple Access on the Apple Ile and MacTerminal telecommunications software on the Macintosh, I was able to make the two kinds of computers "talk." From there, the file was reformatte in a Macintosh word processing program and was ready for PageMaker.