Janet,

I have had extensive experience with PDf files from Ventura. Ventura
handles the output very well. I have yet to have a real problem.

There is a utility which comes with Acrobat called Distiller Assistant.
What this does is act as a "virtual" printer. It sits there (because it
installs in your startup folder by default) and intercepts the output
from Ventura (or any application which prints to it) and then opens
distiller. It runs the file it intercepted through distiller and then
shuts distiller down.

This process can be done manually by "printing" the file to a postscript
file with its destination being one of the folders which distiller
watches, but you have to manually start distiller. Distiller "watches"
directories of your choice and when any postscript file shows up there,
it automatically processes it and turns it into a PDf file and dumps the
PDF file into another folder (directory) of your choice.

Ventura has the ability to create automatic links within the file it
sends out as postscript. The links correspond to things like
cross-references, index entries, TOC references, etc. Any link in
Ventura ends up as a corresponding link in the PDf file. All the user of
the PDf file has to do is click on the link and it instantly shoots them
to the referenced page. To create these links in V7 make sure you have
the box checked when you update the publication "will be published to
Envoy or Acrobat" This creates the needed electronic links in the
postscript file.

Right now I am working on a Ventura script which will put custom links
in a Ventura file that will show up as a hyperlink in the final PDf
file. Custom links can link to URL addresses, other files, etc. PDf
publishing really is the way to go. I am also thinking about having the
custom links generated from a database (database publishing) so that the
whole process is completely automated.

In short, Ventura and PDF is a "way cool" way to go with publishing. 2
thumbs up!

Doug Moody
New-Breed Corporations
dmoody@new-breed.com
336-218-7535 x43

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Janet Murphy
> Sent: Monday, January 19, 1998 7:34 am
> Subject: Distiller help needed
>
> Hi everyone,
> Thanks to everyone for the advice about Distiller. I purchased the
> software, but now I'm confused about how to take a file from ventura
> to
> Distiller to obtain the PDF. If anyone has a *clear* procedure on how
> to
> do this, I would be most appreciative.
>
> Sincerely,
> Janet Murphy
> janet@fuse.net