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In our previous episode, Scott Esbrook said:
> Bakker said:
> >> Can anyone suggest a good screen capture utility to run on the
> >> AS/400, such that we can reproduce AS/400 screens in paper manuals
> >> in Word or FrameMaker?
>
> Beth Friedman said:
> > The second approach was to copy the screen text into the clipboard (we
> > could do this via Client Access or Rumba -- I expect any Windows
> > front-end can do this), pasting it into Word, and using styles to
> > change the font and put a border around the text. Despite the fact
> > that underlines (with no text) have to be redone and bold face is lost,
> > this is the approach that we have chosen to use.
>
> This approach has several drawbacks. First, drawing in those underlines
> can take a long time. Second, with all those horrid abbreviations
> typically used on AS/400 screens, it takes 2 to 3 times longer to run a
> full document spell-check. However, Beth is correct about the file size
> and readability.
Spell-check isn't an issue -- I defined the style associated with the
screen shots to have a language of "no proofing." (Stupid place to
keep that attribute, if you ask me.) I also wrote a macro to work
around the fact that underlines don't normally show in blank text if
there are no letters in the rest of the line. I'd be happy to pass on
the code if anyone would find it useful. Drawing in the underlines
takes more than the five seconds mentioned above, but less than a
minute per shot.
I don't think there's a "best" method for this -- the writer needs to
pick the one that works the best for his or her project. I only wish
that, on our project, the PTB had decided to use the AS/400 as a
database server and gone with a Windows interface.
*********************************************************************
Beth Friedman bjf -at- wavefront -dot- com
"What happened to the kippers left from breakfast?
Or maybe there's a bit of cold roast pheasant.
I am the king now, and I want a sandwich." -- John M. Ford
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