The AcroTeX blog

Countdown Maximum Length Input

D. P. Story — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:37:09 +0000

This problem was posed to me by Dale S. He wanted to create a
text field with a maximum character limit, but want to be able
to countdown to the user the number of characters still available
to enter into the field. This article contains my solution to this
problem.

I’ve posted an updated version of this PDF; the version of the PDF linked below now responds to Ctrl+Z, which was a concern of one of the comments to this article.

Click to continue reading: pdfblog_26.pdf

Studies in formatting a PDF for mobile devices

D. P. Story — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 20:34:51 +0000

Since obtaining my smart phone, a Samsung Focus, Windows OS, I’ve surfed the Internet and have viewed web pages and PDF documents. The experience of viewing PDFs is now as great as with many web pages. The document is normally formatted for paper 8.5 inches by 11 inches, for example. The line width extends perhaps as wide as 6.5 inches, with 1 inch margins. This makes it difficult to read the content; the user typically must scroll horizontally to read an entire sentence.

Given this experience with PDF on my smart phone, created a page layout that can be used for both viewing on smart phones (and iPads) and on desktops and laptops.

The PDF mobile1.pdf was created from a LaTeX source file. The AeB package was used to set the page layout, AeB Pro was used to set the initial view of the document when it is opened on a desktop or laptop.

View the file mobile1.pdf both in your smart phone or iPad (surf to this page on your digital device, or send yourself an email with the mobile1.pdf as an attachment) and on your desktop or laptop. The file should be readable on all platforms.

Click to continue reading: mobile1.pdf

Acrobat Security Changes in 10.1.1 and AcroTeX

D. P. Story — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:23:54 +0000

For AcroTeX users that use the Adobe Distiller as the PDF creator, there are several changes in Acrobat 10.1.1 that affect your workflow.

User JavaScripts Folder (Windows-only)

For people who use the Distiller workflow, you know that AcroTeX maintains several JS files in the user JavaScripts folder. With Version 10.1.1 of Acrobat, according to the Application Security for the Acrobat Family of Products, the user JavaScripts folder has been moved from

%AppData%\Adobe\Acrobat\10.0\JavaScripts

%AppData%\Adobe\Acrobat\Privileged\10.0\JavaScripts

For example, the new path to the user JavaScripts folder might be

C:\Users\DPSpeaker\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\
     Privileged\10.0\JavaScripts

AcroTeX users (who use the Distiller workflow) need to open the Windows Explorer, and enter

%AppData%\Adobe\Acrobat

into the URL locator. If the Privileged folder does not already exist, created it. Enter the Privileged folder; if the folder 10.0 does not exist, create it and enter this folder. If there is a no JavaScripts folder, create it. This is the folder all the AcroTeX JavaScript files go into (aeb.js, apb.js, atb.js, aeb_pro.js, and so on).

If you already have a JavaScripts folder from a previous version of Acrobat, you can simply copy (or move) the whole folder to this new location.

Global Variables (Windows and Mac), @EASE users take heed

Global variables have changed as well, they were stored in the two files glob.js and glob.settings.js in the folder

%AppData%\Adobe\Acrobat\10.0\JavaScripts

and are now stored in the two files GlobData and GlobSettings in the folder

%AppData%\Adobe\Acrobat\10.0\JSCache

AcroTeX uses global in the @EASE application, available from AcroTeX.Net. If you use Acrobat 10.1.1, do the following.

Close Adobe Acrobat Pro, version 10.1.1.
Navigate to the old user JavaScripts folder, by copy and pasting
```
  %AppData%\Adobe\Acrobat\10.0\JavaScripts
```
into Windows Explorer.
Delete the two files glob.js and glob.settings.js.
Now, open Acrobat, and select File > Open from the menu system. In the Open Dialog box, navigate to the file ease.pdf, select this file and open it. When you open this file, new global variables will be created in the new JSCache folder.
Test. Test the global variables by closing the Acrobat application (do not save ease.pdf). Open Acrobat again. Select the View > @EASE Tools menu item. On selection, the ease.pdf file should open in Acrobat, and the @EASE system should perform as designed. Hopefully

APB: Using the rmannot and cntdwn Packages

D. P. Story — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 12:17:59 +0000

The AcroTeX Presentation Bundle (APB) is entirely compatible with the rmannot package and the cntdwn package.

The rmannot package, which requires a Acrobat Distiller PDF creator, is used to insert FLV (and F4V), SWF, and MP3 files into a PDF document. The files may be embedded in the document, or streamed over the Internet.

The cntdwn package is a general purpose LaTeX package (not requiring Distiller). This package defines several clocks; in particular a countdown clock. Useful if there is a time limit on the length of your presentation.

The demo file will be distributed with the upcoming version 2.1 of APB.

Annotating a Continuing Problem with Parts, and Page totals

D. P. Story — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:29:07 +0000

In this technical article, we illustrate several features:

Annotating a Continuing Problem with Parts: When a problem with parts crosses a page boundary, eqexam can now automatically insert at the top of the next page a text string, “Problem xx continued.”
Page Totals: The calculation of these totals has generally been correct, except for the case of problems with parts crossing over page boundaries. I’ve had to rework the calculation algorithms to take this into account.

The PDF, linked below, contains some additional comments, and the PDF has the source file attached to it as well.

Continue reading: annot_parts.pdf

As always, additional details may be found in the Eqexam Manual. Be sure to download and install the latest eqexam package.

The Exam Record on the Cover Page

D. P. Story — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:28:18 +0000

The eqexam package has had for many years a coverpage option. In light of my recent work on page totals (see recent blog article), I’ve added a new option called coverpagesumry. The coverpagesumry option accepts one of three values.

byparts: An exam record is generated on the cover page, one line for each part (exam environment).
bypages: An exam record is generated on the cover page, one line for each page.
none: No exam record is generated (the default).

The PDF linked below, contain comments in them, and have the source files attached.

Continue reading: exam_record_byparts.pdf and exam_record_bypages.pdf.

As always, additional details may be found in the Eqexam Manual. Be sure to download and install the latest eqexam package.

The fortextbook option: Part 4, Solution Manuals

D. P. Story — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:33:38 +0000

The focus of attention of the three previous blog articles in this thread, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, was on the creation of the textbook itself, the Instructor Edition and the more lucrative Student Edition. We turn now to the methods need to create a solution manual, both for the student and for the instructor. The Student Solution Manual typically contains solutions to the odd-numbered problems and solutions to all the chapter tests, while the Instructor Solution Manual contains all solutions to the problems in the textbook.

Details of the steps to create a solution manual are contained in Chapter 3 of

A Book on the fortextbook Option: fortextbook.pdf

Chapter 3 is new and is the documentation of the LaTeX code that I’ve developed recently for the solution manuals.

The Instructor Solution Manual: fortextbook_sman_instred.pdf

The Student Solution Manual: fortextbook_sman_stued.pdf

Source files: fortextbook.zip

Pick up the latest version of eqexam, containing changes brought about by the development of the commands for the solution manuals. Download and install eqexam_pack.zip from the eqexam home page.

The fortextbook option: Part 3, Instructor Edition Online

D. P. Story — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:58:57 +0000

The eqexam package is compatible with the hyperref package, and is tightly integrated with exerquiz (part of AeB). In this article, we compiled fortexbook.ltx, first introduced in the article The fortextbook option: Part 1, The Instructor Edition, with the hyperref and exerquiz packages using the package statements

\usepackage[dvips,colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[dvips,nodljs]{exerquiz}

This resulted in the PDF document fortextbook_online.pdf. Hyperref provides links for cross-references, exerquiz provides links from the questions to the solutions in the back of the book.

Download: fortextbook_online.pdf

This version of the instructor edition may be useful as an online book, or as part of the content on the instructor’s distribution disk.

The source file is attached to the PDF.

The fortextbook option: Part 2, The Student Edition

D. P. Story — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 22:06:25 +0000

The student edition is the one that is mass produced and sold to the student population. The answers to the odd-numbered problems are in the back of the book, the all answers or only odd-numbered answer to the chapter tests may also appear in the solution section of the book.

The document linked below is the same one that appears in the first article, The fortextbook option: Part 1, The Instructor Edition, but it is compiled using the studented option.

\textbookOpts{studented,marginsonleft}

Continue reading in PDF: fortextbook_se.pdf

The source file is attached to the PDF.

The fortextbook option: Part 1, The Instructor Edition

D. P. Story — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 12:57:45 +0000

We begin a thread on a major new feature of the eqexam package; the new feature is accessed through the fortextbook option, and as the name suggests, it is designed to support the authoring of textbooks, in particular, but not restricted to, textbooks as published in the United States.

This article highlights the instred option,

\textbookOpts{instred,marginans,marginsonleft}

this is the edition of the book the instructor would get. In the U.S., the answers to the problem appear in the body of the text, either immediately following the question, or in the margins.

The original version of fortextbook, available for download at the eqexam homepage, used PSTricks for the graphics. This version of fortextbook, I’ve replaced the PSTricks graphics with images, and import them using \includegraphics. The file fortextbook.ltx should be compilable using pdflatex. While I normally use Adobe Distiller is my PDF creator, there is nothing in the code of the fortextbook option that restricts usage to the distiller.

Continue Reading: fortextbook.pdf

Source Files: fortextbook.zip

The latest version of eqexam that supports the may be found at the home page of the package, or at your nearest CTAN server.