Digital PDFs

XX-18978-8F

December 1987

4 pages

Original

1.2MB

Document:	VAX Document Brochure 1987
Order Number:	XX-18978-8F
Revision:
Pages:	4
Original Filename:	http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/vax/vms/vax_document/VAX_Document_Brochure_1987.pdf

OCR Text

VAX DOCUMENT
Electronic Publishing Software for the VMS Environment

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VAX DOCUMENT Streamlines

Technica1·1'~~{is:;~-~-- .· ~!}<.:_

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The creation of technical documentation is an integral part of most product
development projects. Too often, however, documentation becomes a major bottleneck in the product development effort. The documentation process involves
many people, each responsible for a part of the job: engineers, writers, editors,
and final production specialists. Coordination of their efforts requires a complex
review and revision cycle, which is costly, difficult to control, and often the cause
of delays.
VAX DOCUMENT streamlines the entire technical publishing process, eliminating
redundant steps and increasing document integrity while reducing the overall
length of the documentation cycle.
VAX DOCUMENT is a comprehensive electronic publishing solution designed to
handle the entire technical publishing process: from the first entry of written
material to the final output of printed, formatted pages. VAX DOCUMENT
provides tools for text creation, a standard markup language, text and graphics
integration, revision control, sophisticated document formatting, and output to
either line or laser printers. It is designed to support project teams producing
technical documentation and other types of large, complex documents requiring
format consistency.
VAX DOCUMENT supports document production in a cost-effective manner in
the VAX/VMS computing environment. Running on a wide range of VAX configurations, including VAXclusters, VAX DOCUMENT can be used from any of
Digital's standard terminals and outputs to any Digital lineprinter and to a range
of Digital laser printers. In addition, VAX DOCUMENT has been integrated with
the VMS Development Environment so that you can develop documentation with
the same tools that were used to develop an application.

Highlights
VAX DOCUMENT offers
• An easy-to-use generic markup language, which lets you focus on the
content, not the formatting, of your
work.
• A library of book designs applicable
to all the manuals in a document set,
which ensures format consistency for
your documents. In addition to a standard milspec design and a standard
Digital design for technical manuals,
VAX DOCUMENT provides a variety
of single- and double-column formats
for multiple document types. All document designs are customizable.
• Sophisticated formatting capability
and a powerful composition and pagination package designed specifically
for use with con· ~.'.~·Jc:~ 1 '. .il .?.i:t..rl
mathematical text files, giving you
fully automated production.
• High-quality output on a range of
Digital laser printers. Serif and sans
serif fonts are available for all of these
printers in a variety of point sizes and
weights, including italic, boldface,
medium, and bold italic. Thus, your
pages look typeset.

Generic Markup Language Leaves
Writer Free to Write
VAX DOCUMENT's user interface is
an easy-to-use markup language for
identifying the text elements in an
ASCII file. Using any VMS editor, you
create a file, enter the text, and insert
markup instructions identifying each
text element-for example, a subhead,
a list, a paragraph of body copy. These
markup instructions are generic; that
is, they are tied neither to a specific
format or design information nor to
any specific output device.

CHAP'
ALASKA: A~

Alaska occupies the extreme northwestern part 01
prises the following territory:
All that part of the continent west of the 14 ls

A Range of Book Designs
VAX DOCUMENT has complete
specifications for various designs.
Among the book designs supported
is one used for Digital's VMS technical documentation. In addition,
· DOCUMENT has a design supporting
DOD Standard-2167 and its respective
DIDs. Templates are provided for the
full repertoire of DIDs.

• Merging of text and graphics in the
laser printer output file. VAX DOCUMENT can include sixel graphics files
in documents printed on Digital's
LN03 or LN03-Plus laser printers,
POSTSCRIPT graphics files in documents printed on Digital's LN03R
ScriptPrinter or LPS40 laser printer.

When you decide to process your file,
you select a design from VAX DOCUMENT' s library. VAX DOCUMENT
does the rest, translating ihe markup instructions in the text file into
the format required by the selected
· design. Your involvement with formatting is limited to selecting one of
VAX DOCUMENT's designs and, of
course, inserting markup instructions
in the file as you write. You are free to
concentrate on the content of your
work, not on its formatting.

• Integration with the VMS environment. VAX DOCUMENT is integrated
with the VAX Language-Sensitive Editor (LSE), and works well with the
VAX DEC/CMS (Code Management
System) providing ease of use and
document management and control.

VAX DOCUMENT's designs ensure
format consistency within a book or
· among the books in your document
· set. The range of book designs offered
by DOCUMENT is extensive. Should
you need to, you can modify these
designs.

The eastern Diomede island in Bering Strait

All islands in the Bering Sea and the Aleutian
to pass midway between Copper Island, off I
A narrow strip of coast and adjacent islands 1'
54 degrees and 40 feet North, East and Nort~
This overview concentrates on the geophysical ani

1.1

Physical Features

Alaska consists of a compact central mass and twc
and southeast comers, and sweeping in a vast a
longitude. These three parts will be referred to he1
Alaska, and the Panhandle. The total area is about
is about 4750 miles; and including the islands, b<
about 26,000 miles in length.
The entire southern coast is very irregular in outli:
of beach or plain. A great submarine platform extE
western and northern coasts are regular in outline
in the seas that wash them. On the Arctic Ocean t
For details on the important islands of Alaska, seE
Table 2:

The Important Islands of Alaska

Group Name

Principal Islands

Alexander Archipelago

Baranof, Kuiu, Prince of Wa

Kodiak

Kodiak, Semidi, Sannak

Aleutians

Unalaska, Unlmak

Pribilof

St. Paul. St. George
Nunivak, St. Lawrence

One of the type styles obtained using VAX DOCU

High-quality Output

In addition to being easy to use, VAX
DOCUMENT's markup language
reduces the document production
cycle to a few minutes of batch file
processing and then immediate output of fully composed and made-up
pages. If the pages are printed on
Digital's LN03, LN03-Plus, LN03R
ScriptPrinter, or LPS40 laser printers,
they almost look typeset.

rER 1

a OVERVIEW

: North America and the adjacent islands. It com-

t meridian of West longitude from Greenwich

chain lying East of a line drawn from the Diomedes
~amchatka, and Attu Island of the Aleutians

lorth of a line drawn from Cape Muzon, in latitude
up Portland Canal to its head

:i demographic aspects of the subcontinent.

straggling appendages running from its southwest
re over 16 degrees of latitude and 58 degrees of
·eafter respectively as Continental Alaska, Aleutian
586,400 square miles. The general ocean coastline
1ys, inlets, and rivers to the head of tide water, is

"le; it is precipitous, with only very slight stretches
·nds throughout a large part of the Bering Sea. The
with long straight beaches; shallows are common
here is a broad coastal plain.
~Table 1.

Eliminates Production Lead Time
Behind VAX DOCUMENT's easy-touse, concise markup language is its
powerful composition engine, which
provides

• Full hyphenation and justification.
• Pagination, with control of orphans
and widows.
• Placement of running heads and feet.
• Footnote placement.
• Composition of complex math.
• Multicolumn output.
• Revision (change) bars and update
pages.

Location
es

With VAX DOCUMENT and one of
these laser piainters, the traditional
document production cycle essentially disappears, while near-typeset
quality is maintained.

At S.E. tip, close inland
S. and S.W. of mainland
Stretch 1200 m. W.S.W. from end of Peninsula

• Automatic numbering of parts, chapters, and section heads, as well as
tables and figures.
• Generation of contents pages and
index, including master indexes.

500 m. S. of Cape Prince of Wales
Freestanding in Bering Sea

• Handling of complex multipage tabular material.
• Automatic cross-referencing between
chapters.
Alaska: An Overview

VIENT and a laser printer.

With such composition and page
makeup power tied directly to
the markup language, the need for
production lead time is eliminated.

You can add technical details to a
document right up until you need to
print it.
The Bookbuilding Capability
VAX DOCUMENT's Bookbuilding

facility manages the integration of
separate text files into a book. This
facility makes VAX DOCUMENT especially useful in large, multiauthor
projects, where several writers are
working on different chapters of a single book. The Bookbuilding facility
takes the separate files and integrates
them, numbering all chapters and sections (as well as tables and figures)
sequentially and then creating contents pages. During the integration
process, the Bookbuilding facility
verifies all cross-references. Finally, it
produces an index of the entire book.
More Than Technical Manuals
VAX DOCUMENT supports not only a
variety of book designs for technical
manuals but also formats for other
technical documents. VAX DOCUMENT provides a format for engineering specifications, project and
business plans, and technical articles
and monographs. In addition, VAX
DOCUMENT lets you create overheads, letters, and memos.
VAX DOCUMENT's ease of use makes

creation of any of these documents
simple and straightforward. And they
can be printed on a laser printer or on
a lineprinter. The special benefit,
however, is this: project documents
written by various departments engineering, programming, marketing, product management-using VAX
DOCUMENT can be electronically cut
and pasted into other documents
without any recoding. Because VAX
DOCUMENT's markup instructions
are generic, text can be interchanged
among these documents without any
change in these instructions.

mnmnomn

Sections from these document files
can also be integrated into the drafts
of manuals without any recoding.
When VAX DOCUMENT is the markup language used by all the groups
involved in a project, documents
produced by one group can serve as
boilerplate for others. This productivity gain is sure to be reflected in
the overall project schedule.
Integrated with Other VMS Tools
VAX DOCUMENT is designed for
the VMS technical publishing/
programming environment. The
product integrates with several of the
software tools used in these departments, so that you can use the same
tools to develop the documentation
that you use to develop an application.

You can use any VMS editor to create
VAX DOCUMENT text files. However,
use of the VAX Language-Sensitive
Editor (LSE) increases VAX DOCUMENT's ease of use and its power.
VAX LSE is a powerful, multiwindow
editor that lets you use VAX DOCUMENT in template fashion. When
used with VAX DOCUMENT, VAX
LSE maintains an on-screen menu of
DOCUMENT's markup commands;
when you select one of these commands, VAX LSE inserts it, as well as
any related commands, into your text
file, where it acts as a template. You
need only enter the appropriate text.
Additionally, VAX LSE lets you debug
your file interactively, without ending
the editing session. From within VAX
LSE, you can process the VAX DOCUMENT file and then review and correct any markup errors immediately.
With its multiwindow capability, VAX
LSE lets you display the error messages
in one window while you correct
markup errors in the input file, which
is displayed in another window.

VAX DOCUMENT merges any graphics files compatible with POSTSCRIPT, as well as graphics produced
with DECgraph or DECslide, into text
files being formatted for laser printer
output. VAX DOCUMENT also works
with BASEVIEW, which translates
IGES, HPGL, and CalComp 960
files into sixel format, usable with
DOCUMENT.

Sample of artwork, created on-line, that
VAX DOCUMENT can merge with text
files, at correct size and position.

VAX DOCUMENT works well with the
VAX DEC/CMS (Code Management
System), which provides library management of project files. VAX DEC/
CMS maintains all project text files in
a library. It permits team members to
make copies of the files from the
library, work on them with any editor,
and then return them. VAX DEC/CMS
keeps the original version of each
file as a master copy and integrates
changes into the master copy. At any
time, VAX DEC/CMS can reconstruct
an earlier version of a project file,
because it keeps a record of the
changes made with each retrieval and
replacement.
Printing Line Art with VAX
DOCUMENT
VAX DOCUMENT gives you pages
that are completely made up- and,
when you output on a laser printer,
DOCUMENT merges your art as well,
placing figures where you want them,
at the proper size for the book design
you've selected.

VAX DOCUMENT was designed for
use in technical publishing. Integrated
with other VMS tools, usable with
standard VAX hardware, and outputting to either line or laser printer,
VAX DOCUMENT is the ideal publishing solution for the VMS technical
publishing/programming environment.
Digital Offers a Range of Services
Digital's Software Product Services
offer a range of support packages that
include the latest technical information and software updates. Software
product services also offer you extensive technical support.

Digital also has other optional education and support services that can be
tailored to your needs.
For More Information
To order VAX DOCUMENT, contact
your local Digital sales office.
Digital believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date; such
information is subject to change without notice.
Digital is not responsible for any inadvertent
errors.
The following are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation: ALL-IN-1, DEC, DECUS,
DEC/CMS, LSE, MicroVAX, PDP, Q-bus,
ULTRIX, UNIBUS, VAX, VAXBI, VMS, VT, and
the Digital logo.
POSTSCRIPT is a trademark of Adobe Systems,
Inc., CalComp 960 is a trademark of California
Computer, Inc.