XML Professional Publisher (XPP) Courses
XPP Essentials
XPP Upgrade Reviews
XPP Product Options
- Xychange
- CITI (Table of Contents & Indexing)
- XPP Looseleaf
- Bilingual Merge
- Automated Batch Processing in XPP
XPP Essentials
XPP Essentials
Duration: 5 days
Prerequisites: None
Materials: This course is taught using the XPP Essentials Coursebook provided by SDL/Portalyx.
Description: XPP Essentials is the starting point for all XPP users. You will create and modify XPP documents, and learn how to attach styles to documents. You will create a simple document style by defining page layouts, page sequences and typographic formats. You will use XPP's macro-writing language to write macros for achieving common formatting tasks. In addition, you will create and automate the placement of footnotes and floating figures/tables. In addition to XPP users, and style developers, this fundamentals course is beneficial to programmers, managers and system administrators whose workflow involves XPP. This course is a prerequisite for all other XPP courses.
Intermediate Styles
Duration: 3 days
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials
Materials: This course is taught using the Intermediate Styles Coursebook provided by SDL/Portalyx.
Description: For XPP users who will be creating or modifying styles. You will create a comprehensive style that will automate not only page layouts and typography, but also H&J parameters, vertical justification and other formatting components. During the course, you will work with at least two types of publications. You will also learn how to manage styles for re-use in other documents.
Tabular Essentials
Duration: 2 days
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials
Materials: This course is taught using the Creating Tables and Tabular Styles Coursebooks provided by SDL/Portalyx.
Description: In Tabular Essentials, you will learn how to create and modify tables, apply standard tabular styles, and override the styles on a table-by-table basis. You will also learn how to analyze and create tabular styles for efficient tabular production. This course incorporates the CALS table model as well as XPP tables.
XPP Macro Language
Duration: 5 days
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials
Materials: This course is taught using the XPP Macro Language Coursebook provided by SDL/Portalyx.
Description: This course is the next logical step after Intermediate Styles for XPP style developers. You will learn to write macros that can help you to achieve, simplify and/or automate formatting tasks. This will include writing macros that do conditional tests, store text strings and numeric values in registers and recall them, and generate continued heads. The in-class exercises steadily move from simple to more complex, reflecting the range of macros you may encounter in typical style development. You will become knowledgeable about the pre-defined macros supplied with XPP, and managing customized macros for re-use across publications.
XPP Administration
Duration: 4 days
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials. Previous UNIX or Windows experience, depending on platform, the ability to use an ASCII text editor such as Notepad, and a basic knowledge of editing style specifications.
Note: This course may be taught as a UNIX-only or Windows -only XPP administration, or combine topics into one course, at the instructor’s discretion. This course does not teach UNIX/Windows commands or UNIX/Windows administration. If conducted on-site, it will be necessary to reconfigure and reboot the system, and therefore it will be necessary to take the server out of production. A non-production server is recommended.
Materials: This course is taught using the XPP Administrator Training Guide provided by SDL/Portalyx.
Description: This course is for users who are responsible for maintaining the XPP software and system configuration. This course does not teach Windows, Windows NT, or UNIX System Administration or System Administration topics.
Topics include: an overview of the XPP application footprint (including the directory structure, xypath, and disk partitioning), setting up users and default environments, editing the XYwyg file for customizing the XyView window and the Xmenu sidebar, configuring autoprocessing, configuring queues (including the Native Printer Map file, Background Queue spec, and Device Options spec), configuring PostScript output, performing routine maintenance, managing graphics, creating and managing graphic libraries (including the Graphics Device/Path spec), licensing, and troubleshooting problems (including output, network related, and operating system), and the use of such XPP utility programs as conshell, showpages, showchase, getpicks, listgr, xsflistgr, showxsf, showsc, and divuse.
Fonts
Duration: 1-2 days (depending on requirements)
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials, Intermediate Styles or equivalent experience
Materials: This course is taught using an overview provided by Portalyx, the XML Professional Publisher Fonts documentation (please have a printed copy available), and XPP Environments jobs for the XCS character set and keyboards.
Description: This course provides an overview of how an XPP division uses a font, and covers several components of an XPP font environment including font libraries, font width files and other related font specs, font width tests, download tables and encoding tables. Students will install text fonts and non-text (pi) fonts using the font utilities Font Copy and BuildFAST. Students will also learn how to integrate a pi font into the overall font environment so that it may be easily accessed using alternate keyboards. The course will also include tips and techniques for troubleshooting font problems. If you plan to frequently add fonts to your system, especially pi fonts, this course is for you.
XPP Upgrade Reviews
XPP 8.x Product and Feature Review
Duration: 1 to 2 days, depending on requirements
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials and Intermediate Styles or equivalent experience
Materials: This review is taught using the current XML Professional Publisher Release Notes documentation (please have a printed copy available for each attendee).
Description: The XPP 8.x Product and Feature Review provides an overview of the enhancements in the latest release of XPP using the SDL delivered Release Notes. This hands-on review of new features is primarily for XPP Style Developers and Administrators. The review will cover the following topics:
- XPP 8.0: Native Unicode Support, OpenType Font Support, CITI Support for Unicode, PDF Graphics, SVG Graphics
- XPP 8.1: Support for Linux, Support for CGM Graphics, Embedded PDF Engine, Lock and Key Workflow Coordinator, Style Differencing Tool, XML Enhancements, Other Enhancements
- XPP 8.2: Bidirectional Composition, Enhanced Hyphenation and Spelling Functionality, Support for OpenType/TrueType Fonts, Breaking Cells in Tables, Enhanced Ghostscript Functionality, Enhanced Custom X-Font Functionality, XyPerl Enhancement, XPP Compare, Miscellaneous Enhancements
- XPP 8.3: Cut, Copy, and Paste in XyView and Sdedit, Support for Multiple Tgroups in CALS Tables, Support for XSLT 2.0, Support for BMP, GIF, and PNG Graphics
XPP 7.x Product and Feature Review
Duration: 1 to 2 days, depending on requirements
Materials: This review is taught using the current XML Professional Publisher Release Notes documentation (please have a printed copy available for each attendee).
Description: The XPP 7.x Product and Feature Review provides an overview of the enhancements in the latest release of XPP using the SDL delivered Release Notes. This hands-on review of new features for Operators, Style Developers, and XPP Administrators is best taught in sections with the appropriate type of attendees participating. The review will cover the following topics, which are listed by the type of attendees best suited for the topics:
Operators and Style Developers
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials or equivalent experience
- New & Enhanced Standard Features: PathFinder Interface, Print Interface, Xyview Softkey
- Menu, XButton Menu, Xyview, Composition, Supporting Data Editor, and the Import/Export Process
- Changes to Supporting Data: Job Ticket, Division Ticket, and style specifications
- New or Enhanced XML/SGML Features: XML/SGML tree structure, CALS tables and MathML.
Style Developers
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials and Intermediate Styles or equivalent experience
- Enhanced Standard Features: Enhancements to LOEP, CITI, Xychange, Math, and Tabular.
- New Standard Features: graphics support, System Variables, Document Processing Interface, and PDF Output.
- Changes to Supporting Data: CITI, XCS Spec, Document Assembly Ticket, Unicode, etc.
- New or Enhanced XML/SGML Features: Support for XPath, Attributes, XSL, Unicode, CITI, CALS tables and MathML.
XPP Administrators
Prerequisites: XPP Administration or equivalent experience
- Installation and Upgrade: Upgrade of XPP, Conversion files, Scripting, Administrative Tools, and Graphics management.
XPP Product Options
Xychange
Duration: 1 day
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials and Intermediate Styles or equivalent experience
Materials: This course is taught using an overview provided by SDL/Portalyx, and the XML Professional Publisher Converting Data documentation (please have a printed copy available for each attendee). Additional examples and excercises are provided by Portalyx.
Description: This course introduces the features of SDL's powerful Xychange utility. It outlines the process of translating ASCII text to SDL format, covers basic translation table writing, and teaches many of Xychange's powerful features.
CITI (Table of Contents & Indexing)
Duration: 3 days
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials, Intermediate Styles and Xychange or equivalent experience
Materials: This course is taught using an overview provided by Portalyx, and the XML Professional Publisher Using CITI documentation (please have a printed copy available for each attendee). Additional examples and excercises are provided by Portalyx.
Description: The CITI option automatically creates tables of contents, indexes, and lists of tables and illustrations. In this three day course, students learn how to identify and extract information from a document to build a table of contents or index.
XPP Looseleaf
Description: This advanced course for experienced XPP operators and style developers is designed to help users understand how XPP Looseleaf works using the SDL delivered documentation “Publishing Looseleaf Documents”. This hands-on training is best taught in sections with the appropriate type of attendees participating. The course will cover the following topics, which are listed by the type of attendees best suited for the topics:
Introduction to Looseleaf (for Operators and Style Developers)
Duration: 2 days
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials or equivalent experience
Materials: This course is taught using an overview provided by Portalyx, and the XML Professional Publisher Publishing Loose-leaf documentation (please have a printed copy available for each attendee). Additional examples and excercises are provided by Portalyx.
- Introduction to Looseleaf: Characteristics of Looseleaf documents, Traditional life cycle of a Looseleaf document, Options for composing and printing Looseleaf documents, Specs and tools available for producing Looseleaf documents.
- Preparing Tickets for Looseleaf: Relationships between the job ticket and the division ticket for Looseleaf processing, When and what to modify during the life cycle of a Looseleaf document, Fields in the job ticket that relate to Looseleaf processing, Fields in the division ticket that relate to Looseleaf processing.
- Working with the Looseleaf Manifest: Displaying and interpreting information in the Looseleaf manifest, Accessing the Manifest Selection menu, Moving to a specific page in a Looseleaf division, Editing information in the Looseleaf manifest.
- Composing and Printing in Looseleaf: Looseleaf composition concepts, including automatic Looseleaf, proofing mode, and manual Looseleaf, Activating Looseleaf, Composing a Looseleaf document, Printing update pages and proof sets
- Generating a List of Effective Pages: Creating and updating a list of effective pages using job processing, Creating and updating a list of effective pages using background, Processing, Accessing and editing the LOEP spec.
Advanded Looseleaf (for Style Developers)
Duration: 1 day
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials, Intermediate Styles, XPP Macro Language, Xychange, and Introduction to Looseleaf or equivalent experience
Materials: This course is taught using an overview provided by Portalyx, and the XML Professional Publisher Publishing Loose-leaf documentation (please have a printed copy available for each attendee). Additional examples and excercises are provided by Portalyx.
- Setting Up the Automatic Looseleaf Spec: Location, lookup procedure, and structure of the ALL spec, Creating and editing the ALL spec, Valid entries for each field in the ALL spec, and How each Looseleaf try affects the composition and pagination of a Looseleaf document
- Looseleaf Variables, Macros, and Specs: System variables specific to Looseleaf documents, How to access, edit, and use the sample Looseleaf macros provided by SDL, and Information in the style specs useful for Looseleaf documents.
- Setting Up the LOEP Translation Table: LOEP storage and structure concepts, The process XPP uses when creating an LOEP, How to view the ASCII files created during the LOEP process, The translation table used during the creation of an LOEP, and How to modify the LOEP translation table to customize the style and format of the list of effective pages.
- Converting Documents to Looseleaf: Converting an existing Looseleaf document to XPP Looseleaf, and Registering pages that were deleted in previous releases and updates of the document so you can use automatic Looseleaf to generate deletion statements for those pages.
Advanced XyDiff and XPP Compare Looseleaf (for Style Developers)
Duration: 1 day
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials, Intermediate Styles, XPP Macro Language, Xychange, and Introduction to Looseleaf, and Advanded Looseleaf or equivalent experience
Materials: This course is taught using an overview provided by Portalyx, and the XML Professional Publisher Publishing Loose-leaf and XyDiff and XPP Compare documentation (please have a printed copy available for each attendee). Additional examples and excercises are provided by Portalyx.
- Overview of XyDiff and XPP Compare: The XyDiff and XPP Compare executable program, Scripts that build the XML and XyASCII files, run XyDiff and XPP Compare against them, and process the resulting output to create the updated divisions, and the XPP automatic Looseleaf option that includes the Automatic Looseleaf (ALL) spec used by XPP composition to achieve optimum Looseleaf pagination.
- Running XyDiff and XPP Compare: The XyDiff and XPP Compare command, including required file specifications and optional switches.
- XyDiff and XPP Compare Control Files: XyDiff and XPP Compare Configuration File, Significant Macro/Tag Control File, and the Alias Control File
- XyDiff and XPP Compare and XPP: The role of XPP composition, Assigning unique names to pickups and footnotes, How pickup placement affects pagination, Mixing or removing traces from different revisions, Pickup and footnote numbering with the pq macro, Modifying xymacro specs to add new or changed xymacros, and Modifying item format specs to add new or changed tags.
- Troubleshooting XyDiff and XPP Compare: Procedures for troubleshooting problems that may result from running the XyDiff and XPP Compare utility.
Bilingual Merge
Duration: 3 days
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials and Intermediate Styles or equivalent experience.
Materials: This course is taught using an overview provided by Portalyx, and the XML Professional Publisher Bilingual Merge documentation (please have a printed copy available for each attendee). Additional examples and excercises are provided by Portalyx.
Description: The Bilingual Merge option enables you to produce documents containing text in two languages, positioned either side-by-side on a page or on facing pages. In this three day course, students learn how to create style specifications, methods to enter and compose language text, and how to run the blmerge utility to apply vertical alignment of tags/elements.
Automated Batch Processing in XPP
Duration: 2 days
Prerequisites: XPP Essentials and Intermediate Styles or
equivalent experience and a basic knowledge of a scripting language.
Note: This course does not provide instructions on scripting languages, i.e., Perl, C
Shell, VB, etc.
Materials: This course is taught using an overview provided by Portalyx, and the XML Professional Publisher Command Line Utilities documentation and relevant sections from the Converting Data and Autoprocessing documentation (please have a printed copy available for each attendee). Additional examples and excercises are provided by Portalyx.
Description: This course is for programmers, style developers and production coordinators who need to write scripts to automate the flow of documents in and out of XPP. Each topic will have a “hands on session”, where attendees can practice the main topics. An example Perl script will be provided, with the basic commands that will be extended throughout the workshop exercises to make a fully functional Division Tool. The course provides lectures and exercises covering the following topics:
- XPP Automatic Processing
- XPP Command Line Utilities
- XPP Batch Processing Command Line Utilities
- XPP Environment Variables, Mnemonics and System Codes
- Creating a Custom Application