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March 23, 2022

Scripture Typesetting Training – Sept-Oct 2022

SIL Global Publishing Services (GPS) is offering a workshop for basic training in Scripture typesetting, running from Sept 6 to Oct 14, 2022.

In order to accommodate time zone differences with students in various parts of the world, this online-only workshop is 6 weeks long, with 4.5 hours of instruction time each day delivered via Zoom. Students are also given “lab time” assignments to apply what they’ve learned.

Who is this workshop designed for?
This workshop is designed to meet the need for basic orientation to the knowledge tasks involved in the responsibilities of a production Scripture typesetter.

Scripture typesetting for formal publication is a complex endeavor. It requires specialized knowledge and skills in multiple software tools and processes. The content covered in this workshop is significant, and challenging! To realize maximum value from the training investment, we (GPS) feel strongly that that those who receive training should be assisting multiple language projects with their publishing needs. Experience has shown that it is difficult to maintain these skills without being involved in typesetting at least 30% of the time.

Consider the following questions:

  1. Do you anticipate serving multiple language projects, or only your own?
  2. Is your language project’s publishing workload sufficient to keep you occupied at least 30% of the time?
  3. How do you envision yourself helping meet your entity’s publishing needs?

Workshop Contents

The GPS training on Scripture typesetting includes the following topics:

  • Character Encoding & Unicode
  • Paratext Markup with USFMs
  • Paratext Stylesheets
  • Checking in Paratext
  • Introduction to Regular Expressions
  • RegExPal
  • Regular Expressions Projects
  • Review of InDesign Basics
  • Publishing Assistant
  • Wordlist & Spell-checking
  • Hyphenation
  • Accessing & Using Pictures
  • Working with tables
  • Front & Back Matter – Putting it all together
  • Producing thumb tabs
  • Formatting glossaries
  • Preparing maps for Scripture publications
  • Working with PDFs
  • Round-tripping back to Paratext
  • Preparing the job for the printer
  • Processing the text for DBL submission
  • Archiving & Data Repository (incl. submitting data to REAP (the SIL corporate-wide electronic archive) via RAMP)

Advanced Topics not included in the basic Scripture typesetting training include the following:

  • Publishing diglots
  • Publishing (OT) summaries/panoramas
  • Publishing study Bibles
  • Custom page layouts
  • Custom header/footer contents
  • Formatting Psalms
  • Formatting with marginal verse numbers
  • Working with page borders
  • Dissecting PubAssist Templates
  • The Publishing Cycle
  • Planning From the End Backward
  • Converting text to Unicode
  • Keyboarding standards for Unicode
  • Paratext Installation
  • Importing text into Paratext
  • Element Identification and Reader Comprehension & Special Features in Scripture
  • Preprocessing Overview
  • Picture & Graphic Formats
  • Scanning & Touchup
  • Typography & Publication Design for Reader Comprehension
  • Publishing Guidelines
  • Copyrights, Intellectual Property Rights & Publishing Contracts
  • Managing the Publishing Job
  • Managing the Publishing Computer System
  • Managing the Publishing Function
Prerequisites
  1. A computer (laptop recommended) meeting the following minimum system requirements:
    • Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor (Intel Core i5 or i7 recommended)
    • Microsoft Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit (genuine, registered Windows – not an unregistered, “pirated” copy), updated with all current Windows Updates.
    • 8GB of RAM (16GB recommended)
    • 6GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (512 GB or larger, solid-state drive (SSD) highly recommended.
    • 1024×768 display (15″ or larger, 1920 x 1080 resolution recommended) with a 32-bit video card.
    • External display (22–24″, 1920 x 1080 resolution), so you can view the training materials on one computer screen and do your work on the second screen
  2. A fast, reliable internet connection.
  3. Basic familiarity with computer operation under Windows, including folder and file management (moving, copying, and renaming files).
  4. Registration for Paratext 9, and familiarity with Paratext. The following Paratext training resources are strongly recommended: (a) Attend the Paratext Beginners “Boot Camp” (https://paratext.org/paratext-training/paratext-beginners-boot-camp/); (b) View the Paratext 9 Training Videos (https://paratext.org/videos/); (c) Read the Tutorial Articles on Project Sharing and Keyboard Shortcuts (https://paratext.org/paratext-training/tutorials/).
  5. A license for Adobe InDesign (CS4 or newer), and basic familiarity with the software. Quite a bit of training on InDesign is available commercially—books, videos, online, and on-site. (Note: The Publishing Assistant software works with all versions of InDesign from CS2 to the current version. The Scripture publishing workflow is basically the same for all versions, though the custom/study Bible layout features require CS5 or newer.)
  6. Completion of the “Introduction to Scripture Typesetting” course on SIL’s E-Learning site at https://elearning.sil.org, or demonstration of equivalent knowledge and expertise. (Please inform us when you have enrolled in the course, and when you have completed it.)
  7. Downloading and installing the software, and dealing with any technical issues that arise with the student’s computer or software.
  8. Printing out the training materials (300-400 pages).
  9. Director approval for pursuing training in Scripture typesetting. Language workers must demonstrate that they have specific project/s in mind.

Previous experience with (Scripture) typesetting and/or with InDesign is helpful!

Cost and Registration
The fee for the workshop is US$500, with a 20% discount for alumni and for multiple registrants from the same organization.

To indicate your interest in attending, or if you have questions, please contact Darrel Eppler.

Filed Under: PubAssist News, Training & Support Tagged With: workshop

August 25, 2020

What’s New in Publishing Assistant 6.1

New Features

  • Custom Layout
    • A significantly improved and more flexible interface for creating and configuring custom page layout configurations (PA-1343)
    • Ability to group and order multiple note types within a single frame.
  • Basic USFM 3 support (not including support for Ruby). (PA-1354)
  • Automatically enabling InDesign Track Changes for new documents.
  • Support for importing PA 5.x jobs into PA 6.1. (PA-1334)
  • Ability to make a copy of a PA job into a new PA job. (PA-1338)
  • Option to open InDesign with a PA job loaded. (PA-1340, PA-1341)
  • Option to open InDesign from PA with the selected regional configuration enabled. (PA-1362, PA-1328)
  • Ability to restore a PA job from a debug backup. (PA-1339)
  • Option to select which books to export to Paratext / USFM (PA-1344)
  • Utilities for validating and producing Print On Demand (POD) compliant jobs for upload to the Digital Bible Library. (PA-1342)
[Read more…]

Filed Under: PubAssist News, Release Notes Tagged With: v6.1

July 25, 2018

PA 6.0 and 5.1 Released

The stable release of Publishing Assistant 6.0 is now available for all PA users (as 6.0.100.1).  In order to install PA 6.0 you need Paratext 8 installed on your computer. Please keep in mind that PA 6.0 requires 64-bit Windows on your computer.

For those who decide to stay with Paratext 7 there is an opportunity to upgrade to Publishing Assistant 5.1 (as 5.1.100.1). Read the Upgrade and Migration FAQ page to find out more about PA 6.0 and 5.1.

Here is the full list of new features of PA 6 and 5.1.

You can find the install file and updated user manual on the Download page.

Filed Under: PubAssist News, Release Notes Tagged With: v5.1, v6.0

May 1, 2017

What’s New in Publishing Assistant 6.0 and 5.1

Publishing Assistant 5.1 and 6.0 contain identical features. Publishing Assistant 6 is required for working with Paratext 8 or newer projects. Publishing Assistant 5.1 works with Paratext 7 projects. Both versions can safely coexist on your computer.

Here is a comprehensive list of what you can expect if upgrading from version 5.0:

General Improvements

  • Major refactor of the code used to convert the Paratext project files into InDesign format. This code in previous versions of PA was written in Python 2.4 and it has all been converted to C# .Net version 4.
  • Numerous unit tests added to improve the integrity of PA before it is released to the field.
  • Numerous bug fixes, enhanced exception/bug reporting.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: PubAssist Features, PubAssist News, Release Notes Tagged With: v5.1, v6.0

Quick Support Links

  • Scripture Typesetting Training – Sept-Oct 2022 (Online)
  • Getting Started
  • What’s New in PA 6.1
  • User Documentation
  • Scripture Markup (USFM)

News and Updates

  • Scripture Typesetting Training – Sept-Oct 2022 March 23, 2022
  • What’s New in Publishing Assistant 6.1 August 25, 2020
  • What’s New in InDesign 2019–2020 December 10, 2019
  • Improved Custom Layout – PA 6.1 December 10, 2019
  • USFM 3 Support – PA 6.1 December 10, 2019

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