Fresh off of a 1-week trip to Cabo San Lucas (AKA Los Cabos, Lands End) my wife & I put together a list of what we did well, and what we’d do different for future trips…if you find the list useful, or if you have other tips for a great Cabo trip, please add a comment below. -Matt

Things to pack

• Ground coffee
• sugar
• salt/pepper
• Bring max wine down/Vodka (buy duty-free on way down??)
• Music speakers (battery-powered are best)
• iPod & cables
  • ipod charger (not just firewire to PC)
  • iPod holder with clip for airline seatpocket
• Long Computer Cable/extension cord. Check airline for flight with AC power
• Bring beach-friendly marg holder (like Gatorade squeeze bottle). Freeze 1/3 of bottle to keep drinks cold while on beach.
• Collapsible cooler for beach
• Big sun hat
• More day clothes, less night clothes
• More underwear, less socks
• Long sleeve surf rash guard (sun protection)
• Wetsuit Vest for me, springer for wife
• binoculars

Things to prep

• Book 2nd room for the same week. Either sell that week, or find friends to use it.
• Install movies on computer for flight
• Set up Skype account with skype credit for international ph calls
  • skype-to-skype
  • skype-to-landline (with skype credit)
  • Make sure kids/sitter have access to video calls on home pc
• Set up email servers to work in Mex

Advice while down there

• Sunscreen!! Don’t forget knees, especially if surfing
• Carry small US/ peso bills always
• Set a 6am alarm for access to the best pool chairs (though the best beach chairs are almost always easy to get and to hold onto)
• Walk on the main street between the Nowhere Bar and El Galeon or Romeo and Julieta restaurants. It’s much shorter than the wandering Marina route. In fact, the main drag is an easier walk than the Marina in general
• The store at our condo (Villa del Arcos), La Tiendita has decent prices for food. Instead of a cab to the store, get short-notice items there instead.
• Find free internet access in hospitality suite, or pay $9/day internet access throughout complex
• Pack food & head to Lovers beach for the day/snorkel

Alaska Air

• Use Alaska Air credit card
  • $75 annual fee
  • $99 companion pass

Los Cerritos (km 64)

A gorgeous beach, about 50km north of Cabo San Lucas on the Pacific side, Los Cerritos is an easy trip for the day. Next time we may stay overnight at one of the hotels listed below. There’s a restaurant (with fairly steep prices for food & drinks) that has chairs and umbrellas for customers. There’s the Costa Azul surfboard rental trailer at one end of the beach, and the Diablo Blanco surf shack at the other.end.

• Head east out of town near Pueblo Bonito/Villa Palmar
• Consider spending less days at Cabo resorts, rent hotel at Cerritos
  • www.haciendacerritos.com ($100/night)
  • Tortuga Bay has beach huts as well
• Hang out on beach, not at the restaurant. You can keep a cooler in the trunk.
• Bring chairs & umbrella
• Don’t forget surboard wax

Things to ask for if negotiating attendance at a timeshare presentation

• Fishing
• Have all $$ and details written down
• Don’t include jewlery certificates (Diamond International)
• Have Taxi include trip to WalMart/Costco

Shopping list for Costco/WalMart

• Case of beer (bottles)
• Cans of beer for beach/pool
• sugar
• Cheese & crackers
• Butter
• bread
• Sandwich stuff
• Premix Marg’s /marg mix
• Bananas
• Eggs
• Cereal
• Milk
• Juice
• Cream

Restaurants/Bars

• Arts & Sushi. Fantastic fish, great service!
• Nowhere Bar. Just around the corner from Arts & Sushi. Good club music.
• Wamango. Good fish tacos, live entertainment for lunch.
• El Galeon. Great service and the best food we’ve had. A bit pricey, but defintely worth it!
• Romeo y Julieta. Solid italian food, but steak was just average. For a pricey place, service was really slow all around & setting was only so-so. We won’t plan to go back unless we’re meeting friends there.

Stuff to avoid

• Snorkle (unless going to Lands End to use it)
• Quote from my wife: “I packed too many clothes”
  • no more than 2 pair of regular shorts
  • 1 pair jeans
  • 1 sweatshirt/jacket
  • 1 long sleeve shirt

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Check out  http://blogs.roundpeg.com/2010/03/fm-char-palette-util/ for a writeup of the easy-to-use FrameMaker Character Palette utility, complete with an interactive simulation. For Frame users, WAY easier than the Windows Character Map utility

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Excellent free web artwork

I found a great list of free icons like these at http://websitetips.com/graphics/webicons/.

This is only one set of  the free icons available there, and I found it at /www.gosquared.com/liquidicity/archives/122

Social Media and others

I also found great stuff at http://dryicons.com/free-icons/page/2/

Shareware Solicitation

I also like what gosquared did with their PayPal Tip Jar…subtle, and well-designed.

Twitter Logos

A fantastic collection of twitter art is at

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/100-remarkably-beautiful-twitter-icons-and-buttons/

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Matt Sullivan (Founder and CEO of GRAFIX Training, Inc.) is now the director of training for roundpeg, inc.

If you are looking for content previously contained on grafixtraining.com, please leave a comment below and I will respond as soon as possible.

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If the above slidedeck is not available, you may download the .ppt at

https://acrobat.com/#d=-Uds53klKV5hCyYsiAhOsA

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This page is to describe the process of embedding acrobat.com content on a website…

Unfortunately, I’ve had no luck with the embedding code from acrobat.com. I’ll update when I get a solution!

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Borrowed from http://forums.adobe.com/message/2584446#2584446. Thanks to Adriana Harper and Stefan4321 for their posts! 

Scenario: 

• Using FrameMaker to single source print, pdf and online docs
  • Inserting markers to link to external PDF resources
• Linking files with RoboHelp using Technical Communication Suite 2

Issue: 

• Print and PDF are handled properly, but RoboHelp project links are broken

Solution: 

Since the hypertext marker has the following syntax: “message URL Path/MyFile.pdf”, create a folder called Path inside RoboHelp baggage files folder. Place the “MyFile.pdf” in there and your generated Help should properly contain the link to the PDF. 

Hint: The trick is to make sure that the PDF exists in both the place that FM looks for it, as well as the place that RoboHelp looks for it.

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Workflow and integration feature overview

• Output of content from FrameMaker into RoboHelp
• Placing Captivate movies (.swf) in FrameMaker
• Placing Captivate movies (.swf) in RoboHelp
• Support of video and 3d in output of PDF from FrameMaker

Linking FrameMaker files in RoboHelp projects

• Adding FrameMaker books and files

Mapping formats and structures from FrameMaker into RoboHelp

• Paragraph formats
• Topic pagination options
• Topic numbering options
• Topic list optons
• Character formats
• Mapping cross reference formats
• Mapping table formats
• Context Sensitive Help
• Mapping Topic Titles
• RoboHelp master page assignment

Exporting settings (.isf) file

Troubleshooting

• File crashes
• Identifying unmapped FrameMaker content

CSS overview

• Understanding CSS element and class formatting
• Comparison of RoboHelp CSS editor and other editors
• Controlling order list number formatting
• Controlling breaks in table cells

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Introduction

Understand a typical FrameMaker workflow

Review the FrameMaker interface

Review of the elements that make up a template

Basic document setup

Set up a new blank document

• Pagination and page size
• Sidehead area

Import text with stylesheet

Create and modify paragraph formats

Control simple autonumbering

Create and apply custom colors

Create and modify character formats

Styling and applying master pages

Understanding text frame types

Custom page numbers

Inserting running headers and footers

Assigning master pages to specific paragraph formats

Complex autonumbering

Working out number formats needed

Assigning autonumberings to paragraph formats

Cross Reference Formats

Creating formats as complete units

Using character formats to style cross references

Tables

Creating and modifying table formats

• Changing existing formats
• Assigning paragraph formats to table formats

Books

Creating a table of contents template

• Using the TOC reference page
• Adding the Table of Contents text
• Formatting entries
• Adding dot leaders
• Uniform appearance of page numbers
• Controlling display of page numbers and autonumbers

Creating an index template

• Using the IX reference page
• Adding columns as needed
• Adding the Index text
• Formatting entries
• Adjusting group titles

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In the past few weeks we’ve been helping a few clients navigate to a decision on structured (DITA, XML) or “normal” unstructured authoring.

**See the end of this post for a list of some popular structured authoring tools

I have plenty of colleagues that heavily favor structured authoring, and I agree that there are huge advantages to moving in that direction:

Advantages of Structured Authoring

• Economies of scale in large multi-author environments
• Better reuse of content
• Enforced content model

However, I feel the reasons that structured authoring has yet to take over the world are as follows:

Resistance to Structured Authoring

• Limited selection of tools for editing
• Higher learning curve for authors/editors
• Higher initial investment in formatting and templates
• Higher cost of coversion for legacy documents

So, how to choose?

Key factors in evaluating a move from unstructured to structured documentation

• Document length (longer documents may be more manageable in structured environments)
• Need for consistency of both format and content
• Number of authors and organizations involved in editing content

Structured Authoring Tools

Thanks to Yves Barbion (@yvesbarbion) for this short-list of tools and their weblinks

- http://leximation.com/dita-fmx/
- http://na.justsystems.com/content-xmetal-author
- http://www.oxygenxml.com/
- http://www.syntext.com/products/serna/index.html

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