Tutorial on Manual Development.



Supremacy Manual:

Let’s Agree:

• We will utilize the same screen shots in their respective languages for the manual

• We will arrange the manual in the same order.

• We will use the same index (the page numbers may be different because one language is longer than another)

• We will use the same information

In other words, I am completely open to your suggestions for an improved manual. Let’s improve ALL of the manual translations in the same way.

What May Be Different:

Given different words and lengths of words in different languages it may be that some manuals are spread out over more (or less) pages. I would like to see us all try to keep the description of a screen shot on the same page as the screen shot that is being described.

How I Made the Manual:

I used Microsoft Word 2007 because of its nicer user interface for formatting things in an attractive way.

I used Nitro PDF converter to convert the manual to a PDF version. The manual had to be saved in Word 2003 format for this to work correctly (I get blacked out portions of the screen shots). The file still retains the formatting you used in the 2007 version BUT you should check for any introduced goofs in the transition and resave it. Keep the 2007 master file if you like the WORD 2007 as much as I do. Make your changes in it, and then save it to 2003 format for Nitro PDF.

If you have Adobe Acrobat already, you may just want to use it instead of Word.

Create a folder for Supremacy Manual and save all your screen shots in it.

Screen Shots:

You probably know how to do this but just in case:

I happen to have a dual monitor system which made this a little quicker (two monitors plugged into my graphics card for a larger desktop).

Start the Microsoft PAINT program or your personal favorite paint program that accesses the Window’s Clipboard.

Run the supremacy game and go to the screen you want. Press CTRL and while holding it down press the PRT SC key. This saves the screen to the clipboard cut and paste function in Windows.

On a dual monitor system the game will be on one display (the one that normally has the “start” button). If you click on open space in the other display you will get the Start button and “open programs” bar at the bottom of your monitor overlying the Supremacy game. Select the Windows Paint program. Go to the top of PAINT and do Edit ( Paste. The screenshot should appear. You can then use the entire screen shot or use the rectangular dotted box “SELECT” feature[pic] to outline a section to cut out a button or portion of the captured screen shot. Get the black edges of buttons. It’s more attractive.

On a single monitor PC you may have to exit the supremacy program to get the screen capture into a paint program for touch-ups. It may also be that you can use CTRL ALT DEL and “switch programs” to the PAINT program and then CTRL ALT DEL to switch back to Supremacy for another screen shot. I haven’t tried this yet.

NOTE: Microsoft PAINT saves pictures in bitmap form (.bmp). It is best to save the pictures / screenshots as .png to retain clarity. I used an old free (now sold by Correl) program called “Paint Shop Pro” (version 4.0) and did a copy and save of the screen shot to PAINT SHOP PRO using its “paste as new image” command. This program has a save as .png option. You may have other programs. The old free program is available here:



Some say version 7 was the best one. I used Paint Shop Pro to touch up the buttons and screen shots. I went to the trouble to take black out of the corners of menus with rounded corners. The white blended with the “white paper” of the manual page, making the square menu cutout appear as though it had rounded corners.

I also took out the background stars and light spots at the black edges of the buttons so that they stood out better in the manual (just paint over them with black or the appropriate color). One thing to take care of with the buttons is to make sure your screen capture is the PINK colored button option which is the color of the button when it is selected. Blue buttons are the unselected version of Supremacy’s buttons.

Arranging the Manual:

You can take a screen shot or cutout from a screen shot and paste it into Word. Then right click on the screen shot and select “Format Picture” at the bottom. Select the “Layout” tab (shown at left) and select “Square” for the wraparound option. This will allow the text to wrap around the image.

One annoying thing in Word is that when you place a picture like this, it is best to place it after you type text on a page. If you place it first, the text and carriage returns tend to move the picture down the page ahead of them. You can always select the picture and drag it back up into place but sometimes it jumps around. With persistence, you can eventually get it in place.

In Word 2007 the menu system for text wrapping is different. When you right click on the image it is in the first menu that opens as seen at the left. Go down to text wrapping and square as shown in the example.

In my original Word file in Word 2007 I used a neat function in Word that allows you to create a shadow behind the picture, making it appear to float above the page. Unfortunately Nitro PDF converter turns it into a black smudge at the border so it isn’t useful for the manual.

However, if you want to have a cool looking original image though here is how you do it.

Using the same right click on the image, select the bottom option called Format Picture… The next window you get is below. Select the shadow option as shown and you can use the suggested numbers you see entered in the example below.

Sometimes I use 10 pt instead of 6 for the Distance.

In the Manual Folder on the share point site is a Zipx file called Manual Elements. These are the screen shots that do not contain any language elements (with two or three exceptions).

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