How to Make an IPM Guide using Adobe PageMaker Templates
Denise D. Thomas, Information Specialist- IPM Florida
Introduction:
IPM Florida assembled an IPM decision making resource for Florida’s tomato and pepper growers. Several excellent documents had already been produced about IPM, pest and disease control, weed management, and soil and nutrient management for tomato and pepper in Florida. We compiled this information into an interdisciplinary, comprehensive resource that directs the user through the process of developing an individual IPM plan based on their locality, economic resources, and cropping and pest history. This guide describes the use of IPM tactics as a means of reducing the risk of disease epidemics, conserving chemistries against resistance and reducing overall production costs.
The Grower’s IPM Guide for Florida Tomato and Pepper Production was assembled in a 3-ring notebook format so that updated information, including labels, articles, and records, could be added over time. Although hard copies of the book have been published and distributed, the entire document is available for free online at our IPM Florida website and through EDIS. Pest and disease information is detailed on one-page (front & back) management sheets that include color photos, the organism’s lifecycle, scouting thresholds (where appropriate), and recommended biological, cultural/physical, and chemical controls. Chapters present growers with the advantages and disadvantages of available management strategies, as well as chemical rotation tables, cultivar evaluations, BMP information and IPM success stories.
Building a network to make multidisciplinary guides:
To keep this project as multidisciplinary as possible we invited specialists from different fields to work as chapter editors. These chapter editors contacted and worked with authors to build their chapters. Some chapter editors worked with a large team of authors while others condensed EDIS articles and other IFAS reports with the permission of the previous authors; both methods provided up-to-date IFAS approved material. Using these approaches, we invited chapter editors and page authors to condense research from their areas of expertise to fit a standard template and select appropriate photos to include in this publication. To keep everyone on track, a timeline and deadlines were set up with friendly reminders sent on a regular basis. We found that a month was a sufficient time frame to get information back from page authors. More time may be needed if a chapter editor is providing all or most of the information for a chapter. In some rare cases, we also condensed published information into this format, gave authors credit, and included their contact information for growers with questions. This service was offered to specialists who did not have time to provide data in the template format.
Because we were requesting information from several experts, our office entered all the data into the standard formats to provide consistency throughout the document. Any changes we made were sent to authors for review prior to publication. We also chose 8 reviewers for this project: 2 County Extension Faculty, 2 Extension Specialists, and 4 industry professionals.
The best way to manage chapters:
We found it helpful to provide author instructions to editors to avoid cumbersome formatting of material received from various sources. The following is a sample of the instructions we provided for the insect management sheets.
Templates and Instructions:
The following sections contain author instructions and templates, hints for using Adobe PageMaker, a references guide and Pagemaker templates based on the chapters that were used in the Grower’s IPM Guide for Tomato and Pepper Production. Use the suggested headings or change them to fit your needs. This outline follows the Adobe Pagemaker templates and can be used to cut and paste information from a Word document. In order to open the Pagemaker files, you must have the Adobe Pagemaker program on your computer. The colors of red, yellow and green in the templates were based on "The Grower's IPM Guide for Tomato and Pepper Production" but may be changed to fit the colors chosen for your crop. Note: The number of cws that is found throughout the templates refers to characters with spaces and can be checked by going to Tools > Word Count in Microsoft Word.
Hints for first time Adobe PageMaker users (pdf 42KB)
The Author's Instructions and References Guide (Word 147KB) provides a framework for the authors in order to remain consistent in their writing. Modify this document to fit your needs.
General Text templates: This template has multiple uses for a variety of topics. The boxes for the text can be changed by making them bigger or smaller, adding boxes or taking them away. You can have small spaces between the boxes or leave them continuous just be consistent within the chapter. It is recommended to have no more than 75% text on each page.
Fonts, sizes and leading:
Heading or Topic: Tahoma, size 12, All Caps
Text under Topic: Tahoma, size 9 or 10 (be consistent through chapter), leading 12
Quote or Fact: Georgia, size 10, Italics, Leading 18, (First word- size 16, bold, italics)
Photo captions: Georgia, size 9
General Template 1: Pagemaker version (1128KB) / PDF version (50KB)
General Template 2: Pagemaker version (716KB)/ PDF version (49KB)
Half-page Template: This template is useful for descriptions of weeds, beneficials, etc. that only have a limited amount of information.
Half-page Author's Template (Word 25KB)
Weed Template: Pagemaker version (9424KB)/ PDF version (48KB)
Pest Management Template: This template is set up for information based on specific pest problems and their control techniques. In the Pagemaker template, it would be best to fill in the x's with your information from a Word document.
Author's Template (Word 31KB)
Pest Management Template: Pagemaker version (31MB) / PDF version (101KB)
Disease Management Template: This template is set up for information based on specific diseases and disorders and their control techniques.
Author's Template (Word 30KB)
Disease Management Template: Pagemaker version (2028KB)/ PDF version (78KB)
For more ideas and examples of these templates, you can view the entire "Grower's IPM Guide for Tomato and Pepper Production." For questions about Pagemaker or the templates, contact Denise Thomas at md2b@ufl.edu or (352) 392-1901 ext. 205.
Acknowledgments:
We would like to acknowledge Dr. Norm Leppla and Joyce Merritt for editing this document. We would like to thank Jane Medley for her assistance using the Pagemaker program and the initial layout of the Grower’s IPM Guide for Tomato and Pepper Production.