http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/Document-Design A listing of the most recently indexed works about Articles and Document Design in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/Document-Design http://tc.eserver.org/35780.html http://tc.eserver.org/35780.html Two free and easy-to-use scripts convert Word's local formatting to InDesign's character styles. Two more retain InDesign formatting when you export text formatted with automatically applied character styles. http://tc.eserver.org/35717.html http://tc.eserver.org/35717.html All the screenshots in your Word document are different sizes. What’s the quickest way to get them all the same size? Is there a shortcut? Yes! http://tc.eserver.org/35627.html http://tc.eserver.org/35627.html Seth Godin believes that everything reflects what you stand for—right down to your technical documents. Ever looked at Apple’s tech docs? http://tc.eserver.org/35676.html http://tc.eserver.org/35676.html In order to provide guidance to those involved in the preparation of documents for the Japanese market, a special Japanese layout taskforce has developed the “Requirements for Japanese Text Layout”. Here is an insight into the content. http://tc.eserver.org/35677.html http://tc.eserver.org/35677.html The shift in information development from a narrative to a modular writing style reflects the established shift towards modularization of source code. What can information developers learn from software developers? What are the challenges and benefits of the modular approach? http://tc.eserver.org/35539.html http://tc.eserver.org/35539.html New FrameMaker documents have default Master Pages. Single-sided documents have one, called "Right," and double-sided documents have two, called "Left" and "Right." We use these pages to place the objects we want to repeat on all the Body Pages, things like our running heads, page numbers and repeating graphics. But what do you do when you need a different look for a Body Page, on a repeating basis? For example, no page number on the opening page of each chapter? You set up a custom master page. Here's how. http://tc.eserver.org/35455.html http://tc.eserver.org/35455.html A lot of designers think CMYK is the way to go when designing for print. We will, of course, always use CMYK-based ink, but this does not mean you have to work with CMYK files. You can work with RGB images to perfectly optimize your print colors. http://tc.eserver.org/35461.html http://tc.eserver.org/35461.html While art and design schools do an impressive job of teaching the importance of form, function, and how to use flashy Photoshop techniques, it's rare that designers have been taught the skills necessary to pass off their projects to printers so that they may not only successfully, but smoothly, produce a designed work. In this article, I'll discuss the basics when it comes to translating your brilliant ideas (and surely hours of your precious time and energy) into successfully printed projects with a printer, making it easier to keep your deadlines and maintain a blissfully happy and healthy relationship with your vendor. http://tc.eserver.org/35463.html http://tc.eserver.org/35463.html The most frequently asked questions I get from people who are new to InDesign revolves around Text Wrap; however, there are also questions about text formatting that don’t get asked. But I know they exist because when I’m presenting in front of an audience and I start formatting text, I can see the look of amazement on some folks’ faces as if they’re thinking, “Hey, I didn’t know you could do that!” http://tc.eserver.org/35464.html http://tc.eserver.org/35464.html InDesign has always supported the use of layers, but layers don’t always cut it when working with text. You can put a text frame on a layer and turn that layer on and off as needed, but it’s an all or nothing approach. What if you want to show and hide individual words or paragraphs and have the text automatically rewrap when you show or hide those words? With conditional text, it’s a breeze. http://tc.eserver.org/35465.html http://tc.eserver.org/35465.html Every now and then an app gets an update that really impacts your daily routine, and I’m happy to say that InDesign CS4 has some new-and-improved features that will do just that. InDesign is a page layout app, so anything that helps that process is a welcome addition, so let’s take a look at how CS4 will speed up your day-to-day work. http://tc.eserver.org/35407.html http://tc.eserver.org/35407.html While I'm a firm believer in the primacy of content over appearance, aesthetics are definitely a part of drawing people into documentation and engaging them. There's nothing wrong with making online assistance or a printed manual attractive. It doesn't need to be a beautifully-designed work of art, but it should be something a little more than blocks of black text on a white page. http://tc.eserver.org/35301.html http://tc.eserver.org/35301.html I have no idea what our users want. I do know they want information, and I know they want that information to be kept up to date as our product evolves and as far as those basic needs are concerned, I’m happy that we are meeting them. Beyond that I admit I’m not really that sure. http://tc.eserver.org/35267.html http://tc.eserver.org/35267.html The sizes listed in the picture above are the default type sizes listed in FrameMaker's Paragraph and Character Designers. If your favorite choices are listed, great! If not, you have to type the size you want into the Size field. If you'd like to modify the Size list so that it includes your favorite Sizes, read on. http://tc.eserver.org/35218.html http://tc.eserver.org/35218.html Formatting automation removes cost from the process of creating and delivering content. For technical documents that change often and are perhaps delivered in multiple languages, it removes a lot of cost. Essentially, we can produce documents inexpensively and give more people access to them as a direct result of lower cost, or we can climb on our typographic high horse and whine about word spacing. I’m with the noisome fanboys. http://tc.eserver.org/35219.html http://tc.eserver.org/35219.html In reality, the user just wants a brief, clear explanation of a concept or task. The user will glance and skim — reading behaviors hardly worthy of the elitist grammarian who argues the finer points of “which” versus “that” in restrictive clauses. http://tc.eserver.org/35210.html http://tc.eserver.org/35210.html As help systems continue to evolve, whatever name they are called, we will increasingly have to face responsibility for their content, and bring their expertise to what we write. The new systems provide us with all the required tools that tell us the problems with their content. It is up to us to leverage that information to provide better content, and act as ambassadors for products that we write. If writers can go a step ahead, and use their help information to sell products, and reduce the burden on customer support, we would have truly arrived. http://tc.eserver.org/35190.html http://tc.eserver.org/35190.html This Fast Track tutorial demonstrates two methods to call Context-Sensitive Help in a Web Form. We'll discover how Unobtrusive DOM/JavaScript achieves the desired result in calling Context-Sensitive help, and demonstrate how to keep the Structure, Presentation, and Behavior layers of a web page completely separate from one another ensuring good practice with current web standards and accessibility rules. http://tc.eserver.org/35174.html http://tc.eserver.org/35174.html It’s time we came to grips with the fact that not every “document” can be a “web page.” Some forms of writing just cannot be expressed in HTML—or they need to be bent and distorted to do so. But for once, XML might actually help. http://tc.eserver.org/35158.html http://tc.eserver.org/35158.html When it comes to an about page, think outside the box. Try to think of something new and creative that’s different form the rest of your site. Of course display images of you / your staff, and descriptions of each, but try to lay it out in a very fun way, whistle keeping it clean and readable. http://tc.eserver.org/35149.html http://tc.eserver.org/35149.html Working with InDesign is interesting. On the one hand, it’s not really a tool built for technical writers. It’s intended for people laying out magazines, brochures, other heavily designed print matter. As such, some things can be confusing. Cross references, figure references, a table of contents — get ready to search the help to figure these out. On the other hand, the power of the InDesign is somewhat captivating. You’re only limited by your own ignorance. http://tc.eserver.org/34735.html http://tc.eserver.org/34735.html There’s simply no way to learn InDesign (or any other major application) all at once. If you’re a frustrated newcomer to InDesign, or even if you’ve been using it for some time and want to expand your knowledge, here’s a suggestion: Set aside about 15-20 minutes every day to learn the basics of one feature. It doesn’t really matter what that feature is. http://tc.eserver.org/34711.html http://tc.eserver.org/34711.html Part of the problem in our attempt to demonstrate value is that our help deliverables look the same as they did 15 years ago, more or less. Online help and a PDF manual. It’s not a format that engages users. The web marches forward with innovation after innovation, while the technical communicators are figuratively hunched over keyboards, staring at CRT monitors, wearing 1950s horn-rimmed glasses, typing away. http://tc.eserver.org/34669.html http://tc.eserver.org/34669.html Given the engineering audience, one can’t hope for too much style and flair in the prose, but it reads like a college textbook, outlining basic principles in a flat way. It is too focused on “clarity, accuracy, correctness, etc.” (p.79) to make for a fun or engaging read. http://tc.eserver.org/34637.html http://tc.eserver.org/34637.html Even though your customers may not read manuals, your tech support team probably does, which means someone is reading the manuals and using them to help others. But if your users find it easier to call someone, wait on hold for an agent, and then ask the agent a question rather than find the answer in the help, maybe your help materials aren’t very usable. Maybe increasing the usability of your company’s documentation could alleviate the need users feel to seek answers from another source. http://tc.eserver.org/34638.html http://tc.eserver.org/34638.html In this presentation, Joe Sokohl talks about gathering user research prior to designing and implementing your help deliverables. http://tc.eserver.org/34639.html http://tc.eserver.org/34639.html Dan Roam explains that drawing pictures can help you solve problems. He says the first rule is to “collect everything possible up front.” After collecting all your information, you then “lay it all out where you can look at it.” By laying out all the information, you can grasp the whole of it, make connections between various parts, see the important sections, and recognize patterns. http://tc.eserver.org/34613.html http://tc.eserver.org/34613.html What FAQ pages have become are elephant graveyards of non-information, the equivalent of the Miscellaneous file folder, the place where information-we-didn’t-know-where-to-put was dumped. The challenge of creating a FAQ page that customers will find useful has several aspects to it, but can be accomplished with a lot of planning and a little strategic work. http://tc.eserver.org/34606.html http://tc.eserver.org/34606.html Through experience, I've discovered that foreign language typesetting can be very challenging--even when using the right software and platform, or having the help of a very experienced foreign typesetter. Through solving the problems encountered in the process, I also developed a new appreciation for simple, "internationalized" designs that are much easier to "localize" than others. Many problems can be avoided if the graphic designer keeps in mind that the document may be later translated into other languages. Sometimes, an attractive and very professional design in English can be a "nightmare" in other languages. http://tc.eserver.org/34587.html http://tc.eserver.org/34587.html Although there will always be a need for people to explain technical material non-technical people, Ellis Pratt said, others may be doing it instead, through the formats users prefer. To survive, technical writers may need to morph into content strategists, managing the information in a systematic way rather than merely creating it. http://tc.eserver.org/34548.html http://tc.eserver.org/34548.html A musing on the need to balance documenation that looks good with documentation that has substance. http://tc.eserver.org/34489.html http://tc.eserver.org/34489.html It's hard to look at a page of text and try to decide where to divide things to create individual topics. That "bottom up" approach is kind of pointless, in fact. There are better ways. http://tc.eserver.org/34485.html http://tc.eserver.org/34485.html When documents are built from components, and the components can have contextual variations, it becomes possible to construct built-to-order documents "on the fly", in response to user demands, rather than having to pre-create static versions of all possible variations. Once such a system is in place, it becomes possible for users to further customize the results by modifying the list of selected topics, rearranging their order, or even by adding new topics. http://tc.eserver.org/34464.html http://tc.eserver.org/34464.html In several recent websites we have user tested, the site designers have placed important task critical links and information on the right hand side (RHS) of three column page layouts. The user testing was conclusive, users ignore any information presented on the RHS. We think this is a similar effect to the well documented banner blindness. It is essential to ensure that import links or information is not positioned on the RHS as they will surely be ignored. http://tc.eserver.org/34444.html http://tc.eserver.org/34444.html Why do product manuals sound formal and stiff-upper-lipped? Why don’t users read manuals? These questions have haunted the precincts of Technical Writing for quite some time now. From what I have seen in Indian writers, I am forced to conclude that English Composition, as we were taught in school, is the culprit. http://tc.eserver.org/34401.html http://tc.eserver.org/34401.html In this podcast, Sarah O’Keefe of Scriptorium Publishing explains the results of their recent survey about the state of structured authoring in technical communication. In the survey, they found that 84% of respondents are either thinking of moving to structured authoring, are in the process of moving to structured authoring, have already adopted structured authoring, or are undecided. Only 16% of respondents said they were not moving to structured authoring. She also discusses other survey results, such as the adoption of DITA and mistakes people make in moving to structured authoring. http://tc.eserver.org/34385.html http://tc.eserver.org/34385.html Citing the rise of graphic novels, comics, and in particular, Google’s new web browser Chrome, which has a comic-book-style manual, Opsteegh argues that technical communicators can learn a thing or two about conveying information from graphic novelists. http://tc.eserver.org/34378.html http://tc.eserver.org/34378.html Users would save time by reading the manual, but instead they try to figure the application out themselves and then get lost/frustrated as they end up spending even more time getting up to speed with the application. http://tc.eserver.org/34337.html http://tc.eserver.org/34337.html Given how hard it is for students (and their programs) to afford the expensive tools in our profession, I thought it might help to pass along these alternatives to commercial products. I think anyone breaking into the field (or a new type of tool) would do very well to train up on these open source tools and create portfolio pieces with them. http://tc.eserver.org/34294.html http://tc.eserver.org/34294.html Writing for Kindle is like writing for print, the Web, and mobile devices combined; optimal usability means optimizing content for each platform's special characteristics. http://tc.eserver.org/34265.html http://tc.eserver.org/34265.html Rather than spend hours coming up with a complex numbering scheme, this might be an excuse to implement something far more straightforward discovered by an extensive readability study at IBM, of which I was a part. My work involved sitting behind a one-way mirror with a stopwatch, watching people take tests that involved, among other things, "how fast can you find Figure 3-4?" We had cameras mounted over the participant's shoulders and could watch them thumb through the documents, and we also monitored eye movements. Then we followed up with a short interview where we got feedback. http://tc.eserver.org/34252.html http://tc.eserver.org/34252.html In this article, my colleague and I provide strategies, tips, and approaches we’ve learned in creating quick reference guides for software documentation projects. http://tc.eserver.org/34195.html http://tc.eserver.org/34195.html Discusses color properties and color systems. Re-examines and supports Jan V. White's advice to technical communicators to use color to increase document usability. Discusses what technical communicators should know about color to work effectively with professional printers. http://tc.eserver.org/34155.html http://tc.eserver.org/34155.html Producing effective charts is essential to any document that conveys technical, scientific, or financial data. Here are four suggestions to ensure that your charts are effective and enhance rather than detract from your document. http://tc.eserver.org/34100.html http://tc.eserver.org/34100.html Fluid layouts are an undervalued commodity in web design. They put control of our designs firmly in the hands of our users and their browsing habits. They’ve also utterly failed to seize the imagination of web designers. http://tc.eserver.org/34093.html http://tc.eserver.org/34093.html User assistance can add value to a product or Web service’s business model by influencing how deeply users adopt new features or services. As more products employ pay-as-you-go models like that of SaaS (Software as a Service), the contribution user assistance makes becomes increasingly more important. http://tc.eserver.org/34022.html http://tc.eserver.org/34022.html Consistency of a technical documentation is what creates that subliminal sense of trust and confidence in the end-users. Someone once quipped: “it ain’t technical documentation if it ain’t boring.” This of course is not true since I always found technical documents very interesting indeed. I’m the sort of geekish person who can marvel at a well-designed user’s manual for hours and appreciate its beauty and all the effort and thinking that went into its production. I imagine how happy people would be when they use that manual and solve their problems and that, believe it or not, makes me happy as well. That’s the main reason why I’m in this business. http://tc.eserver.org/34025.html http://tc.eserver.org/34025.html Technical writing has its mechanical aspects that need to be mastered. A good technical writer must know how to use English effectively as well as various software products to produce acceptable technical documents. But I wish technical writing were all about that. The hardest part comes before one even sits down in front of a computer to type the first word. The hardest part in documenting anything is organizing the information in a way that makes sense from the user’s point of view. Otherwise a technical document suddenly looks irrelevant. http://tc.eserver.org/34027.html http://tc.eserver.org/34027.html Using the structured features requires advanced training and you probably won’t need them anyways unless you’re doing any “single sourcing” (which is the topic of yet another article). For example if you were doing any XML-based authoring or “database publishing” then you would definitely need to learn how to use the FrameMaker’s structured interface. However, there is an easy way to imitate structured documentation while you are still in the unstructured mode. This is one case in which you can have your cake (unstructured FM) and take a bite out of it too (by enjoying one selected feature of structured documentation). http://tc.eserver.org/34028.html http://tc.eserver.org/34028.html Here are seven time-tested design recommendations culled from my 20 years of experience as a professional writer, page layout and information designer. http://tc.eserver.org/34029.html http://tc.eserver.org/34029.html Adobe FrameMaker is the information design platform of choice for most professional technical writers and technical communicators across the globe. Like all powerful software applications, FrameMaker also has a lot of features and configuration possibilities. One of those features is the ability to create new paragraph styles. Each paragraph style in FrameMaker is represented by a “Paragraph Tag.” So to create a new formatting style you actually create a “tag.” Here is how you can create a new paragraph style/tag for your FrameMaker (FM) document. http://tc.eserver.org/33964.html http://tc.eserver.org/33964.html Positioning is perhaps one of the most misunderstood parts of CSS 2. Let us look a little closer at how it works. http://tc.eserver.org/33965.html http://tc.eserver.org/33965.html Pozycjonowanie z kolei jest jednym z najczęściej mylnie interpretowanych aspektów wersji 2 CSS. Przyjrzyjmy się zatem nieco bliżej temu, jak ono działa. http://tc.eserver.org/33966.html http://tc.eserver.org/33966.html Hizalama ise CSS 2’nin belki de en yanlış anlaşılmış bölümlerinden biridir. Şimdi nasıl çalıştıklarına biraz daha yakından bakalım. http://tc.eserver.org/33967.html http://tc.eserver.org/33967.html This article explains one method of achieving a successful liquid layout as well as providing basic definitions of liquid, fixed-width and em-driven layouts. http://tc.eserver.org/33941.html http://tc.eserver.org/33941.html Fluid layouts are an undervalued commodity in web design. They put control of our designs firmly in the hands of our users and their browsing habits. They’ve also utterly failed to seize the imagination of web designers. http://tc.eserver.org/33894.html http://tc.eserver.org/33894.html I should never fully trust anyone on a project. I don’t mean this disrespectfully, because I work with competent, talented professionals. But no one has the full picture of how the application will truly work. The quality assurance (QA) engineer usually has the clearest picture. The program manager and project manager are often living in a slightly different world, full of a vision of how the product should work and how they expect users to interact with it, but sometimes they’re missing important nuances in the actual implementation. The interaction designer builds prototypes and assumes the developers will build them to spec, but since the prototypes are usually HTML-based, and not in Java or .NET, variances are inevitable. http://tc.eserver.org/33849.html http://tc.eserver.org/33849.html Here's a quick tutorial about screen captures, thus the title. If you're not sure what a screen capture is, then think about the pages you've seen lately. Maybe some of them have had specific sections of the desktop or a program made into an image. It was almost as if they captured part of the screen as an image. http://tc.eserver.org/33865.html http://tc.eserver.org/33865.html In recessionary times, organisations should focus on getting sales from existing customers - so customer retention becomes ever more important. http://tc.eserver.org/33814.html http://tc.eserver.org/33814.html FrameMaker users are buzzing about FrameMaker 9. With CMYK support, CMS integration, DITA 1.1, and PDF commenting, this version is full of new functionality but is unfortunately also buggy and inconsistent. This review covers the most important new features of FrameMaker 9. http://tc.eserver.org/33768.html http://tc.eserver.org/33768.html This paper discusses the rationale and design behind Jeppesen’s single-source publishing system. With the business needs to single-source publishing capabilities becoming more acute, Jeppesen partnered with Astoria Software to develop a solution. The result is a system based on commercial-off-the-shelf software, XML industry standards, and open-source tools. http://tc.eserver.org/33774.html http://tc.eserver.org/33774.html While technical documentation has traditionally been the domain for structured authoring, there is increasing interest in using XML for more “creative” materials such as sales brochures and marketing collateral. Such pre-sales materials often have even more compelling opportunities for single-sourcing and reuse than technical documents. Up to now, these materials have been produced one at a time in page-oriented publishing systems like Adobe InDesign and Quark. While this provides maximum flexibility in controlling exact page layouts, it can create a nightmare when small changes must be replicated across all the independent pages and documents. Why can’t we use XML to more flexibly handle this kind of content? In fact, we can! Using page formats from real marketing content, this whitepaper demonstrates how XML tools can be used to maintain highly graphical sales collateral, web pages, and product catalogs from a single source of XML information. http://tc.eserver.org/33741.html http://tc.eserver.org/33741.html Currently, visual XML structured authoring applications can typically handle a small number of XML vocabularies. In some cases, they can even handle them in limited nested scenarios. One of the purposes of creating XML documents with compound vocabularies is to present related information on a given topic in different manners (tables, charts, etc). The synchronization of views between objects of different vocabularies in real-time editing helps authors realize this potential. In this presentation we will discuss an approach to visually creating, editing and synchronizing, nested compound XML vocabularies within one document. The open nature of the architecture enables developers to create plug-ins for new vocabularies including the ability to define synchronization. Also this architecture provides simple method to define visualization of a new vocabulary by utilizing plug-ins already developed and activated. http://tc.eserver.org/33694.html http://tc.eserver.org/33694.html I have been playing around with Crucible, Atlassian’s peer code review tool. The latest version of Crucible allows you to review Confluence wiki pages. This is a new feature, so I decided to try it out. Also, I was wondering why you might want to use an independent tool to review a wiki page, when you could instead just add comments to the page or update the page directly. http://tc.eserver.org/33653.html http://tc.eserver.org/33653.html Here's a simple way to read one of the new Microsoft file formats, even if you have no Microsoft software installed. Let's suppose you have a file that ends with .docx, from the latest version of Microsoft Word. It's actually a zip file, so add .zip to the end and unzip it. You'll find a cluster of files and folders inside, and the one you want should be called document.xml. Double-click that and it will load in a browser window, where you can read the text. http://tc.eserver.org/33612.html http://tc.eserver.org/33612.html Table Styles are my favorite type of Style in Word. They allow you to quickly and consistently format the table itself (e.g. borders, shading, etc.), the content within the table (E.g. line spacing, font color, font size, etc.), and they can also can tell a table when to do these (e.g. shade every other row, bold text in the first column, etc.). The first two enable you to create really rich tables, and the last one (which I'll call Conditional Formatting for the rest of this post) enables you to easily work with those rich tables. Both are quite important. http://tc.eserver.org/33604.html http://tc.eserver.org/33604.html Push contrast more than you might be naturally inclined. If you don’t, you end up with conflict. The next time you eat at a restaurant, look closely at the menu. A good menu has a high degree of contrast between sections. http://tc.eserver.org/33522.html http://tc.eserver.org/33522.html A few days ago, there was a thread on the Framers mailing list regarding working in the structured FrameMaker environment. Someone commented that editing unstructured documents in the structured interface does not affect the unstructured documents. I found this to be untrue recently. http://tc.eserver.org/33421.html http://tc.eserver.org/33421.html Debates about Microsoft Word vs. Adobe Framemaker appear with regular frequency on the tech-writing mailing lists I am subscribed to. Everyone agrees Frame is an awesome publishing tool. Yet, everyone keeps cribbing about it. So, why does a bright bunch of people who are masters at figuring out stuff, otherwise known as tech-writers, only hesitatingly agree Frame is “kind of great”? I think it’s mostly because Frame is so difficult to use. http://tc.eserver.org/33338.html http://tc.eserver.org/33338.html Information Mapping is a proprietary method for the analysis, organisation, and presentation of information. It is based on the needs of the users and their purpose in using the documentation. Information Mapping has three parts: analysis, organisation, presentation. http://tc.eserver.org/33305.html http://tc.eserver.org/33305.html The localization of information for regional markets and audiences is increasingly important for companies of all sizes. It’s required to more effectively engage customers, maximize revenue, and maintain global brand recognition. In this issue we focus on three common challenges found in early-stage localization projects and how to overcome them. We introduce approaches to address these challenges cost-efficiently. http://tc.eserver.org/33306.html http://tc.eserver.org/33306.html We define dynamic publishing as: The automated assembly of customized documents with graphic-rich layouts for multiple mediums, including print, the Web, mobile and electronic devices. Dynamic publishing allows organizations to deliver accurate, relevant, and high-fidelity communications across multiple types of media faster and at a lower cost. http://tc.eserver.org/33307.html http://tc.eserver.org/33307.html IDC, a global information technology market research firm, identified a couple of trends related to and influencing dynamic publishing. These include the growth in internet users (and where they get their content), and where organizations will publish content over the next two years. http://tc.eserver.org/33288.html http://tc.eserver.org/33288.html Few people have ever commented about my blog’s design at all. The same goes with the music intros for my podcasts. I can change the music each time, and no one ever responds. In contrast, if a post has good content, I see a steady stream of comments. My experience leads me to conclude that content is about 90% important, and design is 10% important. http://tc.eserver.org/33227.html http://tc.eserver.org/33227.html Designing the page layouts for a new or redesigned intranet can be complex. One of the most difficult aspects is creating the first layout. Starting with an empty screen, you need to determine what will go on each page and where it will go. Using a strawman design - a design that is created with the intent of discarding it - can help to overcome many of the difficulties in the design process. http://tc.eserver.org/33228.html http://tc.eserver.org/33228.html Visual communication can be thought of as two intertwined parts: personality, or look and feel, and visual organization. The personality of a presentation is what provides the emotional impact —your instinctual response to what you see. Creating an appropriate personality requires the use of colors, type treatments, images, shapes, patterns, and more, to “say” the right thing to your audience. This article, however, focuses on the other side of the visual communication coin: visual organization. http://tc.eserver.org/33233.html http://tc.eserver.org/33233.html It appears that about one out of five Web sites (only 20%) currently are designed using a "Fluid" layout. Unfortunately, the layout most preferred by users, the "Fluid" layout, is the one implemented least often by designers. http://tc.eserver.org/33143.html http://tc.eserver.org/33143.html Ratios are at the core of any well-designed grid system. Sometimes those ratios are rational, such as 1:2 or 2:3, others are irrational such as the 1:1.414 (the proportion of A4). This first part is about how to combine those ratios to create simple, balanced grids which in turn will help you create harmonious compositions. http://tc.eserver.org/33144.html http://tc.eserver.org/33144.html Aesthetics can be measured and more importantly can be constructed. If you want something to be aesthetically pleasing there are steps you can take to make sure it is going in the right direction. Now I'm not saying that 'follow these rules and you will create something beautiful'. What I am saying is that by following a few of these guidelines can go some way into creating something compositionally balanced, which will inherently be more aesthetically pleasing. http://tc.eserver.org/33145.html http://tc.eserver.org/33145.html Designing grid systems for print is considerably more straight forward than designing grid systems for the web. First off,in print, the designer has a fixed media size - the paper size (or packaging, poster, whatever). Let's say a print designer has designed a magazine. The reader of this magazine can't suddenly increase the font size if they find it difficult to read - well they just move it closer to their eyes I guess. This is just one consideration, there are more but I'm sure you get the point. http://tc.eserver.org/33146.html http://tc.eserver.org/33146.html Fixed width grid design for the web. What is it, how do we do it and how do we implement it? For the purposes of this article, I'm going to be focussing on the theory of creating the grid rather than the implementation. I did mention in the last series that I would cover implementation using CSS, well I'm not going to. There are just so many resources and books available telling you how to create the CSS layouts you need—I'll touch on it, but I won't be going into too much detail. http://tc.eserver.org/33147.html http://tc.eserver.org/33147.html Flexible vs Fixed. Which one to choose? Why choose one over the other? Well you won't find the answers to those questions here. What I'm aiming to do with this article is to investigate how the theory of grid design can be applied to a flexible web page. http://tc.eserver.org/33148.html http://tc.eserver.org/33148.html There is an optimum width for a Measure and that is defined by the amount of characters are in the line. A general good rule of thumb is 2-3 alphabets in length, or 52-78 characters (including spaces). This is for legibility purposes. Keep your Measure within these guidelines and you should have no problem with legibility. Please note that this figure will vary widely with research, this is just the figure I use and it seems to work well as a generally rule of thumb. http://tc.eserver.org/33149.html http://tc.eserver.org/33149.html Hanging punctuation is an area of typographic design which has suffered at the hands of certain software products. It's a term which refers to glyph positioning to create the illusion of a uniform edge of text. It's most commonly used for pull-quotes, but I feel the most neglected is that of bulleted lists. http://tc.eserver.org/33153.html http://tc.eserver.org/33153.html During art college I was subjected to a lecture on the Golden Section (who remembers that lecture, come on hands up?), that ambiguous set of rectangles that is requisite art school discussion. During this lecture I was shown slide after slide of seemingly tenuous links between paintings and sculptures, and this set of rectangles. My lecturer at the time seemed as equally uninterested, droning along in self-imposed boredom. What he failed to convey at the time, has taken me over 15 years to even begin to understand. So what is the importance of these boring rectangles and how do they relate to design? http://tc.eserver.org/33116.html http://tc.eserver.org/33116.html The appropriate type size for a publication depends on many factors but there are some general type size guidelines to follow to insure readability for the main audience of your publication. These are not hard-and-fast rules. The more you know about your readership, the better type size choices you will make. http://tc.eserver.org/32824.html http://tc.eserver.org/32824.html Before you release a product, have some people use it. From these "test users" get solutions to problems, tips and knowledge that would help your real-life Users. Put that information in your User Documentation, and on your product support website. http://tc.eserver.org/32767.html http://tc.eserver.org/32767.html Last week I announced a study on why designers fail - exploring the reasons why designers, and people who work with designers, believe designers don’t achieve the results they desire. I presented the results as UIE 13 last week, and as promised here is a summary. Prize winners will be announced soon. Many top reasons for failure are not typically considered design issues, such as collaboration skills, persuasion skills, and receiving critical feedback. http://tc.eserver.org/32633.html http://tc.eserver.org/32633.html I think of those earlier processes and how they assist my work. Currently, I have a hand-created layout in my portfolio to teach that I understand the printing process from a historical point of view. I am aware of the tight deadlines, as the printer has a lot to do to get my final product accomplished. And worse comes to worse, if my layout program fails, I know how to create a dummy page by hand. http://tc.eserver.org/32560.html http://tc.eserver.org/32560.html We previously discussed small caps and the importance of using true-drawn versions rather than computer-generated, “fake” ones. Many of today’s OpenType fonts include true-drawn small caps, making it easier than ever to take advantage of this typographically sophisticated feature, but the OpenType interface in both Adobe® InDesign® CS3 and QuarkXpress® 7 can be a bit confusing. http://tc.eserver.org/32562.html http://tc.eserver.org/32562.html Even with all the technology at the disposal of today’s designers, in the end it’s what the human eye sees that counts. That’s why hung punctuation is one of the skills to master when you’re ready to add professional finesse to your typography. Learn what hung punctuation is and how to achieve it in the leading page layout applications. http://tc.eserver.org/32563.html http://tc.eserver.org/32563.html Typing two spaces after a period is a relic of the typewriter era that has hung around long past its sell-by date. Here’s how to make sure none of those double-space dinosaurs find their way into your typeset work. http://tc.eserver.org/32564.html http://tc.eserver.org/32564.html Automatic, or manual? No, we’re not talking about transmissions - we’re talking about bullet lists, those frequently used tools for organizing lists of information. Your layout application will be happy to format these lists for you, but for true typographic finesse, it’s time to learn to “drive stick” and call your own shots about bullets, alignment and spacing. http://tc.eserver.org/32568.html http://tc.eserver.org/32568.html Breaking up isn’t hard to do – just do it right so you don’t lose face. Learn why making the right line breaks in display type is essential for good looks and good sense. http://tc.eserver.org/32571.html http://tc.eserver.org/32571.html The keyboard is rarely the friendliest path to symbols and special characters. Sometimes a bit of menu magic can guide you past the overwhelming Glyph palette. Indeed, the Special Character flyout palette in Adobe InDesign CS3 is a great shortcut to frequently-used characters and will spare your fingers the keyboard contortions. http://tc.eserver.org/32572.html http://tc.eserver.org/32572.html Powerful design software makes many choices available to graphic designers, but just because you can do something doesn’t always mean you should. For example, sometimes it’s a good idea to convert your text layouts to outline, but sometimes it isn’t. Learn more about this occasionally necessary, often ill-advised practice before you decide whether or not it’s time to convert. http://tc.eserver.org/32574.html http://tc.eserver.org/32574.html Today’s OpenType fonts come equipped with a virtual buffet of numeral styles, but all those choices can be a bit much for your design application to swallow. Here’s a practical guide to help you find your way through the maze of oldstyle, lining, proportional, and tabular, in both InDesign and Quark. http://tc.eserver.org/32576.html http://tc.eserver.org/32576.html Does designing a table of contents drive you dotty? Next time, remember to say “take me to your tab leader.” Learning how to use your application’s automated tab leader function is a great way to save time and keep your layouts looking professional, down to the last detail. http://tc.eserver.org/32578.html http://tc.eserver.org/32578.html Are your characters depressed? When punctuation marks are positioned next to ALL CAPS, it can leave them looking a little low. Even making small adjustments in a character’s position will create greater visual balance and give your layout a “lift,” especially in display sizes. http://tc.eserver.org/32540.html http://tc.eserver.org/32540.html When initiating or expanding the role of user-centered design (UCD) in an organization, consider documenting UCD best practices as they fit within existing processes and the best practice of other areas. Such documentation communicates the role and value of UCD throughout the organization in terms familiar to your organization. Because what best practices means varies from company to company, there is no single way to do this. Here are some questions to consider. http://tc.eserver.org/32504.html http://tc.eserver.org/32504.html The layout model of tables differ from that of block level elements in that they will normally expand beyond their specified width to make their contents fit. At first that may sound like a good thing – and it often is – but it makes it possible for oversized content to make text unreadable or completely break a site’s layout, especially in Internet Explorer. http://tc.eserver.org/32434.html http://tc.eserver.org/32434.html Every web designer should know and understand a Web site’s parameters before lifting a finger to start designing the site. In this article, you will learn the basics required to start designing business Web sites. While this information is useful if you want to build sites for others, it can also serve as a checklist article for sites you want to build for yourself. http://tc.eserver.org/32395.html http://tc.eserver.org/32395.html Blockquotes do have some styling by default. Most browsers will indent the text in a blockquote tag, which helps the user recognize that the text is different somehow. But who’s to say that we need to stop there? Here are six different ways you could style your blockquotes using CSS. http://tc.eserver.org/32405.html http://tc.eserver.org/32405.html Today’s tutorial will show you how easy it is to create book-style chapter (article, whatever) introductions using nothing but pure CSS — no XHTML was harmed in the making of this tutorial. We’ll use two types of selectors which I haven’t talked about yet here: adjacent sibling selectors and pseudo-element selectors. I’ll explain each type briefly before we get started. http://tc.eserver.org/32349.html http://tc.eserver.org/32349.html Users turn to help to look for a specific question, just as someone consults an encyclopedia for a specific question. No one reads the entire encyclopedia/manual, nor is anyone expected to. Well-written encyclopedias allow users to find information through indexes, tables of contents, alphabetical organization, and search fields. http://tc.eserver.org/32171.html http://tc.eserver.org/32171.html If you document everything, you are giving everything an equal weight. Do that for a complex system, and you are buried in detail. In any system there are some aspects that are more important than the others, key aspects of the system that once understood, will help someone to learn more. The art in documentation is to find how to document these aspects as clearly as possible. In this you emphasize these areas, and leave the details for the code. http://tc.eserver.org/32144.html http://tc.eserver.org/32144.html In my work with Bumblebee I use an approach I call 'User-Guide-Driven Development,' or UGDD for short. The mechanics of UGDD is similar to that of Test-Driven Development (TDD), but before I write the test for a feature, I write a snippet of the user guide describing the feature I am about to implement. http://tc.eserver.org/32096.html http://tc.eserver.org/32096.html A brief comparison of two often-confused concepts. http://tc.eserver.org/31985.html http://tc.eserver.org/31985.html People often use colors in their documents in the wrong ways. Many students think that bright colors should be used in a document when they want to attract someone’s eye to a place on the page. Colors alone, however, should be used in synch with white space, font size, type and placement of whatever it is you want someone to be attracted to. Furthermore, just because something is filled with a bright color does not mean that it is eye-catching or attractive. True, bright colors will quickly draw the eye there, but use colors in a way that will make the eye stay there, not glance away in disgust. http://tc.eserver.org/31974.html http://tc.eserver.org/31974.html Several years ago, someone used the term WYSIOP (What You See Is One Possibility) when talking about the RoboHelp HTML editor, because what developers saw in the editor didn't usually match the results. I had what I thought was an absolutely brilliant leap of logic ;-) a couple of months ago when I realized that today's WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors are really WYSIOP, because the results are determined by whatever layout template is assigned at the time the results are viewed. http://tc.eserver.org/31893.html http://tc.eserver.org/31893.html In this podcast, Nicky Bleiel says we should talk to as many users as we can — conducting on-site visits, sending surveys, gathering information from Marketing, Support, and other departments — so we can have a better understanding of our users’ needs and the formats and mediums that will work best for them. After completing this audience and needs analysis, we can then go out and create the deliverables that will best serve our users. http://tc.eserver.org/31894.html http://tc.eserver.org/31894.html In this podcast, Joe Sokohl explains how to create user-centered documentation by contacting, observing, and interviewing users to gather information about what types of information they use and the help deliverables they actually want. http://tc.eserver.org/31780.html http://tc.eserver.org/31780.html With all the talk about Web 2.0 and the attendant technologies, are readers actually being better served by documentation now than they were in the past? http://tc.eserver.org/31753.html http://tc.eserver.org/31753.html What distinguishes the underlying strategies of Adobe InDesign from QuarkXPress is the absence or presence of a content management system (CMS). And each company asserts that it’s following the less-traveled road. The problem is they’re both taking roads most traveled because of their respective stances towards integrated content management systems, and I’ll show you how after looking at their respective strategies. http://tc.eserver.org/31748.html http://tc.eserver.org/31748.html The gaps in your documentation aren’t there because you haven’t consider a particular level of user; the gaps in your documentation are there because you haven’t considered how one level of user becomes another. How DO you get from Beginner to Expert? http://tc.eserver.org/31738.html http://tc.eserver.org/31738.html Have you ever asked your users what kind of training materials they want, or how they prefer to learn software? This kind of information is critical to figuring out what help deliverables to produce. But really when it comes down to it, there are only so many options — printed manuals, short guides, interactive flash guides, videos, online help, live training, reference cards, context-sensitive help, workbooks and exercises, or, usually the favorite, someone to stand by their computer and answer questions whenever they need help. http://tc.eserver.org/31740.html http://tc.eserver.org/31740.html In Publishing 2.0, Tim O'Reilly says Web 2.0 is 'any network effect that makes a system better the more people use it.' Web 2.0 isn’t just user-generated content; it’s harnessing the collective intelligence of your users to make your system better. http://tc.eserver.org/31664.html http://tc.eserver.org/31664.html Color can play an important role in technical documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/31663.html http://tc.eserver.org/31663.html Metrics, not U.S. measurements, rule the universe. Therefore, before preparing publications for distribution abroad, you need to understand the basics of ISO paper standards. http://tc.eserver.org/31666.html http://tc.eserver.org/31666.html No discussion of printing would be complete without mentioning the variety of binding styles available. Jobs have been destroyed in the bindery due to the lack of planning or because the binding process was taken for granted. http://tc.eserver.org/31660.html http://tc.eserver.org/31660.html Binding method is frequently dictated by the thickness of the piece. Saddle stitching provides a fast and cost-effective way to bind booklets, brochures and catalogs. http://tc.eserver.org/31661.html http://tc.eserver.org/31661.html To assure that your job flows smoothly through the printing shop without a glitch, this document presents seven preparation habits for highly successful documents. http://tc.eserver.org/31665.html http://tc.eserver.org/31665.html The merger of offset lithography with digital printing is a highly successful technique that maximizes the benefits of both technologies. http://tc.eserver.org/31659.html http://tc.eserver.org/31659.html The system of paper weights used in North America dates back to medieval Europe. It is important to understand this system, in which 50# (50-pound) paper can well be thinner and lighter than 24# (24-pound) paper. http://tc.eserver.org/31642.html http://tc.eserver.org/31642.html The rising popularity of the comic as an internal communication device for designers has increased our ability to engage our stakeholders as we build interfaces. Yet, social service agencies looking to provide services to hard-to-reach groups like immigrants, cultural minorities, and the poor have taken pride in innovative outreach methods. In situations where traditional printed matter is a barrier, graphical methods can be used very effectively to communicate with audiences. From guerilla theatre to testimonials, posters to graphic instructions, users have benefited from alternative communication methods, particularly in situations where education or cultural barriers make it difficult for people to access services important to their well-being and safety. In some cases, the comic book format has been used as a way to help people get access to critical legal help. This case study from my time as a Publication Manager at the Legal Services Society (LSS) of British Columbia (BC) could inspire the use of comics outside the development process. http://tc.eserver.org/31615.html http://tc.eserver.org/31615.html The XML train is finally pulling into the station. It brings an ocean change in the way we create, store, and manage information. In October of last year, Microsoft released Office 2003, which brings the promise of XML to the desktop. Previously, Word 2000 saved only the Properties of documents in an XML module in files converted to HTML. In this new edition, you can save or export all Office documents as XML documents. Using XML tags, we can now identify various elements of our documents for manipulation, storage, and retrieval as you would data in a data bank. It also enables us to more easily share information in those documents across other applications (including Web applications), networks, and operating systems. http://tc.eserver.org/31581.html http://tc.eserver.org/31581.html Document engineering is a methodology for specifying, designing, and deploying the information models and repositories that enable document-centric applications, and a synthesis of information and systems analysis, business process modeling, electronic publishing, and service-oriented architecture. http://tc.eserver.org/31580.html http://tc.eserver.org/31580.html Sorry, guys, but what you're describing is "single sourcing" and it's been around for a while. And I don't think redefining "dynamic publishing" is going to work, either, because that term already means something.