Acrobat How-to: Enhancing Tutorials With Interactive Elements

A funny thing happens to students after class: They forget what they've learned. But adding interactivity can engage the reader. Try these simple methods.

McCue, Claudia. Creative Pro (2004). Articles>Education>Tutorials>Adobe Acrobat

Balancing the Elements in Job Aid Design  

Job Aids offer the Technical Communicator a unique opportunity to present acquired product knowledge in a creative format. In order to produce a successful job aid, you must select and blend elements of material, color, graphics, text, typography, and ergonomics in a manner that will be most useful to the intended user. The information for the Job Aid is culled from the larger project deliverables such as User Manuals or Procedure Guides; the creativity for the Job Aid comes from within and is driven by the needs of the user and the limitations of time, money, and environment.

Houterman, John and Kristine E. Henriksen. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Tutorials

Evaluating Online Tutorials on Software Applications

Nowadays, there are a lot of software applications designed to meet the need of end users to simplify their work. These software applications usually come with supporting tools to help users with system setup and requirements, installation guides, troubleshooting, or getting-started tutorials. When looking for more information on a specific topic or “how to” on a software application, users usually tend to look first on the manufacturer’s Web site. In reality, however, the result doesn’t always answer our questions, because the manufacturer may have a wide variety of tutorials that may confuse us, the manufacturer’s tutorials may be intended for experienced users, or tutorials may be incomplete because the manufacturer only goes through the basics of the software application.

Lumenta, Agnes. Techniques (2003). Articles>Education>Tutorials>Online

The Importance of Staff Induction

Staff induction activities are designed to provide new-starters with the information they need, as well as getting them up to speed on how the organisation works. Induction processes are vital to ensuring that new staff are productive as quickly as possible, and should play a key role in knowledge management initiatives.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2004). Articles>Education>Tutorials

Putting "Show Me" Demos to Work  

Follow the top five design tips--the five high C's--for creating a 'show me' demo that sings.

Beren, Wendy G. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Tutorials

Tricks for Teaching Old Dogs New Tools: Training Users in a Reengineering Environment  

Approaches for training business professionals who use computing technology have evolved over the past 25 years. Existing training techniques are useful in spite of technological chauges. Increased scope of technology changes makes efficient training of users more important. Increased pace of charlges makes the training more difficult. Companies are betting their futures on the implementation of increasingly sophisticated computer technology. Technical communicators and traiuiug developers must use practical applications of old training techniques and adapt new strategies to ensure communications between business professionals and techuical professionals that we have historically facilitated.

Flores, Maria A. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Tutorials