FrameMaker: Easy to Learn

I'd like to vote in favor of dispelling the MYTH that FrameMaker is difficult to learn.

Muller, Rita. InFrame. Articles>Software>Document Design>Adobe FrameMaker

FrameMaker: Structured or Unstructured?

At the 2004 WritersUA and STC Conferences, structured FrameMaker and XML were among the more popular session topics. There is obviously significant interest in the user assistance community about authoring XML documents with structured FrameMaker. This is not surprising, as many organizations are struggling with the problems of creating and delivering increasing amounts of user assistance in multiple formats, and managing their content in a way that maximizes their capabilities to reuse content across multiple publications.

Houser, Alan R. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

FrameScript Tutorials: An Introduction to Writing Scripts

FrameScript is a lot like FrameMaker; it has a fairly steep learning curve, but once you learn it, you’ll find it a real workhorse. The best way to start is to read the FrameScript Scriptwriter’s Guide. And the Quick Reference will provide you shortcuts to learning the FrameScript syntax. This tutorial will introduce some foundational concepts of writing scripts that will help you get started.

Carmen Publishing. Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

FrameScript Tutorials: Cross-References

There are two types of cross-references in FrameMaker: paragraph cross-references and spot cross-references. (There is a third type, element cross-references, available only in FrameMaker+SGML. This tutorial will not discuss element cross-references) Both paragraph and spot cross-references are similar, in that you have to insert an Xref object that points to a Cross-Ref Marker. The Xref object has an XRefSrcText property that must exactly match the marker text of the Cross-Ref Marker. Let’s start with spot cross-references, since they are a little simpler to work with.

Carmen Publishing. Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

FrameScript Tutorials: Loops and Linked Lists

In the previous lesson, we introduced a simple FrameScript loop to process all of the paragraph formats in a document. In this lesson, we will introduce a variation of the loop, and the important concept of linked lists' of FrameMaker objects.

Carmen Publishing. Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

FrameScript Tutorials: Navigating Paragraphs

Being able to navigate paragraphs in FrameMaker documents is an essential FrameScript task. This tutorial will explore several methods. For background information, see the Loops and Lists tutorial.

Carmen Publishing. Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

FrameScript Tutorials: Scaling Tables to Fit the Text Column Width

Here is a simple script that proportionately scales a table to fit the text column that contains it. This script works with the current table but can be easily expanded to work with all of the tables in a document or book.

Carmen Publishing. Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

FrameScript Tutorials: Styles for FrameMaker Graphics

If you are making a lot of FrameMaker graphics, such as lines with arrowheads, the thought of having to change them later can give you nightmares. Wouldn’t it be nice to have 'stylesheets' for graphic objects? With FrameScript, you can apply 'styles' to your graphics so that their properties can be globally changed.

Carmen Publishing. Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

Free or Open-Source Tools for Technical Communicators, Part 1: The Software  

This article takes a look at some of the most successful free and open-source products available for technical communicators and their clients.

Curley, Charles. Intercom (2006). Articles>TC>Software>Open Source

From Good to Great—: The Finer Points of Writing User Documentation  

A few years ago, the NeXT user publications group was handed a charter to create casual books with personality. We were also told to condense the user documentation for an entire operating system and several bundled applications into 300 pages. And of course we had the top priority of creating accurate, complete, and easy-to-use documentation. To our delight, these goals ended up being mutually compatible. The keys? Task orientation, flat hierarchy, carefully crafted page design, illustration, and a casual, intelligent tone. We also broke some 'rules'! (Caution: Some of the following material may seem radical to seasoned traditionalists.)

Casabona, Helen. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>Software>Usability

From Writer to Trainer: Designing an Effective Technical Training Class  

You spend six months working side by side with the designers and engineers, learning every nuance of the new system. You then spend another six months writing a complete set of training and reference manuals. Face it, you know this system inside and out. So it should come as no surprise when your boss decides you are the perfect person to conduct the training class.

Michaels, Dana. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Software

The Future of RoboHelp?

The RoboHelp help authoring tool is now entering its thirteenth year of existence. That's a remarkably long existence for any software title. In that time period, we have seen an amazing expansion of the software industry throughout the 1990s and an equally amazing retraction due to the bursting of the Internet bubble. Making its start in the tiny offices of Blue Sky Software in LaJolla, California, RoboHelp grew into an extremely profitable product. It is also a market leader—having capturing some two-thirds of all Help authoring tool sales. During the Internet bubble years the company changed its name to eHelp, but RoboHelp continued to be its flagship profit center. In 2003, eHelp (and RoboHelp) were acquired by one of the leading providers of web tools—Macromedia. Now it appears that the end may be approaching for RoboHelp.

Welinske, Joe. WritersUA (2005). Articles>Documentation>Software>Adobe RoboHelp

Get 100% Accurate Copyfitting

In the publishing world--when every word counts--knowing exactly how much space you have to work with is crucial. Because Adobe InDesign® 2.0 and Adobe InCopy 2.0 are tightly integrated and share the same composition engine, content.

Adobe (2003). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Getting Started with Blogging Software

We reviewed and compared the seven tools most frequently used to create a blog. Which are easiest to get up and running, or to tailor to match your site? Which has the best comment moderation features? Reporting functionality? We'll give you all the details and recommend a tool for you.

IdealWare (2006). Articles>Content Management>Software>Blogging

Goal Oriented Requirements

Your requirements document needs to focus on the user’s goals. They should not be marketing’s list of features 'we’ve got to have' because the competition has these features. They should not be a list of things the programmers think ought to be included 'because we can add those things for very little cost.' Feature bloat does not benefit the user.

Ferlazzo, Ellen Lawson. Sprezzatura Systems (2002). Articles>User Centered Design>Specifications>Software

Going Online: Selecting the Right Tool  

There are numerous tools that you can use to create online documentation. However, each tool has its strengths and weaknesses, and each is more appropriate for some types of information than others. This workshop explores many issues of online documentation tools: Why go beyond Windows Help? Which is better: HTML or Adobe Acrobat? What tools support cross-platform presentation? When should you use Workgroup tools such as Lotus Notes or Folio? When does SGML make sense? How to utilize a!ocument databases? When to use Management tools? Real examples developed using these tools will be given throughout the session. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of the pros and cons of each.

Rockley, Ann. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Documentation>Software>Help

Review: Grafos

Los grafos son la representación natural de las redes, en las que estamos cada vez más incluidos. Exploramos qué son los grafos, para qué sirven y algunas reglas para dibujarlos bien.

Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2004). (Spanish) Articles>Reviews>Software>Technical Illustration

Graphics Don't Appear or Won't Print

Objects in the drawing layer are visible in Page Layout (Print Layout) view and Print Preview but not in Normal view. Interestingly, a frame is a sort of hybrid object that can appear to float (and text can be wrapped around it), but it is actually inline and can be viewed (though not in position) in Normal view.

Barnhill, Suzanne and Dave Rado. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Graphic Design>Software>Microsoft Word

Grokker, o la Navegación Visual

La aparición de navegadores cada vez más visuales y mejor estructurados como Vivísimo, Grokker o TouchGraph está empezando a agitar un mundo que parecía estático. Pparece que el referente en este campo está aún más allá del horizonte, pero cada día estamos más cerca.

Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2004). (Spanish) Articles>Information Design>Software

GUI Bloopers: How Not to Design Software

Why are so many software products, electronic appliances, and online services difficult to learn and frustrating to use? Here’s one reason: most are designed and developed with little or no guidance from people professionally trained in making products and services usable. As a user-interface consultant, I am often called in to review or test software and suggest improvements. The problems I find are usually the result of the software having been designed by people who may be professionals at software engineering and programming, but are amateurs at user-interface design. Consequently, the software contains design errors that make it difficult to learn and use. Many of the errors are extremely common and can easily be avoided.

Johnson, Jeff. Usability Interface (2000). Articles>Usability>Software

Handling Software Failures: Need For Effective Training

The cost of software failure in terms of schedule overruns and poor quality are well known.

Kumail, S.M. Nafay and Gaurav Chadha. Indus (2003). Articles>Education>Software

Hard Passwords Made Easy

In this article, I’ll discuss how to create a strong password, and how to keep track of all your strong passwords, if you have a definite need to keep more than a couple. Don't bother creating and remembering strong passwords for low value systems, and certainly don’t use the same passwords for low value systems that you use in high value systems.

Locke, John. Free Software Magazine (2005). Articles>Software>Security