#29793
What do customers want from our software and documentation? They want to accomplish tasks, and to obtain information about tasks, as quickly and painlessly as possible. Do they also expect to be entertained along the way? No, not when there is work to be done. Years of usability analysis in the software industry indicates very clearly that clarity and ease-of-use is topmost on the minds of software users.
Kocher, Sue. Carolina Communique (2007). Articles>User Interface>Software>Usability
#23854
How many times has a vendor’s help desk operator told you that the solution to a problem is either an upgrade or a patch? Those of us in the IT industry are familiar with this reply because that’s the advice our own helpdesk operators tell our customers. If corporate profits depend on improving product design, and selling upgrades, there is no profit in supporting old software and creating patches. The profit is in selling new and improved products. Some questions you need to consider before buying a software upgrade.
Dick, David J. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Management>Software
#27155
Is Open Source is Killing the Lone Coder?
It is probably more true that open source is helping the lone coder find a niche or their own market share. There are plenty of them and more are appearing everyday. With potential clients looking for specialists in content management software like Drupal, Joomla, Mambo, Typo3 and a gang of newcomers finding a niche is becoming increasingly easier.
Hiveminds (2005). Articles>Collaboration>Software>Open Source
#23290
While the cultural scoreboard may be invisible, this much is indisputable: the PowerPoint people are winning.
Keller, Julia. SiliconValley.com (2003). Articles>Presentations>Software>Microsoft PowerPoint
#27205
Is there life after "Reveal Codes"?
There is nothing in Word directly comparable to Reveal Codes in WordPerfect. There is a very good reason for this. WordPerfect can be thought of (and I understand is) basically a text stream with codes interspersed (for more on this, see John McGhie's article on Word vs. WordPerfect). This is what you see when you Reveal Codes. You have codes or markers that turn on and off certain formatting characteristics. Word, on the other hand, is a series of nesting containers, characters inside words inside paragraphs inside sections inside documents. The formatting of these is by styles and by pointers at the beginning and end of the document.
Barnhill, Suzanne. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#22304
Jakob Nielsen's PDF Phobia is Seemingly Incurable
The noted usability guru strays outside his area of expertise once again in a new 'Alertbox' column denigrating any uses of PDF other than printing. We can't help but wonder -- due to the silliness of some of his comments and suggestions -- whether he's being serious. We're afraid he is. Nonetheless, to show our respect, we've christened a special Google Advanced Search setting in his honor.
Foss, Kurt. PlanetPDF (2003). Articles>Usability>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#28789
Daigle, an Adobe community expert for RoboHelp, shares his reaction to the RoboHelp 7 sneak peak, and also explains the main features RoboHelp 7 will have: drag-and-drop functionality across the topics, double-byte language support for translation, the ability to have multiple topics open at the same time, snippets with graphics, removal of kadov tags, automatic breadcrumbs, and tighter integration with other Adobe products. Daigle speculates on reasons for Adobe's lack of transparency, and comments on the globalization of Adobe's development for RoboHelp.
Daigle, John and Tom H. Johnson. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Documentation>Software>Adobe RoboHelp
#24190
Keeping Your Microsoft Word Documents Healthy 
My documents keep crashing in Microsoft Word. What can I do?
Alroy, Faye. Intercom (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#21830
Spaceships flying across your Web page? With dhtml and GoLive, you can make anything move.
Niemi, Melissa. Adobe Magazine (2000). Articles>Web Design>Software>Adobe GoLive
#12954
Knowing When to Upgrade Software 
Software upgrades generally do two things: Offer you new or improved features, and fix bugs present in existing versions. Whether you upgrade will depend on your need for the new or improved features, depend on whether you experience problems because of software bugs, and, of course, depend on your budget.
Ray, Deborah S. and Eric J. Ray. TECHWR-L (2001). Articles>Software
#30368
Knowledge Discovery: New Ground, New Challenges
Before taking the challenge of handling information efficiently head on, automated programs for Knowlege Discovery and data analysis have to prove their worth by providing easy-to-use tools for everyday use.
Kudesia, Saurabh. International Journal for Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Knowledge Management>Assessment>Software
#31353
Language Quality-Assurance Software 
Explores the benefits of using Language QA Software to optimize documentation for organizations and companies.
Kohl, John R. Intercom (2008). Articles>Documentation>Software>Language
#14788
Wallia introduces some of the attractive features of Word 2002 and discusses the relative merits of four best-selling books on how to use the software.
Wallia, C.J.S. Intercom (2002). Articles>Technology>Software>Microsoft Word
#30785
LaTeX is a powerful typesetting system that is used for producing scientific and mathematical documents of high typographic quality. Unlike WYSIWYG tools such as FrameMaker and Word, it uses plain text files that contain formatting commands. It is big, open source, and used by many technical publishing companies. This article overviews LaTeX, and directs you to sources of information.
Unwalla, Mike. TechScribe (2006). Articles>Software>TeX>LaTeX
#22743
Layout Tips for Technical Papers in Microsoft Word 2000
Here are some tips that I have gathered for making technical publications in Microsoft Word 2000. The tips are written for someone with experience using MS Word who needs a boost on the basic techniques for specific layout problems. In developing and documenting these techniques, I have in mind a regular, technical conference paper with columns, equations, and figures. There is an accompanying MS Word document that gives examples of these techniques.
Krumm, John. Microsoft. Articles>Writing>Software>Microsoft Word
#22299
A Lesson in Templates for Adobe Acrobat
Although Templates have been around since version 3 of Acrobat there was never any really useful supporting information or technical documentation to make use of them. Version 5 and 6 of Acrobat changed all that making it possible to take full control of Templates to create truly dynamic PDF documents.
Wraight, Dave. PlanetPDF (2004). Articles>Information Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#26316
An overview of Linux tools for technical writers.
Nesbitt, Scott. ComputorEdge (2005). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Software
#31036
Looking At GUI Libraries: Spotlight On Infragistics
As a Graphical User Interface (GUI) programmer, I have many interface development tools to choose from. Over the years, my development environment changes to accommodate my needs. This often includes learning new languages and the tools that go with them.
Flowers, Natalie. Carolina Communique (2008). Articles>User Interface>Programming>Software
#29320
Review: MadCap Flare and the RoboHelp Saga
This article is a review of presentations that Mike Hamilton gave at the Berkeley and East Bay STC chapters in December 2006. Hamilton also gave a presentation about MadCap Flare at the San Francisco chapter in August 2006.
Lufkin, Patrick. STC San Francisco (2007). Articles>Reviews>Software>Madcap Flare
#26979
Introduces how to use iMovie 5's 'Magic iMovie' feature to capture video from camcorder and record to DVD.
Jennings, Stephanie and Jennifer Phillips. Studio for New Media (2006). Articles>Multimedia>Software>Video
#21902
How can I reduce the size of several PDFs at once?
Rosenthol, Leonard. PDFzone (2003). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#21894
Is there a quicker way of making screen PDFs from print-ready PDFs?
Miller, James. PDFzone (2003). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#30281
Managing Electrons For Fun And Profit: Technology For The Scientific Communicator
Too much of the information on new technology tools is of little value to the scientific communicator. This session provides topic overviews and discussion of three topics: SGML, electronic networks, and specialized word processing software. Please note that these discussions are introductory; other ITCC presentations cover SGML and the Internet in more depth.
Gunn Bronson, Judith, Jeffrey L. Hibbard and Thomas C. Stickels. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Scientific Communication>Software>Word Processing
#29934
Markup PDF Pages with Drawings
Using Acrobat, PDF has been established as a popular and user-friendly medium for collaborative workflows. Not only can you add sticky notes or highlight text, you can even draw polygonal or freehand annotations. This tip explains how.
Shea, Dan. PlanetPDF (2007). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#28361
This chapter ventures deeply into Microsoft heresy. A heretic is someone who preaches heterodoxy, or mixed doctrines. Unlike a lot of official MS and MVP speak, this topic advocates the usage of a certain feature that can be said to be generally considered as broken - Master Documents, or Masters. As so little information is forthcoming on this subject from other sources, yet many writers use them regularly because there is no other choice, it is fully covered here.
Hudson, Steve. TECHWR-L. Articles>Software>Style Guides>Word Processing
