#26105
Comparison of Ways to do Things using Microsoft Word and OOoWriter
Experienced users of Microsoft Word may take awhile to discover how to do common tasks in OOWriter, because some of the menus and the terminology are a bit different; in a few cases no direct equivalent method is available. This series of pages summarizes my research and experiments with OOoWriter 1.1 on Windows ME. You may find some differences if you're using another operating system or version of OpenOffice.
OpenOffice.org (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>OpenOffice
#28944
Content Management Market Year in Review 2006
The Rockley Group takes a look back at the year 2006 in review. What happened in the CMS market? How is globalization changing the content management landscape? And, what about new communication vehicles like blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS feeds?
Rockley, Ann. Rockley Bulletin (2006). Articles>Content Management>Software
#26106
Converting Documents from Microsoft Word to OOoWriter
I'm happy to report that OpenOffice.org 1.1.0 does a very good job of converting Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP files to OOo files -- much better than the previous releases I tested. Most of the problems I had noticed with conversions done by OOo1.0.2 did not appear when I converted the same Word files using OOo1.1.0. Some conversion problems remain. Most of these are probably due to OOoWriter not having any counterpart to some features of Word.
OpenOffice.org (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>OpenOffice
#24221
Many FrameMaker users need to publish their documents on the World Wide Web. The best approach is to use a converter, which preserves the format and organization of the original FrameMaker document. Good converters can handle long, complex documents that contain elements such as table of contents, index, line drawings, bitmap graphics, tables, footnotes, and equations. We discuss the benefits of having a single source document for paper and Web, the techniques for creating documents that can be converted easily, and the powerful conversion tools available today.
Jackson, Ken and Sonya E. Keene. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Web Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker
#14491
Converting Indexes with WebWorks Publisher
While WebWorks Publisher (WWP) 7.0 can convert FrameMaker indexes into different online formats, getting things to work initially can be a bit of a challenge. Page ranges in index entries result in hyperlinks to both the starting and ending locations. Index hyperlinks don’t always link to the top of a help topic, but often to somewhere in the middle. For Simple HTML and Dynamic HTML, “See” and “See also” references can fail to convert altogether. However, if you do get stuck, Customer Support can help pull you through.
Brown, Fred. Allegro Time! (2002). Articles>Indexing>Software>Adobe FrameMaker
#20491
Convince the Crowd With Presentations and Diagrams
Why just get by with a boring presentation when you can create a dynamite Microsoft Office PowerPoint® presentation or a colorful Microsoft Office Visio® diagram? Get ready to impress the big boss or the new team with simple ideas that go a long way.
Microsoft. Articles>Presentations>Software>Microsoft PowerPoint
#26114
Create a Voice Presentation With Impress and Audacity 
Building a basic presentation that records and uses voice may be an important tool for communicating information. This project is based on employing two programs, Impress, which is the presentation program with OpenOffice, and Audacity, an easy to use sound editor, for building a voice presentation.
SpiderTools (2004). Articles>Presentations>Software>OpenOffice
#20509
Create XML Structure in an InCopy Document
Use XML in Adobe® InCopy 2.0, to apply tags to parts of a document, and then export the document as an XML file.
Adobe (2003). Articles>Content Management>Software>XML
#22742
Creating a New Microsoft Word Template
When you open a new file in Word, the font is probably set to Times Roman size 12. It doesn’t have to be like this; maybe you’d prefer a more glamourous font! In this tutorial, we'll explain how to create a new Word template.
#26432
Creating a Simple Traditional Countdown in a PowerPoint Presentation
An article featuring steps on how to create a traditional countdown using custom animations in PowerPoint.
Tohlz, Shawn. PowerPoint Heaven (2005). Articles>Presentations>Software>Microsoft PowerPoint
#27183
Creating a Template (Part I): The Basics
The natural tendency of most users of word processing applications is to create a document and use it as a model for future documents. That is, you format a letter the way you want all (or most) of your letters to look, save it, and then, when you want to write a letter, open this document and save it under another name as the starting point for your letter. In WordPerfect, until recently, this was the only way to create a template. Word uses a different approach.
Barnhill, Suzanne. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Document Design>Software>Microsoft Word
#27200
This article tells you how to create a template to produce a software manual.
McGhie, John. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word
#21680
Creating an Index in Microsoft Word
For technical writers, a well-crafted index helps organise the writing process, in particular, when you get to the production stage.
#26110
Creating and Using Master Documents in OOoWriter 1.1
This page is an excerpt from Taming OpenOffice.org Writer (no longer available). A variation of this material is in OpenOffice.org Writer: The Free Alternative to Microsoft Word. Yes, master documents do work in OpenOffice.org Writer. However, you need to have a very disciplined approach to make sure they work correctly and reliably.
OpenOffice.org (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>OpenOffice
#26107
Creating Cross-References Between Documents
I've now discovered that you can indeed do cross-references between documents, if they are both subdocuments of a master document. The method is obscure, and the help file (although giving a clue) wasn't much help.
OpenOffice.org (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>OpenOffice
#24250
Creating Multimedia Hardware Procedures with ShowMe How 
Learning the correct steps to install or remove a computer component, such as a memory module, can involve, at best, hands-on instruction or, at worst, only written instructions. To increase the likelihood that customers and service personnel will be able to perform correctly the hardware service procedure for each fieldreplaceable component, Sun MicrosystemsTM now ships high-quality multimedia of removal and replacement procedures, called ShowMeTM How, on CD with each UltraTM Workstation and Enterprise Workgroup Server.
Barron, Rick, Steve Hix, Paul Lorence and Jenny R. Redfern. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>Software
#20763
Creating Online Acrobat Documents with Word
This demonstration illustrates approaches to designing and implementing tools and procedures that have been used successfully at Unisys Corporation to deliver documentation to customers on CD-ROM and the Web. These include release management and production tools, program suites to organize and restructure documents so that they can be accessed and displayed effectively online, and tools to integrate and access multiple document types. Will describe several special techniques to generate links and set parameters directly in Word. Will demonstrate linking from other file types into PDF documents and dynamically attaching updates to legacy documents.
Teague, Tommy K. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Software>Microsoft Word
#26315
Creating Presentations with OperaShow
An article discussing how to use the Opera Web browser as a presentation tool.
Nesbitt, Scott. InformIT (2004). Articles>Presentations>Software
#26366
Creating Text Equivalents for Images
This article is for developers and content editors seeking to supplement the visual elements of a user interface with text equivalents. This article describes what text equivalents are, why they are required, how to create them, and the best approach to writing and editing them.
Microsoft (2002). Articles>Accessibility>Software
#27951
Creating XML Trees with the XmlTextWriter and XmlDocument Objects
So you know all about reading and parsing XML files, and even checking if they're well-formed and valid. Now, take a step into more advanced territory with this expose of two objects that let you dynamically create well-formed XML documents in your ASP.NET scripts.
ASP Free (2004). Articles>Information Design>Software>XML
#29937
Cropping Pages to Highlight Areas in Acrobat
When you receive a PDF that contains, say, an image that is surrounded by text, how do you highlight the image? One way is to export the graphic to an imaging application such as Photoshop, but that involves additional applications and the associated loading times. A great 'quick and dirty' fix here is to use the 'Crop' tool to hide the content that surrounds the image, leaving you with PDF which displays only an image, just the way you wanted it. This tip explains how.
Shea, Dan. PlanetPDF (2006). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#25081
Cross-Referencing Step Numbers in Word
If you are like most technical writers, your procedures have automatically numbered steps (whether in tables or text), Microsoft Word provides two relatively simple ways for you to cross-reference a step number.
McConnell, Gloria. Usability Interface (2004). Articles>Documentation>Software>Microsoft Word
#18953
Current Issues in Software Internationalisation
The trend toward globalisation of products and services has brought a strong economic imperative to the development of general methods for the localisation of software to different cultural environments. While ad hoc, bolt-on localisation may satisfy immediate commercial objectives, its extension to multiple locales is not cost-effective and an integrated strategy is needed. In this more sustainable approach, known as software internationalisation, the requirements of disparate markets are addressed during analysis and system design, with the architecture developed so that localisation to a particular environment is straightforward, and involves minimal re-engineering. Given the limited size of the Australasian market, detailed attention to the technical issues of internationalisation is of critical importance to the future of software development in the region, as is the availability of graduates adequately prepared for this environment. Thus motivated, this paper examines the state of play in a number of aspects of application level software internationalisation, with our focus the core research challenges of the next few years, and the consequences of these trends for the software engineering curriculum.
Hogan, James M., Chris Ho-Stuart and Binh Pham. Queensland University of Technology. Articles>Language>Localization>Software
#29931
While Acrobat comes pre-loaded with a selection of stamps, including 'Approved', 'Declined' and 'Accepted', users can also create custom stamps of such things as company logos for use on their PDF documents. Complex or graphically rich stamps can be created or prepared in imaging applications before being added to Acrobat's selection. This tip explains how to create a custom stamp using an existing file.
Shea, Dan. PlanetPDF (2007). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#23459
We recently converted our documents from Word to FrameMaker. Most of the people in my department had been using Word for years and had grown accustomed to applying character formatting using key commands or buttons on the toolbar. I was afraid that they would use the same methods in FrameMaker simply out of habit, rather than using character tags.
Henkel, Rick. Docspages. Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker
