InDesign Tutorial: Setting up a Document

Let's start with some basics. Here you will learn how to create a new document, add pages and other basic functions. A second tutorial will follow to complement this one.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

InDesign Tutorial: The Paragraph Palette

With this tutorial you will learn how to use InDesign's Paragraph Palette. Here is an explanation of most of InDesign's Paragrah Palette's functions which should arm you with enough knowledge to do most design tasks you might need to do while laying out a design document.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

InDesign Tutorial: the Tools Palette - Part 3

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Design>Software>Document Design>Adobe InDesign

InDesign: Basic Page Setup

InDesign is Adobe's replacement for the aging PageMaker application. In many ways, InDesign is very similar to PageMaker, but there are differences that can throw an experienced PageMaker user for a loop (albeit briefly). In this tutorial you will set up a simple layout and master page.

Iowa State University (2000). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

InDesign's Work Area

This tutorial goes through the different parts that compose InDesign's work area. If you want to drive a car, you want to make sure that you know where the break is, where your wheel is, where your indicator is and so on. The same is for InDesign. You want to know where you can find all the tools that you will be using to create your InDesign documents.

Bruno, Elisabetta. Designorati (2005). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

The InDesigner

The InDesigner video podcast showcases the power of InDesign to automate repetitive tasks, improve productivity and build unprecedented flexibility into the design process. The InDesigner is dedicated to empowering designers to understand and embrace concepts and features that will transform how they work and allow them to both meet their deadlines and satisfy their creative passion.

Murphy, Michael. InDesigner, The. Resources>Document Design>Video>Screencasts

Influence of Burke and Lessing on the Semiotic Theory of Document Design: Ideologies and Good Visual Images of Documents    

The syntactic aspect of semiotic theory, especially its "aesthetic principle," is very influential in document design theories and practices. It has its roots in Burke's and Lessing s gender-related theories of images. Thus, it is laden with ideologies: it embodies our patriarchal attitudes and our iconophobia. Employing the semiotic theory in document design, we are making choices to reinforce the gender-related ideology in Burke's and Lessing's theories. It is time for us to re-conceive the "aesthetic principle" by de-emphasizing it and to adopt the reconciliation approach to design effective documents targeted at various rhetorical situations.

Ding, Daniel D. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>Theory

An Information Make-Over for Performance Centered Design  

Technical communicators have long harbored a secret that we are reluctant to admit to outsiders: Users don’t like reading manuals. They do it only as a last resort. Even online help systems, which we originally hoped would be easier to use, have not met with great enthusiasm among users. It’s an all-too-common dilemma – there is a lot of information that could be explained, but users struggle along as best they can without it. Part of the problem has always been that users are reluctant to leave their work to seek information -- and rightly so. They have work to do and deadlines to meet. Even if your manual or online help contains a wealth of useful information, it takes them away from their work and interrupts their train of thought. If they do try to use it, the help window typically overlays the interface and adds its own set of navigation, resizing, and searching issues.

Battle, Lisa H. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Documentation>Information Design

Information Planning for Successful Online Documentation  

Creating an information plan should be the first phase of any publication development life cycle, whether hard copy or online. The plan is a tool for reporting the results of your research about your audience, their tasks, the market, and the product. The plan presents the basic organization and content of the publications you intend to build, effectively directing the documentation team to produce a publication with very specific goals in mind.

Stevens, Dawn M. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Information Design>Management>Documentation

InFrame

InFrame is the independent electronic magazine devoted to Adobe FrameMaker. Its hope is to provide the FrameMaker community with a regular source of tips, information, and idea exchange.

Hays, Dennis. InFrame. Journals>TC>Document Design>Adobe FrameMaker

The Ins and Outs of InDesign

If you ever create multi page layouts such as brochures, newsletters or booklets there is an application that is made for you. InDesign, which can be purchased as a stand alone product or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite, has many, many tools for streamlining the process of setting up and working on these types of projects. In this article we will look at what InDesign is for and highlight some of the features that set it apart from other applications.

Dudley, Kim. Community MX (2006). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Instruction-Writing Exercises (for High School)

These guidelines and 14 scaffolded exercises respond to the unmet need for a psychologically solid, work-relevant way to learn technical writing by students who are NOT facile writers already.

Girill, T.R. STC East Bay (2001). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Documentation

Instructional Design and Software Quality Assurance, Part I  

Describes how instructional design principles can improve documentation.

Nayar, Pawan. Intercom (2001). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design

Instructional Design: Choosing the Proper Authoring Tool  

Searching for the right tool for your instructional design needs? Learn about your options through capsule reviews of instructional simulation programs and full-service authoring tools.

Holden, Gene. Intercom (2004). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design

Instructions for installing Adobe PS 4.26 for Windows 95/98 And Attaching it to Acrobat Distiller for use with FrameMaker 5.5x, with Acrobat 3.0x  

Instructions for installing Adobe PS 4.26 for Windows 95/98 and attaching it to Acrobat Distiller for use with FrameMaker 5.5x.

Halva, Wade C. InFrame (1998). Articles>Software>Document Design>Adobe FrameMaker

An Integrated Approach for a Model Based Document Production and Management

The primary aim of the research presented in this paper is to provide pragmatic solutions to the problems of integrity and consistency of document based information, describing a building throughout its life cycle. The research demonstrates the computer-aided generation of project documents via a construction project data model. The first research activity involved the development of a Construction Project Reference Model (CPRM) and a Document Reference Model, from which various Applied Document Type Models can be derived. The work concentrated on the French Full Specification Document: the CCTP (Cahier des Clauses Techniques Particulières), which is generated during the detail design stage. A generic Association Model was developed and used to index the CPRM’s concepts to the CCTP’s documentary elements supporting their description. Finally, the mechanisms enabling the generation of the project CCTP from the proposed structured reference CCTP are described.

Rezgui, Yacine and Philippe Debras. ITcon (1996). Articles>Document Design>Information Design

Intentional Learning in an Intentional World: Audience Analysis and Instructional System Design for Successful Learning and Performance    

How do we support successful, lifelong learners and performers and help them competently respond to rapidly changing opportunities in the 21st century. The answer to this question lies in how well we understand audiences differentiated by key learning differences and consider how these differentiations influence winning learning and performance. Historically, cognitive-rich explanations have tended to underplay the dominant impact of affective and conative factors on thinking and learning. Recently, these dimensions have gained considerable importance as contemporary multidisciplinary research has begun to demonstrate how intentions and emotions can influence, guide, and, at times, override our thinking and other cognitive processes. More importantly, research suggests that intentions and emotions are a dominant, powerful influence on learner success.

Martinez, Margaret. Journal of Computer Documentation (2000). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design>Education

Interactive Help: Adapting Content for Multiple Users  

Most online help systems present a 'one-size-fits-all' solution—fixed content for each topic—but users’ experience levels and backgrounds are complex and diverse. Users lose time and patience sifting through topics that either do not match the problem a user is trying to solve, or that present information that does not match a user's knowledge level. A group of Masters students at Carnegie Mellon University tackled this problem. As a course project, the team created an online help prototype that contains different levels of help, a prototype that gives users a choice about how much information they want to see.

Downs, Christina M. and Anne F. Jackson. STC Proceedings (2001). Design>Documentation>Online>Help

Introduction of Programming Technology for Improving Manual Production  

How do we introduce programming technology successfully and illustrate various applications using SGML, Visual Basic, RTF, HTML and other tools which drastically change the manual production process? The following is an explanation of how we at Seishosha Co., Ltd. have dealt with this matter.

Kobayashi, Norio. STC Proceedings (1995). Design>Documentation>Programming

An Introduction to Embedded Assistance  

Everyone hates help, right? Why? Help is inherently reactive, anticipating users' failure rather than providing information when users need it--before they fail. Print documentation, further from the user’s task at hand, is even more guilty of these sins. This paper presents an overview of embedded assistance, describing the current help paradigm and why it's failing and the basics of embedded assistance, as well as the technologies and infrastructure and the skills and knowledge you need to develop effective embedded assistance.

Ames, Andrea L. STC Proceedings (2002). Design>Documentation>Help>Embedded

An Introduction to Visual Communication  

A reader's overall comprehension is best when text is appropriately combined with graphics in a document. This introductory workshop on visual communications explores different leaning styles and information mediums and examines how a communicator can best combine words with graphics to increase reader interest and comprehension. The workshop also examines basic rules of text and graphic design and finally discusses the appropriate integration of text and graphics.

Chiricosta, Tracey C. and Alice A. Jones. STC Proceedings (1993). Design>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric

Investigating Presentational Change in U.K. Annual Reports    

This article examines structural and format changes in annual reports of U.K. listed companies from 1965 to 2004 with a particular focus on graph use. The article compares a new sample of 2004 annual reports with preexisting samples by Lee and by Beattie and Jones. Lee's identified trends continue. There has been a sharp increase in page length, voluntary information, and narrative information, particularly among large listed companies. A detailed analysis of voluntary disclosure indicates changes in the incidence and pattern of generic sections. Graph usage is now universal. However, key financial graph use has slightly declined, replaced by graphs depicting other operating issues. Impression management through selectivity, graphical measurement distortion, and manipulation of the length of time series graphed are common. Overall, annual reports continue to exhibit many features of public relations documents rather than financially driven, statutory documents, and the analysis of graph usage suggests a need for policy guidelines to protect users.

Beattie, Vivien, Alpa Dhanani and Michael John Jones. JBC (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Document Design>United Kingdom

IRTC Desktop Publishing and Graphics

This is a list of resources related to desktop publishing and graphics. I'm including things like icons and wallpaper in the graphics category.

Soltys, Keith. IRTC (2001). Design>Document Design>Graphic Design