Producing Brochures in the Technical Writing Classroom  

Producing brochures for real clients teaches college-level technical writing students about constraints of cost, time, and the availability of materials. Brochure writing also provides opportunities for learning more about editing, collaborative work, document design, and the problems which may occur during the production of real documents. Brochures of good quality can be produced by a class in approximately three weeks, or nine classroom hours. Grading brochures is expedited through the use of a simple heuristic.

Ryan, Charlton. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Document Design>Technical Writing

Publication Design Standards

When you are at the onset of a publication design, you need to set up a prototype. The style or personality of the publication is determined at this point, so you need to be sure each decision you make pays careful attention to the details of good design.

Showker, Fred. Design, Typography and Graphics (2004). Design>Document Design>Standards

Putting Graphics Online: Avoiding the Pitfalls  

Online information is becoming more the norm today than paper-based materials with online Help a standard with most products and the proliferation of the Internet and intranets. However, putting graphics online can be one of your biggest headaches in an online project. This paper will introduce some of the issues you will encounter when putting graphic information online and make suggestions on how to solve them.

Cooper, Charles and Ann Rockley. STC Proceedings (1997). Design>Graphic Design>Documentation

QuarkXPress 6 Tips: Working with Layers

Learning to use layers in your page-layout program can greatly streamline design and production. See how to tap into the power and flexibility of layers in QuarkXPress 6.

Assadi, Barbara and Galen Gruman. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

QuarkXPress Technical Manual Project

The following is a step-by step tutorial outlining how to make a technical manual suitable either for print or for screen display as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.

Mike's Sketchpad (2002). Articles>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

QuarkXpress Training Tutorials

QuarkXpress has become recognised as the world's best Page Layout program. From home users, putting together their club newsletter to multinational publishing giants producing newspapers, magazines and books, QuarkXpress is the standard. This tutorial is geared towards helping first time users become familiar with Quark XPress.

OpenEye. Articles>Education>Document Design>QuarkXPress

QuarkXPress Tutorial: QuarkXPress' Work Area

Familiarize yourself with QuarkXPress 6.x work area.

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

QuarkXPress Tutorials and Training

Look for tips, tutorials product support, downloads, templates,and publications for QuarkXPress. Find formal and informal training classes and seminars both online and offline for this popular desktop publishing program.

Howard Bear, Jacci. About.com. Resources>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

A Quarky New Approach?

Sorry, guys, but what you're describing is "single sourcing" and it's been around for a while. And I don't think redefining "dynamic publishing" is going to work, either, because that term already means something.

O'Keefe, Sarah S. Palimpsest (2008). Articles>Document Design>Single Sourcing>QuarkXPress

Question and Answer Method of Generating Manuals  

Several Texas Instruments writing groups are using a new manual publication method that emphasizes more customer interaction early in the manual development process. This emphasis brings project teams and customers together to accurately define their expectations for the documentation. Writers chunk information as they create the manuals, which allows reviewers to look at the small pieces one at a time and to focus only on those chunks containing information pertinent to their particular expertise. This method defines manual parameters early in the process, which simplifies usability testing.

Lang, Darice. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>Information Design

Quick Footwork in a Dull Market  

Right now the paper market is stable. So should you relax and enjoy the calm? Hardly. Now's the perfect time to test new paper sheets and negotiate better financial terms with your supplier.

Sidles, Constance J. Adobe Magazine (1997). Articles>Document Design>Prepress>Paper

Re-Visioning Document Design

Accomplished print media communicators -- technical writers, editors, etc. -- represent a powerful resource in the fledgling development of the World-Wide Web. But they also face some of the steepest barriers to exploiting its technology effectively, precisely because they have more to un-learn. Many of the mechanical and technical skills they rely upon every day simply don't translate well to document design on the Web.

All Things Web. Design>Document Design>Web Design

Reader-Centered Documentation Provides the Necessary Context    

A features-based approach to documentation is appropriate for reference manuals, where the goal is to provide information on something the reader already knows. This article explores how to meet the needs of the reader when providing documentation for user manuals.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Intercom (2007). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Reading Expository Text on a Computer Screen  

Issues of legibility, restricted screen space, and the resulting effects on reader efficiency have hampered efforts to bring expository text to the computer screen. Previous research focused on character-based displays, a technology that is rapidly being supplanted by equipment capable of improved resolution and visual symbol generation. These issues, which affect both authors and readers, need to be investigated in light of current screen and user interface technology. It may well be that linear expository texts are easily adaptable to contemporary computer screens.

Ham, Eardley L. STC Proceedings (1994). Design>Document Design>Accessibility

Reducing PDF File Size

Distributing documents as Adobe PDF files can reduce the problems that may occur when you exchange large presentation or page-layout files. In many cases, you can make your Adobe PDF file even more compact without compromising the document's integrity. The PDF Optimizer in Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional gives you easy access to several options that can help you reduce the file's size, including compression options that are comparable to the ones available when you create an original Adobe PDF file using Adobe Acrobat Distiller.

PlanetPDF (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Reducing Screen Clutter in Acrobat

Are you looking to remove all distractions to read your PDF content? Perhaps you just want to remove all distractions so that you can skim through your PDF document before signing off on it and sending it off? This tip explains how to reduce on-screen clutter in Acrobat to allow you to focus your attention completely on the content.

Shea, Dan. PlanetPDF (2007). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Reinventing Quark: Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks

When creative professionals think of Quark, they tend to think only of QuarkXPress - or perhaps a negative technical-support experience. But Quark is more than a one-product company, one that has been trying to change for the better. Craig Cline provides an inside peek at Quark's new attitude.

Cline, Craig. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>QuarkXPress

Restructuring Online Documentation for the World Wide Web  

Technical communicators around the world are turning to the World Wide Web us their primary delivery agent for on-line documentation. The transition from older forms of on-line documentation to HTML-based documents pre - sents new challenges in every phase of the documentation process: document creation, layout, access, and especially hypermedia capability The constant development of new web tools presents an even greater challenge for an organization seeking to stay abreast of technology with an ever decreasing budget. This panel will outline the basic steps in migrating to the web while focusing on one organization’s solution to meeting the challenges of restructuring its on-line documentation for web migration.

Goode, Christina M., Jennifer Campbell and David Hale. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Documentation>Web Design>Online

Resume Design

This handout offers advice making informed design choices in creating a resume. We also have a sample resume that uses these design principles.

Purdue University (2004). Careers>Resumes>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric

Rethinking User-Centered Information Development  

Often in the computer industry there is a tendency to provide information about the features of a system. However, customers usually purchase the system based on knowledge of its features, when they receive the product they need information on how to accomplish tasks. Developing task-oriented information requires a shift in perspective from what the computer technology can do, to what your customers want to do with the technology. The resulting information must be usercentered rather than feature-driven. These types of customer requirements demand afresh development approach.

Stertzbach, Lori A. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Usability

Retrieving Product Documentation Online    

As our high-technology clients become increasingly knowledgeable of the power of electronic media, we are confronted with questions on how the Internet and intranets can be used to deliver technical documents online. For example, one of our clients, a large international firm whose high-technology products are currently supported by printed literature, wants to be able to deliver their product documentation electronically, on customer demand. Their customers, typically professionals working in a fast-paced technical environment, need quick and easy access to appropriate technical information to configure our client's products.

In this article, we discuss how we came to answer our client's question: 'How can we make it easier for our customers to retrieve technical documents from our electronic library?' As we discuss below, we decided that searching online libraries could be facilitated by making the organization of the library conceptually apparent.

Racine, Sam J. and Irving B. Crandall. Technical Communication Online (2001). Design>Information Design>Documentation

The Return to Content in Help Design  

Zubak discusses four trends she has observed in the content development of online user assistance.

Zubak, Cheryl Lockett. Intercom (2003). Design>Documentation>Help