Technical Documentation Goes Electronic: New Media Create New Problems for Technical Writers

It is not very helpful if we reject any responsibility, even if it would be covered by some laws dealing with product safety and product liability.

Thiele, Ulrich. TC-FORUM (1999). Design>Multimedia>Legal

Tips For Optimizing Flash Movies

When you're ready to deliver your Flash movie to your audience, use the Publish Settings or Export Movie option to export the Flash FLA file to a format for the Web.

Berg, Debbie. WebDeb (2001). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash

Towards Multimodal Public Information Systems    

In the future e-Home, information from various sources, located both globally and locally, are at hand for a wide range of tasks. Many of these tasks involve finding out about public authorities' rules and regulations. The Public Tax authorities, for instance, provide hundreds of documents on their web site (forms, FAQ’s, tax rules, etc.). Currently, the user is restricted to navigating and searching these information sources by clicking hyperlinks or typing in keywords in a search box. Suppose a citizen needs to know what the local tax in his area is. By providing the keywords “kommunalskatt” (local tax) and “Linköping” to the search engine five documents are retrieved and the user can continue clicking on the provided links to see if the answer is provided in the documents found. On the other hand, supposing that the user had the ability to state the information problem in natural language.

Merkel, Magnus and Arne Jonsson. Linkopings Universitet (2002). Articles>Information Design>Government>Multimedia

Translating Videos for an International Market  

Smith explains the process of translating videos. The article includes sidebars on video terms and advice on choosing a video translation firm.

Smith, Jackie. Intercom (2002). Design>Multimedia>Localization>Video

Use Data URIs to Include Media in XML

There are many ways to link to non-XML content within XML, including binary content. Sometimes you need to roll all such external content directly into the XML. Data scheme URIs are one way to specify a full resource within a URI, which you can then use in XML constructs. In this tip, Uche Ogbuji shows how to use this to bundle related media into a single file.

Ogbuji, Uche. IBM (2006). Articles>Information Design>Multimedia>XML

Use Gradients to Give Objects a 3- Dimensional Appearance

Flash is a two-dimensional program. Using a gradient in Flash can give a two-dimensional object a third dimension. In this example, let's create a series of circular outlines, then add one of Flash's preset gradients to give the outlines a three-dimensional appearance.

Berg, Debbie. WebDeb (2002). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash

Using Animation to Explain Technical Concepts  

Computer animation can be an effective communication tool. In this demonstration, we present an example of how we used animation to teach difficult technical concepts. We explain our rationale for selecting animation as a means of communication. We describe our process for ensuring high-quality and consistent deliverables. We also share some customer feedback.

Coleman, Mary Ellen and Cheryl D. Loughlin. STC Proceedings (1999). Design>Multimedia>TC

Using the Wiggler in After Effects

The Wiggler is great when you need random keyframes applied to a layer's property. Scale, opacity, movement, even a plug-in's values can be 'wigglered.'This feature will save you from having to create dozens if not hundreds of keyframes if you're trying, for instance, to make a layer move randomly or flicker.

Anderson, Chad J.W. Mac Design Magazine (2005). Design>Multimedia>Video>Adobe After Effects

The W3C Multimodal Architecture, Part 2: The XML Specification Stack

Gerald McCobb continues his introduction to the forthcoming W3C Multimodal Architecture with a survey of the many XML languages that you can use to author multimodal applications. He then shows how several specifications -- SCXML, XHTML, REX, and XML Events -- could work together in a complete multimodal application.

McCobb, Gerald. IBM (2007). Design>Multimedia>Standards>XML

Web Animation Tutorial

In these modern days, Web animators may not have to spend 17 hours hand painting cells to make Dopey wink, but bandwidth, platform, and browser issues make animation for the Web its own special hell. Anna and Emily have navigated many circles of this hell, and they make animation ... well, if not easy, then easier.

McMillan, Anna and Emily Hobson. Webmonkey (2001). Design>Multimedia>Interactive

Why Flash Will Never Die

In this article we will look at the strengths and weaknesses of one of the most controversial products in the web development world, Macromedia Flash. We will take a close look at what Flash can do and what Flash can't or shouldn't do. And while in the process we will be comparing Flash to its counterparts HTML and CSS.

Angeletti, Mark. Search-This (2003). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash

Working with Cameras

Creating visual depth in a project can really catapult an animation from boring to captivating. After Effects does 3D very well, but there's more to it than simply moving layers or objects around in 3D space.

Anderson, Chad J.W. Mac Design Magazine (2005). Design>Multimedia>Video>Adobe After Effects

XHTML+SMIL Profile

This page was made to help others and myself, become more familiarized with the features under consideration, for the next version of XHTML+SMIL.

Ramirez, Jose. EmpireNet (2002). Design>Web Design>Multimedia>SMIL

Pushing the Boundaries of Traditional Heritage Policy: Maintaining Long-Term Access to Multimedia Content    

This paper will address the direction chosen by the Audiovisual Department of the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF) in order to maintain access to a comprehensive collection of multimedia and electronic documents. It will describe several experimental technical solutions for preservation, emphasizing the consequences of a requirement for future users to be able to use these documents for research purposes. These result in the use of emulation solutions as well as new practices of collection development policy with regard to the specific structure of information within a multimedia context.

Miura, Gregory. IFLA Journal (2007). Design>Web Design>Information Design>Multimedia

Creating Blu-Ray Disc Pop-up Menus in Adobe Encore CS4

One of the coolest new features in Adobe Encore CS4 is the ability to insert pop-up menus over video in Blu-ray Disc projects, a feature unique among authoring programs in Encore’s class. In this tutorial, I’ll describe how to implement that feature, as I did in a simple project I produced in early fall.

Ozer, Jan. Event DV (2008). Design>Multimedia>Interaction Design>DVD

Why Text Remains King of the Web

I am starting to believe that despite all the hype around online video, text remains King of the Web. Why text? There are at least five reasons.

Micro Persuasion (2009). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>Writing

How to Avoid Extinction as a Technical Communicator

Although there will always be a need for people to explain technical material non-technical people, Ellis Pratt said, others may be doing it instead, through the formats users prefer. To survive, technical writers may need to morph into content strategists, managing the information in a systematic way rather than merely creating it.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Documentation>Multimedia>User Centered Design

The 'Video' Element

The 'video' element is brand new in HTML 5 and allows you to, get this, play a movie in your website! The data of this element is supposed to be video but it might also have audio or images associated with it. Of course, this will only work in a few browsers: Safari 3.1+, Firefox 3.5+, and latest builds of Opera (oh, and potentially the next release of Chrome).

HTML 5 Doctor (2009). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>HTML5

Twitter for the Social Media Fledgling

New media should be accessible to everyone, not just marketing, public relations and web professionals. Here, I aim to help all people navigate the new media landscape.

Devlin, Emma L. New Media For Everyone (2009). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>Social Networking

New Media, Networking and Phatic Culture    

This article will demonstrate how the notion of ‘phatic communion’ has become an increasingly significant part of digital media culture alongside the rise of online networking practices. Through a consideration of the new media objects of blogs, social networking profiles and microblogs, along with their associated practices, I will argue, that the social contexts of ‘individualization’ and ‘network sociality’, alongside the technological developments associated with pervasive communication and ‘connected presence’ has led to an online media culture increasingly dominated by phatic communications. That is, communications which have purely social (networking) and not informational or dialogic intents. I conclude with a discussion of the potential nihilistic consequences of such a culture.

Miller, Vincent. Convergence (2009). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>Social Networking

Ten Common Mistakes When Building AIR Applications

Adobe AIR has grown immensely popular over the past months. With its popularity, many new applications have been released. During this period, the following 10 issues have been the mistakes I have seen most often among developers. Hopefully, this list can help you avoid the same mistakes when building your next AIR application.

Tucker, David. Adobe Captivate Blog (2009). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash

Best Practices: Six AIR Features that May Annoy Your Users

I get to see and play with a lot of really cool AIR applications (even when they’re still being developed). Every now and then I come across an app that totally ignores any best practices or usability rules. AIR provides developers with a lot of features that could potentially annoy users if not used wisely. I thought it was a good idea to write this article. I’m not saying you shouldn’t use these features, I just want you to think about them before you add them to your application.

Jespers, Serge. Web Kitchen (2008). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>Flash

Silverlight versus Flash 

Recently I looked at how Adobe is reworking Flash in preparation for the coming battle with Microsoft over the Rich Internet Application (RIA) space and, with it, the likely future of computer-based design. In this article we finally get to see just what forces Microsoft has assembled – and its three staged launches at the MIX 07 conference in Las Vegas effectively amounted to a declaration of all-out war.

Arah, Tom. Designer Info (2007). Articles>Web Design>Multimedia>Silverlight