If It’s Not Easy to Use, It’s Not Used

Debates about Microsoft Word vs. Adobe Framemaker appear with regular frequency on the tech-writing mailing lists I am subscribed to. Everyone agrees Frame is an awesome publishing tool. Yet, everyone keeps cribbing about it. So, why does a bright bunch of people who are masters at figuring out stuff, otherwise known as tech-writers, only hesitatingly agree Frame is “kind of great”? I think it’s mostly because Frame is so difficult to use.

Info Developer (2008). Articles>Document Design>Software>Usability

Alternatives to Formatting XML Editors for Creating Structured Information

XML editors have traditionally been modeled after the first SGML editor written in 1985, a long time before creating, managing, and distributing structured information was well understood. Now, nearly 20 years later, there are more choices for users interested in creating structured information. Specifically, this presentation discusses alternatives that include Web-based distributed collaborative XML document creation, "tag-free" tools, non-formatting structured editors, and even using common office tools in creating your XML documents.

Daldt, Dale. IDEAlliance (2004). Articles>Software>Information Design>XML

XML Authoring for Those Who Don't Like Markup

Advances in word processing technology now enable people to author simple documents in an interface they are familiar with. They no longer need to know a lot about markup, the schema in use, or be distracted by other concerns than writing what they want to write. This simpler interface, built upon a Microsoft "Smart Doc" solution provides support for authors who are focused on the content they are writing rather than the markup that describes it. At the same time, the author is producing valid XML that can be routed for review and approval, used for multi-channel delivery, or reused by other authors in the enterprise. Several scenarios of how such an authoring/management system could be used to solve business challenges are described.

Parsons, Jon. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Information Design>Software>XML

Intro to Git for Web Designers

Unless you’re a one person web shop with no team to collaborate with, you’ve experienced the frustration that goes along with file sharing. No matter how hard you try, when multiple people are working on a single project without a version control system in place things get chaotic. In this article, I’ll give you a quick review of Git, an excellent version control system.

Webdesigner Depot (2009). Design>Content Management>Software>Graphic Design

Git Resources

Git, though remarkably handy and powerful, is also remarkably hard to use sometimes. Though you can learn the basics easily enough, it can be really tough to dig yourself out of certain corners if you don’t understand what’s going on under the covers. This page provides links to documents, how-tos, cheat sheets, tips, and tricks related to learning and using git.

37Signals (2009). Resources>Content Management>Graphic Design>Software

Introducing WinANT

I decided to simplify the DITA publishing process for myself by building a Windows interface to Ant. Ant was developed to allow programmers to write a simple build file in an XML format, and then process that XML file with the Ant build software.

Self, Tony. HyperWrite (2007). Articles>Information Design>Software>XML

Modifying DITA Open Toolkit Build Files for CSH

This procedure is used to modify the DITA Open Toolkit build files to allow an external map file reference and alias strings to be added to the HTML Help Project file before building, as part of the transformation to Microsoft HTML Help (CHM) format.

Self, Tony. HyperWrite (2008). Articles>Information Design>Software>DITA

CSS Layout Generator

This generator will create a fluid or fixed width floated column layout, with up to 3 columns and with header and footer. Values can be specified in either pixels, ems or percentages.

CSS Creator (2007). Resources>Web Design>CSS>Software

Grid Designer 2

This web-based service will develop a CSS file (with appropriate resets) for a multi-column web design to suit your preferences.

Mindplay.dk (2007). Resources>Web Design>CSS>Software

Open Source Alternatives To Tech Pubs Tools

Given how hard it is for students (and their programs) to afford the expensive tools in our profession, I thought it might help to pass along these alternatives to commercial products. I think anyone breaking into the field (or a new type of tool) would do very well to train up on these open source tools and create portfolio pieces with them.

STC Austin (2009). Articles>Document Design>Software>Open Source

Learn InDesign One Feature at a Time

There’s simply no way to learn InDesign (or any other major application) all at once. If you’re a frustrated newcomer to InDesign, or even if you’ve been using it for some time and want to expand your knowledge, here’s a suggestion: Set aside about 15-20 minutes every day to learn the basics of one feature. It doesn’t really matter what that feature is.

Levine, Bob. InDesign Secrets (2009). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Photoshop CS4 Help Guide  

The official Adobe Reference guide is available online and in PDF form. While not exactly a “quick” reference guide, it is essential for anyone who uses Photoshop professionally.

Adobe (2009). Books>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop

Appreciating Libxslt

The two most well-known XSLT processors are probably the Apache project's Xalan (available in both a Java and C++ version) and the Java-based Saxon, which was written by XSLT 2.0 specification editor Michael Kay. If those are the only two XSLT processors you currently use, it's worth checking out Daniel Veillard's libxslt.

DuCharme, Bob. XML.com (2005). Articles>Information Design>Software>XSL

The Appeal of Adobe InDesign

Working with InDesign is interesting. On the one hand, it’s not really a tool built for technical writers. It’s intended for people laying out magazines, brochures, other heavily designed print matter. As such, some things can be confusing. Cross references, figure references, a table of contents — get ready to search the help to figure these out. On the other hand, the power of the InDesign is somewhat captivating. You’re only limited by your own ignorance.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Setting Up Photoshop For Web, App and iPhone Development

Most people who have designed websites or apps in Photoshop will, at one point or another, have had issues trying to match colors in images to colors generated by HTML, CSS or code. This article aims to solve those problems once and for all.

Edwards, Marc. Smashing (2009). Articles>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop

Adobe FrameMaker: Custom Master Pages

New FrameMaker documents have default Master Pages. Single-sided documents have one, called "Right," and double-sided documents have two, called "Left" and "Right." We use these pages to place the objects we want to repeat on all the Body Pages, things like our running heads, page numbers and repeating graphics. But what do you do when you need a different look for a Body Page, on a repeating basis? For example, no page number on the opening page of each chapter? You set up a custom master page. Here's how.

Binder, Barbara. Blogs.com (2009). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

Using Expression Blend to Explore, Demonstrate, and Document Design Solutions 

For the last 6 months, I have been using Microsoft Expression Blend as my primary design tool. Blend, shown in Figure 1, is quickly becoming a powerful product. Its new Sketchflow module had me at hello.

Silver, Kevin. UXmatters (2009). Articles>Graphic Design>Software

Top Five Best Database Management Tools 

For a database administrator, DBM (database management) tools make tasks related to maintaining relational databases efficient and fast. Prior to the popularity of these tools, most DBA’s had to use the command line to create, edit, and delete databases. In this article, we present to you the top five most popular/most voted for database management tools.

Gube, Jacob. Six Revisions (2009). Articles>Information Design>Software>Databases

Seven Website Mockup Tools 

I am working on a number of website projects right now. My mission is to banish ‘lorem ipsum’ by working text into page designs before development starts. I wanted to find a tool that would let me create page mockups quickly and try out different combinations of copy and layout. Eventually, I settled on Balsamiq Mockups, which is an awesome tool. The rest of this article describes the different alternatives I considered and concludes with a detailed review of Balsamiq.

Stibbe, Matthew. Bad Language (2009). Articles>Web Design>Prototyping>Software

The Pencil Project 

The Pencil Project's unique mission is to build a free and open-source tool for making diagrams and GUI prototyping that everyone can use.

Pencil Project, The. Resources>Web Design>Prototyping>Software