#26317
Cleaning Your Web Pages with HTML Tidy
A detailed article on using the HTML Tidy utility to clear up problems in an HTML file.
Nesbitt, Scott. InformIT (2004). Articles>Web Design>HTML>Software
#25183
Color Corrections with Hue/Saturation
Hue/Saturation dialog uses HSB (hue-saturation-brightness) model of the color presentation. The slider Hue shifts color position on the rainbow-colored bar at the bottom of the dialog, Saturation can increase/decrease color intensity, while Lightness changes its brightness
Doubrovski, Andrei. Photoshop 911 (2004). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop
#18334
Establishing color control on the desktop can prove to be a frustrating task. And when you're dealing with color-critical customers or just plain want decent color, that's not the best situation. This PDF by Scott Olswold and Rick Dumont explains the fundamentals behind color management and then applies this discussion in terms of PageMaker.
Olswold, Scott. Makingpages.org (2002). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe PageMaker
#20510
See the same colors in InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat, thanks to the Adobe Color Engine.
Adobe (2003). Design>Document Design>Software>Color
#25186
Color Photo from Black and White
This reader wants to make a color photo from a black and white. Tough question.
Photoshop 911 (2004). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop
#28523
Coloring Old Black and White Drawings
Step 1. Clean up any blemishes or distracting marks in the illustration. Make it as perfect a B & W illustration as you can. Make sure the contrast, sharpness and clarity are uniform throughout. Step 2. You will have sharply clear demarcations of tone which are easy and you will have areas where the tones between parts are quite similar and therefore more difficult. Start by using the Keep-Color brush to preserve everything you do not wish to color. Carefully outline each element with your chosen color being sure there are no unwanted gaps. Where there is no demarcation between tones, you should outline each color as precisely as you can. Also, the original may have lines separating the sleeve from the jacket for example. Cover that line with the Keep-Color brush and put a line of your chosen color closely beside each side of the line. Step 3. Press the run button (green arrow) and be amazed when your B & W illustration pops into color just as you ordered. Press the green check mark , the AKVIS window closes and the changes are applied to your original graphic. Save your new image immediately."
Sisson, Gordon. AKVIS (2006). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop
#25188
Laying color over a map is easier than you think and it doesn't require brushes.
Photoshop 911 (2004). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop
#21893
In Acrobat 4, you open one PDF file. Then in the 'document' menu, choose 'insert file.' You’ll have to do this four times to bring your five documents together.
Harris, Steve. PDFzone (2004). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#19449
Compound Mediation in Software Development: Using Genre Ecologies to Study Textual Artifacts
Traditionally, technical communicators have seen the texts that they produce -- manuals, references, instructions -- as 'bridging' or mediating between a worker and her tool. But field studies of workers indicate that the mediational relationship is much more complicated: Workers often draw simultaneously upon many different textual artifacts to mediate their work, including not only the official genres produced by technical communicators manuals but also ad hoc notes, comments, and improvisational drawings produced by the workers themselves. In this chapter, I theorize these instances of compound mediatiation by drawing on activity theory and genre theory. I describe an analytical framework, that of genre ecologies, that can be used to systematically investigate compound mediation within and across groups of workers. Unlike other analytical frameworks that have been used in studies of technology (such as distributed cognition's functional systems and contextual design's work models), the genre ecology framework highlights the interpretive and cultural-historical aspects of compound mediation that are so important in understanding the use of textual artifacts. The analytical framework is illustrated by an observational study of how 22 software developers in a global corporation used various textual artifacts to mediate their software development work.
Spinuzzi, Clay. WAC Clearinghouse (2002). Design>Collaboration>Software
#28062
You can use InDesign's compound paths and transparency features to create a recessed text compartment in an image.
Cole, Tim. Adobe Evangelists (2006). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign
#32044
Conditional-CSS allows you to write maintainable CSS with conditional logic to target specific CSS statements at both individual browsers and groups of browsers.
#23084
The default layout of the Pages pane displays a single column of small thumbnail pictures of the pages. The default is fine for most kinds of work when you have a document consisting of several pages. However, when working with a very large document, you might want to make the thumbnails smaller and increase the number of thumbnail columns to see more at once. If you have to be able to see the content of the thumbnails, you'll want to increase their size.
Baker, Donna L. PlanetPDF (2001). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#25214
Consistent Web Design with Dreamweaver Templates
Templates are a fantastic time-saving tool. They allow you to create pages that share the same design but contain different content. If you modify a template document, you immediately update the design of all pages that were created from that template.
Fletcher, Mark. Adobe (2004). Design>Web Design>Software>Dreamweaver
#26365
This paper outlines the requirements for console accessibility in Microsoft Windows XP.
Microsoft (2001). Design>Accessibility>Software
#14082
Content Repurposing with FrameMaker+SGML and XML 
We see content repurposing as taking marked-up content and automatically transforming it for presentation in multiple applications. For example, one of our clients asked us to help them convert existing Word documentation into structured FrameMaker+SGML files, and then export it to a well-formed and valid XML instance. The structured FrameMaker+SGML documents would be used to create user manuals (both print and PDF), and the XML instance would be used for online documentation on PDAs or cell phones. Portions of the content would be applicable for only the printed documents, while other potions of the content would be used only for online display.
Idea Store, The (2001). Design>Content Management>Software>Adobe FrameMaker
#20177
Controlling Line Breaks with the Hyphenation Penalty Slider
Adobe InDesign 2.0 introduced a new feature that you can use to fine tune the way lines break in any given paragraph. You'll find the hyphenation penalty slider in InDesign's hyphenation dialog box. This document is meant to serve as an introduction to this feature so that you'll understand exactly how it works and how you can use it to control the way your lines break within paragraphs.
Cole, Tim. Creative Pro (2003). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign
#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
#14402
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 (1998). Presentations>Web Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker
#22773
Converting Word Documents with Embedded Files
How can I convert Word documents to PDF and ensure their embedded Excel documents also get converted?
Boulay, J.R. PDFzone (2004). Design>Information Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#28202
CorelDRAW Tutorials, Tips, Etc.
This page contains a listing of twenty-four links to technical illustration tutorials and how-to articles for illustrators using draw software, especially CorelDraw.
Broz, Donald. Broz and Dian. Resources>Graphic Design>Software
#14403
COTS: The New Challenge of Information Integration
Systems engineering is moving away from specially-designed and built systems to integration of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software. COTS brings new challenges to technical communicators. In the past, we found all our information in-house, now it comes from many sources. We must change our process from pure development to information integration, and we must be part of the COTS selection process.
Lenk, Donald S. Jr. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>Information Design>Software
#25916
How to create interesting graphical dividers in Adobe GoLive to use in web designs.
Shadovitz, Deborah. Mac Design Magazine (2005). Design>Web Design>Software>Adobe GoLive
#18347
Suppose you have a publication with set column widths. You may not want to reset your columns or drag out multiple guides just to create tables or gridded content. The guides and Step and Repeat features in Adobe® InDesign® 1.5 make it easy to quickly create a custom grid to structure your content. This tip tells you how.
Adobe (2003). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign
#21166
Create Powerful Flash Applications With Shared Objects
Shared objects allow for data persistence in Flash applications, like cookies do in Web pages. Learn to leverage shared objects to create more robust apps.
David, Jean-Luc. Builder.com (2003). Design>Multimedia>Software>Flash
#20598
Create Queries and Dynamically Update Collections
Use GoLive’s new query functionality to simplify complex file management chores by creating queries and attaching them to collections.
Adobe (2003). Design>Web Design>Software>Adobe GoLive
