Document design is the field concerned with creating texts, that is books, pamphlets, posters and others that integrate words and pictures in ways that help people to achieve their specific goals for using texts at home, school, or work.
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This presentation addresses a low-effort-required solution for users looking to take a step into XML for their technical documentation. The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and its associated public toolkit provide you with the DTDs, stylesheets and other tools you require to make your steps into XML.
Kravogel, Christian and Boris Horner. IDEAlliance (2005). Articles>Document Design>XML>DITA
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This course provides technical communicators with a practical and theoretical overview of document design. We will begin with examinations of document design theories and conventions coming from graphic artists, usability experts, cognitive psychologists, and technical communication scholars, and then critique those theories and conventions as we apply them to the analysis and creation of technical documents. In the process, we will problematize modernist expediency and question long-held assumptions.
Clark, Dave. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2003). Academic>Courses>Document Design
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This course will teach you to * identify and discuss principles of reading comprehension, cognitive psychology, human factors, and graphic design that apply to technical documents * analyze and evaluate the design of existing documents and recommend appropriate revisions * design and test documents for maximum usability
Dragga, Sam. Texas Tech University (2002). Academic>Courses>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric
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Document Design: A Brief Primer 
Today's documentation must be designed with information retrieval as its key objective. When information is organized and mapped into a consistent, logical structure that uses retrievability aids such as labels that facilitate scanning, blocks of information, advance organizers for the information, keywords, meaningful indexes, and a hierarchical organization, readers can quickly locate and use the information that they need.
Flanders, Melanie G. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Documentation>Document Design>User Centered Design
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Document Engineering and Information Architecture
This course introduces the discipline of Document Engineering: specifying, designing, and deploying electronic documents and information repositories that enable document-centric or information-intensive applications. These applications include web services, information supply chains, single-source publishing, composite applications/virtual enterprises/portals, and so on. Course topics include developing requirements, analyzing existing documents and information sources, conceptual modeling, identifying reusable semantic components, modeling business processes and user interactions, applying patterns to make models more robust, representing models using XML schemas, and using XML models to implement and drive applications. The syllabus contains over 20 short case study examples from different industries, with special emphasis on business-to-business, healthcare and medical informatics, and e-government.
Glushko, Robert J. University of California Berkeley (2008). Academic>Courses>Document Design>Information Design
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Document Engineering in User Experience Design
Document engineering is a methodology for specifying, designing, and deploying the information models and repositories that enable document-centric applications, and a synthesis of information and systems analysis, business process modeling, electronic publishing, and service-oriented architecture.
Glushko, Robert J. University of California Berkeley (2008). Articles>Document Design>User Experience
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FrameMaker is the industry standard for writing book-length documents. It is a powerful program capable of creating books of well over a thousand pages. The learning curve for the program is significant. FrameMaker is a much different animal than Microsoft Word and other word processors.
Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker
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Document Hack (A Technical Writer's Journal): The Acrobat and the Illustrator
Using Acrobat, you can make minor edits to a PDF file, but Acrobat documents are very sensitive. Typing a single character can throw several lines off, destroy tables and cause all sort of other troubles. Alternately, it can be relatively uneventful and painless. You will not know until you type in that character.
Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
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Document Layout Concepts (Frames and All That)
The primary reason to use Framemaker is the power that it offers in managing long and possibly technically complex documents. And while detailed control of the formatting of every paragraph and character is important, the overarching concern is overall structure and layout on a document- or book-wide basis. As the product's name announces, at the heart of FrameMaker's structure and layout paradigm is the 'Frame'. Yet I found the user documentation on the actual subject of frames to be perplexingly opaque. Frames are mentioned here and there, and what is described is not incorrect. But nowhere in the user docs is there a concise and complete discussion of this central FrameMaker feature -- which tends to stall efforts to actually get started on using FrameMaker in a productively-planned manner. Indeed, it is tempting to speculate that the FM learning curve is infamously steep precisely because this conceptual core is so ill illuminated. So, determined to dispell the fog (at least for me!), I resorted to studying the very helpful Programmers' Reference and Guide, and built a MIF-Browser tool to get to the bottom of the matter. Herewith is an effort to clarify what to me seem the essentials needed for productive use of FrameMaker, condensed in one place.
Wideman, Graham. WidemanOne. Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker
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Document Setup in Adobe InDesign CS
In this topic, you will set up a new document in Adobe InDesign CS.
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There are a number of ways in which you can use drag and drop to get content in and out of InDesign. Here are my favorites: If you ever get a lot of content for a layout delivered to you in a folder full of images, logos, text files, etc., there's a fast and easy way to get the files into InDesign that will enable you to avoid placing them one by one.
Cole, Tim. Mac Design Magazine (2005). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign
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Dragging and dropping into InDesign 
There are a number of ways in which you can use drag and drop to get content in and out of InDesign.
Cole, Tim. Adobe Evangelists (2006). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign
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The Effects of Using Colored Paper to Boost Response-Rates to Surveys and Questionnaires 
Many people have speculated over the last 80 years or so about the possibilities of using colored paper to boost response-rates to surveys and questionnaires, and several studies have been carried out. Most of these enquiries report no significant effects from using colored paper, although there have been some exceptions. In this investigation we pooled together the results from all of the experimental studies known to us on the topic and we carried out a meta-analysis to see if there might be a positive effect for colored paper overall. The results indicated that this was not the case, for we found no significant differences between the response rates to white and to colored paper in general. However, when we considered separately the most common colors used, it appeared that pink paper had the greatest effect. "One of the first considerations [to obtain a high response-rate] is the color of paper used in mail questionnaires. United States government officials who are responsible for the mailing of several million questionnaires every year have definitely determined that yellow paper gives the highest percentage of returns, with pink next in effectiveness, while all dark colors give much smaller returns" [1, p. 142].
Hartley, James and Andrew Rutherford. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>Document Design>User Centered Design>Color
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Efficiency: It's Not Just for Production Monkeys
With a few free tools from software companies and other users, you can carve out more time for what you really love -- creativity.
Ashcroft, Sean. Creative Pro (2007). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign
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Embedded Indexing in FrameMaker
Embedded indexing is the process of creating index entries electronically in a document’s files. Although desktop publishing packages are not the best tools for indexing, they can be used to create effective embedded indexes. For technical documents that will be updated frequently or will go online, technical communicators can create embedded indexes that will help their audience find information quickly and efficiently.
Mauer, Peg. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Document Design>Indexing>Adobe FrameMaker
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Enhance Text Design with Nested Styles
Creating nested styles is a great way to add unusual text effects to your document.With Adobe InDesign® CS, you can apply one character style to the beginning of a paragraph, and then determine where that character style stops and the next character style begins. By creating a paragraph style that includes these nested styles, you can quickly apply the effect to multiple paragraphs.
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Enhancing Tutorials With Acrobat
Ideas for enhancing tutorial documents using Acrobat features.
McCue, Claudia. PlanetPDF (2004). Design>Document Design>Tutorials>Adobe Acrobat
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Equations must have a number in parentheses at the right of the page. Must be numbered in the order they appear. Must be able to be read as part of the text.
Young, V.L. and K.J. Sampson. Ohio University (2004). Articles>Document Design>Technical Writing>Mathematics
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Essential Resources for FrameMaker Users
FrameMaker may be the current standard for technical publication, but that doesn't mean it's a perfect program. Many writers who've used FrameMaker find that it's complex and quirky, with a lot functionality hidden in its now somewhat dated interface. So where do you go when you need help? This article will give you some suggestions.
Soltys, Keith. TECHWR-L (2001). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker
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The Euro: What Will It Mean to the Desktop Publisher?
How will the character be inserted into typeset copy? Every time typesetters set a piece containing a monetary amount in Euros, they will have to type a character that doesn't exist in most typeface character sets. A partial remedy is the inclusion of a Euro character in the character set of Macintosh and Windows. For instance, starting in Mac OS 8.5, pressing Option-Shift-2 will insert the Euro character — but only in the fonts that come with the Mac. Older fonts will insert a different character.
Adams, Peter C.S. Makingpages.org (2002). Design>Document Design>Typography>Europe
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An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Automated Templates
Automated templates are an alternative to traditional supporting information for helping users perform complex tasks. In this study users performed tasks with and without wizard to trial and error, printed manuals, and online the use of automated templates. Results suggest that if fakes help, and examined the use of supporting information some time for users to learn to use automated templates, but in performing complex tasks. We also considered once they do, the templates help users perform tasks more whether automated templates serve an educational successfully and more quickly.
Bayer, Nancy L., R. Darren Carleton, Susan Goetchus, Robert Krull and Rick S. Sapir. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Document Design>Content Management
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Special 'blooper reel' edition: the author's biggest paper mistakes.
Sidles, Constance J. Adobe Magazine (1996). Design>Document Design>Prepress>Paper
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Explicit Structure in Print and On-Screen Documents
The structure of print and on-screen documents is made explicit through headings and links. Three important concepts for understanding explicit structure are (1) the display-unit properties of each document medium, (2) the flexible relationship between explicit and implicit structure, and (3) the distinction between populated and unpopulated locations in a hierarchy. These concepts help us better understand standard print documents, structured writing, websites, help systems, and PowerPoint, as well as the potential effects of content management systems on how documents are created.
Farkas, David K. Technical Communication Quarterly (2005). Articles>Document Design>Information Design>Typography
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How to extract content from a portion of a PDF document.
Baker, Donna L. PlanetPDF (2004). Articles>Content Management>Document Design>Adobe Acrobat
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Facts and Opinions About PDF Accessibility
PDF accessibility is not as straightforward as HTML accessibility. But it can be done, if you put the same care into marking up your PDFs that you put into marking up websites. Joe Clark tells all.
Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2005). Design>Document Design>Accessibility>Adobe Acrobat
