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.
#29046
Visual Texts: Format and the Evolution of English Accounting Texts, 1100-1700 
Emphasis on page design, as an aid to visual accessibility, did not receive attention in modern technical writing until the 1970s. However, accounting documents and instructional texts utilized format and document design strategies as early as the twelfth century to enhance the organization of quantitative data and linear bookkeeping entries. Format in text was used to reflect the arrangement used in oral accounting practices and to produce uniform documents. Thus, format was integral to the rise of pragmatic literacy of the commercial reader. During the Renaissance, these early format strategies received impetus from Ramist method. The result was design strategies that attempted to capture the rigid principles of organization fundamental to commercial accounting. These early accounting documents also illustrate the plain style that would become the focus of the later decades of the seventeenth century. Clarity in language paralleled clarity in page design for the sole purpose of eliminating ambiguity on the page and on the sentence level. Plain style was thus nurtured by financial forces long before the advent of natural science.
Tebeaux, Elizabeth. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>History
#31431
Visuals and Specialization Present Possibilities for Handling the Information Overload Crisis
Professional communicators and attorneys have long stood side by side as both fought to win in court—one in the court of law, the other in the court of public opinion. These two sometimes wary compatriots, however, are now beginning to partner more frequently to garner the best results for the executive suite.
Larkin, T.J. and Sandar Larkin. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>Charts and Graphs
#31151
Mit dieser Technik steht Ihnen eine einfache Methode zur Verfügung, Webseiten oder einzelne Bereiche eines Webs downzuloaden und als PDF zu speichern.
TECOM (2003). (German) Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat
#15224
WebWorks Publisher: Can It Convert You? 
Discusses Quadralay's WebWorks Publisher, a software package that allows single-sourcing from Adobe FrameMaker to online documents. For a more advanced discussion of WebWorks, see Robert R. Desprez's article 'WebWorks Publisher: Jumping into the Details,' also in the September/October 2001 issue of Intercom.
Beren, Wendy G. Intercom (2001). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker
#18837
What We Can Learn About Document Design From A Study of the Visual Convergence of the News Media
Information presentation trends that traverse media boundaries point to a visual convergence among print, television, and the web. Examination of how this process takes place through “remediation” in the news media provides insight into the broader media and cultural context in which technical documentation resides. Creating new knowledge for technical communicators who are beyond an elementary understanding of document design requires interdisciplinary research that investigates how usability is redefined in an age of visual convergence.
Cooke, Lynne. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric
#18882
All text is digital in origin. Fixed print has become printout, one substrate of expression for a preexisting digital code. And it is no longer the only game in town. Other, digital, displays–--regular cathode ray tube computer screens, liquid crystal display flat screens, book-sized electronic display devices, digital screen projectors, heads-up displays, goggles, helmets, immersive virtual reality environments–--now compete with the printed page for final display. These digital displays can recreate the full electronic expressive space, a three-dimensional, dynamic world, as the flat, fixed world of print cannot. Fixity stands at the center of Beatrice Warde's brave declaration: 'not to perish on waves of sound, not to vary with the writer's hand, but fixed in time.' That fixity comes unglued in the diversity of display devices in which text can now become manifest. Text will find its future as the various ways we can now display it compete for the privilege.
Lanham, Richard A. Education Communication and Information (2003). Design>Document Design>Online
#25155
Color expert Mike Davis of Colorprep knows what to do when color goes wrong... and many times it's the photographer or designer's fault!
Davis, Mike. Design, Typography and Graphics (2004). Design>Document Design>Prepress>Color
#28713
Sometimes, as in web design, it's difficult to add whitespace because of content requirements. Newspapers often deal with this by setting their body content in a light typeface with plenty of whitespace within and around the characters.
Boulton, Mark. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Document Design
#31235
As business communicators, our goal is typically to influence opinion or change behavior in order to achieve business objectives. To accomplish this, we must get people to interact with our message. A page of 12-point Times New Roman text is seldom compelling, so what you are left with to persuade people to read your publication is graphic design.
Canfield, Jocelyn. Communication World Bulletin (2007). Design>Document Design>Typography>Visual Rhetoric
#27240
Why Do All the Page Numbers in my Word 2002 Document Display as 0?
Word 2002 will display 0 for all page numbers in headers or footers, and all page numbers in a Table of Contents, in the following circumstances.
Kelly, Shauna. Word MVP Site, The (2002). Articles>Word Processing>Document Design>Microsoft Word
#27235
Why Does the Appearance (or Layout) of My Document Change When I Open it on a Different Machine?
Because Word is a WYSIWYG application, it will always try to represent on screen the result you will get if you print on the printer that is selected as the default. Changing printer drivers will almost always change the layout at least slightly and sometimes radically. There are a number of ways to minimize the changes.
Barnhill, Suzanne. Word MVP Site, The (2002). Articles>Word Processing>Document Design>Microsoft Word
#11801
Why Technical Communicators and Usability?
Why technical communicators and usability? Both writers and software development managers have asked me that question. In both cases, it springs from a narrow view of communicators as 'just writers.' It is a point of view that fails to see the many activities, from learning the subject matter to organizing the information or creating good document design, that are hidden behind that final task of writing the words.
Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Usability SIG (2000). Articles>TC>Document Design>Usability
#12979
WidemanOne Adobe FrameMaker Topics
For all that the most central concept in FrameMaker is the Frame, the existing documentation is thoroughly foggy regarding the precise nature of the Frame types and the relationships amongst them. Here is a first pass at rectifying that shortcoming.
Wideman, Graham. WidemanOne (2001). Resources>Software>Document Design>Adobe FrameMaker
#20408
When setting type, most of us are very conscious of type style, size, width and line spacing. Many of us also pay attention to letter spacing and kerning, even if we’re not as confident in these areas. But word spacing--the space between words--is probably the most neglected of typographic attributes. This seemingly small detail plays an important role in the color, texture and readability of your type.
Strizver, Ilene. Upper and lowercase Magazine (2003). Design>Typography>Document Design
#28061
Word Spacing Keyboard Shortcut 
Ever been copyfitting and wished there was a quick way to kern word spacing but leave letterspacing alone? There is.
Cole, Tim. Adobe Evangelists (2006). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign
#25495
Working with Colour in InDesign CS
Explains the use of the Colour Palette and Swatches palette and how they relate to each other. It also briefly covers the Gradient Palette. Informative links explaining the difference between RGB, CMYK, hues, tints, etc. are also provided.
Bruno, Elisabetta. About.com. Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign
#22355
Working With Graphics in Adobe InDesign CS
In this topic, you will place graphics on the page and then move, resize and crop them.
#25437
Download label templates, in Word or PDF format. CD, DVD, shipping, book, and many other blank label templates for designing your own labels.
Worldlabel.com (1998). Design>Document Design>Prepress
#31615
The XML train is finally pulling into the station. It brings an ocean change in the way we create, store, and manage information. In October of last year, Microsoft released Office 2003, which brings the promise of XML to the desktop. Previously, Word 2000 saved only the Properties of documents in an XML module in files converted to HTML. In this new edition, you can save or export all Office documents as XML documents. Using XML tags, we can now identify various elements of our documents for manipulation, storage, and retrieval as you would data in a data bank. It also enables us to more easily share information in those documents across other applications (including Web applications), networks, and operating systems.
DuBay, William H. Impact Information (2005). Articles>Document Design>XML>Microsoft Word
#29300
XML Paper Specification (XPS) of a Word 2003 Document
Microsoft breathed new life into legacy office documents by opening an XML window (Office Open XML) to its office products through its royalty-free XPS specification. XPS stands for XML Paper Specification that specifies cross-platform, open standard, document representation that can be used for generating, sharing, printing and archiving of paginated documents. Its virtues in Microsoft's own words are, "With XPS, documents print better, can be shared easier, be archived with confidence, and are more secure."
Krishnaswamy, Jayaram. ASPAlliance (2007). Articles>Document Design>XML>Microsoft Word
#21911
You Get What You Pay For...Sometimes
Buying the quality you need isn't just a matter of checking the price tag.
Sidles, Constance J. Adobe Magazine (1997). Design>Document Design>Prepress>Paper
#24897
Your Document Covers the Facts, But Does It Keep ’Em Coming Back?
Much technical documentation merely describes the features or appearance of a product or service, leaving readers uninspired and disinterested. In fact, much of what we write probably never gets read. A combined audience, task, and benefits analysis can help us communicate why a user should do a task—not just how to do it.
Fritz, Anne, Jason R. Huntington, Bruce Knorr, and Judith Leetham. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Document Design>Usability
#32395
Blockquotes do have some styling by default. Most browsers will indent the text in a blockquote tag, which helps the user recognize that the text is different somehow. But who’s to say that we need to stop there? Here are six different ways you could style your blockquotes using CSS.
Glazebrook, Rob L. CSSnewbie (2008). Articles>Web Design>Document Design>CSS
#32405
Book-Style Chapter Introductions Using Pure CSS
Today’s tutorial will show you how easy it is to create book-style chapter (article, whatever) introductions using nothing but pure CSS — no XHTML was harmed in the making of this tutorial. We’ll use two types of selectors which I haven’t talked about yet here: adjacent sibling selectors and pseudo-element selectors. I’ll explain each type briefly before we get started.
Glazebrook, Rob L. CSSnewbie (2008). Articles>Web Design>Document Design>CSS
#32434
Every web designer should know and understand a Web site’s parameters before lifting a finger to start designing the site. In this article, you will learn the basics required to start designing business Web sites. While this information is useful if you want to build sites for others, it can also serve as a checklist article for sites you want to build for yourself.
Goin, Linda. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Document Design>Information Design
