http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Presentations A listing of the most recently indexed works about Presentations in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Presentations http://tc.eserver.org/35778.html http://tc.eserver.org/35778.html Provides an overview of Alfresco, an open-source alternative to Microsoft's SharePoint content management system. http://tc.eserver.org/35779.html http://tc.eserver.org/35779.html Alfresco integrates easily with existing behaviors, is nimble enough to be adapted to fluid processes, facilitates project communication, and proactively provides the right information to the right people. http://tc.eserver.org/35767.html http://tc.eserver.org/35767.html What is Flash? It's a vector-based format for moving images. Adobe technology via Macromedia Proprietary FLA for Flash development files. SWF for compressed files. http://tc.eserver.org/35768.html http://tc.eserver.org/35768.html Windows Presentation Foundation is a cross-browser cross-platform cross-device implementation of .NET for building and delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. http://tc.eserver.org/35769.html http://tc.eserver.org/35769.html Which pages have the search engines crawled? What kind of pages are they? Has the search engine Indexing indexed all of the crawled pages? How’s the search engine ranking traffic? http://tc.eserver.org/35770.html http://tc.eserver.org/35770.html SharePoint can neither create nor destroy organizational chaos, but does an excellent job of reflecting the level of organizational chaos that existed at the time of deployment. The “SharePoint paradox” and paths to SharePoint wickedness. The power of Issue Mapping and IBIS based collaboration. How to leverage the best of SharePoint and Issue Mapping. http://tc.eserver.org/35771.html http://tc.eserver.org/35771.html Information for administrators of Microsoft SharePoint servers. http://tc.eserver.org/35733.html http://tc.eserver.org/35733.html From your stance to the amount of eye contact you make, this slideshow walks you through techniques great speakers employ. http://tc.eserver.org/35610.html http://tc.eserver.org/35610.html I’m growing tired of presentations that are little more than lectures, so I’m going to experiment with more user-led techniques like this. Unfortunately, available wi fi at chapter meetings or conferences with participants who have computers or mobile data devices is pretty rare. But if you do have the opportunity, definitely try incorporating Twitter, even if only for Q&A at the end of your presentation. http://tc.eserver.org/35620.html http://tc.eserver.org/35620.html Includes an illustration of international professional communication, the double commitment of international professional communicators, and professionals and documentation experts. http://tc.eserver.org/35557.html http://tc.eserver.org/35557.html Laying out your poster on a grid establishes limitations for your poster. Choosing a font establishes limitations for your poster. Being conservative in your design choices establishes limitations. Working within limits requires discipline. Setting yourself limitations does not necessarily limit creativity; it can do just the opposite. http://tc.eserver.org/35558.html http://tc.eserver.org/35558.html Academics use posters to present research, but their posters are often ugly, with tiny text, confusing layouts, and dubious colour schemes. Better Posters is about making posters informative and beautiful. http://tc.eserver.org/35559.html http://tc.eserver.org/35559.html If you look through a poster session at a scientific conference, I’ll bet over 98% of their titles are centered at the top of their posters. Why? There is no advantage in reading. Most word processors and other publishing programs start with text left aligned by default, which implies that people deliberately center the text all the time. http://tc.eserver.org/35561.html http://tc.eserver.org/35561.html It looks like the opening (quoted above) overreaches what the study actually does. The research only looks at backgrounds, but “chart junk” comes in many other forms: pointless 3-D effects, crazy colour schemes, excessive gridlines, cutesy cartoons, and more. The summary of this research in no way provides a scientific basis to argue, “I like the 3-D effect, and science supports it’s easier to read!” http://tc.eserver.org/35562.html http://tc.eserver.org/35562.html I stumbled upon this poster while reading the blog Anna’s Bones. She described as being finished “just in the nick of time.” A few more hours, and a stronger editorial hand, probably would have been welcomed. http://tc.eserver.org/35563.html http://tc.eserver.org/35563.html A poster can be better than giving a talk. It’s just an illustrated abstract. http://tc.eserver.org/35564.html http://tc.eserver.org/35564.html Because many researchers use PowerPoint for their talks and lectures, they also tend to use it for every graphic problem, including posters. Predictably, the form of the resulting posters often look like nothing more than a series of ugly PowerPoint slides tacked together. A poster is more like a whiteboard than slides. But because many researchers give more presentations than posters, they’re not used to thinking in terms of a big space, viewed all at once, instead of a series of small spaces, viewed one at a time. http://tc.eserver.org/35565.html http://tc.eserver.org/35565.html As discussed recently, many people use PowerPoint to design posters, an act that borders on criminal. PowerPoint was designed for multiple projected images with minimal text, not one large image with complex text and graphics. People use PowerPoint because it’s the only thing remotely resembling a graphics software that people are familiar with. Microsoft Office simply doesn’t have a good, high end graphics component. Publisher comes close. OpenOffice does have a graphics component, simply called Draw. If you are not willing to shell out the big bucks generally required of a professional graphics software package, Draw has several features in its favour. http://tc.eserver.org/35566.html http://tc.eserver.org/35566.html I have used Microsoft Publisher a lot for posters. I’m going to show three easy things that Publisher does well that are useful when making a conference poster. http://tc.eserver.org/35582.html http://tc.eserver.org/35582.html I'm not a fan of PowerPoint. I've sat through too many deadly dull presentations by people who didn't know how to make a presentation interesting. So it saddens me to find out that universities have been infected by the PowerPoint virus. At least the students will be prepared for the real world when they graduate. http://tc.eserver.org/35583.html http://tc.eserver.org/35583.html I’m in my third year of college now, and by this point I have the hang of determining what constitutes a good class and a bad class. In a good class, I have fun and learn a lot; in a bad class, I don’t have a good time and don’t learn very much. http://tc.eserver.org/35511.html http://tc.eserver.org/35511.html With so much training being done on computers (along with other tasks being done while training is taking place on that same computer), it’s important to know some best practices for developing training and other modules with screencasts. Amy Tehan demonstrates tips and tricks for making an effective screencast that will hold the viewer’s attention and get the message across. http://tc.eserver.org/35450.html http://tc.eserver.org/35450.html How can user-centered design principles be applied to technical communication? http://tc.eserver.org/35468.html http://tc.eserver.org/35468.html Are we giving users the help they need, in the way they need it? Go minimal. http://tc.eserver.org/35440.html http://tc.eserver.org/35440.html Community is discussions, people, passion, alignment, emergent, support, connections, and relationships. http://tc.eserver.org/35431.html http://tc.eserver.org/35431.html This presentation is for beginning to intermediate users of DITA. It's based on my experience with projects on which I'm project manager, information architect, and writer. http://tc.eserver.org/35432.html http://tc.eserver.org/35432.html Before DITA, we told readers how things worked. After DITA, we tell users how to use things. Before, we wrote information linearly. After, we write individual units as needed. http://tc.eserver.org/35435.html http://tc.eserver.org/35435.html What does structured authoring mean to you? Structured authoring is a publishing workflow that lets you define and enforce consistent organization of information in documents, whether printed or online. What it means to me: defining a goal and assembling architected topics to help the reader achieve that goal. http://tc.eserver.org/35436.html http://tc.eserver.org/35436.html This a short video overview of managing a documentation project. It's something we put together as a test of some of the functionality of Techsmith's Camtasia software. http://tc.eserver.org/35396.html http://tc.eserver.org/35396.html A presentation which shows examples of best-practices in web design for accessibility to users who interact with sites exclusively through the keyboard. http://tc.eserver.org/35380.html http://tc.eserver.org/35380.html Despite what some people say, rules still apply when it comes to social media. Policies provide structure—for you and for your colleagues/employees. http://tc.eserver.org/35358.html http://tc.eserver.org/35358.html Describes the most challenging aspect of creating slides for an oral presentation. Presents two principles for creating informative and persuasive graphics. Explains how to use drawing tools to communicate the schema of the slide and to emphasize important portions of the images. http://tc.eserver.org/35322.html http://tc.eserver.org/35322.html What Are These Tools? Screen recorders that let you: record a series of screens as frames in a movie – like chaining together screen shots; annotate the frames with text captions, high-lights, and other effects for enhanced learning and explanation; add testing – informally through “dead-end” quizzes or formally using eLearning; publish the result. http://tc.eserver.org/35323.html http://tc.eserver.org/35323.html Why is social media so important? Traditional media tells the same big story TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. Social Media is about lots of little stories told IN SMALL GROUPS AT THE SAME TIME. http://tc.eserver.org/35333.html http://tc.eserver.org/35333.html How closely does the content in your CMS resemble the logical content you planned on? # Different systems have vastly different content modeling. http://tc.eserver.org/35334.html http://tc.eserver.org/35334.html In the US today, there are 82.5 Million Content Creators 13.9% create content in virtual worlds 18.1% create video content 23.9% create blog content 79.7% create content on a social network. All we need is a standard that will support the topic- based nature of “how to” video content XML, and by extension, DITA, seemed to be a perfect fit. http://tc.eserver.org/35335.html http://tc.eserver.org/35335.html A unified content strategy is: a repeatable method of identifying all content requirements up front; creating consistently structured content for reuse; managing that content in a definitive source; assembling content on demand to meet your needs. A unified content model is the framework that supports your strategy. http://tc.eserver.org/35336.html http://tc.eserver.org/35336.html Accurate translations of clinical trial documents play an important role in meeting global product demands. Mistakes from poorly done translations can result in product delays, cost overruns, malpractice or product liability lawsuits, and confused subjects / patients. http://tc.eserver.org/35337.html http://tc.eserver.org/35337.html Why is getting the process right, so important? Value for money, project success, Return on investment. http://tc.eserver.org/35338.html http://tc.eserver.org/35338.html Web 2.0 includes: wikis, podcasts, blogs, widgets/gadgets, social networks … and combinations of all the above. Not everyone contributes equally – Creators (18%), Critics (25%), Spectators (48%). But all are important. http://tc.eserver.org/35131.html http://tc.eserver.org/35131.html This study explores design presentations that were graded by engineering faculty in order to assess the distinguishing features of those that were successful. Using a thematic analysis of 17 videotaped, final presentations from a capstone chemical engineering (CHE) course, it explores the rhetorical strategies, oral styles, and organizational structures that differentiate successful and unsuccessful team presentations. The results suggest that successful presenters used rhetorical strategies, oral styles, and organizational structures that illustrated students’ ability to negotiate the real and simulated relational and identity nuances of the design presentation genre—in short, they illustrated students’ relational genre knowledge. http://tc.eserver.org/35108.html http://tc.eserver.org/35108.html The notes for a presentation (titled Thinking Outside the Book: Wikis for Writing and Delivering Documentation, that discusses the whys, the tools, and the techniques of using wikis for documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/35042.html http://tc.eserver.org/35042.html Structured writing requires an analysis of content and a reorganization into the smallest possible coherent topics. http://tc.eserver.org/34981.html http://tc.eserver.org/34981.html As digital cameras have become ubiquitous, and cheap (or free) photo websites plentiful, more people than ever are using images in presentations. Images are not appropriate for every kind of talk, but even when images are appropriate (such as keynote/ballroom style presentations), people are still making the same common mistakes. So here are some things to keep in mind if you use images in your next talk. http://tc.eserver.org/34971.html http://tc.eserver.org/34971.html Below are 10 things (plus a bonus tip) that I have learned over the years from designers, things that designers do or know that the rest of us can benefit from. http://tc.eserver.org/34972.html http://tc.eserver.org/34972.html A study published in the April issue of British Educational Research Journal found that 59 percent of students in a new survey reported that at least half of their lectures were boring, and that PowerPoint was one of the dullest methods they saw. "The least boring teaching methods were found to be seminars, practical sessions, and group discussions," said the report. In other words, tech-free classrooms were the most engaging. http://tc.eserver.org/34916.html http://tc.eserver.org/34916.html Each time I sign up a CIO speaker, I hopefully suggest the option of going slide-free. From the reaction I get, you'd think I suggested walking on stage pants-free. http://tc.eserver.org/34861.html http://tc.eserver.org/34861.html In open source, the standards for documentation are typically quite low. But they don't have to be. http://tc.eserver.org/34865.html http://tc.eserver.org/34865.html I still get nervous when I have to present in unfamiliar situations. I’m very used to presenting to small groups of people on a course. That’s my comfort zone. But take me outside of that familiar situation, and I’ll get nervous. If I were to get upset about being nervous, I would make it worse. I don’t fight my nerves, I use them. Here are three specific ways in which you can use your fear of public speaking to make you a better public speaker and presenter. http://tc.eserver.org/34839.html http://tc.eserver.org/34839.html One privilege enjoyed by new-media authors is the opportunity to realize representations of Self that are rich textual worlds in themselves and also to engage the wider world, with a voice, a smile, imagery, and sound. Still, closer investigation of multimedia composition practices reveals levels of complexity with which the verbal virtuoso is unconcerned. This article argues that while technology-afforded multimedia tools make it comparatively easy to author a vivid text, it is a multiplicatively more complicated matter to vividly realize and publicize an authorial intention. Based on analysis of the digital story creation process of a youth named 'Steven,' the authors attempt to demonstrate the operation of two forces upon which the successful multimodal realization of the author's intention may hinge: 'fixity' and 'fluidity.' The authors show how, within the process of digital self-representation, these forces can intersect to influence multimodal meaning making, and an author's life, in consequential ways. http://tc.eserver.org/34794.html http://tc.eserver.org/34794.html TechSmith asked me to create a video on using Audacity to edit narrations. Since the use of Audacity will be useful to many I've uploaded it here too. The screencast covers removing background noise, breathing and lip smacks, dynamic range compression, volume normalisation, fades and de-essing using the volume control. http://tc.eserver.org/34795.html http://tc.eserver.org/34795.html Advice on how to get started giving screencasts, why you might want to do it and how to establish your recording studio. Then we move into planning the capture of your screencast and a few tips on using some presentation tools. http://tc.eserver.org/34796.html http://tc.eserver.org/34796.html Covers how to begin and conclude your cast and a bit about postprocessing. Then we cover your behavior during your talk and how to get your screencast distributed to others. http://tc.eserver.org/34798.html http://tc.eserver.org/34798.html In this series of videos we'll demonstrate some of the basics of making screencasts in Linux. In addition, we'll show how to encode your original video file into another video type and illustrate some basic editing techniques. http://tc.eserver.org/34799.html http://tc.eserver.org/34799.html One of the criticisms leveled against technical PPT slides is the overuse (perhaps abuse is a better descriptor) of the topic/subtopic organization structure. One of the simple ways PPT presentations can be improved is to follow the BLUF principle. Bottom Line Up Front. http://tc.eserver.org/34758.html http://tc.eserver.org/34758.html PowerPoint is not a neutral tool — it is actively hostile to thoughtful decision-making. It has fundamentally changed our culture by altering the expectations of who makes decisions, what decisions they make and how they make them. While this may seem to be a sweeping generalization, I think a brief examination of the impact of PowerPoint will support this statement. http://tc.eserver.org/34722.html http://tc.eserver.org/34722.html DITA maps provide a mechanism for ordering topics and creating a topic hierarchy. Because DITA maps consist of lists of references to topics, you can reorganize the content in a deliverable simply by changing the order of the topic references. You can create different maps referencing the same source topics to create two deliverables to meet different users' needs. http://tc.eserver.org/34723.html http://tc.eserver.org/34723.html This presentation describes how authoring DITA topics and managing those topics in a content management system (CMS) will contain translation costs while improving overall information quality. This is not a recommendation for any particular product. It is a guide to how one group built their candidate list and computes return on investment. http://tc.eserver.org/34690.html http://tc.eserver.org/34690.html Top 10 tips for a winning pitch by David McDermott, MD of Edomidas. David McDermott is MD of edoMidas Ltd and is an advisor and international speaker on competitive pitching. His success is founded on thoroughly researched pitching strategies, drawing from experience of the most successful global business pitches. http://tc.eserver.org/34648.html http://tc.eserver.org/34648.html When we as web designers create screens we are defi http://tc.eserver.org/34610.html http://tc.eserver.org/34610.html Changing how we write, manage, and publish; how we relate to management and customers, and do business. http://tc.eserver.org/34611.html http://tc.eserver.org/34611.html Benchmarking comprises prioritisation of strategic improvement need (the why), measurement (the what) and practices (the how). Re-measure tracks performance improvement. http://tc.eserver.org/34584.html http://tc.eserver.org/34584.html An introduction to the Twitter micro-blogging web service, with quotes from people who use it for professional/business purposes. http://tc.eserver.org/34569.html http://tc.eserver.org/34569.html An Introduction to Usability Testing and Tips for Effective Usability Testing in India. Created and presented by Abhay Rautela at Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India at Bar Camp Delhi 6 http://tc.eserver.org/34521.html http://tc.eserver.org/34521.html Adobe’s Captivate application allows one to create Flash based interactive demos and presentations. PowerPoint materials can also be converted in Flash using Captivate. Captivate has a number of accessibility features in version 3 and 4. http://tc.eserver.org/34522.html http://tc.eserver.org/34522.html Adobe's blog about their screen-capture and presentation software, Captivate. http://tc.eserver.org/34503.html http://tc.eserver.org/34503.html An introduction to usability testing and 15 tips for effective usability testing in India. Created and presented by Abhay Rautela at the Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, India during the second day of Bar Camp Delhi 6. http://tc.eserver.org/34504.html http://tc.eserver.org/34504.html This presentation describes how creating an accessible website takes care of its (organic) search engine optimization to a very appreciable extent taking reference from the WCAG 2.0 working draft and the Google webmaster guidelines.This presentation was created and presented by Abhay Rautela to the Sapient creative community at the New Delhi office in February 2007. http://tc.eserver.org/34420.html http://tc.eserver.org/34420.html Online formats can be confusing—consider "WebHelp" vs. "Web Help." This session describes XML, XHTML, HTML Help, WebHelp, DotNet Help, AIR, and others—and how to select the appropriate one. http://tc.eserver.org/34421.html http://tc.eserver.org/34421.html DITA enters a new phase this year with version 1.2. We'll learn about the big new features, such as keyref, and see them used in the latest DITA Open Toolkit. Attendees will know how to make use of new DITA 1.2 features using the DITA Open Toolkit. Attendees will understand key aspects of the new DITA 1.2 standard. http://tc.eserver.org/34422.html http://tc.eserver.org/34422.html How do you mitigate the risk of a major technology change such as DITA? This presentation shares lessons learned in the first DITA pilot project at IBM Internet Security Systems. How to pick the right opportunity for a user assistance pilot project. How to specify appropriate proof-of-concept requirements. How to use a wiki and collaborative walkthroughs to transfer knowledge and set standards. http://tc.eserver.org/34423.html http://tc.eserver.org/34423.html In this session, attendees will learn how to use MadCap Flare to develop multiple documents and/or online help systems from a single project and how to share content across multiple projects. Learn how to create multiple online help systems and/or print documents from the same content. Learn how to reuse content developed in multiple applications. Learn how to reuse content in multiple topics and across multiple projects. http://tc.eserver.org/34424.html http://tc.eserver.org/34424.html Provide a glossary of terms specific to your product and/or industry. Consider other languages' space requirements and writing conventions (e.g., right‐to‐left). Provide context, especially for translating interfaces only. Provide original (Word, Excel, ...) documents rather than PDFs. http://tc.eserver.org/34376.html http://tc.eserver.org/34376.html People are doing business differently today; the intranet of yesterday is not sustainable. Make your intranet work the way people work. http://tc.eserver.org/34369.html http://tc.eserver.org/34369.html This presentation describes the standard structure of a lab report and provides a methodology for successfully producing such a report. It includes a description of the generic structure of a report and variations on this theme. http://tc.eserver.org/34370.html http://tc.eserver.org/34370.html Technical Writing explained using photographs of actual technical writers. http://tc.eserver.org/34323.html http://tc.eserver.org/34323.html This 52-slide, illustrated presentation covers a wide variety of key topics about preparing PowerPoint slides. http://tc.eserver.org/34324.html http://tc.eserver.org/34324.html The PowerPoint tips featured here are not about creating better or more effective presentations, instead they help you avoid any last minute surprises that may crop up when an eager audience is waiting to see your slide show. http://tc.eserver.org/34283.html http://tc.eserver.org/34283.html You will not draw any slides—in fact do not even launch PowerPoint—until step eight, 80% of the way through the process. Typically, when you want to create a presentation, you open PowerPoint and start creating slides. Slide one, slide two, … slide seventeen… what I am trying to say again? Am I making my point? http://tc.eserver.org/34275.html http://tc.eserver.org/34275.html Xquery is a powerful query language designed specifically for XML content. It can be used for querying, processing, manipulation, and transformation of xml content. This presentation demonstrates how Xquery can be used to add to the feature set of the Dita Open Toolkit by introducing automatic glossary processing. http://tc.eserver.org/34196.html http://tc.eserver.org/34196.html Defines basic sales terms. Explores ways to use text and illustrations to create engineering marketing slides. Examines six methods of strengthening the persuasiveness of engineering marketing slides. http://tc.eserver.org/34197.html http://tc.eserver.org/34197.html Reviews the extreme claims that have been made about PowerPoint. Sets forth practical design ideas that are especially applicable to technical presentations. Explains three ways in which PowerPoint can subtly influence the intended meaning of deck authors and shows how these problems can be addressed. http://tc.eserver.org/34200.html http://tc.eserver.org/34200.html A case study of a course in which students used collaborative online tools such as Google Docs for major writing assignments, and the results the instructor discovered. http://tc.eserver.org/34160.html http://tc.eserver.org/34160.html How to get lab discoveries and results into a written document. http://tc.eserver.org/34128.html http://tc.eserver.org/34128.html Some Web entrepreneurs have made strides by developing Web-based tools for creating slides. The four that this TechTip highlights have a number of things in common. http://tc.eserver.org/34138.html http://tc.eserver.org/34138.html As a presenter, I feed off the energy of the audience. I used to think that the audience determined the energy in the room, but after applying some of Jerry Weissman’s principles, I learned the presenter has more control over the room than I previously thought. http://tc.eserver.org/34110.html http://tc.eserver.org/34110.html Some people call it blogging out loud. Podcasting is a fairly easy and fairly inexpensive way of presenting your ideas and opinions. But podcasting is more than a platform for reviews or polemic. It's also a powerful tool within the enterprise for training, for marketing, and for documentation. Imagine being able to carry product information or supplementary material with you and not have to worry about stacks of paper? You can do that with a podcast. http://tc.eserver.org/34106.html http://tc.eserver.org/34106.html An interactive presentation of a variety of visualization techniques used by graphic designers, technical illustrators and document designers to convey information. http://tc.eserver.org/34063.html http://tc.eserver.org/34063.html Online help. User assistance. That thing that pops up when you press F1. No matter what you call it, user assistance is an important element in the experience of a user. It can mean the difference between a frustrated user and a productive one. But is today's user assistance all it can be? Are we giving users purposeful information at the right time, in the most effective format, and ultimately in the way that they need it? Unfortunately, no. http://tc.eserver.org/34047.html http://tc.eserver.org/34047.html Get creative. Expand your font choice. Mix fonts. Use weights, font-styles, small-caps. Mind variations in size and legibility. http://tc.eserver.org/34053.html http://tc.eserver.org/34053.html Medical writing requires a combination of technical skills in medical sciences and rhetorical skills in language arts. http://tc.eserver.org/34043.html http://tc.eserver.org/34043.html I presented a session remotely at the Presentation Camp at Stanford University, California. My session was on “How to engage your audience with Twitter” and I tried to do exactly that during my presentation. Here’s what I learnt from my experience. http://tc.eserver.org/34040.html http://tc.eserver.org/34040.html An explanation of the logic behind the new FrameMaker interface and a tour of how it works. http://tc.eserver.org/34012.html http://tc.eserver.org/34012.html An introduction to Usability: What's The Use? by Shaun Fensom from Manchester Digital, followed by a short primer to usability by Paul Rouke, User Experience Director at PRWD. http://tc.eserver.org/34013.html http://tc.eserver.org/34013.html Talks about the importance of usability for internal business systems, specifically around staff productivity and process efficiency. The presentation touches on common barriers to staff productivity, some of the main reasons for these barriers, plus a short video of a manufacturing company who are embracing user-centered design as a way of combating the traditional software development issues on a companies productivity. The presentation also asks business owners a few key questions, such as do you listen to your staff, do you staff waste valuable company time doing repetitive tasks, and do you know what is the on-going cost to your business if you use un-usable software systems. http://tc.eserver.org/34014.html http://tc.eserver.org/34014.html Talks about the importance of usability for businesses communicating with both new and potential customers. Featuring a case study of how a company improved their revenue-per-employee by 95% over a 2 year period, along with some attendee participation, this 17 minute presentation touches on a wide variety of websites and activities, such as lead generation sites, information portals and search engine marketing campaigns. Most significantly conversion rates for e-commerce websites are discussed, where usability can have a remarkable affect on a companies bottom line, if the right decisions are made in making improvements. http://tc.eserver.org/34016.html http://tc.eserver.org/34016.html You may not have known your presentations have protagonists, but they do (or should). And whether the protagonist is you, your product, your cause or even your audience, IT must be primarily responsible for the major benefit or crisis you are trying to convey. If you’re selling a product or service, let it demonstrate exactly what it does. If you’re asking for funds, the audience may be the protagonist. Make it clear that they are the key to making it all happen. http://tc.eserver.org/33924.html http://tc.eserver.org/33924.html Our templates are free and we do not offer any kind of support for our templates. You are responsible for editing and modifying the downloaded templates, backgrounds or products. http://tc.eserver.org/33876.html http://tc.eserver.org/33876.html I'm definitely not the greatest presenter around. While I like to think I’m improving in this area, there are still holes in my game. Still, I was somewhat flattered. And it kind of fed my then-depleted ego to be asked this question, and the others that surrounded it. What follows are the points that I tried to get across. http://tc.eserver.org/33878.html http://tc.eserver.org/33878.html People perceive someone who speaks up as a competent leader - regardless of whether they actually are competent. That’s the finding of a fascinating research study that has just been reported online at Time. http://tc.eserver.org/33860.html http://tc.eserver.org/33860.html Because the nature of ethics information is highly abstract and related to integrity, it is based upon judgment and therefore subject to varying interpretations by employees. To increase common understanding and consistent interpretations, the use of language, choice of words, sentence formation, and presentation style are important. http://tc.eserver.org/33803.html http://tc.eserver.org/33803.html This presentation is a 90 minute session. It will cover many areas of XML and XML technologies. It has been constructed to provide the audience a broad understanding of XML and XML technologies in a short amount of time. The presentation is geared to ensure that new XML users can obtain the maximum benefit from other sessions presented at XML 2004. The attendees will gain an understanding of XML jargon and acronyms used in XML technologies, as well. http://tc.eserver.org/33805.html http://tc.eserver.org/33805.html Several Web service discovery technologies including Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), Web Services Metadata Exchange (WS-MEX) and other lightweight protocols and techniques can be used for particular scenarios. This presentation will discuss the status of each of these technologies and how they relate to the Web services stack as well as which technology should be employed to solve certain types of Web service integration problems. http://tc.eserver.org/33790.html http://tc.eserver.org/33790.html Microsoft PowerPoint is ubiquitous, and therefore controversial. Most critiques, both of the software and of its widespread adoption in educational settings, express concerns that are not particular to PowerPoint alone, but apply to “slideware” presentations generally. The reliance on sequences and hierarchies of bullet points (a poor means of presenting some kinds of complex information), the foregrounding of visual gimmicks over content, the displacement of attention from the speaker and her message onto summary arguments presented dumbly on screen: far from being necessary features of presentation technology, these (according to the critics) prove to be shortcomings that interfere with, rather than enhance, a presenter's ability to communicate. This paper presents an alternative to slideware, in the form of SVG graphics used for presentation. http://tc.eserver.org/33731.html http://tc.eserver.org/33731.html DITA is natural. Do XML/DITA conversion research now. Wiki is especially good for iterative writing. Structured wiki authoring in coming. http://tc.eserver.org/33737.html http://tc.eserver.org/33737.html In the evolving and demanding world of telecommunications, Tellabs supports telecom service providers with the design, development, and deployment of wireline, wireless , and cable solutions worldwide. But with each unique solution deployment requires knowledge transfer from engineers to field service staff to ensure a smooth system upgrade. Learn how Tellabs' New Product Introduction group used DITA to transition to customer-centric writing. *What are the key things the organization as a whole should keep in mind regarding processes?" http://tc.eserver.org/33705.html http://tc.eserver.org/33705.html This webcast is for those publishers who have made the decision to pursue digital channels for their content. What tools are out there? What do all those acronyms mean? How can publishers implement new strategies without disrupting current workflows? Here we explore the alphabet soup of digital publishing, sort out the tools that are most useful, and help publishers find some solid ground. http://tc.eserver.org/33571.html http://tc.eserver.org/33571.html Photo albums from previous presentations of Games To Explain Human Factors. http://tc.eserver.org/33541.html http://tc.eserver.org/33541.html When I was asked to write about the process in which I show demos of my company’s work, I initially thought of what I used several years ago to show clients my samples—a time when DVDs didn't even exist and my home office setup was not such that I could do demos effectively there. Those were days when I had to travel to a meeting with a VCR deck, a tube-style TV, a bunch of cables, a cart to carry everything on, and, of course, VHS tapes, all properly rewound to the correct starting points. http://tc.eserver.org/33442.html http://tc.eserver.org/33442.html The information architect focuses on how things are structured within the user experience: looks “up” to the user interface – how the navigation and page layout convey the structure; looks “down” to the content management to make sure it can enable to right user experience. http://tc.eserver.org/33432.html http://tc.eserver.org/33432.html We love stories, recognise patterns in fractions of a second and have a set of highly developed social behaviours. In "Persuasive Design" Mike will be running through a collection of these hard-wired influence points and exploring how they can be used in the design of products, interfaces and experiences. http://tc.eserver.org/33328.html http://tc.eserver.org/33328.html I’ll discuss how Aaron and I get ready to give a presentation, how we actually deliver one, and what happens afterwards. http://tc.eserver.org/33341.html http://tc.eserver.org/33341.html A look at how two technical communicators plan and prepare presentations. http://tc.eserver.org/33290.html http://tc.eserver.org/33290.html Several weeks ago I wrote about my trip to Brigham Young University-Idaho and the presentation I gave there titled “Debunking the Boredom Myth of Technical Writing.” This podcast is a recording of my presentation. http://tc.eserver.org/33237.html http://tc.eserver.org/33237.html Discover what "faceted browsing" is and other Web-focused terms for old ideas. http://tc.eserver.org/33214.html http://tc.eserver.org/33214.html Each situation is unique based on specific organizational needs and issues. Although the benefits may be difficult to quantify at times, at some point, your company will simply decide that, ROI or not, it can't live any longer with the (likely growing) pain of not effectively managing your content. http://tc.eserver.org/33217.html http://tc.eserver.org/33217.html Open source content management systems (CMS) are particularly attractive to the nonprofit community because of their cost-efficiency, but what do these systems actually do? And what are the differences between the most common CMSs? We’ll compare Joomla, Drupal, and Plone for typical nonprofit needs. http://tc.eserver.org/33205.html http://tc.eserver.org/33205.html Research on breadcrumbs as presented at the 3rd Annual Information Architecture Summit. Three types of breadcrumbs used on the Web are defined, examples given, and a set of research questions is presented. http://tc.eserver.org/33031.html http://tc.eserver.org/33031.html Information about objects on subjects - metadata describes objects. Purposes: Information management and discovery. Metadata enables content to be retreived, tracked, and assembled automatically. http://tc.eserver.org/33041.html http://tc.eserver.org/33041.html Why do we add metadata? To find information back. To investigate the source. To see what is related. To have an overview AND see what is relevant. http://tc.eserver.org/32889.html http://tc.eserver.org/32889.html In this presentation, the authors report on a survey and testing with screen reader users designed to determine how the placement of navigation in the source order (before or after content) affects accessibility. http://tc.eserver.org/32893.html http://tc.eserver.org/32893.html The following is what has been collectively pulled-through as the main points from Ella Tallyn's and Jon Pettigrew's respective presentations. These points should serve as introductory guidelines for UCD with children. http://tc.eserver.org/32947.html http://tc.eserver.org/32947.html Building designs with CSS is no longer a fringe activity practiced by standards geeks and early-adopters. Creative pioneers and highly skilled designers are bringing CSS to the mainstream. The explosion in popularity is ushering in a new wave of possibilities for web design. CSS provides greater design control, allows more flexibility, and enables sites to become attractive, accessible, and faster-loading, all at the same time. http://tc.eserver.org/32948.html http://tc.eserver.org/32948.html What do you do when you feel like you’ve hit a brick wall? When it seems your creativity is limited by how much CSS you know how to beat into submission? How do you resist the temptation to give it all up and go back to tables? Why does it feel like the pros are constantly inventing new techniques each week, when you’re still struggling to keep up with the stuff you read about last year? Understanding how and where CSS fits into the design process is key to knowing how to push your own limits. Reviewing the principles of existing techniques — and learning why or how they came about — can extend your capabilities and help you gain confidence in solving future problems on your own. http://tc.eserver.org/32783.html http://tc.eserver.org/32783.html The detailed notes for the presentation on creating quality content with Open Source tools that was given at DocTrain East 2008 (Oct. 31, 2008). http://tc.eserver.org/32683.html http://tc.eserver.org/32683.html If you know API writing, there is greater demand for your skills, that is, there are more jobs to which you can apply. At the same time, there is a shortage of API writers. API writers tend to work more closely with development, instead of through product management or product definition or through specs. You are closer to those who design the product, privy to design decisions -- closer to the action. http://tc.eserver.org/32686.html http://tc.eserver.org/32686.html Conversation is a theme that flows through all the work we do as technical communicators. Every use of your web site is a conversation started by a busy site visitor. http://tc.eserver.org/32689.html http://tc.eserver.org/32689.html Technical editor or writer needs to close the gap between the subject matter expert and the novice. A close collaboration between the technical editor and the expert results in better manuals.