http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Presentations/Multimedia A listing of the most recently indexed works about Presentations and Multimedia 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/Multimedia 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/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/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/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/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/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/32347.html http://tc.eserver.org/32347.html More and more people are asking how to burn their Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 presentations to DVD. Using PowerPoint and a DVD, you have an easy method of getting your message out, whether as a training video or a digital business card promoting your products or services. And your audience can view your material at home as well as in their offices. http://tc.eserver.org/31963.html http://tc.eserver.org/31963.html Advancing technology allows us to use the new technologies of podcasts (audio recordings delivered as .mp3 files) and vidcasts, or more properly, broadcast video to convey technical information. Effective audience analysis will determine whether multimedia is right for our users. We use the same correct rhetorical principles to communicate information aurally and visually as we do when creating text. http://tc.eserver.org/31275.html http://tc.eserver.org/31275.html Hardware is easy to talk about, test, evaluate, review and sell. Software takes a little more study. Which is why we remain one of the very few imaging publications to review software in any depth. Most people find software is a solid that must be chewed to derive any nutritional benefits. And so they chew and chew and chew. But, no matter how much they chew, the stuff is still pretty hard to swallow. http://tc.eserver.org/28067.html http://tc.eserver.org/28067.html Whenever people talk about "jazzing up" some of the Microsoft Office tools, PowerPoint always rises to the top of the list (but you can use this technique for any Office applications). We've all seen the presentations with that pat clip-art, the checkered fades, and those bullets that slide. Why not add some interactivity and exciting animation? Thanks to Microsoft's ActiveX technology we can. http://tc.eserver.org/28066.html http://tc.eserver.org/28066.html Embedding is based on the Shockwave Flash Microsoft ActiveX component, an ActiveX component created by Macromedia that allows its content to run in Microsoft Internet Explorer. http://tc.eserver.org/27686.html http://tc.eserver.org/27686.html Shadow Fighter is a PowerPoint Movie. An animated show or movie done in PowerPoint mimicking the style of Arcade Fighting games. Shadow Fighter Series will show you how PowerPoint can do extreme complex animations similar to Macromedia Flash! http://tc.eserver.org/26991.html http://tc.eserver.org/26991.html Information about how to use the Canon Elura 50 camcorders for technical communication multimedia. http://tc.eserver.org/26992.html http://tc.eserver.org/26992.html Introduces how to use a CD/DVD duplication tower to make a few copies of your CD, CD-ROM, DVD-video and DVD-ROM multimedia. http://tc.eserver.org/26993.html http://tc.eserver.org/26993.html Introduces producing video special effects, using ChromaKey technologies and Apple's Final Cut Pro. http://tc.eserver.org/26994.html http://tc.eserver.org/26994.html An introduction to using Final Cut Professional 4.0 for multimedia video production. http://tc.eserver.org/26535.html http://tc.eserver.org/26535.html Two collaborative presentations about the status and factors that influence technology adoption within research in technical communication programs. http://tc.eserver.org/26205.html http://tc.eserver.org/26205.html This presentation focuses on creating video demonstrations of software for online tutorials, using AVI files, and Inserting these files into Windows Help or HTML. http://tc.eserver.org/25735.html http://tc.eserver.org/25735.html To help technical communicators become better informed producers of interactive new media productions, this article examines how motion can be used properly to create effective interactive information systems for the computer screen. This article provides a brief analysis of how cinema works and then demonstrates how a number of cinema techniques influence new media production. The article then concludes by offering suggestions for how to effectively apply a few basic cinema techniques directly to technical communication practice. http://tc.eserver.org/21758.html http://tc.eserver.org/21758.html Digital does not experience signal loss or degradation...what goes in, comes out. http://tc.eserver.org/20361.html http://tc.eserver.org/20361.html Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that promised to make us beautiful but didn't. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: It induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication. These side effects would rightly lead to a worldwide product recall. Yet slideware--computer programs for presentations--is everywhere. http://tc.eserver.org/18532.html http://tc.eserver.org/18532.html For a presenter, a high-quality microphone, combined with the right sound system, will give your voice a rich sound that can be heard throughout a room. Here are some things to consider if you want to add a microphone to the company conference room or your presentation traveling kit. The basics A microphone is essentially an energy converter that takes in sound waves and converts them into electrical energy. Two main types of microphones are available: condenser and dynamic. A condenser mic uses a power supply to provide a charge that works with a thin diaphragm inside the unit to create a signal. A dynamic mic creates a signal when the sound pressure moves a coil or ribbon across a magnet. Because they usually produce a richer sound, condenser mics are the more popular of the two; however, they require batteries or a power supply and are more expensive and more fragile than dynamic models. Dynamic mics are usually considered less accurate in sound quality, but they are generally more rugged and can withstand varying temperatures, humidity levels and a lot of abuse. These qualities make dynamic mics ideal for use outdoors or on the road. http://tc.eserver.org/18529.html http://tc.eserver.org/18529.html It may be a bit hasty to declare the end of the CD-ROM era, but the signposts are pointing in that direction. Although the CD provides a convenient way for presenters to store multimedia, distribute data and back up hard drives, the medium's space limits in the coming era of 100GB and larger hard drives and ever more ambitious multimedia projects will become increasingly evident. Indeed, many see the recordable DVD as the next killer app in computing – the one that makes the most compelling use of all that digital horsepower sitting idle on desktops everywhere, at home and at the office. More than a million recordable-DVD drives were sold in 2001, and the market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) predicts that number will grow to more than 30 million by 2005. Apple, Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony and other major computer manufacturers already ship recordable-DVD drives with their top-of-the-line models. Drives supporting the highly anticipated DVD+RW format (a format presenters should like because of its greater flexibility and superior write speed) have finally hit the market. And, as with almost all digital technology, recordable-DVD drives and media, not to mention video camcorders and software, are getting cheaper and more widely available by the day. http://tc.eserver.org/18208.html http://tc.eserver.org/18208.html An emerging body of research suggests that interactive multimedia presentation technologies offer unique advantages for technology transfer and training programs. A research and development team is evaluating this claim by developing and testing an interactive multimedia tutorial on a complex environmental research topic: in-situ capping of contaminated sediments. A World Wide Web site has been created using text and animations to illustrate basic processes about capping technology. The tutorial’s effectiveness will be tested through evaluations of subject-matter experts and end users. Supplemental technical information will be added before the site is promoted widely. http://tc.eserver.org/18200.html http://tc.eserver.org/18200.html Creating a multimedia title is much like creating a movie. The multimedia team has to work with many of the same components (sound, animation, graphics, and text) as a movie production team. Many multimedia developers see their work not as a product but as a production. Some developers no longer work in offices but in “studios,” Given this cinematic atmosphere and similarities in drama and multimedia, one can see how literary or dramatic terms can be used to describe reader (audience) roles in multimedia. In multimedia, the audience can become several different roles. This paper discusses these roles and how or if multimedia teams should react to them. http://tc.eserver.org/14530.html http://tc.eserver.org/14530.html Whether it is for a help system, a multimedia training product, or a software application, there are two key elements needed for good screen design: knowledge of the applicable research, and the ability to balance aesthetic appeal with functionality. This paper focuses on research into the specific human factors that affect how users interact with the visual display of information, and provides guidelines for how to apply the research results. The author adds information from his own interface design and usability testing experiences at Microsoft. http://tc.eserver.org/14405.html http://tc.eserver.org/14405.html Creating your own animated graphics is not as far out of reach as you may think. Even though many Web information developers lack the skills to venture into animation, in a relatively short amount of time they can learn how. We will demonstrate a few of the actual animations that we’ve created in-house, and also share what was involved in our decision-making: who should do the work, the costs involved, and the software issues we encountered. http://tc.eserver.org/14242.html http://tc.eserver.org/14242.html As technical communicators tackle multimedia projects, they realize the importance of using a process that can handle the dynamics of multimedia. This paper presents a multimedia development process that was developed and implemented by a team of technical communicators at IBM. It incorporates the basic elements of a standard information development process, and helps guide a team through elements introduced by new media, such as video production and deliverable distribution. http://tc.eserver.org/13961.html http://tc.eserver.org/13961.html Traditionally, technical editors have ensured consistency in the voice, grammar, and terminology of print documentation. As publications departments have moved to delivering online documentation, the role of the editor has varied and expanded. Editing multimedia documentation requires an even wider scope of skills than editing online documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/13943.html http://tc.eserver.org/13943.html The ability to build interactions that support, enable, and improve communication is a valuable skill for help developers, Web-site designers, multimedia content developers, information-rich user interface designers-anyone who designs and develops information to be used online. This paper presents the basics of interaction design for information products and describes some basic underlying human factors and user-interface design principles. http://tc.eserver.org/13694.html http://tc.eserver.org/13694.html Knowledge by design (KBD) is an instructional paradigm for the emerging digital technologies. This nascent paradigm entails an integrated, triarchic informationmedia-interactivity model of a robust, learner-centered experience. High-performance computer platforms, inexpensive mass storage, and high bandwidth data transfer from fiber optics and orbiting satellites—are converging with the global Internet to transform the nature of the 'infosphere.' At the same time, powerful off-the-shelf multimedia tools are widely available and affordable to courseware developers and communication designers. Approaching knowledge as a design discipline may facilitate the thoughtful development of a postmodern pedagogy that can more closely realize both the technological and human potential of the next millenium. http://tc.eserver.org/13677.html http://tc.eserver.org/13677.html In this seminar we’ll explore the basic concepts in the grammar and syntax of kinetic sight-and-sound media: film, video, and multimedia (motion media). We’ll not discuss how to write scipts. Rather we’ll concentrate on learning how to encode information into kinetic visual images using filmic design techniques. Throughout this seminar we’ll view and critique award-wining films and videos, and explore a multimedia flowchart to see how others have applied such filmic techniques to solve specific communication problems. http://tc.eserver.org/13486.html http://tc.eserver.org/13486.html Developments in communication technologies such as video scriptwriting and interactive multimedia require that technical communicators develop the skills and literacies necessary for adapting to the demands of designing information for media other than print. This paper presents a semiotic theory and model of multimedia discourse which will help technical communicators conceptualize and produce texts in new media. The model operates on the premise that communication practices can be considered as language games. The model focuses on the rhetorical and semiotic features of multimedia language games, and how to manipulate them. http://tc.eserver.org/13478.html http://tc.eserver.org/13478.html Ever wonder why we find graphical user interfaces, hypertext, and multimedia so appealing? Some of the appeal has to do with language itself which is the basis of human transactions, and some of it has to do with our conditioning as a literate society. Literacy builds on visual as well as verbal skills. This paper traces the roots of language to the ascendancy of print technology to explain how visualization is the foundation of literacy. http://tc.eserver.org/13292.html http://tc.eserver.org/13292.html Multimedia involves “many” “means of communication” – many ways of getting a message across. Whether you edit the work of others or submit your own work to the Red Pen, a closer look at what is involved in editing multimedia – tasks, process, and skills required – can help you create multimedia solutions that deliver your message with flying colors!