Practical Lessons for Small-Scale Web Publishers  

Electronic publishing through the World Wide Web offers tantalizing opportunities for small-scale operators such as individuals in academic or other non-profit institutions trying to reach a wide audience. Early users of the Web quickly recognized it as a ground-breaking medium for electronic publications. By making it easy to display and read texts online, the Web became a platform for materials that were too specialized, too ephemeral or too experimental for publication as traditional books or articles. However, the recent explosive growth and widespread commercialization of the Web have eroded or at least marginalized small-scale electronic publications. Successful small-scale Web publishing is still possible, but that success must be preceded by careful planning and goal-setting.

Sowards, Steven W. Journal of Electronic Publishing (1999). Articles>Publishing>Online

Practical Tips for Aspiring Authors  

Three research projects provide a foundation for ten tips for authors aspiring to publish in technical communication journals. The research indicates that cognitive dissonance stimulates successful topics. Collaboration facilitates the research and writing processes. Responses of authors published in six technical communication journals in 1990 provide a positive view of publishing opportunities for authors who polish their prose and follow up on their submissions.

MacNealy, Mary Sue. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Publishing>TC

A Practitioners' Citation Index?    

Whether articles have been applied on the job or have simply expanded our mastery of the field, how can we tell which articles practitioners find useful? This is the question I've wrestled with over the past three months. Unfortunately, supplying an answer isn't as easy as asking the question.

Hayhoe, George F. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Publishing>Assessment

Preflight Publications for Perfect Printing

Want to make friends with your service bureau and printer? Just bring them perfect files every time. Use the Save for Service Provider plug-in built into Adobe® PageMaker® 7.0 , and you’ll never have to worry about last-minute calls from your service bureau or printer again. Here’s an example of how you can use this plug-in.

Adobe (2003). Design>Publishing>Document Design>Adobe PageMaker

Preflighting PDFs for Print

Between 23 and 30 percent of all files submitted for print are in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), a figure that's likely to grow.

Miley, Michael. PennWell (2003). Design>Publishing>Prepress>Adobe Acrobat

Print to Online: Conflicting Tales of Transition    

This is a success story of how a large, high-tech service support organization made the transition from print to online documentation in both CD-ROM and Web media. But this is also a cautionary tale of the damaging drawbacks resulting from that changeover. The co-existence of two such very different evaluations, both based on accurate reporting about common products and circumstances, is emblematic of the challenges that new technologies can bring to information developers. The success story, told by the publications group responsible for the transition, is focused on new features and reduced production expenses. The cautionary tale highlights larger issues of process, product suitability, and indirect costs that affect both users and the company, including the publications group itself. The instructive value of considering two such versions of a single case history is in developing a fuller view of how technology advances can lead to unintended consequences for information developers.

Rehling, Louise. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Content Management>Publishing>Online

Printer Versus Press: How and Where to Print Your Projects

How, you ask yourself, would someone who is unfamiliar with printing navigate their way through the mine field of contemporary offset printing?

Green, Chuck. Ideabook.com (2005). Articles>Publishing>Prepress>Printing

Printers' Tips to Desktop Publishers

This collection is a compilation of tips from many sources. As a sales rep for a commercial printer (Altman Printing Company), I have personally experienced most of these situations. If I had had something like this to give to each of my clients in the beginning, it sure would have made everyone's life a little easier!! Some of the tips below should be added to the back of your DTP Bible! If you don't follow some basic rules -- sooner or later you will realize: just because it comes up on your screen real pretty, and it prints to your laser printer just fine --- doesn't always mean that it is going to output correctly from a high-resolution imagesetter or print the same way!!

Foster, Julian A., Jr. Teleplex. Design>Publishing>Document Design>Printing

Printing and Prepress  

PDF is becoming the de facto standard for not only viewing documents onscreen but also for printing them on paper. Acrobat 6 Professional includes better printing and prepress tools than ever before. PDF pundit Ted Padova shows you how they work.

Padova, Ted. Creative Pro (2004). Design>Publishing>Prepress>Adobe Acrobat

Printing Primer for Graphic Designers

Originally published in 1989, this printing primer for digital artists has been updated and annotated for today's digital desktop publisher.

Design, Typography and Graphics (2004). Design>Publishing>Prepress

PRISM: Publishing Requirements for Industry Standard Metadata

PRISM is an extensible XML metadata standard for syndicating, aggregating, post-processing and multi-purposing content from magazines, news, catalogs, books and mainstream journals.

PRISM. Organizations>Information Design>Publishing>Metadata

Problems and Joys of Reading Research Papers for Practitioner Purposes  

Discusses reasons that practitioners read research papers and the obstacles that they face when reading research papers. Jarrett provides several examples and suggestions for improving the accessibility of research papers for practitioners. Her suggestions include writing clear titles, ensuring that the abstract states the study population and limitations of the study, and ensuring that the conclusions are written clearly. She also discusses her criteria for determining whether or not a research paper is relevant to her work.

Jarrett, Caroline. Journal of Usability Studies (2007). Articles>Publishing>Research>Writing

Process Maturity Model for Publications Organization  

Since 1994, I have continued to develop and test the Five-Level Process Maturity Model. The model has been validated with a number of publications organizations. As a result, the assessment questionnaire is complete, and an assessment process is in place. I have isolated eight significant characteristics that help the publications organization efficient and effective in meeting user and customer needs.

Hackos, JoAnn T. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Project Management>Publishing

The Processed Book  

The 'processed book' is about content, not technology, and contrasts with the 'primal book'; the latter is the book we all know and revere: written by a single author and viewed as the embodiment of the thought of a single individual. The processed book, on the other hand, is what happens to the book when it is put into a computerized, networked environment. To process a book is more than simply building links to it; it also includes a modification of the act of creation, which tends to encourage the absorption of the book into a network of applications, including but not restricted to commentary. Such a book typically has at least five aspects: as self-referencing text; as portal; as platform; as machine component; and, as network node. An interesting aspect of such processing is that the author's relationship to his or her work may be undermined or compromised; indeed, it is possible that author attribution in the networked world may go the way of copyright. The processed book, in other words, is the response to romantic notions of authorship and books. It is not a matter of choice (as one can still write an imitation, for example, of a Victorian novel today) but an inevitable outcome of inherent characteristics of digital media.

Esposito, Joseph J. First Monday (2003). Articles>Publishing>Online

Producing A Winning Newsletter  

This workshop explores all the principles of newsletter creation--design, production, editing--with special emphasis on creating winning STC chapter newsletters.

McWilliams Johnson, Mary. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Publishing>Community Building>Newsletters

Progress and Trends in Ink-jet Printing Technology

This paper provides a brief review of the various paths undertaken in the development of ink-jet printing. Highlights of recent progress and trends in this technology are discussed. The technologies embedded in the latest ink-jet products from current industry leaders in both thermal and piezoelectric drop-on-demand ink-jet methods are also described. Finally, this article presents a list of the potential ink-jet technology applications that have emerged in the past few years.

Le, Hue P. Society for Imaging Science and Technology, The (1998). Articles>Publishing>Technical Illustration>Color

Promoting Access to Public Research Data for Scientific, Economic, and Social Development    

Access to and sharing of data are essential for the conduct and advancement of science. This article argues that publicly funded research data should be openly available to the maximum extent possible. To seize upon advancements of cyberinfrastructure and the explosion of data in a range of scientific disciplines, this access to and sharing of publicly funded data must be advanced within an international framework, beyond technological solutions. The authors, members of an OECD Follow-up Group, present their research findings, based closely on their report to OECD, on key issues in data access, as well as operating principles and management aspects necessary to successful data access regimes.

Arzberger, P., P. Schroeder, A. Beaulieu, G. Bowker, K. Casey, L. Laaksonen, D. Moorman, P. Uhlir and P. Wouters. Data Science Journal (2004). Articles>Publishing>Research>Scientific Communication

Publication Communication

Does your business put out a regular publication, such as a newsletter, journal or annual report? If so, the reason for it is to communicate a particular message to a particular audience, and it will be vital to your business to do this effectively. The following are some questions to ask yourself when assessing your publications.

Right Words. Articles>Publishing>Assessment

Publications Project Management A Toolkit for Overcoming Common Pitfalls  

Traditional project management 'science' and generic tools rarely match the unique needs of publications projects. The high-degree of human interaction and creativity involved in publication projects makes managing them more and than a science. This discussion/demonstration focuses on the unique challenges involved in managing publications projects and common pitfalls to avoid. We explain why we at Comprose, Inc. created the Documentation Blueprint Project Management Toolkit for managing publications projects, and we demonstrate how technical communicators can use these Custom-designed tools to make any publication project run more smoothly -- whether your project involves just one person or twenty.

Anton, Kathy, Teresa J. Tarwater and Andrea Heugatter. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Project Management>Publishing

Publish and Sell Your Book in Hypertext  

Anyone who would like to publish a book should consider using Windows™ hypertext Help. Publishing in hypertext can help authors fulfill their creative urge. Conventional publishing methods can obstruct good writers from contributing to their respective field of interest. It is hard to get a book proposal accepted today. Competition is fierce, and writers must follow accepted protocols to have ideas considered. There is potential for writers who develop and produce Windows online Help systems. They are already 'experts' in a newly emerging technology. Using the Windows hypertext medium, writers can publish and sell their ideas without the hassles of the publishing industry.

Davis, Douglas W. STC Proceedings (1994). Design>Publishing>Online>Hypertext

Publish or Perish: Create an Out-of-the-Ordinary Booklet

Though form and function does not necessarily improve the content of your message it can improve the ease with which it is accessed--and design can effect how well it is understood.

Chuck Green. Ideabook.com (2005). Design>Publishing>Usability

Publishing — The Way We Were  

Five experienced technical communicators will look back on changes in the field of publishing, sharing knowledge of the old ways, comparing them with what’s current, and examining how we all can benefit from both the old and the new.

Cox, Alberta L., Donald W. Bush, Elizabeth Babcock, David Dobson and Lola Zook. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Publishing>History

Publishing and Its Implications, 1688-2005

One definition of rhetoric is the study of relationships between writers and readers. This course will review changes in publishing from 1688 to the present, considering implications for writers (particularly professional communicators), publishing, and reading audiences. The course will learn about, then examine in detail, the social impact of key innovations from this period.

Sauer, Geoffrey. Iowa State University (2005). Academic>Courses>History>Publishing

Publishing Futures Within (or Without) the Humanities

Humanities disciplines have attributed enormous importance to scholarly publishing, but have not yet sufficiently examined the changes of circumstance which have re-formed the nature and interests of the publishing industry in recent decades.

Sauer, Geoffrey. Society for Critical Exchange (1999). Articles>Publishing>Assessment>History

Publishing is Dead  

What does the internet mean for Traditional Publishing? It means death. Not one to pull punches, Mike Scantlebury expounds his theory in a humorous and direct way.

Scantlebury, Mike. FreeIQ (2007). Articles>Publishing>Online>Video