Content Management Market Year in Review 2006

The Rockley Group takes a look back at the year 2006 in review. What happened in the CMS market? How is globalization changing the content management landscape? And, what about new communication vehicles like blogs, wikis, podcasts, and RSS feeds?

Rockley, Ann. Rockley Bulletin (2006). Articles>Content Management>Software

Converting Documents from Microsoft Word to OOoWriter

I'm happy to report that OpenOffice.org 1.1.0 does a very good job of converting Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP files to OOo files -- much better than the previous releases I tested. Most of the problems I had noticed with conversions done by OOo1.0.2 did not appear when I converted the same Word files using OOo1.1.0. Some conversion problems remain. Most of these are probably due to OOoWriter not having any counterpart to some features of Word.

OpenOffice.org (2004). Articles>Word Processing>Software>OpenOffice

Converting FrameMaker to HTML  

Many FrameMaker users need to publish their documents on the World Wide Web. The best approach is to use a converter, which preserves the format and organization of the original FrameMaker document. Good converters can handle long, complex documents that contain elements such as table of contents, index, line drawings, bitmap graphics, tables, footnotes, and equations. We discuss the benefits of having a single source document for paper and Web, the techniques for creating documents that can be converted easily, and the powerful conversion tools available today.

Jackson, Ken and Sonya E. Keene. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Web Design>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

Converting Indexes with WebWorks Publisher

While WebWorks Publisher (WWP) 7.0 can convert FrameMaker indexes into different online formats, getting things to work initially can be a bit of a challenge. Page ranges in index entries result in hyperlinks to both the starting and ending locations. Index hyperlinks don’t always link to the top of a help topic, but often to somewhere in the middle. For Simple HTML and Dynamic HTML, “See” and “See also” references can fail to convert altogether. However, if you do get stuck, Customer Support can help pull you through.

Brown, Fred. Allegro Time! (2002). Articles>Indexing>Software>Adobe FrameMaker

Converting Word Documents with Embedded Files  

How can I convert Word documents to PDF and ensure their embedded Excel documents also get converted?

Boulay, J.R. PDFzone (2004). Design>Information Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Convince the Crowd With Presentations and Diagrams

Why just get by with a boring presentation when you can create a dynamite Microsoft Office PowerPoint® presentation or a colorful Microsoft Office Visio® diagram? Get ready to impress the big boss or the new team with simple ideas that go a long way.

Microsoft. Articles>Presentations>Software>Microsoft PowerPoint

CorelDRAW Tutorials, Tips, Etc.

This page contains a listing of twenty-four links to technical illustration tutorials and how-to articles for illustrators using draw software, especially CorelDraw.

Broz, Donald. Broz and Dian. Resources>Graphic Design>Software

COTS: The New Challenge of Information Integration  

Systems engineering is moving away from specially-designed and built systems to integration of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software. COTS brings new challenges to technical communicators. In the past, we found all our information in-house, now it comes from many sources. We must change our process from pure development to information integration, and we must be part of the COTS selection process.

Lenk, Donald S. Jr. STC Proceedings (1998). Presentations>Information Design>Software

Create a Fun Section Divider

How to create interesting graphical dividers in Adobe GoLive to use in web designs.

Shadovitz, Deborah. Mac Design Magazine (2005). Design>Web Design>Software>Adobe GoLive

Create Custom Grids

Suppose you have a publication with set column widths. You may not want to reset your columns or drag out multiple guides just to create tables or gridded content. The guides and Step and Repeat features in Adobe® InDesign® 1.5 make it easy to quickly create a custom grid to structure your content. This tip tells you how.

Adobe (2003). Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe InDesign

Create Powerful Flash Applications With Shared Objects

Shared objects allow for data persistence in Flash applications, like cookies do in Web pages. Learn to leverage shared objects to create more robust apps.

David, Jean-Luc. Builder.com (2003). Design>Multimedia>Software>Flash

Create Queries and Dynamically Update Collections

Use GoLive’s new query functionality to simplify complex file management chores by creating queries and attaching them to collections.

Adobe (2003). Design>Web Design>Software>Adobe GoLive

Create Web Sites That Others Can Easily Update

You can use the Co-Author feature of Adobe® GoLive® CS to create sections of a Web site that others can update quickly and easily. You specify the layout and format of the content while other people (the co-authors) provide the actual content, update it, and even publish the revised Web pages.

Adobe (2003). Design>Web Design>Software>Adobe GoLive

Creating a Grunge Effect Using Only Photoshop

This tutorial will teach you how to quickly create a 'grunge' effect for your photos using ONLY Photoshop. And while you might not need a grunge image, it will show you how to create a vector mask which will give you a tool to create numerous effects easily.

Robbins, Kyle. ReEncoded (2008). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop

Creating a New Microsoft Word Template

When you open a new file in Word, the font is probably set to Times Roman size 12. It doesn’t have to be like this; maybe you’d prefer a more glamourous font! In this tutorial, we'll explain how to create a new Word template.

Klariti. Articles>Writing>Software>Microsoft Word

Creating a Simple Traditional Countdown in a PowerPoint Presentation

An article featuring steps on how to create a traditional countdown using custom animations in PowerPoint.

Tohlz, Shawn. PowerPoint Heaven (2005). Articles>Presentations>Software>Microsoft PowerPoint

Creating a Template (Part I): The Basics

The natural tendency of most users of word processing applications is to create a document and use it as a model for future documents. That is, you format a letter the way you want all (or most) of your letters to look, save it, and then, when you want to write a letter, open this document and save it under another name as the starting point for your letter. In WordPerfect, until recently, this was the only way to create a template. Word uses a different approach.

Barnhill, Suzanne. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Document Design>Software>Microsoft Word

Creating a Template (Part II)

This article tells you how to create a template to produce a software manual.

McGhie, John. Word MVP Site, The (2005). Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Creating an Index in Microsoft Word

For technical writers, a well-crafted index helps organise the writing process, in particular, when you get to the production stage.

Klariti. Articles>Indexing>Software>Microsoft Word