Tutorials

Why Is It Important for Video Tutorials to Be User-Led?

When it comes to video tutorials, long narrations quickly tire the audience. Why is that? The same reason my kids prefer the beach over Disneyworld: most videos are not user-led.

NetTuts+ Tutorials

Nettuts+ is a site aimed at web developers and designers offering tutorials and articles on technologies, skills and techniques to improve how you design and build websites. We cover HTML, CSS, Javascript, CMS’s, PHP and Ruby on Rails.

Twenty-Seven Best Photoshop Web Layout Design Tutorials to Design Decent Web Layouts

For beginner web designers - design tutorials really help to understand the basic knowledge about web design!, Here is a collection of 27 layout design tutorials that will help you with designing a decent looking website. Some of them are really good!

Creating a Multi-Page Document Using AutoFlow

In this tutorial, we are going to create a simple layout for an existing text document.

Postcard Announcing an Exhibit

In this tutorial, we will create a postcard announcing a fictitious exhibit (or a real one if you have one coming up:) using InDesign. This tutorial was originally written for the InDesign Workshop.

Poster Announcing an Exhibit

This tutorial is a companion to 0002, and was part of the InDesign Workshop. We will create a companion poster announcing the same exhibition.

Designing for the Web: A Tutorial by Mike Markel

This tutorial presents a brief overview of the process of creating a Web site, introduces you to important design principles to consider as you design a site, and helps you analyze the design of sample Web pages. Although the principles presented here apply to all kinds of Web sites, the primary focus is on sites for organizations'from student groups to corporate Web sites'rather than on personal Web sites.

XML Schema Tutorial

In our Schema tutorial, you will learn what an XML Schema is, how XML Schema will replace DTD, and how to use the XML Schema language in your applications.

Enhancing Tutorials With Acrobat

Ideas for enhancing tutorial documents using Acrobat features.

Accessibility Tutorials

A collection of tutorials to help web designers understand accessibility issues.

Balancing the Elements in Job Aid Design

Job Aids offer the Technical Communicator a unique opportunity to present acquired product knowledge in a creative format. In order to produce a successful job aid, you must select and blend elements of material, color, graphics, text, typography, and ergonomics in a manner that will be most useful to the intended user. The information for the Job Aid is culled from the larger project deliverables such as User Manuals or Procedure Guides; the creativity for the Job Aid comes from within and is driven by the needs of the user and the limitations of time, money, and environment.

Tricks for Teaching Old Dogs New Tools: Training Users in a Reengineering Environment

Approaches for training business professionals who use computing technology have evolved over the past 25 years. Existing training techniques are useful in spite of technological chauges. Increased scope of technology changes makes efficient training of users more important. Increased pace of charlges makes the training more difficult. Companies are betting their futures on the implementation of increasingly sophisticated computer technology. Technical communicators and traiuiug developers must use practical applications of old training techniques and adapt new strategies to ensure communications between business professionals and techuical professionals that we have historically facilitated.

Acrobat How-to: Enhancing Tutorials With Interactive Elements

A funny thing happens to students after class: They forget what they've learned. But adding interactivity can engage the reader. Try these simple methods.

Dreamweaver Tutorials: Getting Started

Learn how you can get up and running quickly with Dreamweaver MX. Watch these tutorial movies, and get started today.

Getting Started with Flash Video

In this brief tutorial you will learn how to build a simple Macromedia Flash video project in just five easy steps.

Introduction to Macromedia Dreamweaver (I)

Macromedia Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor used for web page creation. This video will guide you through the first use of Dreamweaver MX. It is followed by Introduction to Macromedia Dreamweaver (II).

Introduction to Macromedia Dreamweaver (II)

Macromedia Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor used for web page creation. This video will continue to guide you through the first use of Dreamweaver MX. It follows Introduction to Macromedia Dreamweaver (I).

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Fundamentals

Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Fundamentals is the first in a series of tutorials from Virtual Training Company for Dreamweaver MX. The author of this series, Mark Fletcher, is a member of Team Macromedia for Dreamweaver. Tap into his extensive knowledge as he takes you step-by-step through the creation of a web site. He will show you how to add text and graphics, work with frames and framesets, apply cascading style sheets, and create re-usable content from library items. You will also learn how to insert and edit Flash objects, construct an HTML form, manage your page layout using both HTML tables and the Layout View, structure and maintain your web site using Dreamweaver MX's powerful site management tools, and create a dynamic web page using Macromedia's ColdFusion technology. To start learning, simply click one of the topics below.

Evaluating Online Tutorials on Software Applications

Nowadays, there are a lot of software applications designed to meet the need of end users to simplify their work. These software applications usually come with supporting tools to help users with system setup and requirements, installation guides, troubleshooting, or getting-started tutorials. When looking for more information on a specific topic or “how to” on a software application, users usually tend to look first on the manufacturer’s Web site. In reality, however, the result doesn’t always answer our questions, because the manufacturer may have a wide variety of tutorials that may confuse us, the manufacturer’s tutorials may be intended for experienced users, or tutorials may be incomplete because the manufacturer only goes through the basics of the software application.

Integrating Training and Documentation

The potential problems I detailed in working to integrate training and documentation functions do indeed occur in many organizations. They have also found that working out the problems is worth the effort.

The Importance of Staff Induction

Staff induction activities are designed to provide new-starters with the information they need, as well as getting them up to speed on how the organisation works. Induction processes are vital to ensuring that new staff are productive as quickly as possible, and should play a key role in knowledge management initiatives.

Putting "Show Me" Demos to Work

Follow the top five design tips--the five high C's--for creating a 'show me' demo that sings.

Word Tips and Tricks: Movies for Authors

These flash movies can be redistributed freely on your Web site or intranet, on condition that they are not altered or amended in any way. If you view them on this Web site, they will open in second window.

Process, Methodology, Life Cycle Oh My!

No matter what you call the process of managing your design project from beginning to end, it can save your butt. You land a client or buddy who wants you to design a website. No problem, that's what you do. Have you experienced the following? Scope creep Budget creep Launch delays Maintenance issues Maybe it's time to put a process in place that outlines the phases of your web design project. It doesn't have to be complex. Even a one-person shop can do it.

Digital Video Design and Production Tips for Technical Communication

Technical communicators can expect to see an expanding role of video in product documentation, training, and marketing presentations. This is largely due to three factors: (1) digital video lowers the technology and cost thresholds to bring video to the desktop, (2) video makes sense for conveying information involving movement, and (3) video is a popular consumer medium. To technical communicators, video is a new medium in which visual communication is key. Narration and text are subordinate. Technical videographers must learn and apply video design principles and good production practices to create effective video that communicates the information.

Nine Quality Characteristics and a Process to Check for Them

We all know what differentiates a great piece of technical communication from an average one...but can you articulate specifically what quality looks like in your work? Can you list the characteristics that all successful pieces of technical communication share? Can you repeatedly produce technical information that is of the highest quality? By using a checklist based on the nine characteristics of quality described in Developing Quality Technical Information, you can develop specific checkpoints for your design and development process to ensure that your end product, your technical information, meets these characteristics.

Whose UI Is It, Anyway? Skills and Resources for Moving Beyond Traditional Documentation Deliverables

Information-rich interfaces are proliferating right under our noses—both on the Web and on our desktops. As professional user advocates and technical communicators expert in designing information, we are in a key position to perform product-design roles as these interfaces are developed. To be fully prepared for this challenge, we must develop some skills we might not have, and we must gather resources that are perhaps outside our typical bag of tricks.

Basic JavaScript with Examples

Since the day Microsoft built support for JavaScript into Internet Explorer 3.0, Netscape's client-side language has become the de facto standard for enhancing web pages at the browser. In this full-length excerpt from Practical JavaScript Programming, author Reaz Hoque explains the basics of client-side scripting. He also gives you some neat scripts that can enhance your web pages, making them impressively interactive. Important code snippets available in this article include a browser detection script, capable of offering tailored content based on broswer version or type. For instance, it's important (unless you like crashing visitors' computers) to only serve JavaScript 1.1 code to Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later.

Tutorial: Introduction to JavaScript

JavaScript is an easy-to-learn programming language which can be built into Web pages, so that it executes from within the browser rather than on the web server. Intranets especially can leverage the power of JavaScript to create 'smart' Web pages which can process data and interact with the user. In this introduction we concisely look at the main programming points of the JavaScript language.

Dreamweaver 4 Tutorial: A Guide for New Users

If you've been thinking of making the jump to Dreamweaver, you couldn't find a better time than now. Version 4 was recently released and has earned a slew of glowing reviews. We've prepared this guide with new users in mind, those who have intranet or Internet experience, but haven't tried Dreamweaver before. The instructions that follow are for Dreamweaver 4.

A Macromedia Dreamweaver Tutorial

This tutorial will start off by guiding you through the first steps of building a site with Dreamweaver. Next, we'll look at more advanced elements, like adding media and remotely managing a site. This tutorial focuses on Dreamweaver 3, so if you're using an earlier version, you'll find that some of the features discussed are not available.

Searching the World-Wide Web

The Internet is a terrific resource. It contains hundreds of web sites dedicated to thousands of topics. With so many sites, it is easy to get lost. Knowing the types of search tools available and mastering some general search tips can make your search more profitable. Use caution when searching the web, though. Anybody with access to the Internet can post web sites about topics that interest them. These sites are not always accurate. Therefore, it also is a good idea to learn how to evaluate web sites. The Purdue University Library system's Core+ Tutorial provides helpful guidelines for evaluating sources.

FrameMaker Building Blocks: Using Building Blocks to Customize FrameMaker Documents

Building blocks, like macros, allow you to enter information without typing it.

Planet Photoshop

Tutorials on various image-editing techniques using Adobe Photoshop.