Typography is the study and process of typefaces; how to select, size, arrange, and use them in general. Traditionally, typography was the use of metal types with raised letterforms that were inked and then pressed onto paper. In modern terms, typography today also includes computer display and output.
#31069
Basics of Conducting Focus Groups
Focus groups are a powerful means to evaluate services or test new ideas. Basically, focus groups are interviews, but of 6-10 people at the same time in the same group. One can get a great deal of information during a focus group session.
McNamara, Carter. Free Management Library. Articles>User Centered Design>Methods>Focus Groups
#19826
With constantly changing deadlines and last minute major revisions, how can technical writers ever hope to create quality documents? Members of the STC Quality Special Interest Group (SIG) will present some basic concepts that will provide insights into ways you can improve the quality of your documentation. They will look at what is meant by 'quality documentation', how documentation quality can be measured, how quality can be implemented in documentation processes, how ISO 9000 requirements can be adapted to help improve the documentation process, and how the relationship between developers and writers can impact documentation quality.
Rupel, Roberta A., Lori H. Fisher, Donald S. Lenk, Ralph E. Robinson and Richard Colvin. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Quality>Technical Writing
#20835
Bass Curves for the Diffusion of Innovations
Uptake of hypertext is likely to happen somewhat differently than the standard Bass curve. First, the market for hypertext use is highly dependent on the number of people who have computers with certain minimum capabilities (typically at least a graphical user interface; for WWW use it is also necessary to have Internet access). Second, the influence of other hypertext users is almost certainly not linear.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1995). Articles>Human Computer Interaction
#29522
Bastien PROT: XPS une alternative au format PDF
XPS (XML Paper Specification) est un format de fichier électronique à présentation fixe comme le PDF du concurrent Adobe qui préserve la mise en forme du document et permet le partage des fichiers sans perte dinformation. Le format XPS garantit que, lorsquun fichier est affiché en ligne ou imprimé, il conserve le format souhaité.
Rédacteur Technique, Le (2007). (French) Articles>Document Design>Standards>XML
#28567
Battle of the Wizards: Dojo Vs. Microsoft
Two wizards are compared. One client script from DOJO and the other server component from Microsoft. Both fo them work exceedingly well in IE 7.0. Dojo wizard looks smashing.
Krishnaswamy, Jayaram. DevShed (2007). Articles>Computing>Programming>JavaScript
#25435
Battlecat Then, Battlecat Now: Temporal Shifts, Hyperlinking and Database Subjectivities
Like all media forms, the blog is not transparent. The technological code of the software contains affordances that filter and, in part, determine the constitution of the private/public Self represented in any weblog. And so, what kind of Self (or Selves) are made possible or enabled by typical blogging practice?
Jarrett, Kylie. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging
#28183
Baumol's Disease: Is There a Cure?
Baumol would never have expected in 1967 that a technological innovation like the internet would make it possible to create a sealed-off labor force in a third-world country.
Hackos, Bill. Center for Information-Development Management (2005). Articles>Technology>History
#20277
Be An Author, Not a Writer: Breaking Into Retail-Market Computer Book Publishing 
Many experienced technical communicators already have the skills and experience required to be successful authors of retail-market computer books. What they generally lack, however, is an understanding of the retail computer book publishing industry: the roles of the various players, options and techniques for landing that all-important first contract, navigating the ins and outs of money and contracts, developing book proposals, and working on their own. By learning more about the industry, technical communicators gain two things: an increased chance of becoming a first-time author and, more importantly, whether this is an appropriate career choice for them.
Benz, Christopher J. and Michelle Corbin Nichols. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Writing>Publishing
#14438
When giving overview information, be concise. Save the details and flowing language for those that want them or have the time, but don't slow down the skimmer. This doesn't mean skip the details, just keep them from people who don't need them.
Bricklin, Dan. Good Documents (1998). Articles>Writing>Workplace>Technical Writing
#29314
Be Prepared: Fill the Gaps in Your Photoshop Know-How
It's next to impossible for one person to know the ins and outs of every single facet of Photoshop. With that in mind, we present three video tutorials to plug a variety of holes in your Photoshop knowledge.
Perkins, Chad. Creative Pro (2007). Articles>Graphic Design>Software>Adobe Photoshop
#31849
Be Productive When a Project Stalls 
With more and more companies adopting the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, Baril discusses how to choose a compatible content management system that also supports your company's processes.
Gutowski, Amanda and Lori L. Pennington. Intercom (2008). Articles>Project Management>Planning>Collaboration
#20866
Be Succinct! (Writing for the Web)
The three main guidelines for writing for the Web are: be succinct: write no more than 50% of the text you would have used in a hardcopy publication; write for scannability: don't require users to read long continuous blocks of text; use hypertext to split up long information into multiple pages.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (1997). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#21953
Your document won't print? Don't panic - here's a systematic guide to troubleshooting the problem.
Powers, Lynn. Adobe Magazine (1995). Articles>Computing
#20054
Bearing the Burden: Small Firms and the Patent System 
The popular conception of the patent system is one of mad inventors with ludicrous inventions and equally absurd expectations that the product of their years of pottering in the garden shed will change the world. Precisely the same system is the bulwark of strategy in some of the world's most powerful companies, notoriously in the pharmaceutical industry, but now also in the world's IT industry. Can the one instrument serve such diverse purposes? Certainly those for whom the patent system is of critical strategic importance think so for they frequently declare that it benefits the independent inventor and the small firm. They insist that the patent system encourages the innovation of the weak as well as the strong, and that society is much the richer for this innovation. This article considers just who does benefit from the patent system and then turns to the other side of the coin, the costs of the patent system. Most discussion of the system seems not so much to deny the existence of costs as to ignore them. Yet, the costs would seem to be considerable and their distribution as uneven as that of the benefits. Those who reap most benefits from the patent system are not those who incur most costs, and while benefits are finely focussed, costs are much more widely distributed. The greatest cost of all would seem to be borne by society as a whole in terms of damage done to innovation, which is curious given that the fundamental purpose of the patent system is to encourage innovation for the benefit of society as a whole.
Macdonald, Stuart. JILT (2003). Articles>Intellectual Property>Patents
#26376
Beatrice Santiccioli: Specializing in Color
A visual designer discusses why Swatch, watercolors and cooking can inspire the design of color. Louise Sandhaus draws out how Beatrice Santiccioli came to be the Queen of Color.
Sandhaus, Louise. AIGA (2005). Articles>Graphic Design>Interviewing
#29757
Beautiful Evidence is Edward Tufte's fourth and latest book and both follows and diverges from the directions established with The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (Tufte, 1983), Envisioning Information (Tufte, 1990), and Visual Explanations (Tufte, 1997). Visual Display examined pictures of numbers, Envisioning explored pictures of nouns, and Visual Explanations addressed pictures of verbs. Beautiful Evidence foregoes the 'pictures of' approach and instead establishes the role of evidence as the foundation of reasoning. In some ways, this latest book might have been better positioned as the first book because of its efforts to explain interplays of understanding and reasoning.
Penrose, John M. JBC (2007). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design>Usability
#28068
We demand more and more from the stuff in our lives--more features, more function, more power--and yet we also increasingly demand that it be easy to use. In an Escher-like twist, the technology that's simplest to use is also, often, the most difficult to create.
Tischler, Linda. Search-This (2006). Articles>Usability>Technology
#30081
This session will help participants understand how to write and submit a manuscript for publication in Technical Communication. It covers the types of articles the journal publishes, its audience, and suggestions for choosing topics, doing research, and preparing a manuscript.
Hayhoe, George F. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Publishing
#30082
Becoming a Journal Peer Reviewer
This session will help participants understand the process for reviewing manuscripts submitted to
Hayhoe, George F. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Publishing>Editing
#26722
Beetle Bailey and Presentation Skills
An audience, whether it is one person or many, wants speakers to provide maximum relevant information, delivered in minimum time and in the clearest possible terms, centered on the needs and concerns of the audience.
Tracy, Larry. Klariti (2005). Articles>Presentations>Rhetoric
#18515
People often turn down the chance to be interviewed because they're nervous, or afraid they'll say the wrong thing. Instead, think of the interview as a golden opportunity for you to convey your message. If perceptions about you, your school, or youth in general have been wrong in the past, this is your chance to set the record straight.
#18855
A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email
In a conversation, there is some minimum of shared context. You might be in the same physical location, and even on the phone you have, at minimum, commonality of time. When you generate a document for paper, usually there is some context embedded in the medium: the text is in the proceedings of a conference, written on a birthday card, handed to your professor with a batch of Econ 101 term papers, or something similar. With email, you can't assume anything about a sender's location, time, frame of mind, profession, interests, or future value to you. This means, among other things, that you need to be very, very careful about giving your receivers some context. This section will give specific strategies for doing so.
Sherwood, Kaitlin Duck. Webfoot.com (1998). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email
#22869
Answers to questions like: where do Web pages come from? What are all those brackets in the text, anyway? How much HTML do I have to learn? How can I get started quickly? What kinds of HTML authoring tools are available to me?
Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Web Design>HTML
#30133
A Beginner's Guide to HTML and Web Design
The best place to learn about HTML is on the Web itself. A few of the best resources for exploring HTML design are listed here.
Quesenbery, Whitney. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Web Design>Standards>HTML
#30292
A Beginner's Guide to Project Management
Presents the basics of developing a project plan, managing the project, troubleshooting the project, and evaluating the completed project.
Houston, Bill. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Project Management
