Technical documents provide information that readers need to make decisions or complete tasks. Technical editing ensures that this information is presented in a way that facilitates the reader's understanding. Technical editors offer suggestions for improvement in design of both content and layout and therefore work with the document in both early and late stages.
#32549
Drawing Hilbert Curves with SVG
Hilbert curves are a type of space-filling curve that can be constructed with the SVG polyline element, using a basic design and then aggregating.
Opera (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Image Editing>SVG
#32595
When your photo can't be changed, surround it with cool color.
Before and After (2008). Design>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Color
#32684
Quick, Quality Indexing for Environmental, Safety, and Health
Indexing for environmental, safety, and health texts, you provide sure, quick access to critical information in times of need.
Wyman, Pilar. STC Proceedings (2008). Articles>Editing>Indexing>Policies and Procedures
#32690
The Under-Appreciated Art of Proofreading
Although I hate to sound like a Luddite, the automatic tools are no guarantee that your document will be error free. Here are a few proofreading tips that may help you eliminate some common errors.
Rosenberg, Nad. TechWRITE (2006). Articles>Editing>Collaboration
#32713
How Microsoft Pushed QuickTime's Final Cut
Apple's work to aggressively build upon QuickTime and compete in the market against Microsoft--rather than just handing its technology over and “partnering” with the company--launched Apple ahead and established major new markets for the Mac platform. Final Cut Pro initially established the Mac as an essential tool among editors.
RoughlyDrafted (2007). Articles>Multimedia>Editing>Video
#32717
Forty Beautiful Grunge Photoshop Tutorials
In this collection, we present to you 40 excellent, high-quality grunge Photoshop tutorials. So fire up Photoshop and get ready to get your hands… dirty!
Gube, Jacob. Smashing (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Adobe Photoshop
#32877
Appropriate Use of Alternative Text
Adding alternative text for images is the first principle of web accessibility. It is also one of the most difficult to properly implement. The web is replete with images that have missing, incorrect, or poor alternative text. Like many things in web accessibility, determining appropriate, equivalent, alternative text is often a matter of personal interpretation. Through the use of examples, this article will present our experienced interpretation of appropriate use of alternative text.
WebAIM (2005). Articles>Accessibility>Image Editing>Web Design
#32908
Few people realize that with today's modern browsers, relative sizing can in fact be added to images as well as text elements on your web page. Making the image scale with the text may aid in accessibility, despite the degradation of quality.
WATS.ca (2006). Articles>Web Design>Image Editing>CSS
#33127
Crop images contextually for faster downloads and higher impact. By cropping maximally and resizing you can convey meaning without slowing down your web pages.
Website Optimization (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Image Editing
#33533
Graphic Thoughts: My Top 10 Photoshop Moves, Part 1
Almost every time I speak to an audience about graphics or Photoshop, I’m asked if I went to school to learn what I know about the application. The truth is that while I spent more than 3 years in an Advertising Art degree program, I ultimately switched gears and got a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in marketing (Mom and Dad were thrilled with this news!), and that was in the early ’90s—pretty much in the infant stages of Photoshop.
Gray, Lawrence. Event DV (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Adobe Photoshop
#33540
Graphic Thoughts: Creating Great Backgrounds in A Snap
Recently, I had the chance to go with my in-laws to City Museum in St. Louis. What an amazing place to get lost in by crawling through inventively designed tunnels that go underground to many stories below the city streets. The most impressive thing to me was how the place was constructed—they used everyday items, such as metal storage bins, bottles, and gears (plus what looked like a million other items) to create elaborate mazes of artwork.
Gray, Lawrence. Event DV (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Adobe Photoshop
#33544
Adding High-Impact Filters to Your Titles
Words go so well with video. They can give an emotional punch to a scene or simply announce what is going to happen next. I love using romantic quotes, Bible passages, and other forms of text in my work. The best part is that you can be just as creative with how those words are presented as you are in picking out the text in the first place.
McManus, Joe. Event DV (2008). Articles>Multimedia>Image Editing>Video
#33545
Perspective—it’s one of the first things you learn about in any art class. The basic idea is that it’s the way your eye actually sees something, represented on a flat surface such as paper or a monitor. A simple example is drawing a group of objects: You represent an object in the distance by making it smaller, while making objects close to the viewer larger—make sense? In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to create perspective shadows in Adobe Photoshop CS3. The result is dynamic, but the technique is a breeze!
Gray, Lawrence. Event DV (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Image Editing>Technical Illustration
#33864
Off Site Reviews: Six Ways to Exchange Edits
Coordinating a document review can be a tedious process. However, the task is even more difficult when reviewers work in another location and can't quickly exchange comments via paper. Fortunately, technology is presenting writers with new options for handling off-site reviews.
HelpScribe (2009). Articles>Collaboration>Editing>Online
#34207
InDesign CS3: Search Using GREP Expressions 
On the GREP tab of the InDesign Find/Change dialog box, you can construct GREP expressions to find alphanumeric strings and patterns in long documents or many open documents. You can enter the GREP metacharacters manually or choose them from the Special Characters For Search list. GREP searches are case-sensitive by default.
Adobe (2006). Articles>Editing>Regular Expressions>Adobe InDesign
#34208
Regular Expression Tutorial - Learn How to Use Regular Expressions
Basically, a regular expression is a pattern describing a certain amount of text. Their name comes from the mathematical theory on which they are based. In this tutorial, I will teach you all you need to know to be able to craft powerful time-saving regular expressions. I will start with the most basic concepts, so that you can follow this tutorial even if you know nothing at all about regular expressions yet.
RegularExpressions.info. Reference>Editing>Search>Regular Expressions
#34209
Regular Expressions for Client-Side JavaScript
Here is the syntax for a very powerful and very cryptic string pattern matching scheme in the client-side JavaScript of web browsers. You can use it to validate form entry, parse URLs, and many other things.
Visibone (2007). Reference>Editing>Regular Expressions>JavaScript
#34210
regular expressions provide a concise and flexible means for identifying strings of text of interest, such as particular characters, words, or patterns of characters. Regular expressions (abbreviated as regex or regexp, with plural forms regexes, regexps, or regexen) are written in a formal language that can be interpreted by a regular expression processor, a program that either serves as a parser generator or examines text and identifies parts that match the provided specification.
#34211
Regular Expressions - a Simple User Guide
There is no gentle beginning to regular expressions. You are either into hieroglyphics big time - in which case you will love this stuff - or you need to use them in which case a headache may be your only reward.
Zytrax (2009). Articles>Editing>Search>Regular Expressions
#34212
Once the main text has been written, you edit it. Editing means breaking text into sub-documents; pointing out connections to other texts; making sure the document as a whole is in good shape; adding indices and outlines. Editing doesn't necessarily happen after the first text has been written - I mix those stages all the time - but it deserves to be thought of as an independent discipline, because the problems it deals with are different. Most of what people do on the World Wide Web is really editing, not writing.
Technische Universität Berlin. Articles>Web Design>Editing>Writing
#34214
Speaking UNIX, Part 9: Regular Expressions
Virtually all non-trivial problems require you to filter good data from bad. Discover the many UNIX command line utilities that use regular expressions to discern the relevant from the irrelevant.
Streicher, Martin. IBM (2007). Articles>Editing>Regular Expressions>UNIX
#34286
Comparing Featured Article Groups and Revision Patterns Correlations in Wikipedia 
Collaboratively written by thousands of people, Wikipedia produces entries which are consistent with criteria agreed by Wikipedians and of high quality. This article focuses on Wikipedia’s Featured Articles and shows that not every contribution can be considered as being of equal quality. Two groups of articles are analysed by focusing on the edits distribution and the main editors’ contribution. The research shows how these aspects of the revision patterns can change dependent upon the category to which the articles belong.
Poderi, Giacomo. First Monday (2009). Articles>Editing>Online>Assessment
#34349
More Than Grammar: Expectations of Technical Editing New Hires 
Thomas asked the Technical Editing SIG listserve what they would expect from a technical editing new hire. Their answers show that expectations extend well beyond proper grammar knowledge and good spelling skills.
Thomas, Shelley. Intercom (2009). Careers>Editing>Technical Editing
#34350
Editing Modular Documentation: Some Best Practices
The authors have come up with eight guidelines and three concrete suggestions on best practices for editing modular documentation, including ensuring that all topics are standalone, that titles are unique and descriptive, and more.
Strimling, Yoel and Michelle Corbin. Intercom (2009). Articles>Content Management>Editing>Documentation
#34443
Do I Really Need a Style Guide?
So, after all, I must follow those infernal style guides. I am straight-jacketed. Am I not?
Palagummi, Sharada. Indus (2009). Articles>Editing>Style Guides>Writing
