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The e-mail part of the newsletter consists of the News and Events section. All links to other articles will take you to our website. News and Events: Web Content: Connecting with Customers A Writer's World: Lessons from Star Wars in Information Management September Meeting Report The Wandering Eye: Search Tools Single Sourcing with XML and XSLT From the President's Desk: It's All in the Mix That was Fun
The Society for Technical Communication is an individual membership organization dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication. It is the largest organization of its type in the world. Its 25,000 members include technical writers and editors, content developers, documentation specialists, technical illustrators, instructional designers, academics, information architects, usability and human factors professionals, visual designers, Web designers and developers, and translators - anyone whose work makes technical information available to those who need it. The STC Toronto Chapter was founded in 1959 (then the Society of Technical Writers) and is the largest chapter in Canada. About this Newsletter: This newsletter is produced monthly by the STC Toronto Chapter and is sent to all registered members. If you have any feedback or ideas, please e-mail editor Philip Kahn at: newsletter@stctoronto.org Our mailing list comes directly from the STC, so if you want to receive the newsletter at another address you will need to login to their members profile section and update your information. The STC Toronto Chapter will not share nor sell our address list and will only send e-mails with information we believe to be useful and relevant to our members. |
September Meeting Report
Desktop Publishing Tools: Word, FrameMaker and InDesign by Susan E. Webb Here follows a tale of one innocent little document and how it travelled, changed and evolved through three software programs: one lone document with three software programs vying to make it the fairest of all, using shortcuts, scripting and less commonly-used features. Gleaning the expertise of three software wizards, meeting attendees had an insider’s peek into what really makes MS Word, Adobe FrameMaker and Adobe InDesign such valuable authoring tools. First up was Rob Hanna, our own chapter vice-president, who created the words-and-graphics document in MS Word. Lauding Word as a useful authoring tool, he exhorted attendees not to be ashamed of using what many writers consider “basic” software for everyday tasks. Rob’s primary mantra was that style-driven text, though more time-consuming to create, can be imported into other programs more successfully than Normal text. He then let attendees in on some secrets for writing documentation more effectively than one might think possible using Word. For instance, Outline View is useful for constructing the document initially. Don’t miss the Caps Lock Autocorrect feature, available in version 2000 and higher. The Track Changes feature is an important tool for displaying editing visuals, which Rob recommended leaving on when passing the document from one reviewer to another. By using the Recheck Document feature, one can override various spelling conventions as desired. Setting the Language to Canadian English does away with many of those pesky coloured underline marks. Text boxes are more effective for inserting graphics than are tables, as the graphics can be positioned more precisely. This improves layout, as well as providing options to set the box behind, rather than in front of text, for nifty effects. He also discussed brightening, cropping and resizing graphics. The document then passed into the capable hands of Bernard Aschwanden of Front Runner Publishing Solutions. Bernard opened it in Frame as a Book document, to allow the insertion of the non-Frame elements. The Book file determines the chapter numbers and can fix discrepancies. The style-driven text of the document retained much (though not all) of the formatting from Word, plus all the text. If styles are used correctly and consistently, they generally tend to import properly. Bernard used IX Gen, an indexing feature, to generate an index and then saved the document as a .MIF file. He demonstrated building a Help file, using a template from WebWorks “Your Project”, which can delete all the unnecessary parts of the project, leaving only the Help file. Finally, the document was tidied up by Charles Rouleau, a freelance writer proficient in Adobe InDesign, an evolution of PageMaker. He described InDesign as the Rolls Royce of design software applications, suggesting it could leave Quark Xpress (the Honda) in the dust. By clicking File, then Place, one can open imported documents and graphics to further refine them in a newly-created book. It’s also possible to create a PDF and make one document out of all the files. With a new document, one can choose its size, gutter and margins in a snap. Simply click Name, and all text is selected easily. The useful Tools Palette allows the quick setup of page numbering, while the Pen Tool helps to set the graphic frame. At the press of a single key, powerful features such as document previews can be handily accessed. By using the advanced features and shortcuts of ordinary software, you too can make your documents look attractive without the need for specialized programs. Your documents can travel a similar path to that of our lone document and emerge, dazzling, at their intended destination. Susan Webb is a technical writer, editor and Adult ESL instructor. An active STC member, she recently received a chapter award for her contributions to this newsletter. Her experience includes working on privacy compliance and related documentation. In addition, Susan leads Adult ESL learners on an engaging, fun-filled journey through Canadian English at the Toronto District School Board. |
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