Archive for November, 2010

Build your interactive PDF application forms with Livecycle Designer

Monday, November 29th, 2010

When it comes to documentation tools, Adobe offers a wide array of great products. One of their tools is Livecycle Designer which is a standalone application for creating interactive PDF forms. This tool is relatively unknown even amongst the technical writing community and is not to be confused with the form design capabilities of Acrobat, [...]


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Five quick tips for proof reading

Monday, November 29th, 2010

Ever stare at a word for so long that you eventually start to think that it has a funny spelling? This is what tends to happen as we proofread the same content over and over. So here are a few small tips that are sure to help you achieve that perfect prose: • If possible, [...]


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Diagramming: Visio or Illustrator?

Monday, November 29th, 2010

There is no question that Microsoft Visio and Adobe Illustrator are both great applications. And when it comes to drawing vector based diagrams, both applications can be used to produce great results. Often times however, it can be tempting to use one application and then discover that the other is more appropriate. So here are [...]


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How using Word could cost you money and a job

Monday, November 1st, 2010

In 2003 Microsoft introduced Full Screen Reading View, which is the default view used when opening Word documents from email. When you view a document attached to an email, this feature will reformat text and hide certain items such as the header and footer. Supposedly this is to make attachments quick and easy to read. [...]


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Comparing help authoring tools

Monday, November 1st, 2010

Nowadays there are numerous tools available for creating online help systems. While most of them look and feel very similar, there are some subtle differences which could make one tool more suitable to your work than another. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could compare them side by side, kind of like how online stores [...]


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3 handy shortcuts in Word that will save you time

Monday, November 1st, 2010

Love it or hate it, Word is here to stay. And every few years Microsoft adds or changes features just to keep their software at the top of your mind. Here are a few handy shortcuts in Word 2007 which are sure to save you time. Effective image dragging – Word’s handling of images and [...]


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