Flow Write

XMetaL PDF via RenderX TOC indenting problem

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 23:38:00 +0000

When generating PDF output from XMetaL 6.0, if you are frustrated with the TOC of the "XMetaL Enhanced PDF via RenderX XEP" that does not have indenting of the topic title hierarchy at all, I have a simple solution for you:

Just copy C:\Documents and Settings\lli\Application Data\SoftQuad\XMetaL Shared\DITA_OT\demo\xmfo\cfg\fo\attrs\toc-attr.xsl to the following folder to override the same file in this folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\lli\Application Data\SoftQuad\XMetaL Shared\DITA_OT\demo\xmfo\Customization\fo\attrs\xm-cfg

Note: you should back up the original file in the second folder before the copying just in case.

Content Reuse Strategies for Building Multiple Markets Online Help

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:28:00 +0000

The project that I am currently working on is to build help for a web-based application that supports cross-market event registrations.

We write help in DITA. We use DITA OT to publish online help in HTML format, and a tool that I created to delivery embedded XML format help to the application user interface.

To maximum the reuse of content, three levels of strategies are adopted:

Topic level reuse
Paragraph level reuse
Phase level reuse

Topic level reuse

A ditamap can reuse content in the topic level. We have core content for all markets, and market specific content for a specific market. Since maps only processes topics in the same directory as the map, or in the sub-directories of the map's directory. The structure of the content should be maps of each market are stored outside of the core and makets directories. A second level of maps can be created to organize a set of topics for one feature within the core or market directories. This second level maps can be reused by different market maps.

Paragraph level reuse

Conditional text can reuse content in the paragraph level. If there are only one or two sentences difference in a topic for different markets, you can add an attribute to indicate which market this paragraph belongs to. By adding a filter ditaval file to the DITA OT, maket specific paragraph will be delivered to each market.

Phase level reuse

DITA 1.2 keydef element can reuse content in the phase level. The keydef element can be used in combination with the keyword element in a ditamap to define and set "variables" for small pieces of content that may change fairly often, such as UI labels, product name, version etc.

These keys (or variables) can be redefined later in the same map or in another map and all topics that reference the keys will automatically pick up the changes. For example, you can put a particular product name into a DITA map, and indicate in topics where you want the product name to appear. When you generate output using the map, its topics will display the product name in the appropriate places.

Keydef.ditamap

<map>
<keydef keys="marketname">
<topicmeta>
<keywords>
<keyword>Camp</keyword>
</keywords>
</topicmeta>
</keydef>
<keydef keys="eventname">
<topicmeta>
<keywords>
<keyword>Camping sites</keyword>
</keywords>
</topicmeta>
</keydef>
<topicref href="eventsetup.dita"/>
</map>

eventsetup.ditamap
<concept>
<title>Event Setup</title>
<conbody>
<p>You can use ActiveWorks <keyword keyref="marketname"/> to set up
your <keyword keyref="eventname"/>.</p>
</conbody>
</concept>

How to create a DITA OT plugin

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:03:00 +0000

When you use DITA OT to publish your DITA content, you might need to customize DITA OT XSL transformation. To make your DITA OT changes portable, you can create a DITA OT plugin.

To create a plugin, you need to first create one or more new or overridden templates xslt files, second create a plugin.xml file to point to your xslt files, and then install this plug-in to your DITA OT.

To create templates

Create a folder in dita-ot/demo to store your plug-in, such as my-plugin.
Create a folder to store your xslt files in dita-ot/demo/my-plugin, such as xsl.
Create a new xslt file to contain the template. It's better that one xslt file only include one function.

To create plugin.xml

Copy a plugin.xml file from any existing plugins into dita-ot/demo/my-plugin.
If there are more than one <feature> elements, delete the rest and only keep one <feature>.
Change the value in the remaining element to point to your new xslt files, separated by commas: < feature extension="dita.xsl.xml" value="xsl/yourxslt1.xsl,xsl.yourxslt2.xsl" type="file" / >

To install your plugin

In your dita-ot folder, run startcmd.bat.
In the cmd.exe window, type: ant -f integrator.xml.

The plugin that you have created can be easily packed and installed once you upgrade your DITA OT, or pass to others.

How to perform your own transformation using DITA-OT

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 23:35:00 +0000

This task assumes that you have DITA-OT appropriate installed in your computer.

DITA-OT transform DITA XML documents to other formats. However, you can tranform any XML document from command line using the Xalan XSLT processor, which is included in the DITA-OT.

To do this:

Have your own XSL stylesheet written and make sure it do what you expect with the XML source files they are designed to transform. You can try out using a browser.
In the DITA-OT folder, click to run startcmd.bat, which automatically set the system environment variables for you.
The command line for most standard transformations is as follows:
java org.apache.xalan.xslt.Process -in xmlSource -xsl stylesheet -out outputfile

where xmlSource is the XML source file name, stylesheet is the XSL stylesheet file name, and outputfile is the output file name.

If you want the output to be displayed on the screen, simply omit the -out flag and argument

Note:If you are using an external DTD or Schema, you need to have it to be found by the processor. Or you can just delete it from the source file. Otherwise, the processor will complain that it can't find the DTD or Schema.

Remix An User Manual by FLOSS Manual

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:55:00 +0000

The first time when I was using iGoogle, I though that it would be great if a user manual can be customized by the user using drag-and-drop operation. And now it comes true. Someone is really doing this - FLOSS Manual.

In the Remix section of the FLOSS Manual, you can just asseble each chapter or each section of a user manual as you want and then generate to PDF or HTML format. The operation is as simple as you adding widget to your iGoogle homepage.

How to embed YouTube video into DITA

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:26:00 +0000

You can embed an YouTube flash video into your DITA document using the <object> element.

Get the URL of the movie value from YouTube website. For example: http://www.youtube.com/v/EfmQB0stRRI&26hl=en
Replace any "&"(ampersand) characters in the URL with "%26"
Use that URL in the following DITA <object> element:

<object data="http://www.youtube.com/v/EfmQB0stRRI%26hl=en"
height="355" id="VideoPlayback" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
width="425">
<param name="movie"
value="http://www.youtube.com/v/EfmQB0stRRI%26hl=en"/>
<param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded"/>
<param name="allowScriptAcess" value="sameDomain"/>
<param name="scale" value="noScale"/>
<param name="quality" value="best"/>
<param name="bgcolor" value="#FFF"/>
<param name="salign" value="TL"/></object>

Which element to choose as the reusable DITA component

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:39:00 +0000

Writing a reusable component allows you to reuse a piece of text insets in your DITA document and reduces the cost for maintenance.

Reusable Candidates

The following are elements reuse candidates:

product name
installation paths
icon refrence
note(restrictions, prerequisites, tips)
individual steps

Element to Choose

The reusable component itself is a DITA XML file. It should follow the DITA vocabulary rules. In the reusable component file, you can choose most of the DITA elements to wrap the reusable text; however, which element makes the component most reusable?

For the semantically significant content, use the correct semantic elements, such as: filepath, varname, and cmdname
For the non-semantic strings, choose the least restrictive element type:ph

Syntax

Source:<element id=“element-ID”>content (including subordinate elements</element>
Reuse:<element conref=“source-file.dita#topic-ID/element-ID”></element>
For example:
Source:<ph id=“otk">DITA Open Toolkit</ph>
Reuse: <ph conref=“contentReuse.dita#conrefs/otk"></ph>

How to Inlucde A JS File in XSL

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:10:00 +0000

In my project, I need to include an external javascript(js) file in xsl. At first, I tried to include a script element in the head written in HTML syntax as :

<script language="Javascript" src="filename.js"></script>

When transfering to HTML, it became to:

<script language="Javascript" src="filename.js" />

Without the closing tag</script>, the script element was not recognized by the browser.

To solve this problem, I have tried a lot of methods, such as adding text to the empty script element as:

<script language="Javascript" src="filename.js">1</script>.

Although it worked fine, the useless text between script tag looked so unprofessional.

At last, I came across a way to make this work. Rather than including script as an element, I included a line of plain text using <xsl:text>:

<xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes"><script src="fsq.js" language="Javascript"</xsl:text><xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes"> ></xsl:text><xsl:text disable-output-escaping="yes"></script></xsl:text>

This line became <script language="Javascript" src="filename.js"></script> in HTML.

How to Embed Multimedia Video in DITA

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:44:00 +0000

This document explains how to implement multimedia video in DITA and how to transfer them to HTML format.

Supported Video Formats

The following are currently the most popular multimedia video formats on the Web:

The Shockwave (Flash) Format (.swf)
The Windows Media Format (.wmv)
The AVI Format (.avi)
The MPEG Format (.mpeg)
The QuickTime Format (.mov)
The RealVideo Format (.rm)

Web browsers use the <object> element to render these video files. The <object> element has two child elements: <param> and <embed>. The <param> element defines run-time settings for the object. The <embed> element is added to support browsers that don't support the <object> element. A browser that can parse the object element will ignore the <embed> element. The object element will be used by new browsers that support ActiveX controls. Older browsers will use the embed element.

Based on my research, the newer version of IE (IE 5 and later) accepts the <object> element for all six media types, while other browsers such as Firefox accepts the <object> element for only Flash(.swf) and WMV formats.

The DITA standard doesn’t allow <embed> element within the <object> element. To solve this problem, you need to modify the DITA-OT dita2htmlImpl.xsl to include <embed> element while transforming .avi, .mpeg, .mov, and .rm format video. You can also modify the DITA-OT xsl to support other object formats.

Implement in DITA

<object> element

DITA's <object> element corresponds to the HTML <object> element.

Attributes

The following attributes of the <object> element are required to render video formats:

classid: the format of the classid string is "clsid:XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX" for registered Microsoft ActiveX Controls. It tells the browser which media player to use to play the video.
data: the location or URI of the video file. For .avi, .wmv, and .mepg formats, the full direct URI is needed. Other formats only need relative URIs.
type (MIME type): indicates the video type.
width: the width of the video file in pixels.
height: the height of the video file in pixels.

The following table lists the value of classid and MIME type attributes of the six video formats:

format	classid	MIME Type
swf	Can be eliminated	application/x-shockwave-flash
wmv	Can be eliminated	video/x-ms-wmv
avi	clsid:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95	application/x-mplayer2
mepg	clsid:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95	application/x-mplayer2
mov	clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B	video/quicktime
rm	clsid:CFCDAA03-8BE4-11cf-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA	audio/x-pn-realaudio

<param> element

At least one child <param> should be included in a <object> to identify the location of the video data file.

Sample Code

The following lists the coding used to implement the video in DITA for the above example:

SWF
<object width="700" height="700" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="sample.swf">

<param name="src" value="sample.swf" />
<param name="autostart" value=" false" />
</object>

WMV
<object type="video/x-ms-wmv" data="http://domainname/video/wmvfile.wmv"
width="320" height="260">
<param name="src" value="http://domainname/video/wmvfile.wmv" />
<param name="autostart" value="false" />
</object>

AVI
<object type="application/x-mplayer2" classid="clsid:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95" data=”http://domainname/video/avifile.avi”>
<param name="src" value=" http://domainname/video/avifile.avi" />
<param name="autostart" value="0" />
</object>

MPEG
<object type="application/x-mplayer2" data="http://domainname/mpegfile.mpeg"
classid="clsid:22D6F312-B0F6-11D0-94AB-0080C74C7E95">
<param name="src" value=" http://domainname/video/mpegfile.mpeg" />
<param name="autostart" value="false" />
</object>

QuickTime movie(mov)
<object type="video/quicktime" width="450" height="230" data="Apple.mov"
classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B">
<param name="src" value="Apple.mov">
<param name="autostart" value="false" />
</object>

Real Video Format
<object type="audio/x-pn-realaudio" width="320" height="240" data="rmfile.rm" classid="clsid:CFCDAA03-8BE4-11cf-B84B-0020AFBBCCFA">
<param name="src" value="rmfile.rm" />
<param name="autostart" value="false" />
</object>

Using SFTP in VB.net

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:05:00 +0000

In my last blog, I talked about using ftp in vb.net. This time I will introduce a way to use SFTP in VB.net.

Same as call Windows ftp.exe in VB.net, you can call an SFTP client. Since Windows dosen't include any default SFTP client software, you need to find and install one. I used an open source free SFTP client called WinSCP, which supports scripting.

WinSCP has an very cool command-"synchronize". It can synchronize remote directory with your local.

The following is an example scripting txt file:
open username:password@hostname
synchronize remote [local directory] [remote directory]
chmod 777 [remote directory]\*.*
close
exit

After having created the scripting file, include the following line in a batch file and let VB.net to call the batch file:
winscp.exe /console /script=example.txt

Using FTP in VB.net

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Sat, 03 May 2008 00:06:00 +0000

A easy way to use ftp in vb.net is to call Windows ftp.exe.

First, you need to create a txt file with all the ftp commands.

An example ftp.txt:

open hostname portnumber
username
password
put filename
bye
exit

Then, in your vb.net script, use Shell to call ftp.exe:

ProcID = Shell("ftp -s:ftp.txt")

DTD FAQ

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:28:00 +0000

How to create an attribute and enforce a limited number of choices?

Enumerated attribute values

Syntax:

<!ATTLIST element-name attribute-name (eval|eval|..) default-value>DTD example:

<!ATTLIST payment type (check|cash) "cash">

Example 1.

Example 2.

This enforces the ALIGN attribute of the P element to have the value of either LEFT, or RIGHT, or CENTRE. A default can be supplied as follows:

<!ATTLIST P ALIGN (LEFT|RIGHT|CENTRE) "LEFT">

How to define rules for elements with more than one attribute, and if so how might I do it?

Defines the attributes list for the specified tag. You can declare multiple attributes at the same time, each with its type and value. An attribute can be of type CDATA, or it can be an item of a collection. Its value can be fixed, implied or required (see below). Here are a few examples:

Example. 1

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE payment [

<!ELEMENT payment (#PCDATA)>

<!ATTLIST payment type CDATA "check">

<!ATTLIST payment bank CDATA "TD">

test

</payment>

Example 2.

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE payment [

<!ELEMENT payment (#PCDATA)>

<!ATTLIST payment type CDATA "check" bank CDATA "TD">

test

</payment>

What are EMPTY Elements and how do I define them?

The word "EMPTY" designates the element has no content. Here's an example from the HTML 4 transitional DTD:

Example:

<!ELEMENT ADDRESS (STREET, CITY, STATE, ZIP, COUNTRY)>

<!ELEMENT STREET EMPTY>

<!ELEMENT CITY EMPTY>

<!ELEMENT STATE EMPTY>

<!ELEMENT ZIP EMPTY>

<!ELEMENT COUNTRY EMPTY>

DTD Attribute Value Declarations

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:20:00 +0000

Within each attribute declaration, how the value will appear in the document must be specified as following:

#DEFAULT: the attribute has a default value.
#REQUIRED: the attribute value must be included in the element.
#IMPLIED: the attribute dose not have to be included
#FIXED: the attribute value is fixed.

Cardinality of A DTD Element

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:10:00 +0000

An element's cardinality defines how many times it will appear within a content model. DTDs allow four indicators for cardinality:

[none]: only once
?: 0 or 1
+: 1 or more
*: 0 or more

How to Valid a XML File

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:06:00 +0000

To valid your XML file, you can:

Use an online validator, such as: http://www.stg.brown. edu/service/xmlvalid/
Use XML editor, such as: XML SPY or XMLETAL

What are Building Blocks of XML Documents?

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 04:52:00 +0000

Elements:
Tags: tags are used to mark up elements.
Attributes: attributes provide extra information about elements.
Entities:
PCDATA: PCDATA means parsed character data between start tags and end tags.
CDATA: CDATA means the text that will not be parsed which is inside a tag. It is the attribute in DTD.

What is a DTD

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 03:48:00 +0000

DTD stands for Document Type Definition. It is an extra rules that a XML file must conform to. We say a XML file is valid if it does confirm to the rules of a DTD.

DTD are written using EBNF(Extended Backus-Naur Form) not XML syntax.

Technical Writer Interview Information

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:45:00 +0000

Written by a senior technical writer to a technical writing student.

1. What kind of role do you play in your field as a technical writer?

My many roles as a tech writer over the last thirty-some years have been
mostly in manufacturing and banking where I write and edit user guides
(both software and hardware), standard operating procedures, policies and
procedures, technical specifications, quality assurance test
documentation, Web design, eLearning, and graphics. Oddly enough I've
never worked in marketing but I'm certain one would need to be very strong
in advertising and graphics.

2. What technologies are pertinent to the marketing field?

I'd say one would have to be an expert with graphic design applications
such as Adobe PhotoShop or CorelDRAW (my personal favorite). Text
processing goes without saying.

3. When being interviewed what type of documents should be brought along?

It's important to bring to your interview a professionally prepared
portfolio of your best work whether done as a student, intern, or
volunteer (such as church/neighborhood newsletters or flyers/posters). You
may be asked to leave a copy of this portfolio during your interview so
don't give away your only copy. Just like any audition, you hope for a
callback. This is a good sign.

4. What is the best way to get an interview?

Most companies have a Web site listing their job opportunities. There's
usually a place to drop your resume too. Check local newspapers as well as
Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. There are others.

5. Have you used a lot of networking to get interviews?

Networking is probably the best way to get your foot in the door of
prospective employers. Technical writing isn't a huge field but we are a
tight-knit group. I probably know 50% of the writers in my city. More than
half of them are free lance writers which means they move around a lot and
know who is looking for tech writers. Get to know these folks.

6. What are some of the best ways to begin networking?

Join professional societies and attend their meetings. I'm a member of
ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) and STC (Society for
Technical Communication). Student memberships are available. I'm sure
there are similar groups for marketing/advertising.

7. What would you recommend a recent graduate do to sell themselves in a
interview? Especially if they don't have much experience?

Show enthusiasm and a willingness to learn. Dress professionally. Do your
homework and learn as much as you can about the company with whom you're
interviewing before you get there (the Internet is a great tool and
companies love to brag about who and what they are).

8. What type of jobs are out there for technical writers in the marketing
and advertising realm?

Sorry, I can't answer that not having worked in advertising.

9. Do you have any tips for potential interviewees?

See question 7 above.

10. What kind of technical skills do you use on a daily basis?

I use CorelDRAW, RoboHelp, all of the Microsoft Office tools, Captivate,
and Articulate. I use a digital camera with its associated software and do
all of my own illustrating. (We had a graphics department at my last
company but we also had 30 tech writers vying for their services.) I make
daily use of project management skills. Most of this would benefit for
whatever industry you are applying.

Different Between Page Break and Section Break in Word

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 20:48:00 +0000

Page break separates pages with same format. Whereas, Section break allows you to apply different format to a portion of a document. For example, a section can have different margin, header, or footer settings from the rest of the document.

Types of Section Breaks

Next page: Inserts a section break and starts a new section at the top of a new page
Continuous: Inserts a section break and starts a new section on the same page
Odd page: Inserts a section break and starts a new section on the next odd-numbered page
Even page: Inserts a section break and starts a new section on the next even-numbered page

When you want to apply different header or footer to a section, click the Same As Previous button in the Header and Footer toolbar to turn it off, and then format the header and footer in this section.

When you change page layout, you can choose to apply to only this section or the whole document.

iPod Reward

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:18:00 +0000

I just won an iPod for our company's Intranet Website usability testing.

Several months ago, I also won an Jacket:

Using DITA for Conditional Text

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 20:57:00 +0000

"I attended a web seminar of Using DITA for Conditional Text from Just System recently. The following are what I have learned."

Before I start, I want to give some background information about DITA and conditional text.

What is DITA?

DITA stands for Darwin Information Typing Architecture. It is an XML-based architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering technical information. DITA is an XML vocabulary for creating structured content, availabe as DTDs and schemas. DITA divides content into small, self-contained topics that can be reused in different deliverables.
DITA specifies three topics:

Task
Concept
Reference

A task topic describes procedures about how to accomplish a task.
Concept topics provide background information about the task to help users understand what the task is.
Reference topics are used for describing regular features of a subject or product.

What is conditional text?

Conditional text is a function used in many desktop publishing and Help Authoring tools that displays information under certain conditions. For example, you can hide all the graphics for HTML format to reduce files size and show them in the PDF file.

Synonyms for conditional text:

conditional attributes
conditional processing
profiling
versioning
effectivity
filtered reuse
"select-atts" attributes
conditional build tags

How to Use DITA for Conditional Text?

DITA has specific attributes that can then be used for filtering, flagging, search, and indexing and these attributes can be used for conditional processing. These built-in attributes are:

audience
platform
product
otherprops
rev (for flagging only)

There are three types of content reuse in DITA:

Requirements	DITA Solution
multiple similar deliverables	flag some content as conditional
piece of content used in many different contexts	include in different topics using content reference
topic used in many different deliverables	include it in different deliverables through DITA maps

multiple similar deliverables -> flag some content as conditional
piece of content used in many different contexts -> include in different topics using content reference
topic used in many different deliverables -> include it in different deliverables through DITA maps

What does conditional text markup look like?
A paragraph that is not conditional:

<p>Press Ctrl+S. </p>

A paragraph that applies to Windows platform only:

<p platform="windows">Press Ctrl+S. </p>
<p platform="windows">Press Command+S. </p>

How to get conditional text out of deliverable?

When creating output, DITA Open Toolkit processes content to show or hide conditional text. DITA Open Toolkit is a free and open-sourced collection of scripts that transforms DITA content into deliverable formats like HTML or PDF. The Toolkit is not a software product and can not be used independently. It needs to be installed or integrated into a XML editor.
XMetal Author Enterprise which includes the integration of DITA Open Toolkit allows users to create conditional text.

"I am wondering, is there any other XML editor that supports DITA conditional text as well? Or if I installed DITA Open Toolkit to my XML editor (such as FrameMaker), will it support conditional text? I will follow up my research with these questions later."

My Pamphlet Design Sample

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:16:00 +0000

A Pamphlet I have designed for the Britannia Community Center.

View Upload your own

My Web Design Sample

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:08:00 +0000

This is a website that I have designed in the BCIT technical writing program "Writing For the Web" course. This website is designed for a fake rock and roll music band called Credible But Deadly.

The band was formed in 2005 with four members: two lead guitar vocalists, a bass player, and a drummer. They have released two albums and were getting popular. Besides albums and venue/event performances, they also produced band merchandises. The audience of this site were rock and roll fans.

The purpose of this website is to promote the band and its discographies, as well as to compel fans to buy its CDs and merchandise.

This was a team project, I designed the site information organization framework, page layout, navigation tabs, breadcrumbs, site map, as well as the home page graphic and the site banner.

The information of this site is organized by 5 categories. Homepage shows these 5 categories by different color tabs to indicate different categories.

The navigation system of this website is very clear and logical. I put the navigation bar in the left side of each page, which is easy for visitors to locate. Every page includes a breadcrumb to indicate the visitor’s current location. The site map page shows the entire structure of the site, with different color and shape to indicate categories and hierarchies.

The logo and banner at the top of each page maintains the consistency and also leads to the homepage.

In summary, the navigation is logical and consistent; the page layout is attractive and coherence; this site meets both the audience’s expectation and the proponent’s purpose.

This project gained the best design in my class.

How to Wash a Cat

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:15:00 +0000

In my Technical Editing class at BCIT, I had an in-class task to write instructions about how to wash a cat.

My son always wants to have a pet. I thought I should educate him about pets. So after the class, I asked him if he wanted to know how to wash a cat. He was interested. I then told him the step-by-step instructions: clean the toilet; get the cat; put in the toilet; flash the toilet to wash the cat; and dry the cat.

He likes drawing pictures very much, so I asked him if he could draw a picture to record the process. He agreed and drew the picture in less than five minutes.

His drawing was simple, vivid, and funny. He is a better technical communicator than I am. I then took photos of his drawing, edited those photos, and made them an illustration of how to wash a cat.

Making a Transparent PNG with Corel PHOTO-PAINT

noreply@blogger.com (LISHA LI) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:34:00 +0000

A transparent image allows the page background to display through the image. Currently, the only formats that support transparency are the GIF and PNG formats. Figure 1 illustrates the difference between a normal image and a transparent image.

Figure 1. A transparent image reveals background text

To make a transparent PNG with Corel PHOTO-PAINT, you must first import your image file as an object and make it transparent. After you have a transparent image file, you can export it to a PNG image file with transparent background.

The following are step‑by‑step procedures of the above tasks for experienced Corel PHOTO-PAINT users.

To make an image transparent

1. Open Corel PHOTO-PAINT and import the original image file as an object. (See Figure 2.)

Figure 2 .The original image is imported as an object

2. Select the object.
3. Open the Interactive Tools Flyout, and click the Object Transparency Brush Tool.
4. To set Object Transparency Brush Tool options, do the following:

To change the shape, on the property bar, open the Nib Shape picker, and click a shape.
To set the size, type a value in the Size box.
To set the brush stroke transparency level, type a value in the Transparency box.

5. Drag across the entire image to make it transparent. (See Figure 3).

Figure 3. The Transparent Brush Tool makes the image transparent

Tip: To change the shape of the brush, you can quickly choose a square or round brush shape by clicking the Round nib button or the Square nib button on the property bar.

To export a transparent PNG format image

1. Select the object.
2. On the File menu, click Export.
3. Choose the folder where you want to save the file and type a file name.
4. Choose PNG from the Save as type list box.
5. Click Option.
6. Select the Selected Only check box.

Figure 4. The Selected only check box needs to be selected

7. Click Export.

A dialog box appears showing the preview of the result image.

8. Click OK.