Suggests ways for technical communicators to improve their visual skills and visual literacy. (SR)

Describes "builds" and "filters," two simple forms to interactive media that the viewer can control to reveal new layers of information and that often save resources by replacing many separate graphics. (SR)

Describes the visual counterparts of 14 figures of speech and their usefulness to designers of illustrations, visual symbols, and hypermedia. (SR)

Discusses how to make better indexes for online documentation. (SR)

Offers detailed "instructions" on how to fail at multimedia: make it unintelligible, ugly, and big and slow; limit the number of users; assemble a dysfunctional team; violate copyrights; and make it noninternational. (SR)

Presents a 10-step procedure for selecting the computer software needed to author and deliver online documentation. (SR)

Introduces and discusses briefly 10 multimedia products that are fun, useful, and that can teach a lot about communicating technical and business information. Discusses seven things that designers can learn from such examples. (SR)

Discusses how to choose the medium or media to communicate technical information, how to combine and integrate media, and what the user can use. (SR)

Notes that many companies want to reduce paper documentation necessary to support their products. Maintains that, if technical communicators are to avoid being downsized out of a job, they must build on their existing communication skills and move toward product design, helping to produce products so obvious that they need no manuals. (SR)

Discusses the problem of using graphics in international documents, since graphics are not universal unless expressly designed as such. Discusses how to plan international graphics, pitfalls to avoid, wordless instructions, and text. Offers a checklist for cultural and national differences. (SR)

Notes that the new media will incorporate the old. Discusses what changes writers can expect from multimedia and how writers might thrive in a multimedia world. (SR)