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Issue Number 11 - October 1999Home - Subscribe - Archive - Articles - EmailOpen Here! - instructional design You buy a new gadget, open the box, and look at the instructions. It's either a single sheet of thin paper with a spidery diagram that tells you nothing, or a ninety page booklet in seven languages which tells you more than you need to know.
Seminar Rooms - free study materials We've created a new section at the Mantex site. It's called 'Seminar Rooms' and offers free study materials on courses related to literary studies and information technology. It's an update of the previous 'Literary Studies' section, but we've now added the IT materials. The entries are pitched at undergraduate level and above. Features include lecture outlines, seminar presentation notes, students notes from tutorials, bibliographies, question analysis, examples of good essay-writing techniques, suggestions for further reading, web site reviews, and glossaries of technical terms.
'Cascading Style Sheets'
'Windows 98 in easy steps'
Writing Guides - a Bibliography
Windows Tip: Easy Maximisation
Microsoft HelpDesk for Windows 98
Sample dissertation
and if you need instructions for dealing
with zipped files, go to -
'Wired Life'
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'Open Here' is a collection of witty and
colourful examples from the world of
informational design. Some of them are
skilled and beautiful works of art - such
as the cross-section through a Volkswagen
beetle. Others are semi-comic directions
on how to brush your teeth.
This is a lively and beautifully designed
book which will make you extra-conscious of
instructions, whether it's programming your
VCR or opening a pot of jam. Full details
and review article -
Cascading style sheets are a mechanism for
adding fonts, colour, and spacing to web
pages. They've been around for a while, but
only the most recent browsers have supported
style sheets - which is why they've now
become more popular.
If you want a thorough explanation of how to
write the little code items which are inserted
at the top of your pages, you might as well
consider a book written by the people who
invented style sheets.
Hakon Lie and Bert Bos cover everything from
fonts, spacing, layers, and colours, to the
tricky issue of forward compatibility. Full details and review article at --
This is a special double-thick edition of one
of the popular Computer Step publications.
These offer simple instructions, written in
plain language, with each topic confined to a
single or a double-page spread. They are very
well illustrated, with lots of screen shots,
plus tips and cautions highlighted in the
page margins.
This title takes you through what's new in
Windows 98, and it will also act as a guide
to Office 2000.
TopFloor Publishing have just released
another in their excellent 'Poor Richard'
guides (which I notice are now on sale
in UK bookshops). In 'Email Publishing'
Chris Pirillo explains what's involved,
from simple announcements to fully
automated discussion lists.
As usual, all the free services and
software are listed, so you can do this
at almost no cost from your back bedroom.
Full details and review article at --
It's a compilation of all the issues which
have been raised at the Microsoft Help desk.
What happens if your printer doesn't respond;
how to recover from snags on installation;
and [don't try this at home kids] how to
edit the Registry.
Topics covered include getting accesories
to work; the desktop and start menu; disk
control; connections with the internet;
laptops, modems, monitors and video
adapters; networks, printers, and system
tools.
This is one for technicians, but it's on an
amazingly big discount at Amazon. Further
details and brief review article --
He also has a firm grasp of the technical
achievement behind the information
revolution. She has some reservations,
but says 'I've never read a more lucid
exploration of the difference between
information, knowledge and wisdom, and
the relationship of all three to data
handled by computers'.
Jane's book, 'A Writer's Internet Handbook'
is due out next year. Meanwhile, read her
review article on 'Wired Life' at --