Producing an e-brochure needs a lot of creativity, so you wouldn’t want to destroy the work with a low-grade online newsletter software package. As a matter of fact, picking a software provider is the key part of producing an ezine. And note that they do a lot more than merely help you set your content into some pleasant format. Amongst the potential features, simple usability is the main one. After all, it doesn’t matter how extraordinary the software is if you yourself can’t use it… Ahead of you choosing a supplier for your ezine, be certain to try different packages out.

In producing a digital catalog you also have to maintain awareness of the threat posed by hackers. Have you been taken through how your account is protected? Is it possible for people to just copy-paste the catalog content or does the flash publishing software supplier have security to prevent such things? Is the content secure from copying and pasting by the everyday reader?

You’ll also want to consider the marketing design to promote your online magazine. Whatever your marketing plan may look like, you will have to consider such things, perhaps not for every issue but rather for your business as a whole. How will you use networking media? What have you thought of re dealing with ads? Marketing your e-brochure will likely need search engine optimized content.

Old editions will be one thing you’ll need to think about when you create an online publication. What public availability will there be? Without wide availability you have many hosting options and you should look around the range of hosting options. What are your plans to publicize the digital catalog?

In conclusion, remember to choose a flash publishing software host offering quick access to technical help. Is it emergency only technical help? How long will tech-support response time be? Check any FAQ sections are there. Don’t wait to check to check out what technical support is available. Consider your options before you pick out a publication’s digital publishing software provider. Search Google, Yahoo or Bing etc. with the terms “create digital edition” for some more useful ideas.

Producing an ebrochure requires a lot of effort, therefore it would be a shame to destroy that with the wrong digital catalog software. In point of fact, picking a software supplier is one of the most important decisions you’ll take when you make an ezine. And they don’t only aid you in formatting the content. Amongst the features you should liik into closely, simple usability is the most important. Because of course, no matter how excellent the package may appear to be, it still sucks if you or your staff can’t do anything with it! Ahead of you choosing a provider for the electronic magazine, make certain to test it. In creating an online publication you also need to think about security. Are there measures placed to protect your account? What about the content? What measures have been taken to keep the general public from just copying and pasting the subject? When you’ve made an electronic catalog you need to make a business plan. One step within this plan is using networking sites. Ads must be part of your scheme. Not that each issue has to take all this into account but your overall plan definitely should. Contemporary marketing techniques mean thinking about search engine essentials when editing content. Will it allow for paid content as well as free? Think if you can offer a variety of subscription choices. Will you be monetizing your content in any way? What about providing teasers and summaries to market the ebrochure? How accessible is the catalog? Is it private: then you can look into many hosting options or is it public? You should probably host directly. And what will you do with back-isues?

The tech-support offered by your software vendor is a large consideration. How will you contact them? Be assured of their response time! What are their FAQ pages like? These things might seem minor now, but in the event of an emergency, you’ll be happy you considered this early on. The final choice in provider will ruin this carefully created magazine. You may also Google the term “Zmags” for some more pointers.

It’s cliché, but truea picture does paint a thousand words. This is an important message to remember when writing any sort of user documentation, such as an installation guide or an instruction manual. A document that makes judicious use of images and diagrams will be much easier to understand than one that is composed entirely of text descriptions.

I observed this first-hand years ago, when a junior programmer at one company was asked to update the software installation manual for their machine controllers. One of the first things he did was to strip away all the screen capture images, reducing the entire document to plain text. “These images are just silly!” he said. “They take up space, and they’re just not necessary. I trust that anyone who reads this document will be smart enough to figure it out.”

This turned out to be a huge mistake. The technicians who had to use the manual had a difficult time making sense of its instructions. They had to repeatedly ask for clarification, and one of them told me that the pure text descriptions were just too cumbersome to follow. They were fearful of using these instructions at all, knowing that a single misstep could lock the controllers into an irrecoverable state. It was a ugly situation all around.

The problem was that this programmer didn’t try to make things easy for the users. For one thing, he failed to consider that some technicians were not native English speakers, and that they might struggle with the wording. More importantly though, this programmer expected too much from his audience. He wanted to reduce these instructions to their bare essentials, thinking that would be adequate. He failed to consider that even an intelligent, otherwise careful reader might be tempted to jump over instructions, or would gloss over some critical detail. This is a common pitfall when time is short, and when the users are confronted with pages and pages of bland text.

A few carefully chosen images, with suitable captions, can go a long way toward preventing that. When I saw that the junior programmer was stripping away all the screen capture images, I cautioned him against that. “These images may not be strictly necessary,” I said, “but they help clarify a lot of details. For one thing, they show the user exactly which button to push, or which window to select. This makes the instructions much easier to understand, and reduces the likelihood of a human error.” To this day, I wish that he had heeded my warning.

Were the users intelligent enough to understand the manual, as he claimed? Certainlybut intelligence is no guarantee against human error. Could the images have been construed as talking down to the user? Perhapsbut in my experience, sophisticated users seldom respond that way. Rather, most of them seem to understand the value that these images bring to the table. Perhaps it’s because most of them know what it’s like to be frazzled and pressed for time, and how easily important details can be lost in the text.

So remembera picture paints a thousand words, and a single screen capture can be worth more than a dozen pages of text. It’s a lesson that’s worth learning.

V. Berba Velasco has a doctorate in Electrical Engineering and has been practicing his trade for nearly a decade. During that time, he has repeatedly found that good technical writing skills are almost as critical as good engineering skills. Dr. Velasco currently works as a senior electrical and software engineer for Cellular Technology Limited (http://www.immunospot.com), a biotech company in Cleveland, Ohio.