Flash Publishing with Images, Diagrams, and Graphs

1. Course Flash Publishing with images, diagrams and graphs OJC Bridge

2. Overview • Informative • Effectively communicate a message. • Attractive • Enhance the way your publication looks. • Captivating • Grab the reader/viewers attention. • User-Friendly • Do not negatively affect the user-friendliness of the publication. OJC Bridge

3. Informative Objects • What is the message? • Think first, convey a message. • If it doesn’t communicate any information then don’t include it. OJC Bridge

4. Informative Objects • Who is the audience (context)? • Reconsider adding complicated graphs, or tables. • Do you think the intended audience will understand the insertion? If not adapt it. OJC Bridge

5. Informative Objects • Making objects more informative: • Provide captions to photographs • Provide clear accurate keys to all graphs and diagrams. • Cross reference text to appropriate objects. • Insert objects in appropriate locations. • Appropriately name all objects for indexing. • Acknowledge the source of all objects. OJC Bridge

6. Informative Objects • Tips on Captions: • Be specific, be concise, guide the viewer. • Note the difference between two potential captions: • ‘A hillside near village of al-Jabal” and… • “This hillside near village of al-Jabal in North West Syria is terraced and covered with olive trees. These trees are the life-blood of the village as their oil provides the average inhabitant with 60 % of their yearly income”. OJC Bridge

7. Informative Objects • Tips on Graph Creation: • Make graphs clear, precise, and accurate. • Communicate the required information effectively. • Discard information which is confusing (presentations). • Try and create all your graphs with the same program or group of programs (e.g. Office 2003) that you will publish the final paper. • Make a key, and if needed, color code the graph clearly. OJC Bridge

8. Informative Objects • Tips on naming objects: • All objects inserted into publications should be named. • Develop a consistent system of object naming throughout the NAPC. • Ask InfoComm to develop a system: stick to it. • This will make references to objects much simpler, for viewers and creators. • E.g. (Photos) Photo_1, (Graphs) Graph_1, Tables (Fig_1). OJC Bridge

9. Attractive Objects • Making an object attractive: • Images are added not only for effectiveness but also for attractiveness. • But before you add, consider this: OJC Bridge

10. Attractive Objects • Placement: • The placement of an object directly affects how the whole publication looks. • Maintain symmetry – it makes the text easier to read. • Colors: • Are colors necessary? If so what colors? • Often a black and white objects can be very effective. OJC Bridge

11. Attractive Objects • Overcrowding: • Don’t crowd your page, it confuses the reader or the viewer. • Objects are there to help simplify an idea not to confuse. • Image Quality: • Badly taken photographs look unprofessional - negatively impacting publications. • Learn how to take and choose good photos. OJC Bridge

12. Captivating Objects • Grabbing your audience’s attention: • Grab the viewer’s attention. • Cause people to take a second look. OJC Bridge

13. Captivating Objects: • Use effective photographs: • Dramatic images are more effective than more general images. OJC Bridge

14. User-friendly Objects • Ensuring your object is user-friendly: • Most important step - often overlooked. • Publications designed to be read, so they must be: • Easy to download • Easy to use • Easy to navigate OJC Bridge

15. User-friendly Objects • Easy to download: • Inserting external objects increases file-size and download time. • Limit the file size as much as possible. • As a general rule limit insertions to 100 KB. • Objects should account for less than 20% of the total file size. OJC Bridge

16. User-friendly Objects • How to reduce the file size: • Resize images used in a publication. • Change the format of the file. • Ensure compatibility of object. • Don’t add pictures unless strictly necessary. • Use black and white if color is not essential. OJC Bridge

17. User-friendly Objects • Resizing an image: • Images in their original form are huge files. • A normal digital camera creates images of around 1MB. • But don’t resize inside the publication program. This kind of resizing has very little effect on the file size. • You must resize images in image editing software first. OJC Bridge

18. User-friendly Objects • Resizing and Image: • Open the file in PhotoShop. • View the image at 100 % (it says what percentage it as at the top of the file in blue). • If not click on the 'View' tab on the top toolbar and click "Zoom in" or "Zoom out" depending on whether it is bigger or smaller than 100%. • Click the "Image" tab on the top toolbar. Scroll down until you get to 'Image size…" click. • Choose to change pixel dimensions or the document size. At the top of the window you can see the current file size. • Change the size by typing in some new parameters. • Then either save the file as a copy, or continue by also changing the format. (see below) OJC Bridge

19. User-friendly Objects • Changing format of an image: • In the case of images, for larger images the best format for space-saving is .JPG • Smaller images, thumbnail size, are best saved as GIF. • Saving it as a JPG in PhotoShop also makes it possible to reduce the resolution of the image. • This is best done in parallel with changing the size of the image. OJC Bridge

20. User-friendly Objects • Saving an image as JPG in PhotoShop: • Open image in PhotoShop v.7.0 • Click on the file tab, and click 'save as.. .'. • Checking 'save as a copy' so that you don’t lose the original file, scroll down the formats column and get to JPG. (For GIF images you just need to select GIF here) • Click ‘save’. • Then choose image quality. See file size in the bottom left and corner of the window - download time also listed. • Click ‘Ok’ when you have chosen the size you would like. • Then insert this 'copy' of the original file into your presentation. OJC Bridge

21. User-friendly Objects • Changing the format of the whole file: • PDF files are particularly good because they restrict editing and reduce the file size. • Consider even converting PPT (PowerPoint) files into PDF format. • It can make viewing and downloading simpler. OJC Bridge

22. User-friendly Objects • Ensuring compatibility: • Add graph or table in same format. • If inserting a graph to your PowerPoint presentation – make it in Excel. • Avoid graphs as images. • If it must be an image, reduce image size (above). OJC Bridge

23. User-friendly Objects • Black and White is an option: • Remember that changing images and other objects to Black and White (this must be done by photo-editing software) reduces the file size considerably. • Consider whether color is strictly necessary, especially if the file is going to available online. OJC Bridge

24. User-friendly Objects • Think of your audience: • As with any publication you must always think of your audience. • If you want to include large picture files in a presentation for example this is fine but consider taking them out when you send it to be published online. • Make a publishable copy of your file • This will assist the InfoCom team to work more efficiently and will ensure more people will read your work. • After all who is going to read a presentation which over a dial-up connection may take 5 hours to download. • I’m not sure I would, so think about it. • As an internationally known centre it will be necessary to develop articles that are user-friendly and easily accessible. OJC Bridge

25. User-friendly Objects • Easy to use: • Making easy to access, simply laid-out publications is the first step to getting them read. • Consider any method that might make it easier for someone to view your publication. OJC Bridge

26. User-friendly Objects • Easy to Navigate: • Don’t frustrate and tire the reader. Make your publication navigable. • If you impress them with your clarity of style, you are sure to impress them with the clarity of content! OJC Bridge

27. Questions? • If you have any queries ask me now. • Or if in the future you have something to ask – you know where I am (opposite Nasouh!) OJC Bridge