Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [graphics]

For questions about depictions of data in a graphical form. Graphs, plots, diagrams, charts, screenshots, and other images used in scientific or technical writing or other nonfiction. For questions about drawings, paintings, photographs, and other art meant to illustrate writing, use [artwork] instead.

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6 answers

Should technical writers illustrate their own documents?

In my opinion, visual material is of crucial importance in technical documents, especially in procedures, but paradoxically, technical illustrations seem to be a dying art. Is it better for a technical writer to also do technical illustration, or is…
Federgraf
17
votes
9 answers

Software to draw plot structure charts

When I plot my own novels or analyze other works to understand their structure, I like to visualize the dynamic of the storyline(s) in a diagram. Usually I draw this by hand. A first version of such a narrative chart might look like this one (which…
user29032
15
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4 answers

In end user documentation, should screenshots come before or after the text that references them?

The end user documentation I'm writing makes use of screenshots (and partial screenshots) to show the user what I'm referring to in procedural instructions or conceptual explanations of the software. However, I'm never quite sure whether to put the…
Matthew Rodatus
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14
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6 answers

When is a screenshot really useful in training documentation?

Software products evolve more rapidly each day. Technical documentation for those products must also follow their evolution. One of the biggest challenges is to maintain screenshots when the graphical user interface (GUI) changes. An easy way to…
Fuhrmanator
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8
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1 answer

Can someone tell me the source of this story diagram image?

This image was found on a University of Hawaii Cinematic & Digital Narrative Production course and the professor found the image on Google search. Although the plot structure is not unique, the original material might a great source of plot…
MXMLLN
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7
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3 answers

Tool for making guitar chord diagrams

I have seen these diagrams in books. They display the strings of the guitar and the locations of the notes I want to present, as well as the name of the chord/scale/etc. You can see what I mean in the picture below: Is there a specific tool or…
Daniel
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6
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2 answers

How should we plan for translations' space needs when designing diagrams that require text?

Our documentation set includes some diagrams where text is integral and can't be handled in callouts, like flowcharts and entity relationship diagrams. Our documentation is translated, so these diagrams need to be translated too. But diagram…
Monica Cellio
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6
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2 answers

Problems with picture alignment in Microsoft Word - which other DTP software can I use?

I have been struggling to write a book on my 14 years research. I have used Microsoft Word exclusively, but I have a problem that the book uses lots of pictures, sometimes six per page and this is where I cannot seem to have a stable document. I…
Ivan Wain
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6
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4 answers

How can I manage screen shots and other graphics for maintenance?

Our ~1500-page documentation set contains numerous screen shots and related graphics (schematics, flow diagrams, etc). Sometimes the user interface changes and we have to update all the affected graphics. The affected graphics are not necesarily…
Monica Cellio
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5
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1 answer

What's the best way to write (or rewrite) a math book?

I've been writing a book that has a fair share of geometric diagrams and equations. However, I am unable to make use of a computer for this and have been maintaining a journal where I manually draw the necessary figures to more easily demonstrate…
PhD
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5
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2 answers

Are UML component diagrams helpful to non-technical users?

Are high-level UML-style component diagrams helpful to non-technical people? How likely would they be to understand something like that and, if so, how interesting/useful is that likely to be for their understanding?
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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5
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3 answers

Diagram wider than text width

In a math book, is it OK to have a diagram wider than text width (so overriding the margins)? Also, how do I center a wide figure so that it occupies both the left margin and the right margin (not only the right margin) using LaTeX software?
porton
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4
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4 answers

Can you reprint screen shots of a game application or program without permission?

It seems pretty normal to see screenshots of MS Word, steps for "this is how you generate a template". I don't think Microsoft would object. But I'm not sure about reprinting images from in-game scenes for specific games, like Diablo II. Do you…
bobobobo
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How can we make images with (necessary) text more translatable mechanically?

Our documentation set includes some diagrams, such as entity relationship diagrams and flowcharts, where text is integral and cannot reasonably be handled in callouts. Our documentation is translated into another language, so these diagrams ought…
Monica Cellio
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4
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3 answers

Scientific Reports - Significant Figures

I'm currently writing a report where I have a table stating certain parameter values and their errors. Obviously I want the report to look nice, but since the errors of certain parameters vary by orders of magnitude, I'm not sure how to write it. To…
Kay Tukendorf
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