Computer Integrated Documentation

The impact of advances in information technology has been widespread, but the fundamentals of effective communication have remained unchanged. Improvements to documentation tools, such as computer platforms, word processing software and printer output devices, have enabled standards of experiment reporting to be raised. To cultivate further the quality presentation of scientific instrument waveform images, techniques of direct computer interface are presented. Taking advantage of the widespread support of the plotter communications language HPGL, a generalized method for image transfer and incorporation within document processors is developed and supported by examples. The possibility of image enhancement is explored in a computer program that also integrates the supervised transfer of instrument data. The technique has been successfully introduced into several undergraduate student‐centred work packages. Among the many benefits have been the significant improvements in the presentation of dissertations.