nSight, Microsoft Produce "Faster, Smarter" Book Series

11 Books Address Timely Computer-Related Topics; Full Editorial and Production Support Provided by nSight

BURLINGTON, MA—April 28, 2003—nSight, Inc., a leading print and interactive communications firm, has completed full editorial and production work on a new series of books from Microsoft Press.

The "Faster Smarter" series is a collection of guides covering 11 popular topics ranging from Microsoft® Windows® XP to digital video to programming using clear explanations, numbered steps, and interesting examples. The guides are targeted at computer users who have moved beyond the basics and want to get the most out of their computer and software.

nSight's involvement in the project was extensive. The company was responsible for all technical editing and copyediting; tagging the manuscript for conversion to XML format; layout and page formatting; creating line drawings and other graphic elements; proofreading final copy; and finalizing printer-ready files.

The series used new editorial guidelines and a new design not previously employed by Microsoft Press. Consequently, the task was even more challenging for nSight, despite the fact that the company has been editing and producing books for Microsoft Press since 1990.

According to Lucinda Rowley, associate publisher for Microsoft Press, nSight was able to produce all 11 books in an extremely tight timeframe.

"We started working on the series back in May 2002, with the intention of shipping them by the end of the year," she said. "We wanted to move quickly to implement some great ideas, so we had to have someone who could not only provide high-quality editorial and production work but could do it extremely quickly."

"Based on our previous experience with nSight, we decided to turn to them," she continued. "They started working in June and were able to complete the work on all 11 books in about five months. Needless to say, we were thrilled with the turnaround."

Matt Sullivan, lead product manager, said that based on the response to the initial promotional efforts, it appears that the Faster Smarter series is being well-received.

"It's still early in the game, but based on what we're seeing so far, it appears that there is a strong market for the Faster Smarter series," he said. "If that is indeed the case, we can certainly attribute some of that success to nSight's efforts."

Sarah Hains, Manager, Editorial Development and Production for nSight and the Faster Smarter Project Manager, said that the internal communication was instrumental not only in completing the project on time but producing a high-quality product.

"The marketing initiative for this series was fast and furious. That's why it was so crucial to work together as a team to resolve issues, like finding ways to style Word documents so that they'd page faster in FrameMaker [the design program used on the project] and to rewrite text to accommodate the design limitations. The constant communication was essential on a project of this magnitude on such a tight timeframe," said Hains.

Titles in the Faster Smarter series include:

• Faster Smarter Web Page Creation
• Faster Smarter Digital Photography
• Faster Smarter Internet
• Faster Smarter Microsoft® Office XP
• Faster Smarter Microsoft® Windows® XP
• Faster Smarter PCs
• Faster Smarter Digital Video
• Faster Smarter Home Networking
• Faster Smarter HTML & XML
• Faster Smarter Microsoft® Windows® 98
• Faster Smarter Beginning Programming

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Arthur Sesnovich
3D-PR, Inc.
asesnovich@3D-PR.com
Tel: 508-393-9600
Daniel R. Cote
nSight, Inc.
dcote@nSightWorks.com
Tel: 781-273-6300 x6320