ARE 5.0 The Architect Registration Exam (ARE), version 5.0, is a necessary step on the path to become a licensed professional architect in the United States. I passed the six divisions of the ARE within a six-month window. My strategy was to schedule the exams in pairs, spaced 2-3 months apart. That was enough time to study in a focused way, without forgetting early material or getting distracted. I never took two exams on one day, and I wouldn’t recommend it. They are mentally exhausting. Instead, take them on consecutive days, or give yourself a day or two to rest …

A slideshow is typically a one-dimensional presentation tool — a series of images that the presenter advances while she talks. But what if a slideshow could be more like a website — an interactive, multi-dimensional tool for exploring complex or layered information? It turns out that it’s not hard to add page links and other interactive elements. I’ll show how to use Adobe InDesign CS3 to create an interactive PDF, although similar effects are possible in PowerPoint. The background: here at the GCCDS, we wanted to create a slideshow that would display a ‘matrix’ of ideas: three aspects of our …