RE: E-publishing?

[Erika Yanovich <ERIKA_y -at- Rad -dot- co -dot- il>]

Thanks, Geoff. Prior to my posting I spent quite a lot of time by searching
for this on the net. And as you say ("Wish I had the time"), it is very time
consuming. I was hoping to get an initial comparison to save time and, more
important, to make sure I did not miss a possibility which I'm not aware of.
That is the problem when I do my own ranking, I can't rank something I don't
know it exists.

I will definitely use your table method. Thanks again.

Erika

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Hart, Geoff [mailto:Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2001 4:36 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: E-publishing?


Erika Yanovich is <<... looking for a good resource (article, website, etc.)
about e-publishing, which discusses the different available options, such as
PDF, HTML, dynamic HTML (data based), CD-ROMs vs. Web, search functionality
- advantages and disadvantages of all methods, tools and knowledge you need
for implementation.>>

You've found it: head over to www.raycomm.com, the host of techwr-l, and
search through the archives for each term plus various variants of "online
publishing/information/help". We've discussed this in enough depth over the
past few years, from both theoretical and practical perspectives, to let
someone write a book with the results. (Wish I had the time!)

<<The output I'm looking for is the ability to decide which method is the
most appropriate for a new type of document (lots of reference material with
lots of hyperlinks).>>

There is never any one "best" method; all the current technologies have
advantages and disadvantages, and these change depending on the audience and
the situation. Instead of looking for a simple solution that fits all
situations, I'd recommend that you start with a careful assessment of the
specific needs of your audience (e.g., use outdoors vs. in a factory vs. in
an office, fast access via an index vs. linear browsing). List these needs
as the criteria (rows) in a table, with each of the technologies you
mentioned forming the column headings. Then rank each technology (pick any
scale that works for you: numeric vs. "good/okay/bad", for instance) and
figure out which one best meets the needs of your audience. Where you
identify deficiencies in an otherwise good technology, spend a few moments
thinking how you could resolve those problems; sometimes the solution is to
combine technologies (e.g., WinHelp to permit context-sensitivity plus PDF
to permit formatted printouts).

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
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