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On a recent project I had to become reacquainted with PDF creation as
that was a required output for the project. *I* don't like PDF only for
the reason that it's a proprietary format, and I prefer non-proprietary
formats. However, the boss IS the boss.
What I found was that if I simply took the default route to PDF
creation, there were problems that various users had. So, I dug into it
and learned how to make some of those problems go away so that when
users opened the PDF it was set up in a way that seemed to them to be
more friendly. It took a lot more work on my part. Certainly it took a
lot more work that creating HTML would have, but the boss is happy, and
when the boss is happy, I'm happy.
I don't know where that puts me in the debate. I would prefer not to
develop PDFs, but when I have to I can make my users happy with the
result. I don't know if what I do would make a more general audience
happy or not. It would be an interesting experience. I guess that puts
me on both sides of the debate. PDFs seem to work fine if the person
creating them takes the time to make them (more) user friendly than
default creation would. However, that does take time, and time is
money. So I guess you get what you pay for.
=====
Tom Murrell
--Don't argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference. (Anonymous)--
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@ mailto:trmurrell -at- yahoo -dot- com
@ http://home.columbus.rr.com/murrell/
@ Last Updated 05/26/2003
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