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Subject:Re: Can't search the PDF file. (Happier day) From:Emily Berk <emily -at- armadillosoft -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 24 Oct 2003 05:59:22 -0700
My, my. It's been 20 years, but I finally have identified where I as a technical communicator may add value!
I have never, ever, ever, ever, considered searchability to be either a "bell" or a "whistle".
Searchability is a bottom line, basic requirement of electronic documents. If a doc can't be searched, it might as well be on paper so that users can search it more easily themselves.
The problem with saying that "most of the time", this "bell/whistle" doesn't much matter is that the problem may crop up at the last moment and by then you are - I am rested enough at this point to be polite about this - out of time to fix it.
Anyway, Kat, if you ever come across a client who becomes perturbed with you for delivering non-searchable docs (I would hazard there will be a few), please send 'em over my way.
--Emily
At 12:54 PM 10/23/03 -0400, Kat Nagel wrote:
>>One sign that Adobe is listening will be when it takes out that Print to PDF Option on the File Menu.
>
>Actually, it only causes problems if you need particular bells and whistles like searchability. For 95% of the things I use PDFs for---relatively short (2-8 page) sections of docs and individual help screens that need to be approved by non-FM clients---it works quite well.
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~ Emily Berk ~
~ Looking for challenging, new projects ~
~ www.armadillosoft.com *** Armadillo Associates, Inc. ~
~ Internet and non-Internet application development, ~
~ project management, developer relations and ~
~ extremely-technical technical documentation that ~
~ developers find useful. ~
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