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Re: HTML or PDF?

Subject: Re: HTML or PDF?
From: Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 10:20:37 -0500




Erika Yanovich wrote:

This is one of those things nobody remembers why we do in a certain way - what is called 'for historical reasons'.

A pair of fresh eyes pointed out to me that the help files we produce can be replaced by cheaper PDFs with the same functionality.
I feel reluctant because I haven't seen this approach widely used for applications in general (apart from Acrobat of course) and NMS applications in particular. The relevant R&D and Marketing people feel OK about it, but I am still reluctant. Please help!

Our help files are cross-platform, single-sourced from the user manual with some investment in the look and feel.

Thanks,
Erika


Erika,

One major reason to stay with html is that opening a PDF requires first launching a reader, which is a slow, resource-intensive operation. For html-based help, all that's required is that a browser be loaded, which it typically is in most (not all) situations.

If you know for sure that your users will already have Adobe Reader loaded when the application is running (because it is used in other parts of the application), then this consideration wouldn't apply.

Dick

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References:
HTML or PDF?: From: Erika Yanovich

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