Postscript best for portability?

["H. Chou" <hchou -at- ALS -dot- AMERITECH -dot- COM>]

We are experimenting with putting our manuals on-line. Currently,
we are only doing this for a beta version of a manual I am working
on. What I am curious about is, what is the best solution to ensure
that everyone testing our product can print my document?

*  postscript -- so far the current solution; what about for those
customers who don't have a postscript-compatible printer? standard
hp laserjets are not postscript compatible.

*  pdf -- we are currently looking at the pros and cons of Adobe
Acrobat since the reader is free and is based on postscript. how
has this worked for other people? i've read a few testimonies so
far, but none which have swayed me either positively or negatively.

*  actual read-only files -- the beta version of the manual is
currently being written in MS Word 6.0 for Windows, but this
basically locks out those people with UNIX boxes. also, i'm not
certain if WordPerfect or MacWrite Pro offer Word filters (though
it would be fairly silly of them not to). this will be even more of
a hurdle when this manual goes through framemaker for production.

this of course leads me to a frequent debate on this list--is it
worth it to invest the time and money to get everyone in the
department on framemaker and OFF word 6.0? i, myself, would like to
learn framemaker, and i really despise word. however, the learning
curve is a strong factor. how difficult is framemaker to learn, at
least jsut the basics, such as formatting, etc. i figure our dtp
will deal with all the graphics,etc.


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H. Chou               hchou -at- als -dot- ameritech -dot- com
Ameritech Library Services, Academic Division

Razors pain you,
Rivers are damp,
Acid stains you,
And drugs cause cramp,
Guns are not lawful,
Nooses give,
Gas smells awful,
Might as well live.
--Dorthy Parker
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