TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re. HTML vs. Acrobat From:geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA Date:Thu, 7 Mar 1996 14:30:45 -0600
My take on the choice between HTML and Acrobat? Acrobat is
the way to go if the visual structure of the information
must be identical for all readers, no matter what computer
they use (i.e., if the form is as important as the
content). HTML is the way to go if the information is more
important than (and independent of) its visual structure.
Those statements are a bit more black and white than I
prefer, but they do cut to the heart of the matter.
One other note: Until they revise applications (e.g,
PageMaker) to incorporate hyperlinks that will be preserved
when you produce the Acrobat version of the document,
Acrobat is unacceptable for online work that will change
regularly. Too much hassle to constantly have to recreate
the hyperlinks in Acrobat itself. (Caveat: I haven't
updated my version of Acrobat for more than a year... have
they fixed this gaping hole yet? I know they've at least
_tried_ to patch it in PageMaker 6, albeit unsuccessfully
so far.)
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: If I didn't commit it in print in one of our
reports, it don't represent FERIC's opinion.