[thelist] Online documentation

[aardvark]

> From: "sfmalo" <sfmalo at msn.com>
>
> A client of mine (a software developer) wants to put one of their
> product end user manuals (created using Word) online. She thought
> about converting it to html to include on the web site. I suggested
> converting it to a PDF file and accessing that from the site.
> 
> Is this the best solution?

it's most likely the best solution for the client... they get to 
maintain their catalog, and send it to the web, with almost no 
change in process, meaning almost no costs to them...

for many of the users, it allows them to get a document well-
formatted for printing, but it doesn't make it automatically 
searchable unless the site has a search engine that indexes 
.pdfs... it also takes time to download, so perusing the file online 
isn't as easy as an HTML page... accessibility concerns are there 
as well, but you can link them to the Adobe site that can convert 
PDFs for many blind folks... and as long as the product itself 
exists on a platform that is supported by Acrobat...

etc...

IOW, you have to decide if it's the best solution, because from the 
client perspective it may be, but from the user perspective it may 
not be... which is more important to you?

either way, that's most likely the way i'd do it...