[thelist] Online documentation

[sfmalo]

Deke wrote:

> If you are trying to make it possible for people to look at
> how the product works before they buy it, or you want to
> let them look up an answer quickly when they cannot find
> their manual, HTML files work a *lot* better.

> What's the problem with HTML? It works with *every* browser,
> and it reformats automatically so that the words are readable
> on whatever hardware the user has....

The purpose of putting the documentation online is to replace sending out a
hard copy of the manual to a software buyer with online viewing. If I do the
manual in html rather than PDF:  my concern is that the end users manual
runs about 90 pages and was designed in landscape mode in Word, not
portrait. I am wondering how much clean-up and reformatting I'm going to
have to do after the html is generated when the client converts it? I still
like to design for 640x480, but even if I design this for 800x600, it'll
take some finagling (sp?), especially with the images.

The documentation is absolutely loaded with screen shots, many of which
stretch almost clear across the landscape page. I'm not sure what file
format Word uses to create images and whether I'll be able to automatically
re-convert them to .gifs. If not, I'll have to scan them all (which will
make them lose quite a bit of quality) ... and this can turn into a lengthy
project for the client. Well, good for me but not so good for the client's
pocketbook! And, the screen shots just won't look that good.

On the other hand, if she converts the Word file to PDF, not so sure how
Acrobat 4.0 is going to handle landscape pages ... and it's going to be an
enormous file. Download time could be very lengthy, don't you think? Maybe
not? And, since I just discovered that NS6.01 isn't supporting Acrobat
Reader, that's another problem. Hopefully, Netscape will fix that, but who
knows?

Any suggestions?


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Sharon F. Malone
"web design and Internet writing services"
http://www.24caratdesign.com
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