[thelist] Online documentation

deke web at master.gen.in.us
Sun Apr 29 16:39:01 CDT 2001


On 25 Apr 2001, at 13:03, sfmalo posted a message which said:

> 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?

Depends. If you are trying to promote the sale of printed
manuals, or a pay-per-call support system, PDF files are
a great idea. 

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.

Printers commonly run 1440 dots per inch. That means a 
1280x1024 monitor can correctly render less than a square 
inch of printed matter. That's a *lot* of scrolling. Of course,
if I want to see greeked text, I can see more of the page, 
but it gets hard to read. 

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....

deke













------------------------
 "The church is near but the road is icy; 
  the bar is far away but I will walk carefully." 
                            -- Russian Proverb




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