[thelist] Re: thelist digest, Vol 1 #1294 - 33 msgs

C Williams seahorse at inreach.com
Mon Apr 30 09:32:56 CDT 2001


There are several options here:

1.  PDF - for print, convert your images to greyscale if they dont need to
be in color.  I am not sure about anyone else, but I would not be printing a
90 page manual in color, and or would I ever care to read a 90 page manual
on line.  It's too bad the person designing the manual did not consider who
would be using it.  Idiots.

2.  Do the html pages.  Word doesn't 'create' images.  Someone put them in
the document, and you will need to obtain those images, either grab them
from the word document or the person who assembled this monster.  The format
used in word can most likely be opened in photoshop and converted to a .gif
or .jpg. for the web. No reason to rescan the images. If you have the
content from the word document used to create these pages you are home free.
It may not be pretty, and you will be spending some time, but save the
document as .htm or .html and strip the crappy code left over. Once you get
the document in .html you can apply your own template and clean it up.

I have done this will all our data sheets for on line viewing, and I just
have the guys give me the word document and I do the conversion myself.

If it was I, I would do the .pdf in greyscale to bring the file size way
down, and make sure you include the name of the person who designed it in
the document so the people who have to download it know who to poke in the
eye.

The ultimate is you need to get this document printed, as no one in their
right mind reads a 90 page manual on line.

Good luck!  And be greatful for these things!  Job security!

Chris


> Subject: Re: [thelist] Online documentation
> Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 01:05:26 -0700
> charset="iso-8859-1"
> Reply-To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
>
> 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
> Any suggestions?
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
> Sharon F. Malone
> "web design and Internet writing services"
> http://www.24caratdesign.com







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