[thelist] "scope of work" for web site proposal

Randal Rust randalrust at gmail.com
Mon Feb 26 16:29:20 CST 2007


On 2/26/07, Steven Streight <steven.streight at gmail.com> wrote:

> BTW, don't put PDF files on web sites, unless there is no other way to
> convey the info. Info in a web site should be HTML.

In theory, that is a good thought. In practice, clients love PDF files
and they hate data entry. And since PDF files are indexed by and
available as HTML from Google, they like them even more.

Public sector entities like schools are notoriously bad at cramming
everything into PDFs. And years of doing it that way with no one
complaining hasn't changed their thinking.

> Operator manual in PDF? Er, okay. Product literature in PDF? Why? Seems like
> a really bad idea, but what is your reasoning? I hope it's not: "saves time
> to just dump the data into a PDF, and let the customers look at that".

Pretty much.

So, if you want data in HTML, find clever ways to get the site
populated and up and running without having to manually enter all
records. Like using Excel files that you can parse and insert into
your database.

-- 
Randal Rust
R.Squared Communications
www.r2communications.com



More information about the thelist mailing list