Re: PDF problem: document info

[Shlomo Perets <shlomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thomas,

You said:

 > I'm sure TimeSavers could help us, but it's sometimes difficult
 > to advocate the purchase of new software, or travelling to
 > conferences, workshops or lectures, simply based on "rumours"
 > or recommendations by other framers.

I would have thought that recommendations from other users who have
"guinnea-pigged" a piece of software or a conference/workshop at their
own expense and now advocate it are a far more reliable tool to use when
choosing what to invest in than any hype used in marketing/promotional
material.

 > All this shows that Adobe has a long way to go before PDF
 > creation is as simple, fast and powerful it really should be.
 > I think that Shlomo Perets share this view and makes a nice
 > profit because of it :-)

Unfortunately, the vast majority of users create "instant" PDFs which are a
screen-copy of their printed manuals. This approach gives no thought to
interactivity and to access mechanisms which could (much) better serve
their on-screen readers. Which is perhaps why Adobe does not do much to
further develop these aspects/solve problems in its products [and which
is also why my ongoing efforts only address a very small segment of the
user community].

In this context, you may be interested in attending my lecture on
"PDF Best Practices" at the upcoming PDF Conference in Baltimore, MD (USA),
June 4-6 (including an analysis of the model Adobe itself sets - the PDFs
included with the Acrobat 5 CD) - if you plan attending the conference,
that is. [see http://www.pdfconference.com for details]

All that said, I sympathize with your frustration at having to use all kinds
of add-ons to make things work the way FrameMaker should have done in
the first place. I myself had to buy MIF2go because FrameMaker's "Save
as RTF" advertised feature is worst than useless, just as one example of
many things which should have been done better.


Shlomo Perets

MicroType * http://www.microtype.com
FrameMaker-to-Acrobat: SP TimeSavers / Advanced Techniques Course / Solutions



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