Re: Online help formats (Was: ANNOUNCE: WebWorks Publisher training)

[Michael Richards <michaelr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thomas Michanek wrote:

> I'd like to ask you, and everyone else, what you think of PDF as
> an alternative? I admit that PDF isn't primarily designed for
> online help, but it works and Acrobat 3 itself uses it.

I think I stated this in my infamous rave a few weeks ago. We actually wanted to
use pdf as the help engine for Telstra's NMAF (Network Management Access
Function) which is a Java app that manages a whole lot of processes running on
the UNIX servers across the country that form the "platform" for handling special
nation-wide corporate numbers. This app will now be used for other purposes, and
talk is still in the wind that it could be used to run Telstra's ISP function
(the largest in the country).

We opted in the end for HTML (with pdf available as a second line option in all
cases). We can still demonstrate the app running with pdf help (a simple matter
of substituting one help.cfg file for another. The pdf is accessed through IE or
Netscape with Acrobat running as a plug in. It works fine, you can zoom in on the
sometimes incredibly detailed graphics (me doing my thing).

But the things that killed pdf for me as the primary help format were:

1) User acceptance of pdf is lower than I would wish. All based on ignorance,
but, then, there is no shortage of this commodity in the world.

2) Microsoft mucking up the byteserving protocol. Byteserving is a _sine qua
non_  for the help system to work and enable a user to lob into a given named
desitination in the pdf and not the default page.

3) The Acrobat plug in forgets (in most cases) the location from which, in
document A, you enter Document B. When you hit the browser's back button from
within document B, you tend to go to the default (title) page of document A.
(This doesn't happen in Reader not going through a browser when you hit Acrobat's
own back button.)

4) The Verity problem I described before --- that you can't generate an Acro
index that works over http protocols without paying money to Verity. As Telstra
only made $AUS1.8 billion clear profit in the last 6 months, we cannot afford
this option.

> The main advantages are of course very simple conversion from Frame,
> nearly all types of hypertext links are preserved, complete control
> of layout, the possibility to get good print-outs, built-in search
> engine, and automatic bookmarks (TOC).
> The main problems we have with our own HTML conversion (not using WWP),
> are that complex graphics convert badly, the limited formatting
> capabilities of plain HTML, lousy print-outs, and the fact that the
> user can change the size and fonts, thereby reformatting the whole
> document and "destroying" the layout (which I think is a Good Thing
> with HTML in general; I don't like fixed page sizes in HTML).
>
> Disadvantages are problems with fuzzy text and graphics online, a
> binary and proprietary format, limitations in the API for calling
> Acrobat Reader as help viewer (cross-platform), and perhaps (?)
> performance issues (memory, speed, filesize).
>

Zooming! Zooming! Can't people zoom?

> Have anyone seen any help system using PDF, apart from Acrobat 3?

Yes. Mine (in the pdf version).

> What help format is used in Acrobat 4?
> *If* you think PDF is mainly for distributing electronic documents
> for end-user printing, why do you need all the hypertext links?
> I mean, if you distribute PDF and expect your users to read the PDF
> docs on-screen and follow all links, doesn't it then in fact become
> a PDF online help system?

When is a door not a door?

> There, was that provocative enough? ;-)

No. We want the photographs of you and that sheep.

> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Thomas Michanek, Documentation Manager, Telelogic Tau
> Telelogic AB, Teknikringen 9, SE-58330 Linkoping, SWEDEN
> PHONE/FAX:  +46 (0)13 200656/212166
> EMAIL:  mailto:Thomas.Michanek@telelogic.com
> WWW 1:  http://www.telelogic.com
> WWW 2:  http://hem1.passagen.se/framers
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> See you at the Telelogic User Conference '99, May 19-21, in
> Barcelona, Spain: http://www.telelogic.com/news/userconf.asp
>
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