TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
> Some issues I need to resolve:
>
> 1. Security. How secure are pdfs.
Not very. Search an archive of this list for a thread with some strange title
like "Aaaarghhh". It started with a writer wanting to change the text in an
inherited PDF that was password-protected.
> Can the customer simply perform a "save as" and set security to "none" and
> make alterations to the document?
It's not quite that easy, but see above thread for several suggested methods.
Mine had a list of four or five companies who will break PDFs, Word, Excel,
Notes, Word Perfect, ... for a fee.
> 2. What legal liabilities do we have if a corrupted file leads the user
> into a dangerous situation?
Ask your lawyer.
> 3. Can this be a major loss of revenue if customers simply print out copies
> in lieu of ordering new hard copies?
Probably, if selling hard copies is a major revenue source for you.
On the other hand, if selling docs to go with your product is a major
revenue source, I'd say you're doing something wrong. I'm of the opinion
that most products should ship with complete documentation, and that the
minimum standard for docs on any computer product requires that it be both
readable (and searchable) online and printable by the user.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Be a published author! iUniverse gives you: a high-quality paperback, a
custom cover design, and distribution to 25,00 retailers. Join our almost
10,000 published authors today. http://www.iuniverse.com/media/techwr
Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
