PDF vs Help

[<WilliamFLawrence -at- eaton -dot- com>]

Just curious what the assembled multitude thinks:

 

Out of expediency, I recently connected a PDF version of a manual to an
application as context-sensitive help.  My normal approach had been to
repurpose XML into both PDF and help, but in this instance I was using
InDesign and had not made the transition from native InDesign format to
XML.  Using PDF files as context-sensitive help is fairly trivial, one
just embeds PDF destinations throughout the file and references these
just as one would an HTML anchor in the link. (OK, the syntax is a
little more complex than that, but that's basically it.) 

 

Well, after fielding this I find that I like this approach better.  It's
not simply content repurposed into another format, it's the content
coupled with a thoughtfully constructed layout.  Moreover, I can control
the PDF display to just about the same degree as I can control help
windows.  Like a good help system, this has full-text search, a
cascading table of contents, and a hyperlinked index.  Unlike help, the
customer can easily print whatever part of the manual is desired instead
of merely the content of the visible topic.

 

Granted, in a perfect world one would actually carefully author the help
and the manuals, and not merely repurpose the content.  However, given
time and resource constraints, that's rarely possible.  So, have I just
sent shudders of doom through all of the HATT companies?

 

Cheers,

 

Bill

 

 

 

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