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Whether a reader follows a sequence of pages in a pdf, or follows a sequence of linked HTML topics, the information is still all there. But HTML gives you far more flexibility in terms of useability; context-sensitive help, for example.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Erika Yanovich
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2017 1:12 AM
To: Emoto <emoto1 -at- gmail -dot- com>
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: ToC and/or bookmarks in PDF
Totally makes sense for such a large doc set.
As an aside, it is very fashionable these days to break up contents into bite-sized [HTML] chunks, but I'm not sure how applicable this approach is for complex B2B systems.
Erika
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+erika_y=rad -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+erika_y=rad -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Emoto
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 16:08
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: ToC and/or bookmarks in PDF
On Wed, Jul 26, 2017 at 12:18 AM, Erika Yanovich <ERIKA_y -at- rad -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Thanks so much for getting back to me on this.
>
> Over 1,000 pages? Those are HUGE manuals!
> **Yes!
>
> I imagine that manually creating TOCs with links would be a huge
> amount
of work.
> **about 2 days every time the manual is updated
>
> If you don't mind my asking, what type of products are the manuals
documenting, that they are so big?
> **Complex telecom equipment
>
> Would it be possible to break the content up into separate docs that
would both make it easier for users to navigate through the content and allow you to generate TOCs?
> **Possible - yes, effective - doubtful.
> Users will never be sure in which manual to look for a piece of
information, they will need to open and search more than one.
Erika,
Having managed a doc set for a single large product before, with over 100 separate guides totaling into the thousands of pages, I used to provide something that you might wish to consider: An Adobe "Catalog" Index of your completed PDF manual. It takes only a few minutes to generate, so is easy.
One then opens the .pdx file and enters a search string in the search box.
The results will show you the hits in context, so that you can see if it is really the instance that you want to see, then click and you are brought to that page. It is a really fantastic tool for the user of large doc sets that is easy to provide.
Bob
Create an index for a collection (Acrobat Pro)
When you build a new index, Acrobat creates a file with the .pdx extension and a new support folder, which contains one or more files with .idx extensions. The IDX files contain the index entries. All of these files must be available to users who want to search the index.
1.
Choose Tools > Index.
The Index toolset is displayed in the secondary toolbar.
2.
In the secondary toolbar, click Full Text Index With Catalog.
The Catalog dialog box is displayed.
3.
In the Catalog dialog box, click New Index.
The New Index Definition dialog box is displayed.
[image: New Index Definitions in Acrobat]
The New Index Definition dialog box.
4.
In Index Title, type a name for the index file.
5.
In Index Description, type a few words about the type of index or its
purpose.
6.
Click Options, select any advanced options you want to apply to your
index, and click OK.
[image: The Options Dialog Box in Acrobat]
In the Options dialog box, you can specify the advanced options for the
new index.
7.
Under Include These Directories, click Add, select a folder containing
some or all of the PDF files to be indexed, and click OK. To add more
folders, repeat this step.
Note:
Any folder nested under an included folder will also be included in the
indexing process. You can add folders from multiple servers or disk drives,
as long as you do not plan to move the index or any items in the document
collection.
8.
Under Exclude These Subdirectories, click Add, and select any nested
folder that contains PDF files you do not want to be indexed. Click OK and
repeat, as needed.
9.
Review your selections. To edit the list of folders to be included or
excluded, select the folder you want to change and click Remove.
10.
Click Build, and then specify the location for the index file. Click Save,
and then:
-
Click Close when the indexing finishes.
-
Click Stop to cancel the indexing process.
Note:
If you stop the indexing process, you cannot resume the same indexing
session but you donât have to redo the work. The options and folder
selections remain intact. You can click Open Index select the partially
finished index, and revise it.
Note:
If long path names are truncated in the Include These Directories and
Exclude These Subdirectories options, hold the pointer over each ellipsis
(...) until a tool tip appears, displaying the complete path of the
included or excluded folder.
Indexing Options dialog box
Do Not Include Numbers
Select this option to exclude all numbers that appear in the document text from the index. Excluding numbers can significantly reduce the size of an index, making searches faster.
Add IDs To Adobe PDF v1.0 Files
Select this option if your collection includes PDFs created before Acrobat 2.0, which did not automatically add identification numbers. ID numbers are needed when long Mac OS filenames are shortened as they are translated into MS-DOS filenames. Acrobat 2.0 and later versions automatically add identifiers.
Do Not Warn For Changed Documents When Searching
When this option is not selected, a message appears when you search documents that have changed since the most recent index build.
Custom Properties
Use this option to include custom document properties in the index; only custom document properties that already exist in the PDFs you index are indexed. Type the property, make a selection from the Type menu, and then click Add. These properties appear as a search option in the Search PDF window's additional criteria pop-up menus when you search the resulting index. For example, if you enter the custom property Document Name and choose the string property from the Type menu, a user searching the index can then search within the custom property by selecting Document Name from the Use These Additional Criteria menu.
Note:
When you create custom fields in a Microsoft Office application in which the Convert Document Information option is selected in the PDFMaker application, the fields transfer over to any PDFs you create.
XMP Fields
Use this option to include custom XMP fields. The custom XMP fields are indexed and appear in the additional criteria pop-up menus to be searchable in the selected indexes.
Stop Words
Use to exclude specific words (500 maximum) from the index search results.
Type the word, click Add, and repeat as needed. Excluding words can make the index 10% to 15% smaller. A stop word can contain up to 128 characters and is case sensitive.
Note:
To prevent users from trying to search phrases that contain these words, list words that arenât indexed in the Catalog Read Me file.
Structure Tags
Use this option to make specific leaf-element tag nodes searchable in documents that have a tagged logical structure.
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