Adobe Acrobat

[Mike Christie <mikec -at- SYNTEL -dot- COM>]

Does anyone have any experience creating Adobe Acrobat files from Ventura
Publisher 4.2? Or creating Adobe Acrobat files at all?

My company distributes 4 manuals ranging from 100 to 350 pages in length. I am
considering proposing we make the manuals available to customers in .PDF
format, and license the reader to ship with it. This would have several
advantages:

- We have several customers in Europe. This would allow them to print out
desired pages in their own A4 format, since we actually create and ship the
manuals in American 8.5 x 11 format.

- Changes to the software create insert pages in our 3-ring bound format.
These are a hassle for everyone. We'd just ship a new file instead.

- Different manuals go to both System Administrators and Programmers. But
sometimes one needs what's in another's manual. This would allow for easier
sharing of information.

- If we shipped the manuals with the Exchange (instead of the Reader),
customers could add annotations for their site-specific implementation of our
procedures.

I know that there are other systems out there for online documents, but the
advantage of Acrobat is that it is supported by Ventura, and would, in theory,
allow for moving to the Acrobat format with little or no conversion (and if I
believe that....).

Have I totally taken leave of my senses, and should I abandon this idea
altogether? Or is there merit in such an proposal?

Mike Christie
Technical Writer
Syntelligence Systems, Inc.
mikec -at- syntel -dot- com