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Subject:Acrobat Pro From:Anne Halsey <AHalsey -at- SYSTEMONE -dot- NET> Date:Wed, 30 Oct 1996 09:23:00 -0700
Hi.
I've had no luck getting a response from Adobe on this question,
so am throwing it out to the 'whirlers:
I'm using Frame 5.01 to produce paper doc (PC environment).
I will be converting to CD distribution soon, and will also be putting
some subset of info out on our website.
I need a tool compatible with Frame to allow me to gen the
.PDF files for CDROM, and eventually to convert for
web use.
Adobe offers several packages: Acrobat, Acrobat Exchange, Acrobat
Distiller, Acrobat Pro. Which one do I want? (Yes, I'd like to use
an Adobe product.)
Thanks in advance for your help!
Anne Halsey
Senior Doc Specialist, System One
ahalsey -at- systemone -dot- net
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From: iharrison
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Procedural Steps
Date: Wednesday, October 30, 1996 9:56AM
I use the rule of thumb that the steps in a procedure should
be numbered if there is a particular order to them.
If the order is variable, or the steps are optional, I
generally use the same layout, but with bullets instead of
numbers.
The problem is that much of what we document is very complex,
with many branches, options and decision points.
Generally, a structured way of procedures and cross-references
to other procedures serves the purpose well, but sometimes
this just isn't realistic.
If there are just a couple of steps, I sometimes put a text
description of them, rather than send the user off to a
cross-reference.
I think the 'Dog's Guides' avoid steps because they are too
much like the original document they're trying to replace.
They seem to assume that the user didn't get on with the
original documentation.
My view is that numbered procedural steps are the easiest to
follow, but not necessarily the easiest to write.
They also make it difficult to fudge over difficult parts of
the task, which seems to be the prime feature of most
beginners' guides on the market.
In an object-oriented world, it is easy for designers to
forget that things should still be objective-oriented.