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Subject:Re: Printed Docs vs. PDF Files From:Steven Jong <SteveFJong -at- AOL -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 17 Sep 1997 13:35:52 -0400
Commenting on the fix a poor Irish technical writer was in converting PDF
8.5x11 documents to 7x9, David Knopf <david -at- KNOPF -dot- COM> wrote in with a couple
of good suggestions, and one that I don't necessarily agree with.
First, the marketing group says it's too expensive to order 8.5x11 covers
when they have 7x9 covers in stock. I agree with David that they may be
wrong! When you factor in the writer's time and any review/edit time, I would
claim that it would be MUCH CHEAPER to print new covers.
I have seen 8.5x11 documents resized to 80%, and the graphics were legible.
It's worth a look in this case.
But David also wrote this:
>> Don't write in spreads. In fact, as much as possible, write so as to
>> minimize your reliance on a specific layout or presentation style. These
>> days, much of what we write ends up (or soon will end up) being
>> published in a variety of media--printed, displayed on a Web site,
>> included in an online help system, etc. If your copy is tightly
>> integrated with the layout in one of these media, it will probably not
>> work well in other media. We can't solve this problem completely because
>> we can't completely detach writing from presentation, but we should do
>> as much as we can in this regard.
I have been writing structured documentation (in spreads) for many years now,
and I find it the most effective presentation method for printed materials.
Further, the idea of chunking information into topics of limited size serves
well for online material (Help and HTML), too; we just reorder the spread
from left-right to top-bottom. What is the alternative, anyway?
While I understand David's point that one size can't fit all, I think the
gains are worth the effort.
-- Steve
=============================================================
Steven Jong, Documentation Group Leader ("Typo? What tpyo?")
Lightbridge, Inc, 281 Winter St., Waltham, MA 02154 USA mailto:jong -at- lightbridge -dot- com 617.672.4902 [voice]
Home Sweet Homepage: http://members.aol.com/SteveFJong
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