Re: pdf vs. html

[Winfried Reng <winfried -dot- reng -at- STAR-GMBH -dot- DE>]

Hi Diane,

As others already pointed out HTML and PDF are two formats
with two different goals:

PDF:
o To deliver paper versions so that users can print with the
  correct layout.
o As online help IF all your cross-references and toc and index
  converts to hyperlinks. Then also the layout has to be
  optimized for screen display (paper format, fonts).
  For this you would need FrameMaker. With Word/Distiller you
  could only display your paper version on screen. Nothing else.
  No hyperlinks. 

HTML:
o WWW
o Online help. We used FrameMaker, Webworks Publisher and some
  scripts to get the HTML that we wanted.
  Fonts etc. can be controlled by the HTML code. Therefore
  the layout doesn´t have to be such different from that what
  you have in mind.
  Additionally we bought our own browser and implemented
  search of a set of HTML files or printing whole sections.
  Even without these adjustments I always would prefer HTML
  for PDF: faster, layout adjusts to window size.

Best regards,

Winfried

>I'm new to the list. I'm looking for studies of PDF vs. HTML for online
>documentation. I've been chartered with doing a comparison test on
>usability issues and user preferences for a new documentation set we are
>currently working on. The user's guides will  be created in FrameMaker. I'm
>not yet certain whether in the final act we will be putting the entire new
>document set or just some subset of this online, but I can say at this
>point that it's probably equally easy for our pubs department to turn the
>documents into pdf or html. The decision to do one or the other will be
>based on user preferences (our users are internal).