TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I guess it is mostly perception. The "average" users are way more willing
to accept crappy software as part of their computer bundle than adding
something else.
Of course, they forget that the browsers (at least the "modern" ones are
extremely bloated and gobble up resources unnecessarily.
A well-designed document is always best. The problem is how it gets
through, or how much it gets messed up by the user's setup. It can be that
all your design efforts (layout etc. is only a part of that) get
annihilated by the user's system ... and you have no control over that.
Just my Zweiräppler.
Max Wyss
PRODOK Engineering AG
Technical documentation and translations, Electronic Publishing
CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland
Fax: +41 1 700 20 37
e-mail: mailto:prodok -at- prodok -dot- ch or 100012 -dot- 44 -at- compuserve -dot- com
Bridging the Knowledge Gap ...
... with Acrobat Forms ... now for belt drive designers at
>I think PDFs have an audience and HTML has an audience.
>
>Our users perceive PDFs as being large, slow, clunky, and buggy. Not to
>mention, they have to install yet another piece of software onto already
>taxed systems. And, they have to learn a new piece of software. (They
>are already experienced with browsers and used to HTML online docs.)
>Perception more than reality? To some degree, but not completely.
>
>I'll take a well-designed PDF over a sloppy HTML doc, but I personally
>prefer a well-designed HMTL doc.
>
>A.
>
>--
>Alexia Prendergast Tech Pubs Manager, Seagate Software