Re: PDF in Java applications

["Weisner Associates Inc." <info -at- WEISNER -dot- COM>]

Deborah,

While PDF is a great choice for putting documents online, it is pretty poor for online help delivery. There would be no way for your programmers to launch a PDF file from your Java applet to display a specific,context-sensitive page or chunk of information. If you don't want to commit to JavaHelp at this point, why not use HTML? Java has an inherent capability to call specific URLs or HTML file names, while launching PDF files is somewhat more work. You can use an HTML display engine that is Java based, but as far as I know there is no Java version of the Acrobat PDF Reader.

Ben Weisner
________________________________
Weisner Associates Inc.

Online Information Consulting and Training Services
http://www.weisner.com

The Truth is Out There!
http://www.htmlbasedhelp.com


At 11:22 AM 2/22/99 , Deborah Garcia-Tobin wrote:
>Hi
>
>I've recently started work as a technical writer and have found this list
>very useful so far.  I thought I would come out of lurk mode now and see if
>anyone can help.
>
>I am currently producing the documentation for a new component based piece
>of software written in Java.  I am using FrameMaker to create the paper
>manuals and other manuals for electronic distribution in PDF. What hasn't
>been decided on is how to produce the online help.  There is some
>reluctance to use JavaHelp at the moment and I was wondering if there are
>any components available to display PDF within Java apps.
>
>
>thanks in advance for any help
>
>
>
>Debbie
>
>
>From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==
>


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