FW: Conversion to PDA format

[<Daniel_Hall -at- trendmicro -dot- com>]

Bobbi,

As someone who has actually written/formatted docs specifically for PDA viewing, I can offer a bit of insight:

There are a number of programs available that allow you to convert HTML to a format that is readable on a PDA. A large part of your decision will be determined by the type of PDA you need to support (Palm vs. Pocket PC, or both if you're in the US - there are other OSes in use overseas.) If you have a captive audience (internal users who you _know_ are going to be using a particular platform) your task will be much easier. That said, there are a number of drawbacks to using HTML on either platform.

HTML for Palm:
Plucker, which already was mentioned, is one tool for viewing HTML on Palm OS PDAs. Another is iSilo. There are lots of others, tool. The main drawback to these tools is that the HTML files are uncompressed, and file size is a huge issue for PDA users. In addition, your HTML may need to be reformatted if you are using any tables or images that have widths wider than the PDA screen width - to avoid requiring users to scroll from side-to-side. Another downside is that you're potentially requiring your users to install a third-party application. Since PDAs have limited memory, there can be resistance to installing new single-purpose software... in other words, users may not need an HTML viewer except to see you documentation, and they may not want to use up the 5% of total memory available to install one.

HTML for Pocket PC:
Pocket IE is included with most (newer) PPCs. This tool does a middling job of displaying HTML. The same applies as above: your HTML may need to be reformatted if you are using any tables or images that have widths wider than the PDA screen width - to avoid requiring users to scroll from side-to-side. The upside here is that this program is provided with most every PPC, so users don't need to install any new software to view HTML.

The Acrobat Reader for PDAs is another choice, though it's also fraught with "danger".

PDF for Palm/PPC:
Adobe provides a (free) Acrobat Reader for both platforms. I do not have experience with the PPC version, but I can say that as of about 6 months ago, the Palm OS Reader tool was definitely not user friendly. It requires a tool on the PC to "convert" pdfs and install them to the Palm itself, and there were frequently issues with getting the synchronization to work. To add to the problems, the side-to-side scrolling issue was also in play. The third-party application issue applies as well.

There are also free tools for converting plain text to Microsoft's e-book or Palm's PalmDoc formats. I personally preferred outputting my docs to plain text and then running them through one of these tools, as they provide compression (so you get a small doc size) and allow the PDA to render the text, eliminating any side-to-side scrolling. (If this is getting repetitive, it's because this is as big a complaint on PDAs as it is for the web... it just requires additional effort and interrupts the flow of information.)

If you have specific questions about any of these issues (or others) feel free to contact me off list.

Daniel


-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-129804 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-129804 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Roberta
Hennessey
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2004 9:22 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Conversion to PDA format



Can anyone tell me where I can find out about converting
either Frame, pdf, or HTML documents to a PDA format?
Does Framemaker have a product that does this seamlessly?
Is InDesign the product?

Thank you.

Bobbi