HTML or PDF?

Subject: HTML or PDF?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 10:46:04 -0500


Erika Yanovich reports: <<This is one of those things nobody remembers why we do in a certain way - what is called 'for historical reasons'. A pair of fresh eyes pointed out to me that the help files we produce can be replaced by cheaper PDFs with the same functionality.>>

No, they can't provide similar functionality--not even close. Acrobat is wonderful tool for a _very limited set of uses_, but PDF fails two big tests as a useful online help tool. Wth the caveat that I'm only slowly developing my Acrobat expertise, a few thoughts based on what I've read and encountered firsthand:

First and most important to me, the screen display cannot be resized to suit the reader's needs. For example, you can't resize and position the help window next to the application so that you can see both the help and the application simultaneously. If you do this, the help text doesn't wrap, which means you have to engage in endless scrolling for many help topics. The problem is exacerbated if the reader has weak eyes and prefers to zoom in on the text; then, even less text fits in the help window.

Second, PDF does not support context-sensitive help without going through various convolutions. Although it's undoubtedly possible to link from a dialog box to the appropriate bookmark in a PDF file, I'm not aware of any easy way to generate a list of such "topic IDs", and no automated way for programmers to import these topics into their programming environment. Certainly, there's nothing as smooth and easy as the automatic map-file generation offered by RoboHelp et al.

Third, PDF doesn't provide "wizards" that you can integrate with the software via the Help engine. You can probably fake this kind of behavior with Acrobat, but it's not inherently part of Acrobat's behavior.

Arguably, Acrobat Reader is another problem: It can launch far more slowly than the Windows Help engine (depending on the version), offers fewer useful navigation aids, and if you can't be certain that your audience has the right version of Acrobat Reader on their computer, you'll have to include it in the installation routine for your software--without overwriting older versions of Reader if the user doesn't want to upgrade.

Moreover, if you use any kind of interesting layout (e.g., multiple columns), it becomes impossible to copy and paste text from the Acrobat file into (say) a word processor; Acrobat formats text line by line, not paragraph by paragraph. Many users (myself included) copy key passages from online help into our word processors so that once we find an obscure topic, we know we can find it again--something one can't guarantee with online help.

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Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com
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References:
HTML or PDF?: From: Erika Yanovich

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