Which medium for docs?

[John -dot- Cornellier -at- PARIS -dot- IE -dot- PHILIPS -dot- COM]

I'm researching new media for our documentation! I'd like to hear from anyone
experienced in Frame, Winhelp, Word, SGML, HTML, Acrobat anything else I haven't
heard of yet. Acrobat is the only tool I've never used, though I've used the
viewer. I guess the two main issues are: what do the clients want, & what is
easiest to maintain?

My specific questions are:
1. Is there any easy way to print an entire Winhelp or HTML file with good
formatting?
2. Is it true(ish) that if you can print from a word processor you can export to
Acrobat? Can I test Acrobat without buying it?
3. Why use Acrobat instead of Winhelp? Is it purely because it prints better &
can't be changed? Is it that much easier? What is so great about the fact that
the users can't access the txt themselves (supposed virtue of PDF)?
4. Is there an easy way to go from Frame to Winhelp, other than via RTF to Word?
5. Do people really still like paper? Personally I like using online, but as I
have no choice, maybe I'm making a virtue of a necessity.

Following is my analysis of my needs & my perception of the available tools.
Our product is 32-bit Windows software development kits, the users are software
developers, the existing doc set is Frame. The docs are about 50 per cent
command reference & the rest how-to. Docs are discrete, though there's the odd
external ref. They undergo minor changes at least once a year. I want to
distribute docs electronically, reduce maintenance time, & make docs easier to
use & distribute.

Customer support says clients _want_ paper docs & don't mind printing them
themselves.

Winhelp is an industry standard, viewer included in Windows & users know it,
easy to use with Word, looks good on screen, files are small. But it doesn't
seem to work well with Frame, & is hard to print. The RoboHELP/DocToHelp
learning curve is steepish.

PDF is easy to print & apparently works well with Frame 5 & Word. I'm told you
just print to the printer driver & then bung it through the converter. If the
doc is developed for printing (on rectangular paper) does it look OK on screen?
A disadvantage IMO is that you oblige users to install _another_ thing on the
computers, the viewer. (When I'm surfing the web & I stumble upon a site with
info in Adobe, I say to myself: "what _is_ this? can't they just use HTML like
everyone else? Why are they harassing me with the extra step???")

I like Frame 'cause it's a good program, & produces excellent printed material.
Perhaps _too_ good though for SDK ref manuals, i.e. not worth the overhead.

I like HTML because the files are ASCII which means they're small & externally
searchable. Easy to edit, provided you don't get too fancy. They're good for
external links too. But the printing is less good. You can't even control the
font.

Why not just distribute docs in Word with the shareware word viewer? Easy to
maintain & print, but the files are enormous. Something like this could be done
with Frame too, I think.

If you read this far, thanks & well done! Look fwd to all comments,
John
John -dot- Cornellier -at- paris -dot- ie -dot- philips -dot- com

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