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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Suzette Seveny [mailto:sseveny -at- PETVALU -dot- COM]
(snipped)
> I have to develop manuals that will be kept online. Users
> will have the
> option to read them online, or if they prefer, print their
> own hard copies
(more snipped)
> the manuals (i.e. acrobat reader or anything like that). How
> feasible is it to:
> a) simply put the Word documents online (in either *.doc or
> *.rtf format)
> b) save the Word documents in *.htm or *.html format (what is the
> difference, anyway?) and put that online?
>
> What do I do with pictures of windows that I've put in the
> manual? I just
Suzette, you do NOT want to put your Word documents online. The problem
is that when someone opens a Word document that they did not create, the
formatting (margins, styles, fonts, etc.) falls apart because they do
not have the underlying template. We've tried it and it wasn't a pretty
sight. Try it yourself....give one of your engineers a Word document and
ask him or her to open it and print it. Unless you have a minimum of
format (no bulleted lists, left-hanging headings, tab changes,
user-defined styles, numbered lists, etc.), you'll be unpleasantly
surprised.
HTML might be slightly better, but again the user's browser is
potentially going to determine what the user sees. About the only way to
ensure the integrity of your formatting is to use .pdf and Adobe
Acrobat.
As for pasting in pictures, that won't affect the document (.doc) file
as much as it will the .html file. Word does funny things to graphics.
Someone on this list said Word converts them internally to .wmf files
(regardless of the format of the original file). Pasting without saving
them separately is not safe, anyway. I always "insert" rather than
"paste" and be sure that your graphic files are not too big (use fewer
colors). From the sounds of your error message, I'd say you need to
reduce the size of your graphics in your document.
