On-line documentation follow-up

[Bob Smith <rs114 -at- TIR -dot- COM>]

I recently requested information about on-line documentation tools, and the
responses nearly unanimously supported Adobe Acrobat.  After looking at
Adobe's web site, I was wondering if the standard tool and the free reader
are all that I basically need.  I'm referring to the 4.0 version that
retails for $249 ($99 upgrade), as described at this web site:
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/price.html

Also, I'm attaching the responses that I received, since most were sent
directly to me.

Thanks,
Bob


Question:

I'm researching different ways to convert paper documentation to an on-line
delivery system. This would be a straight conversion, without any
reorganization of content. Essentially, we'd like to have the page
appearance of the paper doc stay the same with the electronic doc. Tools
that I've looked at include Acrobat, DynaText, ArborText, and Word Viewer.
Does anyone have any recommendations? We'll be converting Word 7 documents.


Answers:

1. The easiest for you is to distribute the WordViewer with your documents,
as there would be no conversion for you. Of course, people can edit and
re-use your documents as they choose, but perhaps that is not an issue for
you.  If you anticipate that many of your users don't have Word 7, or you
don't want to provide an easily editable version of your documentation,
Acrobat is fairly popular. I'm using Acrobat and distributing the free
"Acrobat Reader with Search", which allows my users to take advantage of
multi-document full-text search (I still have to create the search indices,
but the process is fairly automatic). I find that for screen captures and
some of my other illustrations, they don't look good on screen (unless
magnified greatly), but everything prints beautifully.
2. We use Acrobat -- relatively easy, lots of options, most people
arefamiliar with using Acrobat Reader, which we also put on the CDs andlink
to from the web site.
3. Have a look at HTML Transit at www.htmltransit.com. We sell and use the
product in Australia, but it is a fine set of tools.
4. In my amateur (you'll hear from techno-whizzes, which I'm not) opinion,
I'd stick with Acrobat. It does a fine job, most everybody has it, and if
not, it's simple to get. And free.
5. Its sounds as though Adobe PDF output may be the best option to meet
yourrequirements.


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