20 comments Add a comment
Why are people so obsessed with using PDF (portable document format) files? In my opinion they are the work of the devil and cause more problems than they solve.
Their use seems to be more prevalent with our friends across in the US than they are here in Europe, however I suspect that picture is slowly changing. I personally can’t see why people like using them as I find them to be a real pain. Sure they are great if you want to print the document, with a PDF what you see is what you get, and you can guarantee the document will be formatted exactly the same for everyone. I think however, you need to seriously weigh up the pros and cons of PDF versus HTML.
Don’t get me wrong; I can see why many people would prefer to use them, particularly if you are in the business of writing reference material. You can’t help but notice how many user guides and instruction manuals now come in this format. Every other manufacturer web site has their documentation in PDF format available to download.
It’s the unwanted side affects that turn me off PDF files, little things such as having to install the Adobe Acrobat Reader or plug-in to begin with. Also, when you open a PDF file, it takes longer to open than say an HTML or text document. I haven’t got the fastest PC in the world, but the lag is quite noticeable. Browsing an HTML document on the other hand is a much smoother experience and for me getting to the text quickly is very important.
From the moment I open up a PDF file, I find the whole experience irritating. The first thing I usually do is scale the document so that it is readable. Even when the display is at ‘actual size’ to begin with, the text always seems quite faint and difficult to read. I suppose this has a lot to do with the way the document was created, but I wish these people would remember that we’re not all equipped with a 21-inch display!
And that brings me to another point. If you want to create a PDF file (why?), you have to go off and install Adobe Acrobat and learn how to do it, so it's not as straight forward as creating an HTML document. There are loads of WYSIWYG html editors for those who don’t write it by hand. I haven’t seen as many tools for creating PDF documents.
After a while using web browser, then switching to a PDF file, the actual navigation seems a bit alien at first. The bookmarks are okay I guess, although I don’t always use them. I am more comfortable searching and paging through the document as I would a web page, although I find the search dialogue box on the Acrobat Reader very clunky and slow and as for paging through the text, I definitely don’t like the way it handles page breaks. I frequently have to scroll back a bit so I can still see what was on the previous page.
Maybe it’s just me, but you can keep your PDF’s and your Adobe Acrobat Reader. I’ll take html, text or even a word document any day!
Leave a comment
Note to self: PDF files are a totally different thing! ;-) :-) :-)
I consider this to be a much better concept and on-screen experience than website pages. No one who's bought the guide so far has complained about it, but I think some are wary of the concept because it's basically a pdf book.Some are wary of DRM software too. Why is that?
Why are hard copy books so popular? They're slow to arrive (much slower than downloading the Reader, which only takes about 3 minutes) and accessing other parts of the book is not so easy and self published books either look tacky or they're hideously expensive to produce.
From my company's point of view the Reader also allows me to put settings on the guide to prevent the guide being copied to others without payment. Critical for commercial viability for the price I'm charging, which is comparable to a trade publication. This would be impossible in hard-copy for self-published material.
I can only see pluses, not minuses.
Well when I open a pdf file a window pops up and says that I must also open another "suite" component such as Abode photo something...and when I close the window the screen goes blank and I can't read the file. HELLP
I just sit there saying "this is a computer file & you are a computer so open it already!!"
I always used to say I wouldn't have a computer until they could learn to do what I want & not the other way around.
Why do we have the PDF format? There are so many other formats which are better, compress better, which preserve the meaning of the text rather than its form.
However, people who wish to go back to DOS, probably prefer to travel by penny-farthing. I rather like my horseless carriage personally and will run down these penny-farthing sorts whenever I possibly can.
Oh look. Another reason to avoid PDF files like the proverbial plague!!
PDF files are for a specific purpose; they're an open format designed so that anyone, using any computer, can view/print a document with the exact same appearance as when it was created – regardless of what fonts they might have installed, what hardware they use, etc. No one can argue that they do this wonderfully.
The problem only comes when people creating the files don't consider what medium they're going to be read through. It's extremely unlikely that anyone's going to print out an instruction manual of 300-odd-pages, yet equipment manufacturers still seem to believe they should provide everything in the A4 page size, regardless of how unwieldy it is to read on-screen.
As for complaining about slowness, the problem really does lie with Acrobat Reader – no one seems to be able to figure out why this is. There are several other similar pieces of software that appear to be much more rapid. Apple's Preview launches and opens a PDF within about 3 seconds (even on this fairly old machine), and I can certainly remember equally speedy performance when using BeOS or Ubuntu on my Dell box.
Basically, complain all you like about Adobe, or people who publish manuals, but please do not insult the wonderful wonderful PDF format. It does what it's designed for, and does it very well.
In my opinion the .pdf file is the worst thing unleashed upon (unsuspecting and naiive) man since World War 2.
OK - they might be OK for you folks working with pretty simple word documents etc. etc. - but I'm in Engineering and everybody keeps asking for drawings in .pdf format. Try it!
Just opening one up and reading it takes an age. Printing it is worse than six months in jail, and it won't even be to scale anyway!
As I write I'm creating one .... slowly ... my Pentium 4 is churning away now for more than a damned hour.
.pdf is old fashioned, innefficient ... and a disgrace.
On the topic of PDFs I have a mixed view about them. They are good for documents such as user guides, CVs etc but if you want to convert a pdf to word (eg if you had an application form you wanted to complete electronically) then you need to download a converter, which I have yet to find a decent one. Also try Macromedia FlashPaper which enables you to convert Word documents to PDF. Good luck
artuk