Comments on: PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox) http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/ Web 2.0 Integration in Southern California Thu, 10 Jun 2010 04:11:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Charles http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/comment-page-1/#comment-379 Charles Mon, 15 Sep 2008 08:27:13 +0000 http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/#comment-379 It's all about search nowadays. There are ways to analyze your help project and manipulate the search but you know that - you're working with Flare according to your post. What I've consistently found for user documentation is that context-sensitive information providing the best chunk of data at the best time increases productivity for the user. For browse sequence types of applications, online tutorials or eLearning with a visual element tend to work slightly better than simple print for the 50k foot overview. Searchable text is great, but having to scan up or down more than a paragraph tends to keep users disgruntled with PDFs. My caveat is that I've not worked extensively with PDFs since Acrobat 7... So I may be dated. Great comment though! And I love your site. It’s all about search nowadays. There are ways to analyze your help project and manipulate the search but you know that – you’re working with Flare according to your post.

What I’ve consistently found for user documentation is that context-sensitive information providing the best chunk of data at the best time increases productivity for the user.

For browse sequence types of applications, online tutorials or eLearning with a visual element tend to work slightly better than simple print for the 50k foot overview.

Searchable text is great, but having to scan up or down more than a paragraph tends to keep users disgruntled with PDFs.

My caveat is that I’ve not worked extensively with PDFs since Acrobat 7… So I may be dated.

Great comment though! And I love your site.

]]> By: mattbnh http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/comment-page-1/#comment-377 mattbnh Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:46:50 +0000 http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/#comment-377 Much as I adore JN, those were great articles in 2003, and almost totally web-centric PDF use. Today, some but not all still rings true. Myself, I think Flash is a POS and I wouldn't pay $700 to be granted the privilege to put it in a PDF. But I think there is some selling short here. For example, PDF has this zoom thing that can solve the small font problem, and while you cannot steal a 300 page document with one mouse swipe, you can copy text and pictures nowadays pretty standardly. Our company has a user base that wants book-like things. Some years back a doc manager discontinued 3/4 of the printed (and PDFed) books to save money, and was popular with upper management for a while until the customer blowback started. Our integrators were fairly prehistoric with regard to online help replacing the books. Our group brought the books back purely as PDF (while keeping the help), and our support and app engineers reported +++ from these customers. They will die off, for sure, and the young guns that will take over our industry will be .net savvy and less bookish, and we are moving that way. But try this out. Give one tech support person a paper book, one a help system, and one a PDF. Time it to see who comes up with an answer first. My money is on the person with the PDF, because Help search sucks and a good many paper indices are sparse or worse. If you are under pressure to search fast and you only need to read half a page, a PDF is fastest, IMO. mattbnh's latest musing..<a href="http://dire-wolf-fennario.blogspot.com/2008/09/day-1-with-flare-4.html" rel="nofollow">Day 1 with Flare 4</a> Much as I adore JN, those were great articles in 2003, and almost totally web-centric PDF use. Today, some but not all still rings true. Myself, I think Flash is a POS and I wouldn’t pay $700 to be granted the privilege to put it in a PDF.
But I think there is some selling short here. For example, PDF has this zoom thing that can solve the small font problem, and while you cannot steal a 300 page document with one mouse swipe, you can copy text and pictures nowadays pretty standardly.
Our company has a user base that wants book-like things. Some years back a doc manager discontinued 3/4 of the printed (and PDFed) books to save money, and was popular with upper management for a while until the customer blowback started. Our integrators were fairly prehistoric with regard to online help replacing the books. Our group brought the books back purely as PDF (while keeping the help), and our support and app engineers reported +++ from these customers. They will die off, for sure, and the young guns that will take over our industry will be .net savvy and less bookish, and we are moving that way.

But try this out. Give one tech support person a paper book, one a help system, and one a PDF. Time it to see who comes up with an answer first. My money is on the person with the PDF, because Help search sucks and a good many paper indices are sparse or worse. If you are under pressure to search fast and you only need to read half a page, a PDF is fastest, IMO.

mattbnh’s latest musing..Day 1 with Flare 4

]]> By: CharlesJeter.com » Save Yourself $700 and a Headache | Is MadCap Flare Now Leading Adobe RoboHelp In HAT War? http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/comment-page-1/#comment-356 CharlesJeter.com » Save Yourself $700 and a Headache | Is MadCap Flare Now Leading Adobe RoboHelp In HAT War? Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:45:49 +0000 http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/#comment-356 [...] reading my PDF summary from January you’ll know my position on this necessary but often overused documentation format. Yes, I use [...] [...] reading my PDF summary from January you’ll know my position on this necessary but often overused documentation format. Yes, I use [...]

]]> By: Charles http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/comment-page-1/#comment-131 Charles Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:35:34 +0000 http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/#comment-131 Thanks Scott, I think one way or another handling the imminent flood of outsourcing documentation is critical to the future of Technical Communication. We'll see who listens. Great blog by the way. I like the concepts. I will get that podcast and listen to it ASAP. Thanks Scott,

I think one way or another handling the imminent flood of outsourcing documentation is critical to the future of Technical Communication.

We’ll see who listens.

Great blog by the way. I like the concepts. I will get that podcast and listen to it ASAP.

]]> By: Scot http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/comment-page-1/#comment-130 Scot Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:47:39 +0000 http://charlesjeter.com/2008/01/03/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption-jakob-nielsens-alertbox/#comment-130 Charles, Thanks for the mention. Interesting that you brought up outsourcing documentation to India. My business partner Aaron Davis and I did a <a href="http://dmn.podbean.com/2007/10/22/technical-communications-and-india/" rel="nofollow">podcast</a> on that very subject last autumn. Scott Charles,

Thanks for the mention. Interesting that you brought up outsourcing documentation to India. My business partner Aaron Davis and I did a podcast on that very subject last autumn.

Scott

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