At 09:03 AM 11/20/04 +0100, Jari Williamsson wrote:
>The only thing that isn't easy to do is to make additions/corrections to 
>the existing pages in the on-line manual (but that isn't probably 
>allowed anyway, so...).

Isn't allowed? If it's HTML, you just make the changes. There's no PDF nanny.

And that's the single biggest advantage for me. I only use the PDF manual's
index and never print the manual pages. I don't need full searches (which
Windows can do if you really need it with Start -> Find -> Files or Folders
containing text by directory) and don't care how it breaks on the page.

There are some folks here who talk about wanting printed manuals. I once
agreed with that, but no longer. I have a shelf of manuals behind me that
are just wasted paper. The only manual I use for Finale is the character
set card, and the pages of notes I've had to make because I *can't* add
them to the manual.

At 11:24 AM 11/20/04 +0100, Johannes Gebauer wrote:
>What was the disadvantage of PDF manuals again?

You can't change them.

With HTML, I would immediately fold in the manuals for plugins (some are
already in HTML) as appendices, add them to the navigation and *especially*
to the index. I could imagine such a modified manual being shared and the
number of "you can do this with X plugin" responses dropping enormously.
Likewise, I could add animated GIFs and AVI/MOV files to HTML manuals to
demostrate exactly how to work with certain obscure elements of the
program. I could also add and remove bug and workaround sections by
dropping in links as needed. I could add my scribbled personal work notes,
and change the style/size of elements which always trip me up.

In terms of pure work style, I always have multiple browser pages open. So
unless there's some trick I've never seen with PDF, I cannot have multiple
pages open at once. With HTML, my browser can open multiple pages and I can
CTL-TAB (or ALT-TAB for some browsers) among them.

Sure, it would help if someone volunteered to coordinate a kind of user's
"open source" version, but once you've seen a really good HTML manual --
unless you're a committed "paper person" -- you'll never want PDF again.

Dennis



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