Distributing Word docs to customers?

Subject: Distributing Word docs to customers?
From: Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>, Mary Arrotti <mary_arrotti -at- yahoo -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 07 May 2007 17:52:14 -0400

Mary Arrotti wondered: <<We're currently debating pros & cons of how
we distribute our documents to our customers. I'm more comfortable
with distributing all our docs (other than Help) to customers in PDF
format. This has been common practise in my experience.>>

Yup, and because it works: you control the format, and customers
can't modify the content in any significant way. If they need to make
notes, it's easy enough to copy text into their favorite word processor.

<<A coworker prefers distibuting our docs in Word format so our
internal sales & support people can copy text from the docs.>>

I'm not aware of _any_ pros related to distributing docs in Word
format, and there are many negatives. If people need to copy text,
teach them how to use the text selection tools provided by Acrobat
Reader or (if you're using WebHelp or HTMLHelp) any Web browser.

<<(However, we wouldn't want our customers to do this.)>>

No, you really don't. The legal liability issues boggle my mind. It's
not that you couldn't prove, with difficulty, that someone who
thought they know better than you screwed up the docs and suffered a
loss or injury as a result, but what a hassle that would be. Not to
mention the ethical complications. If the goal is to allow some form
of interaction with customers so that you can evolve the docs by
working together, you need a wiki that provides access controls, not
Word.

<<While the obvious solution might be to produce both formats - my
coworker feels this unnecessarily complicates our process.>>

If selecting Acrobat Distiller in the Print dialog or clicking the
PDF icon in the Acrobat toolbar for Word is too complicated for your
coworker, they might want to consider a career in a less complicated
field. <g>


----------------------------------------------------
-- Geoff Hart
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www.geoff-hart.com
--------------------------------------------------
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References:
Distributing Word docs to customers: From: Mary Arrotti

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