Online or PDF? Need suggestions...

Subject: Online or PDF? Need suggestions...
From: Jane Bergen <janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 11:03:13 -0600

I'm still wrestling with a mega-reference for our scripting language. I
can't decide whether to attempt to make it a true doc-on-a-disk (just make
it readable by Adobe Acrobat) or turn it into a more traditional WinHelp
file. It will ONLY be used on Windows 95/Windows NT platform. Right now
it's at about 530 pages.

The first 40 pages consist of a general scripting discussion, then a few
chapters that discuss writing scripts for particular products (ours,
natch). The remaining pages are arranged by categories (TCP functions, HTML
functions, Route funtions, etc.). Within each of those categories, each
function is described on a separate page. The function name (for example,
SetIntegerDouble) appears at the top of the page. It has a table of
contents and index (to look up individual function names, etc.). No
graphics but LOTS of tables.

I don't foresee a lot of need for jumping around (hypertext-style). Mostly,
the users will want to find one function, or perhaps occasionally they will
want to browse through the functions in one category.

The book is currently in one file in Word 95. I'm toying with the idea of
converting it to FrameMaker and breaking it by functions into "books."
Obviously, if I am going to make this into a WinHelp file, I won't want to
go the FrameMaker route.

Any suggestions? caveats? hair-raising experiences?

Thanks.

Jane Bergen

Jane Bergen, Technical Writer
AnswerSoft, Inc. Dallas, TX
janeb -at- answersoft -dot- com

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