Using HTML docs as documentation ref

HTML docs as documentation reference

[cdgeorge]

I am starting to add reference documentation to my website but find that I am only using html paragraphing and links to provide the information. I notice elsewhere others will decide to use pdf documents within their website for a more professional feel for formal documentation of this type. I must admit, when you compare the two, pdfs look and feel better. Is there any program template to improve the look and feel to documentation using standard html methods?

[encyclo]

Trouble is, it's all looks - in every other aspect, the HTML version is far better. PDF files are for printing, not for onscreen display - they take ages to load, they are user-unfriendly, they are inaccessible and they work poorly in the search results.

If you need a good-looking page for printing, you can use a print-only stylesheet to accompany the standard one on your HTML pages.

[Gusgsm]

Perhaps you should take a deep look inside Adobe site [adobe.com]

[edited by: korkus2000 at 2:54 pm (utc) on Sep. 10, 2004]
[edit reason] Linked url [/edit]

[mincklerstraat]

Using just simple css can do a lot to spruce up the look of your docs. Docs don't have to be layout and interface intensive since they're -- just docs. Just make a linked stylesheet with some simple css declarations for <h1>, <h2>, and <p> or more classes and you'll have nice, easy-to read docs that look real nice too.

It's also nice to use id's for linking to specific parts of your documentation, which I don't think pdf's can do at this stage. Once your docs are loaded, they're cached so switching around to different id's with <a href="docs.html#thisid"> type url's goes real fast, documentation isn't completely reloaded.

[cdgeorge]

I like the idea of a print only stylesheet, where can I get one of these from?

[TheDoctor]

You write your own print style sheet. You can get help on this in the CSS forum.