RE: UKNM: Acrobat/ PDF

[Richard Uttley]

Steve,


depends on how you want your publication to look and how much time you want

to put into it. Word is fine for producing fairly basic documents with

simple graphs and the odd image. After that I find it cumbersome and slow

and have difficulty in making it format text the way I want it. It may be

different for other users depending on their hardware configuration (I run

it on a 500mhz with 128 ram).  So for more advanced layout and advanced

manipulation I would suggest either Pagemaker or QuarkXpress. Both are in

the higher price bracket (a few hundred quid) but are designed to make

document creation as easy and as flexible as possible. There are other

document production packages available for less money but I can't comment on

those as I haven't used them. Word and Pagemaker usually comes with an

Acrobat pdf writer (it appears as a phantom printer) to enable you to go

straight from document to pdf file.


Quality of the end result can be varied dependent on the settings you are

able to apply within Acrobat. If the pdf writer came as part of another

package ie Word or Pagemaker then the settings are limited. If you buy the

Acrobat package (Exchange, Distiller) you can modify font substitution,

compression etc.


To be fair though the biggest contribution you can make to the final quality

of the document is to plan your layout carefully for clarity and choose your

typefaces with legibility  in mind, make sure you use an index and put

subheadings throughout to aid navigation ('cos it ain't just a web thing).


HTH


Richard M Uttley

Marketing Director

Netstep

e-mail:

richardnetstep [dot] co [dot] uk

www: http://www.netstep.co.uk



-----Original Message-----

From:

aajgraytalk21 [dot] com

 [

aajgraytalk21 [dot] com (mailto:aajgraytalk21 [dot] com)

]

Sent: 26 September 2000 10:40

To:

uknmchinwag [dot] com

Subject: UKNM: Acrobat/ PDF



Wholy impressed with the current trend to attract visitors to a website with

an authorative book on a particular subject (ideavirus.com is best eg.), I

need some advice regarding Acrobat and PDF files.


I'm capable of writing the material but have no idea on the software side.

>From my own research, Acrobat 4 seems to be essential.  What in your

opinion

is the best authoring software to use before converting into a PDF.  Is Word

sufficient or do I need Quark/ Illustrator or similar to facilitate later

changes and achieve high quality end-product?


Thanks


'Steve King'



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  The biggest, best Chinwag Networking party...ever...

    **27th September 2000**  put it in your diaries now

 RSVP to http://www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing/party.shtml

  To sponsor the event email

spareanychangechinwag [dot] com

               generously supported by...

  *** DoubleClick ***      http://www.doubleclick.net

  The leading provider of comprehensive global Internet

 advertising solutions for marketers and Web publishers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing or

helpchinwag [dot] com