Getting PDF's reviewed

[Crothian]

Joe is right. I really like bookmarking and hyperlinks, but that should be job 2. Job 1 is making sure the material is well written, the rules are appripriate and explained well. I have no idea how long it takes to hl or place in bm in a product. It is up to the publisher to decide if it is worth his or her time.

 

[jmucchiello]

I have no idea how long it takes to hl or place in bm in a product. It is up to the publisher to decide if it is worth his or her time.

It's not that it takes a lot of time to do it once. But PDFs get updated. And each time you do this you would have to put them all back in again. Makes maintenance more of a chore than it should be.

 

[Axegrrl]

I wouldn't suggest hyperlinking is going to result in more sales, or that bookmarking and hyperlinking can help make up for deficiencies elsewhere in the document. Actually, I often find hyperlinking in PDFs annoying. But I think bookmarks at the chapter level are nice, and bookmarks at the primary heading level are wonderful.

Regarding getting something reviewed, bookmarks *may* help you get your document reviewed a little sooner.

Bookmarks *may* also increase the perceived value of the document. To me, bookmarks are one of those "finishing touches" that say the company wants to make it easier for me to refer to their document often. It goes back to the discussion about PDFs vs. hardcopy and muscle memory. If a PDF has bookmarks, one to three clicks and I'm at the page I want. Without bookmarks, I have to enter the page number if I can remember it. Or, I'm reduced to scrolling to some point near the section I want, thinking where the section on screen is in relation to the desired section, and clicking several times to get to the section I want. Bookmarks give you the ability to use muscle memory to quickly get to the sections you want to read.

As far as how long it takes to add bookmarks to a PDF, I suspect that's dependent on what software you're using. As a tech writer, I've used FrameMaker extensively. It lets you specify which paragraph types (titles, chapter titles, heading levels, etc.) will be pegged for inclusion as bookmarks in the PDF document. Once you know FrameMaker, setting up the bookmarks takes about two minutes. Cranking out the PDF from FrameMaker takes about five to fifteen minutes of work, plus processing time.

 

[Jraynack]

In my experience you should care far more about it being well-written with solid mechanics and good layout. After that bookmarking is necessary but you don't have to go overboard.

No disagreement here. A well-written .pdf with solid rules, good art, maps, and layout should be priority one. I think you summed up my thought quite nicely that bookmarking is necessary. I do not necessarily believe that it will get more sales, however should a reviewer dock points for a .pdf not having bookmarks it may hurt sales.

Jraynack
Alea Publishing Group