At Purolator we had two manuals – Operations Procedures and HR Procedures - to be put online to be accessed in a network. Using Adobe Pagemaker, Photoshop and Acrobat Exchange the task was completed in days. Pagemaker was the foundation for text formatting, text processing and TOC generation and PDF creation (all Adobe programs can create PDF files). Photoshop was used to design the interface, which consisted basically of buttons mounted on a background. Finally, Exchange was used for indexing and the addition of buttons, links, fillable forms, and navigational aids to the PDF files.

The following steps were followed:

All work was done using Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Since the manuals were already formatted in Pagemaker, it took only a click of the "Export to PDF" button to convert them to PDF. With generated tables of contents for each section, automatic links were retained, which greatly simplified the text linking process and made a tiny amount of work look like a painstaking effort. Providing the dual purpose document was the DTP hat, and timesaver number one.

Format Considerations Format was and is a limitation. These documents were originally designed for paper-based distribution and not for screen viewing. Nor was there time to reformat everything to fit on a screen. We decided there was a trade-off. Either have a large number of pages and small amount of easy-to-read text on each page, or leave things as is and have a small number of pages that users must scroll through and use the magnify tool. We concluded the trade-off between page count and legibility might never be balanced. However as users become more adept at using Acrobat tools, differences are minimized. The obvious choice was leave things as is. Today, documents are formatted for a computer screen (pages are 8 inches by 5 inches) while retaining document histories.

Adobe Photoshop factored heavily in the interface design. A nondescript background - a grey brick wall - was selected, which contrasted lens-flared ruby-red buttons located beside titles. Again, Photoshop files were easy to export as PDF files, which were then customized using the Acrobat Exchange forms tool. For example, only the buttons are clickable. Titles allow mouseovers. The layer option in Photoshop allowed for experimentation and duplication of screen elements. The ten or so interface screens were immediately converted to PDF format and combined into a "trigger" file, which is the file that launches the root interface screen. This was the Designer hat.

Linking the PDF files and the interface is as simple as dragging a bounding box around the item to be linked (the source), navigating to the destination, then "OK"ing the link. The linking process was simple, even mechanical. No linking was necessary at the destinations, however, since links here were already created from the TOC.

Acrobat Exchange was used to manage the PDF files and create the index, the search capability, and the customization. Using programs built into Exchange - Catalog, Search and the generic forms tool - the rich array of tools allowed actions normally found in software programming applications like Visual Basic, to be built into the document collection. A comprehensive set of interactive controls such as list boxes, combo boxes, text and authorable buttons, each with schedulable mouse actions, gives the designer cum programmer tools that will satisfy any electronic document requirement. In addition, Acrobat Exchange has excellent online help that emphatically supports the absence of a hard copy manual.

Using hidden text. One challenge came from the 40 or so operations procedures. They were from a variety of subject areas and had to be chunked into 7 or 8 general categories, which users had not seen before. To educate users, Java-style "mouseovers" i.e. where text appears and disappears when the cursor moves over and off an area of the screen, were built into the new titles. This enhanced the interface by allowing new users to scan headings to find information about each category without filling up the interface with text. This was the "programmer" hat.

Advanced Features. With CGI programming experience, form data can be exported to and processed on a web server, adding further potential to the PDF collection. The beauty of using PDF files is that you don't have to be a programmer, a designer or even a DTPer to use them. Combined with short development time and the prospect of mounting PDF files on an intranet, the PDF solution can be seen as an irresistable alternative to expensive and time-consuming programming.

The final step was mounting the whole collection on the network server and making Acrobat Reader available to all users. This involved a simple upload of files and directories to an organized directory structure that included a readme file on how to install the Reader (from a single mouse click, thanks to Adobe) then setup the trigger file. Users were asked to install the Reader with Search reader, which allows the use of the index, then drag a shortcut to the trigger file (called "MAIN.PDF") from the server to their start menu.

When finished, the whole project amounted to about 12 MB of disk space, (4MB for each manual and about the same for the document collection index). This statistic pleased the LAN adminstrator, who had server space constraints.

The end result of this PDF electronic collection is an appealing electronic index, mouseovers for titles, and numerous buttons and navigational aids pointing to highly accessible documents. Fundamental to the project is a full-text search feature, allowing users to search for specific information. Users are reassured in using only current information and in knowing that anything can be printed, searched and copied. The project has received nothing but "oohs" and "aahs" from everybody who has used it, indicating that customized PDF files are a viable electronic solution. From feedback received it is clear that customized PDFs quickly gives users exactly what they need.

Gordon S. Miller

Technical Writer

Purolator Courier Ltd.

5995 Avebury Road,

Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

L5R 3T8

Tel.: 905-712-1084 x3625

Gordon Miller is a senior member of STC and a past competition manager. He won the Toronto chapter’s Best of Show award in 1993 and currently forms part of the documentation group at Purolator Courier, where he has worked for the past 5 years. He is a regular attendee at STC annual conferences.