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From: boris@world.std.com (Boris Levitin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer,comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: What file format should technical documentation be distributed in?
Message-ID: <1990Aug26.041015.21114@world.std.com>
Date: 26 Aug 90 04:10:15 GMT
References: <23862@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> <9925@goofy.Apple.COM>
Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die
Lines: 35

In article <23862@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU> ari@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Ari 
Halberstadt) writes:
>> I am about to post a set of free XFCNs, including source code
>> and over 100 pages of documentation. The documentation has
>> been specially formatted in the style of technical documentation.
>> I would like to distribute the documentation so that the maximum
>> number of people will be able to read it, with all of its
>> formatting and illustrations intact. My question is, in what format
>> should the files be distributed?
>> [MacWrite loses much of the formatting]

Help is on the way to a degree in the form of Claris's XTND technology.  I've
just started using On Location, which uses XTND to allow viewing of MS Word
files, and most formatting is interpreted correctly (with some glaring
exceptions, such as tables).

If you can, distribute in MacWrite format; it is readable directly by every 
other word processor.  If you have to use MS Word, it's not the end of the
world, since Word has 50% of the market share and applications which can read 
its format probably have around 70% to 75% penetration.  I'm noticing more and
more documentation for share/freeware being distributed exclusively in Word
format.

Another soultion is to use Solutions International's SuperGlue II, a utility
which generates a file of the image of your document.  It can be read and
printed without the creating application present (but it cannot be edited).
SuperGlue II comes with a viewer application that you can distribute freely.

Boris Levitin
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