About

Shlomo Perets: I found the way that online formats can be applicable to technical documentation fascinating and was involved with FrameViewer and WinHelp applications. When PDF emerged, it was a new type of online format, and as such was of high interest to me. I have been involved with PostScript programming on and off since it became available, so that the concept of Distiller processing the PostScript data immediately sparked off different questions and ideas.

In 1995 I was the consultant for a project where a large collection of electronic diagrams had to be assembled. Efficient display, the capability to zoom in on a specific part, searching for component names, interactive navigation and cross-platform support were all requirements of my client. I decided that this was a great opportunity to explore the emerging PDF technology. The project was done with FrameMaker as the hub, and Acrobat Distiller 2.1 as the PDF producer.

However, due to the highly interactive nature of the project and the need to update the collection frequently, Acrobat's inability to save any features present in the PDF for subsequent versions was a major limitation. I set about to find ways to have all of the PDF features I was interested in through advanced definitions in the FrameMaker files. As the project was expanded to include interactive part catalogs, its user interface was enhanced to include popups with additional information, implemented through form fields, and the specific combination of features used could only be served by Acrobat. I was hooked.

I think it's a combination of factors, including the free Reader, cross-platform support, a self-contained format, compact storage, the ability to use the same PDF file for both screen and print purposes with predictable and dependable results, interactivity and text retrieval functions. PDF's independence from the authoring tool means that anyone can use the PDF files without having to purchase any software. For authors, this means that for the most part end users cannot alter their documents. And plain PDF creation is relatively painless. PDF can efficiently serve many different kinds of documents such as newsletters, brochures, manuals, forms, online help, whatever. Many of these factors also contribute to the popularity of PDF as a Web format.

I'm primarily involved with how to best use PDF to distribute technical information in interactive/online contexts. The type of service I provide includes consulting, training, add-on tools and production.

Since I have found that the combination of FrameMaker and Acrobat provides a great deal of power and flexibility, many of my tools and services are geared towards making this process more efficient. My specific expertise is in the techniques to add all of the interactive PDF features you are interested in to the source documents, so that you can define these features once and then distill as many times you need and get what you need in the PDF regardless of the number of times you have to update the source documents and recreate the PDFs, with no manual operations in Acrobat.

Most of the seminars I develop and teach are geared towards FrameMaker users seeking to produce better interactive PDFs, but some seminars such as "Testing PDFs" and "PDF Best Practices" focus on the end result, independent of the authoring application. The seminars are available as public seminars, in-house classes or self-paced "interspondence" learning.

Consulting services for PDF producers is another aspect of my work. I'm proud to have contributed to some of the leading-edge projects implemented with PDF, such as the "How To Read a Film" project as well as several interactive product catalogs, tutorials and online reference projects. Often, consulting services are provided over the Internet, so I have many clients I have never met in person.

My FrameMaker-to-Acrobat TimeSavers add-on is the core product, which enhances numerous aspects of the FrameMaker to PDF conversion process, including bookmarks, links, named destinations as well as support for all Acrobat features defined in the FrameMaker file. TimeSavers can be used as is, or complemented by extensions called "Assistants." There are currently four Assistants, each with a specific focus. The Forms Assistant lets you define all kinds of form fields in source FrameMaker files, so that upon distilling, the fields--with the specific properties you indicate--are present in the PDF. The Navigation Assistant provides several features applicable to a PDF document collection as well as advanced navigation implemented through Acrobat JavaScript. Presentation Assistant supports page-based transitions, timing and additional presentation-related features. Defaults Assistant provides control over all PDF default settings you may need in a file. TimeSavers and Assistants work transparently, while the file is being distilled. The results you need are there when you open the PDF: Define once, distill many.

One issue that I'm constantly monitoring is that of "text representation" in PDF. I want 100% of the text that's in there to be accessible through functions such as Search or Find. Given the rich set of ways to represent text in the PostScript files being distilled, Acrobat does a great job of making sense of text strings and characters (including all types of special characters, ligatures), various encodings etc. But there is still some room for improvement.

Another area where I would like to see improvements is a more efficient file storage. Currently, Acrobat does not compress interactive items at all, so if you have a project that is rich in interactive features and has many form fields, destinations, etc. the file can easily inflate. Text and graphics display could also use some improvements.

We'll have to wait and see what changes Acrobat 6 offers in these areas.

Consulting in a project involving migration of a set of printed manuals to an interactive PDF collection intended exclusively for online use, with links to multimedia demonstrations. The PDFs must be able to collapse and expand so that they are immediately adapted to the level of the user--first-time, intermediate or advanced.

FrameMaker has a powerful internal architecture, capable of supporting complex technical documents--which are typically long, multi-chapter publications, have graphics, tables, cross-references and various generated lists (such as tables of contents) and indexes. It has reasonable support for core PDF features such as links and bookmarks, and PDF links are created automatically from cross-references and hypertext markers (which pre-date Acrobat). The PDF-related features in FrameMaker are dependable for the most part, when used appropriately, like FrameMaker itself. And from my specific point of view, this combination was a great platform to develop add-ons for.

There will always be a need for a stable and powerful tool that does what FrameMaker offers. The question is will Adobe give FrameMaker a real push to make it even more useful, or will they try to add more long document features to InDesign, or whether we'll see a newcomer which takes the best of FrameMaker and looks to the future.

I'm very disappointed when it comes to Adobe's attitude to its own documentation. I would have expected the creators of Acrobat to use its own documentation as model PDFs. Instead, many of Adobe's PDFs are barely more than a delegation of printing responsibilities to the user, with limited added value.

For example, Acrobat 5 introduced support for bookmark properties (color/font style), but none of the documents take advantage of this. Another example is the Acrobat JavaScript guide, which does not include even a single live example of a JavaScript function.
Even worse, many of these documents suffer from basic and common PDF-related problems, such as linking problems, inconsistent settings, and excessive file size.

It is a great pity that Adobe does not see it as a mission to advance the use of PDFs and set a high and innovative standard in its own documentation, showing others just what the potential of PDF is.

The paperless office is already part of our life, but only to a certain extent. PDFs play a certain part but other applications such as e-mail and electronic calendars are just as important. The real significance of PDFs in saving printing costs is the fact that PDFs are distributed instead of a bulk of printed paper. This means that the customer can receive a single CD including software and documentation. This type of documentation can be used without ever printing the manual, but often it is just the case of shifting printing expenses from the manufacturer to the user. Ideally, I would like to see PDFs being improved and becoming more interactive, personalized and customizable so that they can effectively replace paper-based manuals.