JANUARY 2007

User-friendly technical document: Not an oxymoron

PDF is a perfect format for assembling technical materials, so how can a PDF document work more like a standard three-ring binder? Here’s how.

By Donna L. Baker, ACE, Baker Communications

Most of us use some variation of the big, black three-ring binder on a regular basis, whether in the form of manuals, catalogs or other formal documentation. The problem with paper manuals is upkeep. Replacing pages, deleting existing content and retaining a usable table of contents aren’t simple tasks. Pages are torn, misfiled or lost, and supporting multiple copies compounds the potential for error or omission. Maintaining frequent updates, such as those required in regulated industries, is unending.

On the other hand, asking a new employee to search for information on a topic doesn’t require much instruction aside from pointing out the manual’s location. Before producing a PDF document that is as logical to use as a paper manual, take a few minutes to see what the task entails.

Anatomy of a manual

Grab one of those big binders off the shelf—perhaps a staff training manual or customer user guide for your product line—and open it up. You are sure to see some variation of the following features:

• A hierarchical or tabular table of contents designed to orient the reader to the location of information in the binder
• Often a secondary orientation system, such as tabbed sections, collateral tables of contents, errata, replacements and so on
• Some type of pagination system, ranging from minimal incremental page numbers to highly complex hierarchical pagination
• Extras—scribbled notations in the margins, folded page corners, sticky notes, tape flags, paper clips and so on

Let’s check out the Acrobat equivalent for the manual’s features.

Referencing content 

A table of contents is common in any document that contains a formalized structure. If your document starts life as a Word file with a table of contents, use the Acrobat 8 PDFMaker features to transfer the table of contents and its links directly to the PDF version. While you are modifying settings, check and change the bookmark conversion options as well.

Follow these steps to customize the conversion settings: 

1.     In Word, choose Adobe PDF > Change Conversion Settings to open the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box. Look for settings on three tabs:

• On the Settings tab, select the options for adding bookmarks, links and tags (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Use the existing PDFMaker options to add navigation to the document.

• Click the Word tab, and ensure the Convert cross-references and table of contents to links option is selected (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Make sure the table of contents is converted automatically.

• Click the Bookmarks tab, and select the elements you want to convert to bookmarks in Acrobat. You can use default styles, headings, or bookmarks produced in the file, alone or in combination (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Choose the document elements you want to recreate as PDF bookmarks.

Tip: Don’t select one of the upper checkboxes on the Bookmarks tab as that automatically selects every heading or every style. Instead, scroll through the list and select the specific elements to convert.

2. Click OK to close the Acrobat PDFMaker dialog box, and convert the file to PDF.

3. Open the document in Acrobat and check the file. As shown in Figure 4, my sample file contains a linked table of contents (Figure 4).

Figure 4. The table of contents, complete with its links, is converted to PDF.

4. Test the bookmarks’ actions. Reset the destinations for any bookmarks that don’t display the appropriate content in the document pane when clicked.

Tip: Be sure to use the same magnification to allow your readers to move smoothly through the pages.

5. To define the opening view for the document, choose File > Properties to open the Document Properties dialog box and click the Initial View tab. Choose Bookmarks Panel and Page from the Navigation tab dropdown list and click OK to close the dialog box.

Continuing with the paper-manual analogy, I could create the same structure for any number of component documents, and then combine them into a master document complete with its own table of contents.

Identifying pages

The converted document doesn’t contain page numbers or a header or footer. The sample file is broken into three sections, each of which covers a number of pages, has a section name in the left footer, and a part number along with the page number in the central footer. My sample file’s breakdown is shown in Table 1. 

Table 1. Page breakdown for sample file

Part Name	Part Number	Page Range
Optimizing a PDF file	Part 1	1-8
Setting Trust Preferences	Part 2	9-10
Meeting Online with Acrobat Connect	Part 3	11-15

The page numbers are added as part of a footer for more visual control. To add the footer for the first section, follow these steps:

1. Choose Document > Header & Footer > Add to open the Add Header and Footer dialog box. Specify font and margin options using the visible settings on the dialog box.

2. Type the text to use for the footer in the appropriate fields (Figure 5). The section name is added to the left footer and the part number is added to the center footer. Click Insert Page Number to add the page field to the center footer.

Figure 5. Add the text and page numbers to the appropriate footer fields.

3. Click the Page Number and Date Format link to open the dialog box and specify the starting page number for the section (Figure 6). Click OK to close the dialog box.

Figure 6. Define the number’s appearance and starting page number in the dialog box.

4. Click the Page Range Options link to open the dialog box and specify the range of pages to which the footer is applied (Figure 7). Click OK to close the dialog box.

Figure 7. Specify the range of pages to receive the designed footer.

5. Check the footer in the Preview area of the dialog box. Click the Preview Page arrows to view different pages in the file (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Check the footer’s appearance on the preview. The Header preview, normally shown in the dialog box, has been removed from the figure.
See larger image

6. Click Save Settings at the top of the Add Header and Footer dialog box to open a small dialog box; type a name for the settings and click Save.

7. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply the footer to the first section of the document.

8. Choose Document > Headers & Footers > Add. A dialog box opens stating the document already contains a header or footer, and warns against replacing the existing one. Click Add New to reopen the Add Headers & Footers dialog box.

9. Click Save Settings to open the list and choose the footer settings saved earlier. Substitute the text, starting page number, and page range option for the second section; click OK to close the dialog box and apply the second footer.

10. Repeat Steps 8 and 9 one more time to add the footer for the third section of the document.

The document shows the correct sequence of section names and part numbers, as well as page numbers (Figure 9).

Figure 9. Each section of the document now contains a custom footer and maintains the correct page numbering.

Note: You won’t find any difference in the numbering of the thumbnails in the Pages panel, nor will you see a difference in the Page Navigation toolbar—to show a custom number in those program areas, choose Advanced > Document Processing > Add Page Numbers and specify the characteristics for the pagination.

Adding return navigation

Your readers can move around the document fairly well, using either the links on the table of contents page, or the bookmarks. Clicking a link on the table of contents leads to the location in the document, but return navigation is missing. One of the simplest methods to add a consistent link to a document is using a button. 

Follow these steps to add a Return button to the document’s pages:

1. Choose Tools > Forms > Button Tool to activate the tool. Double-click the page to place the field and open the Button Properties dialog box.

2. Name the field, and add a tooltip for user reference (Figure 10).

Figure 10. Offer a tooltip to your readers to explain the button’s purpose.

3. Continue through the Button Properties dialog box, configuring the Appearance and Options for the button. In the example, the button is text only.

4. Click the Actions tab. Leave the default Mouse Up trigger; click the Select Action dropdown arrow and choose Go to a page view. Click Add to display the Set Link dialog box.

5. Adjust the document to show the table of contents using the same magnification as that you are using for the bookmarks and initial links from the table of contents. Click Set Link to close the dialog box and return to the Button Properties dialog box. You see the action has been added to the button (Figure 11). Click Close.

Figure 11. The button is intended to return the reader to the table of contents when clicked.

6. Adjust the position of the button as required; use the grid or Guide lines to assist in placement if necessary. Be sure the location is correct, as each duplicate button will be placed at the same location.

Figure 12. The button is aligned with the footer elements at the bottom of the page.

7. To copy the button to the other pages in the document, right-click/Control-click the button with the Button Tool to open the shortcut menu, and choose Duplicate Field to open the Duplicate Fields dialog box (Figure 13). Specify the pages to receive the copies. You see the page range in the figure starts at Page 3—Page 1 is the table of contents, and the original button is added to Page 2.

Figure 13. Specify the range of pages where Acrobat will paste copies of the buttons.

8. Click OK to close the dialog box and apply the buttons. Test the pages (Figure 14).

Figure 14. The Return buttons’ tooltips describe what happens when the user clicks the button.

Other ideas to consider

Here are a few more ideas to consider in your projects:

• Dress up the bookmarks using color; add bold text for emphasis.
• Provide a link or button at the bottom of each page for the user to return to the table of contents page.
• Construct an index and attach it to the documents for faster searching.
• Insert a new page to use as the opening page for the document. When there are updates to the content, list the changes on the page, and add links to the referred content if appropriate. You might like to control the process using a Document Open JavaScript: check out Thom Parker’s JavaScript Corner for tutorials.
• Attach source documents or documents containing further data. Either attach the document to the PDF file, or attach it to a page location as a comment. Read the tutorial Digital Paperclips.
• Provide links where appropriate to other resources such as PDF files and online content.
• Offer contact information—just as with a website—to report missing content, broken links and so on.

Offering comments

If your users are working with Adobe Reader instead of Acrobat, be sure to offer them commenting tools. Acrobat 8 Professional allows you to enable a file for commenting in Adobe Reader. Choose Comments > Enable for Commenting in Adobe Reader. Save the file and it’s ready to share.

I’d like your feedback:
Are you presently using PDF for complex documents? What positive/negative outcomes are you experiencing? Aside from the workflow and methods mentioned, what Acrobat features would you incorporate?

Coming up: “Giving Search Engines a Helping Hand”
More and more Web-based materials are in PDF. Make sure your files contain what search engines need to catalog your files.

Share your experiences
Are you finding more or less user/customer interaction as a result of using PDF content on your website? Is it easier or harder to search your site’s contents?

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