July
2006
The scourge of PDF files
With PDF Adobe gave powerful tools to people without a clue about how to allow information to be easy to reach! A PDF is not a content management system, mind you some people pay thousands of pounds just to be able to attach a file thinking that’s what a CMS is.
I just got one message to anyone who runs a government website, any information website. Look if you have a map or a basic image to put on your website, just don’t put it in a PDF, what’s the point, it’s like wrapping a mini roll in tin foil just to make it look shiny. It’s an image so upload so it as a JPEG, there’s a way to embed an image onto a page so I don’t have to download a file, the image tag! While we are here why not take the text of the PDF, usually bullet points and put it in an unordered list which would also appear on the webpage, there really is no need to be having an attchment that you make us download, really stop it now, it’s annoying!
Yeah PDF for downloadable leaflets and things which are meant to be printed, by all means please do, but not for one image, and certainly not as the absolute only way of looking at a map of car parks in a town centre. It really is not the right thing to do, really!
