Release Notes

Mystic Lemur · April 18th, 2014, 08:29 PM

Can the Release Notes be formatted as a .pdf instead of a .doc/.docx? Just another small nagging request for something that probably only bothers me.

mirtos · April 18th, 2014, 10:00 PM

is it a .doc? Its coming up as a .rtf for me, but I agree.

rob · 11:01 PM

We chose RTF for one particular reason, although there are other advantages for us as well. Absolutely everyone who has a Windows-based computer can open an RTF file and view it using the built-in WordPad applet. Not everybody has PDF readers (although most do), and we wanted something with a little more formatting capability than a text file.

What is the benefit of PDF over RTF for this simple purpose? There's no need for bookmarks or anything like that where PDFs have the advantage. And there's no guarantee everyone has a PDF reader. I'm not seeing it, but I'd love to understand what we're overlooking here.

rob · April 18th, 2014, 11:00 PM

One addition note. I realize we require a PDF reader to view the documentation. However, it sure seems to me that only a tiny fraction of users actually ever read the documentation. A much higher percentage appear to read the release notes.

Mystic Lemur · 05:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mirtos

is it a .doc? Its coming up as a .rtf for me, but I agree.

Yep. Apparently Word has decided it's my default .rtf reader. Again. I need to go change that. Again. :/

Thanks for the explanation, Rob. The benefit of .pdf for me is that it doesn't open in Microsoft Word. Now that I have corrected the problem with .rtf files, it's no longer an issue for me.

Zaphod Beebledoc · April 20th, 2014, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mystic Lemur

The benefit of .pdf for me is that it doesn't open in Microsoft Word. Now that I have corrected the problem with .rtf files, it's no longer an issue for me.

I corrected that problem by installing Apache Open Office... Much better!

weogarth · April 27th, 2014, 04:14 PM

Mostly personal preferences Rob. Some Office versions allow you to publish from Word into a PDF. Wordpad does not.

I'd rather you spend your capital on product releases and expenses related to that but that's just me.

Perhaps, when you're much closer to a steady state and your documentation is changing monthly or quarterly instead of daily or weekly you could snag a license for something to make PDFs if desired.

Mystic Lemur Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Alabama Posts: 254 April 18th, 2014, 08:29 PM	Can the Release Notes be formatted as a .pdf instead of a .doc/.docx? Just another small nagging request for something that probably only bothers me.
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mirtos Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Posts: 865 April 18th, 2014, 10:00 PM	is it a .doc? Its coming up as a .rtf for me, but I agree.
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rob Senior Member Lone Wolf Staff Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 8,232 April 18th, 2014, 11:00 PM	One addition note. I realize we require a PDF reader to view the documentation. However, it sure seems to me that only a tiny fraction of users actually ever read the documentation. A much higher percentage appear to read the release notes.
#4