I was recently telling someone how helpful the combination of Adobe Professional and Firefox's "convert to PDF" web browser feature were with online research, and I was basically told I was an idiot.

Are there other formats that are much better, and how so? I use PDF alot at work and while it isn't perfect it's certainly preferrable to fucked up formatting attempts with Office and quick/easy if you have the right software. So what's comparable but better?

5/9/2007 12:15:46 PM

i like pdfs for this reason:

people are stupid, sending them something that they can edit is a bad idea

[Edited on May 9, 2007 at 12:22 PM. Reason : 

5/9/2007 12:22:16 PM

i use PDFs when i want something to look the same across multiple computers

if i actually need to work with the document (i.e. copy text, modify content, etc.), i prefer .doc

so for me, PDF for appearance, DOC for functionality

[Edited on May 9, 2007 at 12:33 PM. Reason : holy shit brain fart]

5/9/2007 12:22:26 PM

PDF's are great for final presentations. They are not easy to edit or manipulate without a lot of work on that persons end (generally most people can't if you lock it right). And it's a standard accepted by State and Federal Government.

So in short... the person you were talking to is an idiot.

However beyond use as "reference" material PDF's to me are a pain in the ass to deal with. In most situations that I deal with (application development) there are much better methods than using PDF's.

5/9/2007 12:28:56 PM

I really like PDFs.... I don't care that they can be edited just because what I put out isn't that "sensitive"

Plus, word documents can be edited even easier

everything I produce typically becomes a PDF, just because what I write in LaTeX is automatically put into a PDF

5/9/2007 12:28:58 PM

Quote :

"i use PDFs when i want something to look the same across multiple computers if i actually need to work with the document (i.e. copy text, modify content, etc.), i prefer .doc or .rtf so for me, PDF for appearance, DOC/rtf for functionality"

5/9/2007 2:23:00 PM

Quote :

"Firefox's "convert to PDF" web browser feature "

que?

5/9/2007 2:50:52 PM

PDF's run everything where I use to work. All of our wire specifications, catalogs, certifications, etc where put into PDF.

Quote :

"people are stupid, sending them something that they can edit is a bad idea"

plus the person you were talking to is an idiot.

5/9/2007 3:08:54 PM

Quote :

"the person you were talking to is an idiot."

5/9/2007 3:38:33 PM

Quote :

"Quote : "Firefox's "convert to PDF" web browser feature " que? "

I guess it's because I got Adobe Professional 8 off of Oink, but now when I go into the print menu in firefox (this is a mac, btw), it's got a PDF button at the bottom left of the dialogue box with options like "save selection as PDF, open with Adobe, Open using Yojimbo, Copy to Preview", etc. Combine that with EndnoteX for mac and online research for school is a fucking piece of cake

5/9/2007 3:56:30 PM

PDFs are great for commonality, bla bla bla

but they SUCK ASS for the end user

constant pop-under "update these stupid features" window that locks up your computer, plus insanely long load times, plus the worst search feature known to mankind after MSN Search

5/9/2007 4:11:58 PM

Quote :

"I go into the print menu in firefox (this is a mac, btw),"

oh, i c. All Print dialogs on Macs have the PDF button. Not just FireFox.

5/9/2007 4:35:16 PM

PDF has been amazing for my research as well. My advisor seemed amazed that when we were talking I could pull up my documents on the fly, instead of dropping a giant reference sheet on her.

5/9/2007 5:48:51 PM

.pdf is the file of choice for sharing plans and specifications at most engineering firms. Sometimes we use .tif or .pln files for blueprints, but .pdfs are more universally accepted.

5/9/2007 5:57:20 PM

I hate the fucking shitware client.

5/9/2007 6:38:37 PM

it's nice for CAD drawings as well. Being able to print them to something and send a file so everyone can see them and not have to have a 2k dollar peice of software.

5/9/2007 6:57:06 PM