Twitter Anna Soubry MP @Anna_SoubryMP 25 Apr My latest email newsletter is up on my website. Click through to it for a mixed bag of news: http://bit.ly/ZQBBcw
I hope the voters of Broxstowe will put their partisan leanings aside and focus on the key issue here, which is that nobody who thinks that PDF is an appropriate format for a newsletter on a website should be returned to Westminster.
Added to which, the PDF download doesn't seem to work. I'm getting the connection opening, but the server never actually sends me any content.
Twitter Anna Soubry MP @Anna_SoubryMP 25 Apr My latest email newsletter is up on my website. Click through to it for a mixed bag of news: http://bit.ly/ZQBBcw
I hope the voters of Broxstowe will put their partisan leanings aside and focus on the key issue here, which is that nobody who thinks that PDF is an appropriate format for a newsletter on a website should be returned to Westminster.
Added to which, the PDF download doesn't seem to work. I'm getting the connection opening, but the server never actually sends me any content.
I just clicked on the link provided in my post via Anna Soubry's tweet, and then again also on the link provided on her website with absolutely no problems at all. And regardless of the format, her news letter is openly and easily accessible to read by anyone who wishes to do so.
One of my MEPs sends pdfs too. The Newsletter Format of Champions!
It's worse than I thought - are you saying these people are sending the actual emails as PDF attachments, instead of just putting the words in an email?
There must be some kind of procedure to remove them from parliament before the end of the term. What happened to that stuff about recall votes?
Works for me EiT. Can't say that you're missing much though.
Hmm, works in Firefox, breaks with mobile Opera / Chrome / wget.
You have to spend serious money on consulting and next-generation online enterprise technology to cock up the process of putting a file on a web server so people can download it.
When confronted with web skills like this I just want to make an urgent phone order to Slick Mario's Quick Lime, Tin Bath and Shovel Emporium.
Cross-browser user acceptance testing, anyone? Or just doing it a better way? Whoever she outsourced this to isn't very good. If I take my tech hat off though, I think @NickPalmer is being partisan and unfair to genuine attempts by Anna Soubry to communicate. She just needs someone tech-savvy in her office to improve the delivery.
Twitter Anna Soubry MP @Anna_SoubryMP 25 Apr My latest email newsletter is up on my website. Click through to it for a mixed bag of news: http://bit.ly/ZQBBcw
I hope the voters of Broxstowe will put their partisan leanings aside and focus on the key issue here, which is that nobody who thinks that PDF is an appropriate format for a newsletter on a website should be returned to Westminster.
Added to which, the PDF download doesn't seem to work. I'm getting the connection opening, but the server never actually sends me any content.
Works for me here on Chrome.
Absolutely nothing wrong with PDF for a newsletter or leaflet on a website. PDF is a page description format, and it should display the same on all browsers (*) and when printed. If she wants to email the newsletter, or print it out for hand delivery later, PDF is still the way to go.
The alternative is to go text-only or limited graphics. Which IMHO is always better for this sort of thing - it is the content that matters, and longer the time spent formatting flashy coloured boxes and dot-dash borders, the less the time spent on the content. But I suppose people are more likely to read content that is flashily laid out.
HTML is (still) not a page description format. This will partially change as HTML 5 increasingly takes off, but there will always be problems with different HTML render engines displaying them differently. The PDF creation tools, especially directly or from Word, are also much easier to use than HTML creators.
Just go on governmental websites and you'll see loads of PDFs. It's because the format, although troublesome, does things that HTML does not. That's mainly because they were designed to fulfil different purposes.
Having said that, her newsletter is not particularly well laid out, with the footer on its own separate page - hardly ideal for printing out. There's also text justification and other errors. And if she means them to be printed out, putting links and not the URLs and links to other websites if unforgivable.
So I have no problems with her using PDF; I do have problems with the layout and usability of the leaflet. And that's before I even start looking at the content...
Hmm, working here now, too. Server misbehaving earlier or something?
HTML is (still) not a page description format. This will partially change as HTML 5 increasingly takes off, but there will always be problems with different HTML render engines displaying them differently.
This is a feature, not a bug. It's not a page description format because it's being displayed on a screen not a page, which will vary depending on the device and the needs of the person using it.
Just go on governmental websites and you'll see loads of PDFs. It's because the format, although troublesome, does things that HTML does not. That's mainly because they were designed to fulfil different purposes.
You see a lot of PDFs on government websites because they're run by people who are used to dealing with paper. It's nearly always a usability fail, except when it's a document intended to be printed rather than read on the screen.
Hmm, working here now, too. Server misbehaving earlier or something?
HTML is (still) not a page description format. This will partially change as HTML 5 increasingly takes off, but there will always be problems with different HTML render engines displaying them differently.
This is a feature, not a bug. It's not a page description format because it's being displayed on a screen not a page, which will vary depending on the device and the needs of the person using it.
Just go on governmental websites and you'll see loads of PDFs. It's because the format, although troublesome, does things that HTML does not. That's mainly because they were designed to fulfil different purposes.
You see a lot of PDFs on government websites because they're run by people who are used to dealing with paper. It's nearly always a usability fail, except when it's a document intended to be printed rather than read on the screen.
I never said that the HTML not rendering identically on all devices was a bug - just that HTML and PDF were developed to fulfil different purposes. As you say, HTML to render to a variety of screens, PDF to render an accurate representation of a page. You use the best tool for the job.
I totally disagree with your last paragraph. HTML is a terrible format for many purposes, including emailing. Try emailing an HTML page with lots of graphics and see what you get at the other end. PDF is also good where there are a large variety of fonts within the document that the reader may not have on their computer.
If I need to email a document, I always use PDF (usually saved from Word, which is not ideal). I can send it knowing it will appear as I want it with the client. Never, ever, send a plain Word document unless you know what you are doing. (*)
There are also versioning issues with HTML.
As I say above, pick the right tool for the job. If she's emailing the newsletter, PDF is acceptable IMHO.
(*) At Company X, a secretary sent a Word document from the CEO detailing a reorganisation. She had not removed versioning history, and by crtl-Z ing through the document we discovered some information they had deleted and they did not want us to know...
Comments
Added to which, the PDF download doesn't seem to work. I'm getting the connection opening, but the server never actually sends me any content.
One of my MEPs sends pdfs too. The Newsletter Format of Champions!
I just clicked on the link provided in my post via Anna Soubry's tweet, and then again also on the link provided on her website with absolutely no problems at all. And regardless of the format, her news letter is openly and easily accessible to read by anyone who wishes to do so.
There must be some kind of procedure to remove them from parliament before the end of the term. What happened to that stuff about recall votes?
You have to spend serious money on consulting and next-generation online enterprise technology to cock up the process of putting a file on a web server so people can download it.
When confronted with web skills like this I just want to make an urgent phone order to Slick Mario's Quick Lime, Tin Bath and Shovel Emporium.
Cross-browser user acceptance testing, anyone? Or just doing it a better way? Whoever she outsourced this to isn't very good. If I take my tech hat off though, I think @NickPalmer is being partisan and unfair to genuine attempts by Anna Soubry to communicate. She just needs someone tech-savvy in her office to improve the delivery.
Absolutely nothing wrong with PDF for a newsletter or leaflet on a website. PDF is a page description format, and it should display the same on all browsers (*) and when printed. If she wants to email the newsletter, or print it out for hand delivery later, PDF is still the way to go.
The alternative is to go text-only or limited graphics. Which IMHO is always better for this sort of thing - it is the content that matters, and longer the time spent formatting flashy coloured boxes and dot-dash borders, the less the time spent on the content. But I suppose people are more likely to read content that is flashily laid out.
HTML is (still) not a page description format. This will partially change as HTML 5 increasingly takes off, but there will always be problems with different HTML render engines displaying them differently. The PDF creation tools, especially directly or from Word, are also much easier to use than HTML creators.
Just go on governmental websites and you'll see loads of PDFs. It's because the format, although troublesome, does things that HTML does not. That's mainly because they were designed to fulfil different purposes.
Having said that, her newsletter is not particularly well laid out, with the footer on its own separate page - hardly ideal for printing out. There's also text justification and other errors. And if she means them to be printed out, putting links and not the URLs and links to other websites if unforgivable.
So I have no problems with her using PDF; I do have problems with the layout and usability of the leaflet. And that's before I even start looking at the content...
(*) Until Google started messing about, that is.
I never said that the HTML not rendering identically on all devices was a bug - just that HTML and PDF were developed to fulfil different purposes. As you say, HTML to render to a variety of screens, PDF to render an accurate representation of a page. You use the best tool for the job.
I totally disagree with your last paragraph. HTML is a terrible format for many purposes, including emailing. Try emailing an HTML page with lots of graphics and see what you get at the other end. PDF is also good where there are a large variety of fonts within the document that the reader may not have on their computer.
If I need to email a document, I always use PDF (usually saved from Word, which is not ideal). I can send it knowing it will appear as I want it with the client. Never, ever, send a plain Word document unless you know what you are doing. (*)
There are also versioning issues with HTML.
As I say above, pick the right tool for the job. If she's emailing the newsletter, PDF is acceptable IMHO.
(*) At Company X, a secretary sent a Word document from the CEO detailing a reorganisation. She had not removed versioning history, and by crtl-Z ing through the document we discovered some information they had deleted and they did not want us to know...