Comments on: Reading White Papers In Flash??

By: Vince Turk

Vince Turk — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 01:47:27 +0000

My main complaint: I couldn’t figure out how to highlight text as my eyes scanned the page; which is my preferred reading style.

What the real benefit of creating such an interface like this?

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 03:56:11 +0000

I am a reader, not an author, and the use of this functionality has really grown in the last year. I have seen it used for three different types of documents; catalogs, online version of print magazines, and whitepapers.

Also, I hate this stuff. The only way I complete reading anything presented in this format is if I can tell in the first paragraph or page that the entire thing wil be world-class in writing, presentation, and relevance.

And it never is.

By: Jim Logan

Jim Logan — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:06:14 +0000

I’m not sure what I think.

On one hand, it’s cool…different.

On the other hand, it’s not intuative…it took several seconds to figure out what to do once the page loaded. That’s likely a training issue that goes away after a couple uses. And the zoom views never quite looked right on my screen.

I like PDF better. But that’s what I’m used to.

Jury’s out. There is something there, but I’m not sold. This is one I’d rather follow than lead.

Re: Doing math to post a comment…at least it’s not subtraction.

By: Joi Murugavell

Joi Murugavell — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:07:50 +0000

It took me five seconds to get annoyed and leave. And I am a web designer who likes pretty things. If I wanted to be entertained, I would have learnt their funny monkey language, but I wanted info and I have lots of fantastic info around me so .. click.. left within 5 seconds

By: Whitney

Whitney — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 21:09:24 +0000

I’ve seen electronic retail catalogs and some travel brochures created with similar technology (using an Australian-developed application called Desktop Author, find it at http://www.desktopauthor.com/). It’s kind of neat with SHORT documents (eight pages or less), but I find it tiring in longer documents. Despite the path technology is taking, the simple fact remains that humans aren’t built for/wired for *comfortably* reading much online.

I did start reading the content of the white paper. Such “flashy” presentations create expectations in my mind of what I’m going to find in the actual content and its writing style. Sadly, I found much of the writing (so far) to be stiff, stuffy, stilted. The contributions from France and Poland were quick and easy to read, but I’ve mostly felt like I’ve had to *plow* through the content.

And I agree with Jonathan. 40 pages is too friggin’ long.

By: Michael Haberman

Michael Haberman — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 20:17:12 +0000

Well we had to originally learn how to use pdf too… and learning to zoom wasn’t that difficult.. there was a one page button..

I thought it was kinda cool.. not sure about the merits of the paper.. I didn’t read it either, but the technology was fun.

By: Michael Stelzner

Michael Stelzner — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:20:36 +0000

I think people are used to the interface of PDF (like the ability to search, etc.).

This interface is distracting. I did not like the fact that it is not immediately readable. You need to figure out how to zoom in.

By: Jonathan Kantor

Jonathan Kantor — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 19:16:21 +0000

That’s exactly what it is - a fancy presentation, nothing more.

Other than the “fancy-schmancy” animated pages, PDF accomplishes a lot more.

Anyway, a white paper that weighs in at 40 pages is too big. It needs a condensed version for the short attention span audience.

By: Mike Sigers

Mike Sigers — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:19:19 +0000

That’s not only bad, it’s horrendously terribly awful !

Thanks for making my day … no matter what I do, it will never be that bad !

By: David Airey

David Airey — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:58:20 +0000

Hi Michael,

I used the math plugin to keep spam down. I stopped using it after a few weeks however, thinking that it’s better to keep it simple. Do you use the Aksimet spam filter for WordPress? It’s the most popular one. On it’s own it get’s rid of 99.9% of all spam on my site. Rarely do I need to moderate spam.

Regarding your question above, at first glance upon clicking the link I didn’t know where to look. It wasn’t obvious enough and there’s more than one button saying ‘click here’. After I saw the back and forward bar at the top, and the click to zoom it was easy. I’d read it, but didn’t like the jumpy turning of pages. If it’s not smooth don’t bother.

Besides, it’s not even necessary.