I used to be a strong advocate for using PDFs. They are easy to create, view, and distribute—especially for those who deal with cross-platform and application compatibility issues. But what I didn’t foresee was how PDFs would be used to circumvent the web publishing process, compromising effective web writing, usability, accessibility, and search engine optimization (SEO). Now I lament a time when people relied on web publishers to develop and distribute their content effectively.

When PDFs are good

My problem is not with PDFs, but how they are used. They are great for electronic publishing. PDFs are also ideal for forms and other documents intended for printing, as well as large reference guides that benefit from being stored locally on your computer. It is a good portable and compatible file format and an excellent alternative to proprietary formats used by Microsoft, Adobe and others.

Advantages of using PDFs in electronic publishing:

Problems with using PDFs in web publishing

So, if PDFs are so great for electronic publishing, why do I dislike them for the web? Answer: they are too often used ineffectively. Because PDFs are easy to create and distribute, they are employed as a shortcut to publishing online—bypassing the publishing process —resulting in poorly developed web content.

It is common practice to use PDFs in place of web pages. Instead of having content written by web writers and designed by web designers people simply "Save As PDF" and then add a link on their website.

A PDF is not a substitute for a web page.

PDFs developed outside the web publishing process result in:

How to effectively create PDFs for the web

Maintain web accessibility. As Joe Clark writes in his well-reasoned article, Facts and Opinions About PDF Accessibility, "You should put the same care into marking up your PDFs that you put into marking up websites." PDFs can be just as accessible as HTML. In his article Clark suggests when PDFs should be used and explains how to make PDFs as accessible as web pages.

Maintain web usability. You need to choose PDF for an intended functional purpose, not as a substitute for a web page. Consider the need of you users. Duff Johnson offers useful guidelines for maximizing PDF usability.

Maintain focus on quality. PDFs should be held to the same standards as your web pages, including quality writing, design, and search engine optimization (SEO). If PDFs are used properly and included in your web publishing process and content strategy, then they can be implemented effectively.

Tips for publishing PDFs on the web:

How do you feel about PDFs on websites? Do you think your organization uses them effectively?

Benefits of a FAQs page:

Common problems with a FAQs page:

Tips & suggestions:

What would you recommend? Do you find FAQs pages useful? Do you have examples of ones that are either well designed or poorly managed?

Kuler is a free online Flash application that allows you to create color themes (swatches). It’s a great tool for browsing color themes submitted by other designers or experimenting with your own color variations.

You can begin creating a theme based on someone else’s theme, an image, or just one color. From there, you have advanced options for making changes. What sets Kuler apart from similar applications is its integration with other Adobe products and the Kuler community, which is a great resource for inspiration.

Adobe Kuler homepage

Find your color inspiration

From the Kuler homepage, you start in browse mode with a list of the highest rated themes by other designers. You can browse and sort by several categories or search theme titles and tags.

A great way to find inspiration for a design project is to search by topic. For example, search for "sunset" or "Thanksgiving" or "Obama". It’s interesting to see what colors designers associate with certain keywords. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed for each theme category for a constant stream of color inspiration.

Create your theme from a color

Once you find a theme you like, you can customize it by selecting a Rule or manually adjusting the color properties with the Color Wheel.

Adobe Kuler Color Wheel

Kuler Rules allow you to view colors under different conditions, including: Analogous, Monochromatic, Triad, and Complementary. For example, selecting the Analogous rule will match colors with adjacent hues and selecting the Monochromatic rule will focus on one color with varied intensity and lightness in a single hue. You can switch between rules to see how your base color is matched under different settings.

For making advanced HSV adjustments, use the Color Wheel (based upon the Edit Colors dialog box in Adobe Illustrator).

Create your theme from an image

Kuler also allows you to create a theme based on an image. Upload an image to sample or connect to Flickr to access images. After you select an image, Kuler will sample colors and create a theme.

Once Kuler creates a theme based on your image you can change the Mood settings (similar to Rules) to adjust the type of colors that Kuler extracts from the image. You can also manually select colors from the image to modify the theme further.

Saving your theme

After you’ve created your theme you have multiple saving options:

Additional features

Adobe Kuler Extension Panel

One of the great advantages of Kuler over similar products is its integration with Adobe CS4 applications. Kuler is accessible by most Adobe CS4 applications by choosing Window > Extensions > Kuler. This integration makes it incredibly easy to save a color scheme to your swatches palette with just the click of a button. Since anytime I use Kuler I am working with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash or Fireworks, this is a big timesaver.

Another great feature is the Kuler community. All the themes are created and shared by other designers. As a member of the community you can rate themes, add comments and participate in Kuler Talk, an online forum. These options encourage learning through conversations about color. I like to browse theme comments for inspiration. Sometimes I see a use for a theme that I wouldn’t have otherwise considered. To join the Kuler community, login with a free Adobe ID.

Learn more about Kuler

Do you use Kuler or other color scheme generators? What are your experiences using them?

Below are three people I follow on Twitter because I appreciate their contribution to the field of web publishing and I benefit from their tweets.

Kristina Halvorson

http://www.twitter.com/halvorson
Influence: Web Content Strategy

Who she is: Kristina Halvorson is the founder and president of Brain Traffic (@BrainTraffic), an agency specializing in content strategy and delivery. Brain Traffic describes quality content as "Useful. Useable. Contextual. Consistent." which illustrates their view on content strategy. Halvorson is a positive contributor to the "dialogue" on content strategy, asking good questions and promoting best practices.

Why I follow her: Being obsessed with content strategy myself I really appreciate Halvorson’s passion for the craft. I have a lot of respect for her perspectives on the need and role of content strategy in web publishing. I pre-ordered her book, Content Strategy for the Web, and really look forward to reading it.

Brian Hoff

http://www.twitter.com/behoff
Influence: Graphic Design

Who he is: Brian Hoff is a self-employed graphic designer and founder of The Design Cubicle, a blog focusing on "design, creativity and learning." Like all good users of social media, he opens the door to conversation through his blog and is very active on Twitter.

Why I follow him: Hoff provides a continuous stream of useful design-related resources and topics, but what distinguishes him for me is his endeavor to use web publishing for teaching and learning. His business is not quite a year old, but that’s actually an added benefit for his followers who are able to watch him develop his business and expertise. A good sample of Hoff’s approach is his blog post: The creative process for the Design Cubicle’s logo.

Erika Napoletano

http://www.twitter.com/RedheadWriting
Influence: Style & Voice

Who she is: Erika Napoletano is owner of RedheadWriting, a blog with "a candid view on writing, SEO and social media." The operative word there is "candid." Napoletano has a brazen assurance which permeates her writing on Twitter and her blog. Basically, she tells it like she sees it. Did I mention she’s candid?

Why I follow her: Napoletano’s writing style and voice. It’s a challenge to balance a social media presence professionally and personally. Most people are afraid of being too honest in their writing through fear of offending someone or being judged critically. While writers should be mindful of their audience, the tendency to censor opinions to accommodate the status quo can dilute the impact of their writing. It is refreshing to read unexpurgated views–it motivates me to write more transparent and honest. Napoletano is also a really good writer.

All three of these #FollowFriday recommendations are case examples of why I use Twitter. Maybe I would have discovered Halvorson’s book or Hoff’s and Napoletano’s blogs on my own, but their perspectives wouldn’t be as meaningful to me as they are when I follow them–follow their discoveries, challenges, accomplishments, and yes, weekend vacations and hiking trips. Twitter is social media, after all.

This is not an uncommon occurrence with higher education or business brand management. It’s a challenge to balance the message you want to convey with the needs of your visitors–it’s a matter of image versus service. Both are vital. My rationale for keeping the links did not discount the importance of brand management, it aimed to keep a balance. I felt by advising students to borrow the recommended books from the school library in the page introduction (with no mention of Amazon.com) it made the intentions clear while providing easy access to additional information. The school bookstore didn’t carry the titles because they were so specialize, so I couldn’t include them.

The original book list included titles and authors, but no links. Without them, visitors would be forced to copy and paste a book title in order to search for more information. I’m not suggesting this added step is the end of the world. However, I draw attention to it because it’s part of the larger matter of customer service, which must not be trivialized.

One of my favorite topics from the recent eduWeb Conference was: "Answer the questions people are asking." In other words, give people what they’re looking for. This should be a primary goal of a website. And, like the Content vs. SEO debate, the solution should not be either/or. You can accomplish both with careful planning.

What do you think? Are Amazon.com (or other bookseller) links inappropriate for a school website or can a balance be made managing brand image and maximizing customer service?

Listen and Learn

Listening to what is going on around you is important for learning and using social media and other web communication tools is no different. It is increasingly easy to communicate and share ideas, but if you’re not paying attention you’re going to miss what is being said.

Two great “listening” tools are Twitter Search and Google Alerts. With these tools you can save searches and track the keywords. For example, if you search for #eduweb on Twitter, you will find over 1500 tweets by dozens of people affiliated with the eduWeb Conference this past week. Or, if you’re a fan of design, you could search for that, or writing or photography or peanut brittle. Whatever your interest, you can see “live” what people are tweeting about on those topics. You can use Google Alerts in the same way to search websites and blogs and other news sources found online. If you set a Google Alert for your institution’s name and it’s mentioned in someone’s blog post, you’ll be informed. This is a great method for brand management and gathering feedback about your institution, and then you can choose how you want to respond.

Actions you can take at your school:

Engage In Conversation

Listening is only step one. You won’t appreciate the real value of social media or be able to take advantage of web communications until you start to share. Engaging in conversation promotes dialogue on topics that relate to you. The social web encourages this and people are very responsive, but you have to be involved and contribute. It’s an exchange in that you get what you put into it: “have a penny, leave a penny; need a penny, take a penny.” If people don’t contribute, there won’t be anything to take. Answer questions people are asking or refer them to people who can answer them.

Actions you can take at your school:

Be Authentic, Be Real, Be Different

Think like a publisher and less like a marketer. Prospective students can easily spot a marketing sales pitch. Brian Niles from TargetX gave this example of a generic school review: “We’re such a friendly place! Even the teachers know my name and say hi to me!” You need to define your school with authenticity and illustrate how your school is unique. Credibility is most important. When a student asks if you think they would be a good fit for your school, don’t say “absolutely” without knowing their background.

Actions you can take at your school:

The eduWeb Conference in Bite-size Chunks

More From the eduWeb Conference

eduWeb 2009 on Delicious – Links referenced by presenters and attendees

eduWeb 2009 on Flickr – Photos taken by attendees

eduWeb 2009 on SlideShare – Presentation slides

eduWeb 2009 on Twitter – Twitter Conference backchannel

eduWeb 2009 on YouTube – Videos of presenters and attendees

I consider myself a lifelong learner with an insatiable appetite for knowledge. I’m motivated to share and teach others what I know so I can continue to learn and grow myself. I don’t want to do be static and I consider this attitude a value to my employer and clients. Every time I learn something new I am able to make a fresh contribution. I subscribe to the mantra: “there is always a better way.” It’s simple. If you collaborate with others, you increase your options. Problems are solved and people learn.

I marvel at the success of social media (including blogs) to engage people in discussion. It’s a contagious sensation igniting people’s natural inclination to share. It also causes the publishing elite to scramble for a new definition of publishing. When I was working on my masters in publishing, I was drawn into many spirited debates on the role and effectiveness of electronic publishing. Although everyone agreed on where publishing was going, there were disagreements about how it would affect the quality of the industry. Then and now, I like to take the role of devil’s advocate to keep the conversation going. And, it’s a great conversation.

Today I am relaunching the ePublish Media business site as a blog to contribute to the web publishing community and help educate and promote best practices. This is also my new learning sandbox—for testing theories, experimenting, and allowing others to watch me work. My hope is that this will encourage people to engage in dialogue with me on topics of writing and electronic publishing, web design, marketing and communications, and technology. I look forward to learning from you.