Using Plain Old Text

When putting together content for your site, try to present your written words in plain old HTML-based text. This would seem to be the obvious choice, but it’s not always the case.

When gathering content together for a new or redesigned website, information is often created and/or found inside a variety of proprietary formats (e.g. Word, Power Point, Publisher, etc. ) and exported for the website as a PDF. Choosing the PDF format allows users to keep the same page layout documents were created in, without having to recreate it in a web page. It’s a quick and easy method to publish information online.

Most everyone has the free Acrobat Reader preinstalled on their computer these days, and mobile devices such as the iPhone can open and view PDFs without any additional software. In addition, search engines such as Google can index PDFs in their search results as well as HTML pages.

So why not use PDFs on your site?

The #1 reason to avoid them is user-experience. As stated on Useit.com, usability studies from the past 10 years show that clicking from a page of HTML text over to a PDF document is a jarring experience– either a popup window about a download appears, or your screen changes to the PDF Reader inside your browser. Either way, the user experience is interrupted.

Menus disappear, the look of the page is different, your flow is disrupted, text size changes, page download times change... the whole experience is unexpected and unpleasant, like a radio station suddenly interrupted by a test of the emergency broadcast system. BZZZZZ!!!!

While there are some legitimate uses for PDFs online, such as posting a 50-page user manual on operating a digital camera, often times it’s content such as a lunch menu that could easily be retyped within an HTML page, but isn’t because no one had the means or wanted to take the time to do it. The information is there for the end user either way, but it’s the WAY it which it’s presented that means the difference between a user-friendly, professional site and one that seems dashed together and inconsistent.

Putting Word documents on your site is an even worse offense, because unlike the free and ubiquitous Acrobat Reader for PDFs, not everyone has (or even wants) Microsoft Word. Assuming your audience has paid software to view content can lead to disappointed and frustrated visitors.

PDFs have been in use for well over a decade, and are widely accepted format for sharing documents such as product manuals, technical specifications, bank statements, receipts, invoices, and other paperwork. But whenever possible, make your site more user-friendly, and retype your content in HTML.

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