Ragan Communications’ free monthly newsletter, Grapevine (“Tips and tactics from the world of corporate communications”), shares a beef of mine this issue. Among the tips in a story called “What do you want from a Web site?” is avoiding my pet peeve: downloadable PDFs. Ragan elaborates:
“If a PDF is the only sensible option — for example, to deliver a printable, multipage, graphics-laden report — make that clear, and specify how large the file is.”
I just ran across two examples of Web sites ignoring that fine advice while I was looking for some information.
I clicked on the links expecting the file to open in Word; instead, Acrobat launched. The first site had no indication that the document would be a PDF. The second had a tiny note at the bottom of the screen, which I didn’t see in time.
It’s a simple courtesy I wish more sites would extend!
Sometimes I’m looking for a quick answer to a question and before I realize it, a 50-page report is o-p-e-n-i-n-g v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. I usually don’t have the time for this. Some warning that a mastodon is approaching would be helpful.
I love the mastodon analogy – perfect!
I don’t know whether you’ll see this, since it’s over a month since you posted this. But if you have a really long URL, you might want to use a neat website called Tiny URL. All you need to do is drag a link into your links bar. Then, when you’re at a site with a long URL, just click on the TinyURL link and it will create a small URL that you can just paste into your email, weblink, whatever.
Dave, so good to hear from you! And thanks for the tip. I have seen URLs starting with TinyURL before but didn’t know the miraculous service this offered. It does sound cool.