help needed: offline version for my homepage

[paldo]

My homepage is a learning tool. On it I have hundreds of questions linked by anchor to another frame where the answers are displayed. To go through all questions it takes a couple of hours.

I would like to create a offline version that can be downloaded.

What do I need? What kind of software ? What do I have to think of? Which are the difficulties?
Please give me some hints and tips. Thanks.

[Beverleyh]

A pdf document would probably be your best bet.

You can create the document initially in something like MS Word or Open Office Writer (free): http://www.openoffice.org/ and use linked anchors to quickly jump to content - its easy if you bookmark headings.

Then you can use a free online utility to convert to pdf: http://www.doc2pdf.net/

The linked anchors (bookmarks) will be preserved.

[paldo]

Do you mean that I can copy my html documents (create with dreamweaver 8) and paste them into open office writer, save them as pdf and upload them to the server?

[Beverleyh]

No but you could try that - I don't imagine it would work too well though since Word et al aren't html editors so the code and layout will get mangled.

What I was meaning was to recreate your web page document in Word before converting to pdf. You might be able to copy and paste the text content from your web page but I expect you'd need to set about making all the bookmarks/anchors manually for best results.

Alternatively you could probably use the inbuilt browser function to save a complete web page to your PC and then zip it up and offer that for download. I don't know how well that will work though as you haven't provided a link to your site.

[jline]

I might be able to assist. A few questions, do you want the download able version to be a active HTML document or just a document? What reason would you want the page to be available offline?

jline

[paldo]

As mentioned my homepage is a learning tool for flight attendants. Each year we have an emergency refresher. The webpage has 10 chapers, every chapter is made of two frames, on the main frame there are all questions with a few images, on the top frame there are the answer. Only the answer related to the question that is clicked on is shown. (linked by anchor).
To go through all questions will take a few hours. Some flight attendants would like to have a offline version that they can install to their PC and practice on the train, airplane or somewhere else where internet is not available.
I think I have to zip the files and upload to the server. Can the zip files by opened by Mac and PC users? What about updated? When I do some changes do I need to zip again?
Would a pdf version be useful?

I'm working with dreamweaver 8 on a Mac.

[Beverleyh]

PDF stands for Portable Document Format and is the prefered medium for distributing documents on the web. There are a number of benefits to using them which I'll cover below;

Fixed formatting - Once a document is pdf'd its formatting is preserved so you dont have to worry about inherited font issues and different margin setups on other people's computers. All recipients see your distributed pdf document exactly as you intend them to see it, regardless of what software is used to open the pdf or what software was originally used to make it.

Not directly editable - Unlike Word/HTML, the content of pdfs cannot be edited directly, making if difficult for recipients to snaffle an original document, type in their own name and pass it off as their own.

Small file size - Generally, pdfs are smaller in size than the original Word document.

Easier to access - Because of wide-spread installation of pdf readers on computers around the world, pdfs are easier for people to open and read (more so than Word). And in the rare event that the recipient doesnt have a pdf reader installed on their computer they will be prompted to download a free reader such as Adobe's Acrobat Reader.

Easier to print - Its easy to control the paper-size and page layout of a document prior to pdf'ing and the final pdf will print consistently for all users choosing to print it. (not the case for normal web pages, eh) Plus the user can easily choose to print select pages rather than the full document if they need to.

Sure, with the amount of content you say you have, it might take some time to create a Word version of your documentation with linked headings and bookmarks ready for converting to pdf, but I think after reading the benefits, you will feel happier about the amount of control you have over your distributed document.

Of course, if you aren't worried about giving up your website in a conviently zipped package you can always zip up your whole website and offer that as a download. The recipient *should* be able to unzip the package and view your website offline as though it were the online version. This will only work if your pages are static HTML though. Try it yourself and see if this works but test it in a few browsers to see if everything works consistently.

In either case, you'd be wise to include version numbers on each download package and a last updated date at the top of every page to ensure that the reader knows they are looking at the most up-to-date info. An extra page detailing your update changes as a log might also be a good thing too.

You also need to remember to update the download package at the same time you update your main website to make sure informations remains consistent. You'll have more to keep track of if you choose to zip up your full website though - several linked, but seperate, pages over one complete document (I know which I'd favour)

As far as zips go, they can be opened on Windows as well as Mac so nothing to worry about there.

I'd definately go with the pdf though...

[traq]

does your "learning tool" use any server-side processing (PHP, ASP, etc.)?

if not -if it only uses html and javascript- you could simply zip it up (along with any dependent pages/scripts/images/etc.) and have users download it. It could then be opened and used, offline, in whatever browser they like (though IE has default security settings that make it a pain to use javascript on a local file).

[paldo]

Thanks traq. I have a few javascripts on my homepage. What should I recommend to PC user before downloading my zipped learning tool"? Which are the security settings to make it work?

[traq]

In most browsers it should work just fine. Internet Explorer stops local javascript by default and asks the user if they want to allow it to run. Just clicking "Allow" is all that needs to be done. The setting can be changed permanently, but I'm not sure exactly where that option is (I don't use IE ).