PDF Documentation

[John Sgammato]

Well, for what it's worth, my German service engineer said that in
Germany, his customers prefer PDFs to printed books, for all the usual
reasons, PLUS they strongly feel that paper manuals are a sign of a
company that does not "think green". 
Whether they are right or wrong is immaterial; we probably won't be
sending printed docs to German customers unless they ask for them. 

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Combs,
Richard
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 6:33 PM
To: Bill Swallow
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: PDF Documentation

Bill Swallow wrote: 
 
> At best they are an 11-year renewable resource. So, yes.
> 
> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 12:19 PM, Rick Quatro
<frameexpert at truevine.net>
> wrote:
> >> German culture is much more green-minded than ours, so among our
German
> >> customers, especially in manufacturing, printed docs are anathema,
proof
> >> that we ignorant Americans will destroy our planet in short order.
> >
> > Huh? Is there is a shortage of trees in America?

Um, no, there is not. And whether the cycle is 11 years, or 7, or 20 is
irrelevant. 

I can't speak for Germany, but the U.S. has more forested acres today
than it had 100 years ago. As of 2004, there were more than two acres of
forest for every person in the U.S.  

One reason is because increased agricultural efficiency lets us grow
more food on fewer acres, so less land is plowed up. Another reason is
that long-term growth in demand for wood products, including paper,
encouraged entrepreneurs to plant lots of trees and to manage forest
resources for sustained profitability. 

Most of the what's called "pulpwood" (used for paper products) comes
from the 7% of forested land that's actual tree farms. As demand for
paper grows, so does the size of tree farms.

(Here's one relevant source:
http://www.cfact.org/site/view_article.asp?idCategory=5&idarticle=457)

TW tie-in: Print stuff when it makes sense, don't when it doesn't, and
stop worrying about killing trees. The more we need, the more they'll
grow.

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






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