secured PDFs

[Craig, Alison]

We secure our customer-facing PDFs. Users can Print or View only. We've learned the hard way with dealers/distributors who pull things out, make shorter/different versions or change things to suit their personal style. I know it's easy to crack a PDF password, but from a liability standpoint, if someone does this, it's a deliberate act on their part.

As we produce Medical Devices, it is imperative that no one tampers with content which has had to go through software reviews, clinical reviews, Risk Assessments, Regulatory approvals (FDA, Health Canada, etc) audits (again, FDA, Health Canada, etc).

A few internal people occasionally ask for extracts from the manuals for legitimate purposes, so I extract the specifics they need - but I never give them the password (too many in-house people keep copies and pass them around, so we've learned the hard way that only documentation personal can have the password).

Alison


Alison Craig | Technical Documentation Lead
Ultrasonix | 130-4311 Viking Way | Richmond, BC  V6V 2K9 | analogicultrasound.com<http://www.analogicultrasound.com>
T 604-279-8550 ext 127 | F 604-279-8559

From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Johnson, Joyce
Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2015 12:12 PM
To: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: secured PDFs

We deliver user guides (software and hardware) to customers  via password-protected pdfs, loaded onto servers and also posted on our customer web portal.

I'm wondering how members of this group deliver customer-facing documents. Do you use pdfs? If so, do you secure those pdfs? If you secure them, how do you accommodate in-house colleagues who request unsecured pdfs so they can extract pages and images?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Joyce

Joyce M. Johnson
AmerisourceBergen
Lead Technical Writer
Technology Group

1400 Busch Parkway
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089

847.808.5875
888.537.3102 ext 15875

www.abtg.com<http://www.abtg.com/>

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