Yellow Bricks

by Duncan Epping

VMware documentation in epub / mobi format?

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I just noticed that the Horizon documentation is offered in epub and mobi format. I have been told that this is the first of many more docs to be released in this more universal format. I am happy that VMware decided to adopt this format. It does lead to another question though. I am part of tech marketing and we produce a lot of collateral. Some documents are fairly lengthy and I always have the feeling that many people won’t read docs which are more than 50 pages. Is this any different with epub/mobi? Would you say that these formats enhance readability? If not, what would be a good way of offering documents of between 50 – 150 pages?

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Comments

  1. Duncan,

    Reading technical docs is infinitely easier on a Kindle for example. PDFs are nearly impossible and or poor quality on the Kindle and/or iPad, especially when zooming. The more documentation that can be produced in multiple formats, the better. It’s possible also to convert PDFs into Mobi/ePub as well, although not trivial for pre-existing docs.

    -Chris

  2. KB articles should be available in ePub/html

    Technical docs in pdf/ePub/html(for easy referencing in blogs etc)

    Louw

  3. Great news! I suggested this to the doc team over a year ago.
    I’d suggest offering all documents in as many formats as is practical to do. Everyone has different tastes; whether it’s reading onscreen, printing out PDFs, kindles, or using iPads with PDFs or ebooks.
    Personally I’d rather they were ebooks, as reading PDFs on a kindle is painful, and the alternative is printing hard copies.
    HMTL help pages have their place (for reference), but are not so useful if you just want to sit and read. I think all the documentation, whitepapers, technical notes, should be both PDFs and ebook formats. It just a shame that there is not one ebook format suitable for all devices.

  4. Kindle format would be my preference – PDFs end up being downloaded but never fully read.

  5. Disclaimer: I’ve only had ebook experience on an iPad Gen1

    The thing that irks me about technical documentation in ebook format is that text tables and the like rarely appear as they were intended to. With works of fiction this isn’t an issue but manuals commonly have diagrams, screenshots, and tables that get mangled. In PDFs everything is reproduced faithfully.

    That being said I’ll echo Forbes’s opinion that offering both PDF and ebook would be nice and state that I don’t have any qualms about 150+ page documents in either format.

    Lastly, regarding LockLizard PDFs, I’m not a fan. Physical manuals or PDFs but not LockLizard please.

    • I have to echo @Alexanderjn

      I like the idea of e-books for devices like the Kindle and Nook, but newer versions also allow for PDFs anyway.

      I downloaded a sample technical book on my Kindle recently and ended up buying the actual books anyway, but would have preferred a non-locked PDF version because Locklizard is just plain inconvenient.

      There are a few issues with readers: rendering diagrams and tables is sometimes very ugly and there is no ability to easily jump to a page without bookmarks or going back to the TOC. They are a little more difficult to scan (with my eyes and brain!)as well.

  6. I open PDFs on the Mac and this goes really good, often use the search function when looking up information in these PDFs.

    However, the epub format would be really nice for viewing on the e-reader, especially for people like me who use public transport a lot and can use that time spent for reading documentation. PDFs just don’t open good on the e-reader, especially pictures and diagrams and tables don’t look like they are supposed to do. Epub is really welcome due to this.

    Personally I don’t often read 100+ pages of documentation completely, but I use pieces of this large documentation for getting specific pieces of information.

  7. I regularly read PDFs on my iPad (Gen 1) and my laptop; I like the idea of being able to read them on either device and not having to worry about the format. I haven’t really seen any issues with readability or quality, either, and there are some very lengthy documents I’ve read (check out some of the EMC TechBooks–talk about lengthy). Personally, I’d prefer to stick with PDF, but I see no harm in VMware distributing other formats as well.

  8. Hooray for epub. I’m looking forward to see how the formatting turned out. And yes, I frequently read longer documents, though I find that a decent percentage of them usually amounts to fluff.

    I would prefer to see multiple smaller documents. Unfortunately, this generally increases the redundancy.

  9. I would love to see epub and mobi formats. I find it very difficult to read a 50-150 page PDF sitting at a traditional screen, and often have to go to the printer. Reading from printed paper has its disadvantages (no find feature, etc) … bring as much as you can to eReaders!

  10. Docs I could read on my Kindle would be great.
    I also have your HA and DRS book on my Kindle and I would have never bought it on paper.
    I also don’t like to read long PDF documents.

  11. I prefer PDF….lately I’ve been converting some epub files to PDF…it’s maybe I don’t have ipad on the other hand same thin I prefer PDF over Kindle

  12. I’d say that anything eBook compatible would be a good move… at least you’d have the choice to read it on the move more easily…

  13. ROCK the MOBI (^_^)

    I have all my VMware PDF docs on my Kindle but they don’t read well unless in landscape mode or unless you zoom in. These are acceptable work arounds but the Mobi format would be easier to deal with for me.

    But I’m planning to get a tablet that supports PDF and Kindle so I guess it won’t be as important..

  14. We need to stop producing PDF altogether and offer HTML and MOBI formats for everything. Amazingly some VMW docs are *only* in PDF.

  15. My vote is for epub and PDF. I rarely read longer documents in their entirety but rather search them for specific items. Epub documents are great, except for occasional diagram/picture problems, when I am traveling and want a lot of documentation with me.

  16. Personally I have a hard time with long form reading on any type of backlit LCD panel. I bought a Kindle after playing with one in the store and have found it is MUCH easier to read long form on that device.

    To that end I’ve been eagerly waiting for either VMware (and others) to put out documentation in a .mobi so I can read it, or for Amazon to figure out how to reflow PDF files so they are readable on the 6″ screen of the kindle. (that or I may just break down and get the 10″ version at some point heh).

  17. Fantastic! I’d love it if all docs on VMware’s site were available in kindle & nook format in addition to PDF. While studying for the VCP, I would have preferred to read them off the Nook I had at the time instead of printing them out on paper(nook wouldn’t display PDF’s properly).

  18. Highly appreciated! After getting my first Kindle some weeks ago I started to put all my documentation on this beloved device – not the best results by converting PDF, but much better to read than on a laptop or killing trees for printed versions.

  19. Kindle all the way. I already bought the HA/DRS book and the ExamCram in Kindle format. If I had the full doc set available in Kindle format, I’d be tempted to buy another Kindle and haul it back and forth to work. I hate PDFs for documentation.

    • Go to the bottom of the left pane and select ‘PDF and e-book Product Documentation’. Try downloading the epub and let me know what you can get out of it.

      • I did some Google searhing and found out you need to change the file extension from .zip to .epub after creating the epub. It then opens and works fine. You would think VMWare would let you know that on their documentation page. Either that or change the extension before putting up the file on their site.