Standardise on an open document format.

Edit Subject

This is a fair point and something we can consider on a number of fronts. We can look at the formats we use within the Virtual Learning Environment (Blackboard) and for Library electronic resources, ecouraging the use of formats that have the widest possible usage. We can also review the formats produced via our admin processes, especially those that involve direct communication with end users.

I support this initiative, and I am going to suggest that the University Library & LRCs make it formal policy (it is our standard practice in most situations, anyway).

Understanding that while PDF may not be universal, it is probably the closest thing we have in the University to a common format for circulation of printable material.

There are a number of potential problems that we in the Library will have to be aware of:

1. Some students' usual access to University services is through their employers' computer networks - we will need to take care that these students can view our PDFs, or provide an alternative format.

2. Accessibility of PDF format for users with visual or learning disabilities.

3. Copyright concerns. Some third-party material does not arrive in a universal format, and we may not have the right to convert it without the copyright-holder's permission, or under licence.

4. The need to ensure best-practice training for University staff on creating and using PDFs - for example, not using PDF where an HTML web page would be better, and ensuring manageable file-sizes.

Glad to see people have views on this. I'm also very much in favour of properly addressing accessibility, alternative formats and staff training (although I'm sure all three have significant overlaps).

Hi Nick

Great idea. In my area, Space Planning & Strategy, we'd have to publish *some* of our documents in their native formats as well, so that colleagues could still open and edit them natively when needed. However, it wouldn't add much overhead to provide both formats side by side where this is the case, and PDF only where editability isn't needed. We've started down this road already (https://portal.lincoln.ac.uk/C17/C0/S....

I think standardising on PDF would be an easier prospect if Acrobat Standard, as opposed to just Adobe Reader, were installed as part of the standard desktop. Standard is helpful for flexible PDF publishing - splicing documents together, etc. I know Standard is accessible through Run Advertised Programs, but many people tend to use the Reader because it's the default.

Also, there is no University training in this area as far as I'm aware; it would be useful and might encourage adoption.

Sam

Me too. It can be very annoying when you are trying to finish your assignment on time using a MAC only to realise you can't read the final reference due to a document type your OS doesn't support natively.

Good point.

Is there a licensing constraint with Acrobat Standard? It would be so much better if Acrobat Standard were the default PDF reader on the corporate desktop - that way people would become familiar with the PDF editing tools within Acrobat Standard. I do think we should offer some sort of Acrobat Standard training as well - it's incredibly useful for splicing together professional-looking documents containing pages from multiple source formats.

This is now getting ridiculous - I recently received a copy of a handbook and policy document as Word documents. Predictably they had page references, which broke monumentally once Pages had finished unpicking the godawful formatting and abuse of tables, meaning that I had to hunt for things instead of just look them up.

Possibly we need not only a standardised document format, but also extended training for people who 'publish' these documents and forms on how Word (since that is the tool of choice) is actually used to compose them.