Documenting WordPad	< Back
This is the third article in a series of nine describing the work involved in developing a user guide for WordPad. Compared to the other articles in the series, this one is different in the way that I wrote it. It was written as I went through the phase.

3. Format

In this phase I choose the media for publication and select the physical page size - both essential prerequisites for controlling the project.

I have, as mentioned in the concept article, already chosen to publish the user guide as a PDF file. This is because PDF files are compact, which make them suitable for downloading and for viewing on-line. In addition, they give one the benefit of designing a page layout which looks the same on all platforms.

In order to limit the project and to simplify things, I have decided to disregard publishing of the guide in HTML-format. Maybe I will return to this in a later article series.

The physical page size is the second format related issue that needs to be settled. Even though it can be viewed as a straight-forward task, choosing a good page size is crucial in a number of ways. Ideally, the right page size meets the below requirements.

• It accommodates on-line viewing and reading.
• It is easy to print, ie it is unnecessary to squeeze the page.
• It presents an ample amount of information per page on screen and on paper.
• It is readable without zooming.
• It prints seamlessly on most paper sizes, ie distortion and cropping does not occur.
• The amount of white space around the page when printed is limited.

The first format I can think of which meets the requirements is composed of the width from an A4-sized page and the height from a Letter-sized page. My experiences with this mixed format are quite good, but I find it a bit large.

Another alternative format, which I re-discovered some time ago, is the somewhat smaller 7 x 9 inch format or 177.8 x 228.6 mm. A page of this size is slightly bigger than an A5-sized page - both width and height-wise. I find this appealing and therefore choose to use this as the page size for the user guide.

With one exception the chosen page size meets all the requirements. And I think I get a neater page by dropping the requirement for limited white space on printed pages.