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Re: New Wolfram Tutorial Collection documentation is ready

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg99360] Re: New Wolfram Tutorial Collection documentation is ready
• From: AES <siegman at stanford.edu>
• Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 05:25:29 -0400 (EDT)
• Organization: Stanford University
• References: <200904301032.GAA02907@smc.vnet.net> <200905010924.FAA01207@smc.vnet.net> <gth5mv$f56$1@smc.vnet.net>

In article <gth5mv$f56$1 at smc.vnet.net>,
 "David Annetts" <davidannetts at aapt.net.au> wrote:

> [F]inding that these PDF's are basically the same as what we already
> have takes some of the gloss of things.
> 
> Dave.

Dave, some of the major advantages of having the same identical material 
in PDF format rather than in Mathematica notebook format include (for 
me, anyway):

1)  Most important for me, I can set up the PDF documentation so that it 
*automatically* opens in a large Acrobat window, in a size and format 
and magnification that I like (probably occupying my full screen), while 
the Mathematica notebook, palettes, and whatever else I'm using to work 
on that notebook are set up in their own totally independent full-screen 
arrangement -- and I can then *instantaneously* jump back and forth 
between these two optimized screen displays, leaving each totally 
unchanged, with a single keystroke.

2)  One can do a *search*  (search for text strings) through a *full* 
PDF document, thus finding and bringing up much useful info and 
connections between related topics, that may or may not be indexed or 
included in the TOC.  Can't do this with the Mathematica online 
documentation because it's paged, and many cells or sections may start 
out closed.

3)  Acrobat has *many* helpful navigation tools (arrow icons to jump to 
page, jump back to where you were, jump to next or previous page, jump 
to start or end, the "paw" to scroll,  instant single-click 
magnification, single click to hide all headers and get more screen 
area, etc) that make onscreen reading of PDF documents *much* easier 
than onscreen reading of Mathematica notebooks.

If Wolfram has unfortunately generated some kind of messed-up PDF where 
text strings can't be readily copied or searched for, as reported in 
some other posts, and this hampers some of the above advantages, that 
would be really unfortunate.

• Follow-Ups:
  • Re: Re: New Wolfram Tutorial Collection documentation is ready
    • From: Andrzej Kozlowski <akoz@mimuw.edu.pl>

• References:
  • Re: New Wolfram Tutorial Collection documentation is ready
    • From: George Woodrow III <georgevw3@mac.com>