Adobe is pushing hard to get Flash, PDF, and other technologies used to realize recent open government initiatives. The problem is that the technologies fall short of the goal of full accessibility, and cause problems for those seeking to use government-supplied data in any meaningful way.
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Because what we all need is more Flash.
Exactly. While I love the PDF format, I utterly detest Flash. That is unless it is being used to create visually stunning games like Machinarium or another sbemail.
Fortunately, you can now embed Flash in a PDF, which seems to me to be the technological equivalent of washing your dishes in the clothes washer.
And while PDF is good in certain situations, try doing analysis from a PDF. It’s not pretty.
I’ve got an idea for universal access: Plain Text!
Seems like another opportunity to plug the Foxit Reader as an alternative to Adobe’s bloated crappy PDF reader. Just pay attention when you install it, or you’ll end up with an unwanted toolbar or a link to ebay on your desktop for some inexplicable reason.
60% of my day is doing analysis off a PDF, I know your pain. My love has less to do with professional use, and more to do with the quality of e-books.
I have been using Foxit since your first recommendation. It does the job it is meant to, without the bloat. BTW, I found a great site for finding alternatives to common software. Foxit is their #1 alternative to Adobe Reader.
Ouch. Back in the day we had to do a ton of analysis off of PDFs because no one would give us access to the real data.
We had all sorts of creative ways to pull the data into Excel and/or Access. But it’s a process I’m glad I don’t have to do anymore.