It is an inescabable[1]conclusion from the NHS IM&T strategy and the
observed use in Open.Gov and COIN and other sites that NHS and other
documents will be distributed as pdf files.

THese have their limitations but are functional, and get around the
difficulties of distribution which caused the DoH to send me a
document on the organsiation of social services and health services,
dated 16 September, with a request for action by 30th October  - my
comments - which arrived on the 10th of November.

A high proportionof users will initially view these documents on
screens, indeed, to produce a saving in printing carrying and
storing costs, it is best to leave most of them electronic and
continue to look at them on screen.

Screens[2] do not show a whole A4 page in portrait alignment,
although the wider ones[3] will show one at real size in landscape.

Formatting documents for printing as A5, printed probably as 2 A5
pages on one A4 sheet, and therefore showing the whole height of a
page even on a standard screen would increase the usability of these
documents.

I move that Divisions and LMCs, suppliers and users present this to
the Gov as a desirable change, and that PCG IT Groups move this to
their PCG Boards and to HAs for internal documents and redistributed
paper documents.

At a later stage we can make the move to html and continuous
documents.


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[1] You can run but you can't hide, we are going there.
[2] Even iiyama VIsion Master 400 17" screens, nice though they are.
[3] Such as the iiyama Vision Master 400 17" screen, a very nice bit
of kit for reading the occasional email that makes it out of the
NHS, and playing Quake - what do you do to escape the fiends in the
roof garden?



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