What Output Format are You Using

[levesquedb99]

We develop end-user documentation for Automated Test Equipment products and are presently producing all of our output in merged .CHM (HTML Help) and .PDF formats.

This content consists of system, hardware, and software level conceptual and procedural information that includes illustrations and screen shots.

We have also published an internal knowledge base in HTML5.

Knowing that there are so many other formats available, we're trying to understand what output others are producing for similar types of documentation and why you selected the format that you use.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

[BedfordWriter]

HTML 5 (TopNav) shipped with the product and available on the website.
CHM supplied on request, only because it can be plugged into a text editor (meaning, you highlight a keyword in the editor, press F1 and see our help for that keyword).
PDF mostly for course materials. I still produce it for the docs, but only because every once in a while some customer will insist on having it.
Have experimented with epub, but haven't learned to control the CSS for that format well enough to hand anything to a customer.

I find that nowadays, if I open the help for any program I'm learning to use and see CHM, I think to myself, "How quaint". In a Scottish accent, of course.

[jknasinski]

Most of our products are web-based applications and we use HTML5 with Top Nav design. Top Nav is used for those applications that are more complex with a lot of topics and different areas such as admin tools, tasks, references, etc.
We have a few older products that are desktop products that ship with an install CD and we still maintain .chm help files for those.
We also have a few very simple web-based apps and for those we use HTML5 with just a simple tripane design.
We single source PDF files and have them available from the help files or as standalone files that we can send to customers.

[Nita Beck]

I serve a bunch of different clients. The formats I support for them include:

• .chm (but some are phased out each year, so eventually there will be none)
  Top Nav HTML5 (both hosted on a server and hosted locally)
  Tripane HTML5 (both hosted on a server and hosted locally
  
  PDF of various page sizes and some of which are commercially printed:
  • 8.5"x11", single-sided
    8.5"x11", double-sided
    7"x9", double-sided
    "DVD-case sized", double-sided
    3-fold brochure, letter size, double-sided
    4-fold brochure, legal size, double-sided
  Word (for review drafts)
  Word (for publishing, but not with the expectation of being as refined as PDF)