I'm sure you're right that there are some issues out there with the various PDF drivers. There has been a mass proliferation of them ever since Adobe issued its public patent license for PDFs in 2008. My guess is that you're experiencing issues of standards compliance rather than backwards incompability. The same thing could happen with a JPEG or some comparable image exchange standard.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/pdf/pdf_reference_archive.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jpeg
The only viable alternative to PDF is DjVu, but it really doesn't do all the things that PDF does.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DjVu
Like it or not, PDF is the universal standard for document exchange, and its momentum has it set on a trajectory to remain so for many years to come. This fact, when coupled with the *functionality* of a PDF, make it the best format to preserve webpages like we're discussing.
Family Tree Maker already supports saving charts and reports in PDF format. The next logical step is to do as I've suggested. When working in the Web Search workspace, FTM ought to make a PDF of the webpage whenever you use the web clipping feature. That PDF should then be merged as citation media. And the next step is to add the ability to read PDFs in FTM while still retaining the ability to open documents in more functional 3rd party apps. It's puzzling to me why this ability isn't already there, since it is such a common format for media, and it's no longer proprietary.
Now, those of us who have provided feedback in this thread have all echoed the same thing. We think it's a waste of time to document the URLs alone because they have such limited lifespans, so we're discussing ways of saving local copies of webpages as citation media. Those pages will be of various sizes and contain various elements. PDF is designed to capture all of that quickly and simply, and the format supports some things that will be handy for family historians:
- text and images can be copied and pasted (no OCR necessary)
- notes and other commenting tools can be used in the document
- documents can be encrypted for privacy
- format has best prospect for long term viability
In conclusion, PDF ought to be the default option among several choices for creating citation media from webpages, and some minor editing capabilities within FTM ought to be part of such an enhancement, even if implemented in stages.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/pdf/pdf_reference_archive.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jpeg
The only viable alternative to PDF is DjVu, but it really doesn't do all the things that PDF does.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DjVu
Like it or not, PDF is the universal standard for document exchange, and its momentum has it set on a trajectory to remain so for many years to come. This fact, when coupled with the *functionality* of a PDF, make it the best format to preserve webpages like we're discussing.
Family Tree Maker already supports saving charts and reports in PDF format. The next logical step is to do as I've suggested. When working in the Web Search workspace, FTM ought to make a PDF of the webpage whenever you use the web clipping feature. That PDF should then be merged as citation media. And the next step is to add the ability to read PDFs in FTM while still retaining the ability to open documents in more functional 3rd party apps. It's puzzling to me why this ability isn't already there, since it is such a common format for media, and it's no longer proprietary.
Now, those of us who have provided feedback in this thread have all echoed the same thing. We think it's a waste of time to document the URLs alone because they have such limited lifespans, so we're discussing ways of saving local copies of webpages as citation media. Those pages will be of various sizes and contain various elements. PDF is designed to capture all of that quickly and simply, and the format supports some things that will be handy for family historians:
- text and images can be copied and pasted (no OCR necessary)
- notes and other commenting tools can be used in the document
- documents can be encrypted for privacy
- format has best prospect for long term viability
In conclusion, PDF ought to be the default option among several choices for creating citation media from webpages, and some minor editing capabilities within FTM ought to be part of such an enhancement, even if implemented in stages.