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But authors should be selective when <br />choosing a digital publishing method <br />because documents like zoning codes and <br />comprehensive plans demand a certain <br />amount of formatting automation to achieve <br />a reasonable level of publishing efficiency. <br />The methods described below are well suited <br />to this publishing task, presented in increas- <br />ing order of complexity and customization. <br />The methods highlighted in the middle <br />of the chart in the graphic below are at the <br />point in the cost and complexity spectrum, <br />where all the digital publishing characteris- <br />tics become available. The decision then is <br />whether additional publishing sophistication <br />is worth the extra cost (for staff time), and <br />whether this service will be performed in- <br />house or by a third -party vendor. <br />Cost <br />(labor and/or <br />dollars) <br />of user-friendly publishing software that <br />resolves the functional disadvantages of the <br />scanning-to-PDF workflow. As a publishing <br />method, scanned PDFs are identified in this <br />article to mark the lowest end of the feature - <br />availability spectrum. <br />Static PDFs <br />Static PDFs are widely used for in-house <br />digital publishing. While the text in static <br />PDFs is searchable, the results are sequen- <br />tial—meaningthe author must step through <br />search results across the document one at a <br />time. This is less desirable in comparison to <br />prioritized search (a listing of results based <br />on relevance), which is offered through <br />other recommended publishing described <br />in this article. <br />Weaknesses with search notwith- <br />standing, there are three ways authors <br />Content management/ <br />Open source system <br />Knowledge base <br />HTML site <br />Document processor <br />E-book <br />Interactive PDFs <br />Static PDFs <br />Scanned PDFs <br />Scanned PDFs <br />Creating PDFs by scanning printed docu- <br />ments is not recommended for three <br />reasons. First, the scanning process often <br />renders content completely unsearchable. <br />Second, it is more difficult to create, manage, <br />and use hyperlinks in a PDF generated from <br />a scanned document versus a PDF generated <br />from a word processor or other text editing <br />software. Third, the author is unable to per- <br />form text edits within the PDF, a task that can <br />be desirable based on an author's publishing <br />workflow. Scanned PDFs appear to be phas- <br />ing out, possibly due to the wider availability <br />Complexity <br />can manage PDF documents so that they <br />comply with the basic digital publishing <br />characteristics described above. First, static <br />PDFs should not be broken into separate <br />files linked from a webpage. This practice <br />emerged as a workaround to circumvent <br />the slow loading times caused by dial -up <br />modems. Breaking up long documents into <br />multiple PDFs does not allow for document - <br />wide searches (even in the limited sense <br />offered by static PDFs) and forces the reader <br />to juggle between multiple files. Authors <br />tempted to pursue this technique as a proxy <br />fora table of contents are encouraged to <br />consider the second recommendation, <br />which is to use PDF bookmarks. By adding <br />bookmarks at appropriate sections and <br />subsections, authors can generate a run- <br />ning table of contents within the document <br />to help convey document structure and aid <br />navigation. Third, PDFs do allow for the <br />creation of internal and external hyperlinks. <br />Although they are manually maintained, the <br />use of hyperlinks can significantly enhance <br />the performance of a PDF. <br />Interactive PDFs <br />Interactive PDFs are an enhanced version <br />of a static PDF. They include the same <br />search limitations; however, the docu- <br />ment's appearance and navigation is greatly <br />improved through the presence ofa running <br />header that includes buttons, which can <br />activate features such as a table of contents, <br />scroll zone, slide show, or video. <br />E-book <br />E-books include a page -flipping visual effect <br />and offer a range of navigation features. The <br />benefit of this method is that the software <br />automates the published document's design <br />and structure. The typical workflow is that an <br />existing, static PDF is imported into the pro- <br />gram, and then the author overlays design <br />elements, layout controls, and navigation <br />elements. E-books are relatively affordable <br />and user-friendly "off -the -shelf" solutions; <br />however, one downside is that the content <br />does not live natively within the software. <br />This means that authors can end up main- <br />taining two versions: the source file (created <br />with either a word processing or page layout <br />program) and the e-book digital file. <br />Some popular e-book software appli- <br />cations convert a PDF file to a Shockwave <br />Flash file to render the page -flipping effects. <br />E-books should not be confused, however, <br />with the EPUB file format, which is a technical <br />standard published by the International Digi- <br />tal Publishing Forum. The EPUB file format can <br />be read on devices like smartphones, tablets, <br />computers, or e-readers such as !Books and <br />Google Books. It is typically used for novels <br />and similar publications with limited layout <br />requirements. Because layout, structure, and <br />navigation control is more limited with EPUB, <br />ZONINGPRACTICE 10.17 <br />AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION Ipage 3 <br />