Hello, your new Paizo minion here!
One of the things I'm here to do is improve the bookmarking we use in our PDF products. In order to make them more user friendly, the question of map organization came up. We'd like to hear from you on what kind of organization you'd prefer.
Right now we've got 2 options possible, but if you have any other ideas, they're more than welcome:
A) Organizing bookmarks so that maps are referenced in sequence that the book is printed (but not necessarily next to the area description).
or
B) Organizing bookmarks so that maps are referenced as a sub bookmark of the area description.
B
C. Allow user to place his/her own bookmarks.
Option 'B' makes more sense to me. You'd usually be looking for the map to be near the area description, since that's where it is in the book.
First Greetings and welcome Chris.
I am glad to see someone addressing the issues found in the pdf bookmarks.
I use pdf files a lot to run adventures and poor bookmarking is one of my pet peeves. The pathfinder pdf have some very inconsistent bookmarks.
Currently I believe you are using option A. This is less than ideal.
It is very hard to run a module when things are presented out of sequence. Sidebars and maps are interjected at points with no relation to there use.
For a good example of bad bookmarking view Serpent's Skull 1.
There are no bookmarks for the island maps at all.
There is a sidebar called "Strange Weather" not bookmarked in sequence of appearance
None of the player handouts are bookmarked.
These are just a few of the problems in various pdf modules.
Personally I am not a fan of A or B it would be more useful for me as a DM to have root bookmarks relating to
Maps:
Sidebars:
Handouts:
NPCs:
making is easy to reference important facts and people instead of trying to remember on what page the fact is found.
If A or B are the only options go with B.
But ultimately whatever the choice please be consistent.
Consider usability not just presentation.
Why not both A and B? There's no technical reason you can't put in multiple bookmarks to each map.
You can also make use of formatting options to make things clearer. When I'm adding bookmarks to something I use bold font to indicate a map, and italics to indicate a sidebar.
I would love to see A and B. Where the map appears in the section, call it out in that section as a bookmark. The last bookmark 'folder' should be called Maps and have a bookmark for each map. That way when your browsing a section you can pop to the map there and if you hit your PDF with the intention of only checking one map, you can shoot right to the Maps 'folder' and find your map very fast. It can be a hassle to figure out what section a map is in, and I sometimes just have to flip through pages.
Both is the way to go, and a couple extra book marks won't add to much to the file size.
B.
Most often I use bookmarks as a way to navigate the document as it already exists. Adding a section at the bottom of the list of bookmarks specifically for maps isn't how I use PDFs. Nested bookmarks work great.
C. Allow user to place his/her own bookmarks.
Any PDF viewing software worth the bother lets you do that. Some even allow the bookmarks to transfer between devices.
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I'd go with option B. If I'm looking up an encounter on my iPad, I want to be able to jump straight to the map for that encounter.
Also, on a related note, I really appreciate having the spell names bookmarked in the Core Rulebook. I didn't realize how much I valued it until I downloaded the PDF of Ultimate Magic and found that I could only jump to the first letter of the spell name, rather than to the spell directly.
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Also, on a related note, I really appreciate having the spell names bookmarked in the Core Rulebook. I didn't realize how much I valued it until I downloaded the PDF of Ultimate Magic and found that I could only jump to the first letter of the spell name, rather than to the spell directly.
That is something Chris will fix when she gets the opportunity.
I would prefer them as Snapshot mentioned above and...
D) Free supplemental pdf files! In this case, one with just maps and player handouts. This to me is one of the areas that the company is sorely lacking in especially with many opportunities for various kinds of supplemental releases.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
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Also, on a related note, I really appreciate having the spell names bookmarked in the Core Rulebook. I didn't realize how much I valued it until I downloaded the PDF of Ultimate Magic and found that I could only jump to the first letter of the spell name, rather than to the spell directly.That is something Chris will fix when she gets the opportunity.
Awesome! You guys rock!
Thank you all for your feedback on this! You've all got some really good ideas (and reaffirmed some of the things I'd been considering).
Tamago, getting standardized bookmarking in place is a definite on the horizon :)
C. Allow user to place his/her own bookmarks.Any PDF viewing software worth the bother lets you do that. Some even allow the bookmarks to transfer between devices.
Are you sure about that? I can't seem to do so since the PDFs are "secure." I'm using Firefox, if it matters.
