Printed in the May/June 2002 issue of the IEEE  Professional Communication Society Newsletter. By Elizabeth Weise Moeller

In the past, I've discussed designing for the web, search engines, choosing designers, usability, and accessibility. While preparing for a class I'm teaching this semester, I realized I had not yet covered repurposing, the process of converting a document created for print to web-ready media. It is a lot more complicated than some people may lead you to believe. Tools alone cannot do this job-it requires rethinking the document's purpose and the needs of the intended audience.

 

Tools Alone Are Not Enough

A web search for repurposing or republishing shows a number of sites providing instructions for converting Quark Xpress, Adobe PageMaker, or Microsoft Word files to HTML. Based on these web sites, it's very simple to just convert your print document to HTML and you've got a web page. Unfortunately, people use web sites differently than they use print material. Jakob Nielsen tells us that 79 percent of web users SCAN web sites (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/whyscanning.html). The reason for scanning instead of reading has not been proven, although Nielsen suggests that it is because reading on computer screens is tiring and slower for most people and that the web is user-driven-if people aren't clicking on links and moving from one page to the next they do not feel productive.

Other differences include: static graphics for print, with the virtually unlimited animation potential on the web; linear presentation for print, with complete hypertext capability on the web; and complicated update process for print, with a very easy update process for the web. Finally, people just use the web for different reasons, so it is best to determine whether or not the document is even appropriate for the web.

 

Considerations

There are clear issues that must be considered before blindly converting a print publication to a web page:

• Appropriateness of content for web site-Start by asking if this content is appropriate for your web site. Does it fit with your current site structure, or is it out in left field? Even items out in left field may still be appropriate for your web site, but it may require you to restructure your site first. Does this document help further the goals of your web site?
• Appropriateness for web site audience-Will the intended audience of your web site benefit from this publication? Is it something they need? Is it something a majority of people will want to use? If it is a document specifically created for two or three people, then you might be better off just sending them the document instead of spending the time to repurpose it.
• Appropriateness of subject matter for interactive format-Some material just does not do well in an interactive format. Very long, explanatory documents might be better served as a PDF file that your users can print. They should not be expected to read that amount of text online. Documents that require a linear progression from one section to another also are not necessarily appropriate for a web site. It is very easy to jump in and out of a web page with office distractions. It would be very easy to lose your place in something that requires a linear progress through the text.

Shelf life of content-Will the content be around long enough to be worth spending the time repurposing? Repurposing involves rethinking the document structure itself. Since it is not a quick conversion, is the time spent worth the life of the document? I have seen companies that have built entire web site structures around a document that sits on their web site for just 2 weeks. When the 2 weeks are up, the document (and site structures) is removed. Is the time spent on all the surrounding work worth 2 weeks of web access-or is it just easier to e-mail the document when requested.

 

Repurposing the Document

Once you have decided that it is appropriate to repurpose this document for a web site, how do you go about doing it? There are essentially three steps: chunking, rewriting, and linking. The chunking step is where you restructure the document, rewriting is where you convert traditional text to web-friendly text, and linking is where you link everything together.

 

Chunking

The first step is restructuring the document. It should be broken down into individual pieces so that each piece represents only one topic. If a topic is more than a couple web pages of text, it should be broken into subtopics. Users do not want to read pages and pages of material online. We do know from Nielsen that people read web pages about 25 percent slower than paper, which could explain why people do not like to ready large quantities of text online. Therefore, break the information into smaller topical chunks to create smaller web pages.

 

Rewriting

The second step is rewriting the document. Paper documents often have longer, more complicated sentence structures, and use larger paragraphs. Nielsen has found that you can increase usability by 124 percent (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html) by using the following guidelines:

• Avoid marketing-ese-Nielsen's research shows that people detest reading marketing-ese online. It is a very strong possibility that people are at your web site because they have seen marketing materials somewhere else and now want MORE information. Simply re-iterating the marketing language will annoy them.
• Create concise text-Reword your documents so that sentences are simpler. Try to use about half the usual number of words. However, be very careful when condensing. You want to avoid what Nick Usborne refers to as "dead fragments" (http://www.clickz.com/design/write_onl/article.php/838871). These are sentences that have been so sanitized that the real meaning has been removed as well. Based on this article, it is easy to see that Usborne is not a fan of usability experts-but he has some valid points and there is a middle ground between the ideals of Nielsen and Usborne.
• Create a scannable layout-You are seeing a sample scannable layout in this column. The use of headings, italics, bold, and bullet points, makes it easier for readers to find the information they are looking for.
• Use objective language-This is where Nielsen suggests removing the marketing-ese from your vocabulary. Try to avoid boastful and exaggerated language and focus on the facts-especially in an information-based web site.

 

Linking

The final step is linking everything together. The best way to do this is to create a site map as you are chunking information. What pieces need to be linked from other pieces? I often find that using an organization chart format helps organize all the content pieces and makes it easy to link everything together as the web site is built.

Repurposing a document is not simply choosing the Save as HTML option from your file menu. You need to respect the differences between how print and online documents are viewed and used. Once you have that understanding, it will be much easier to decide if a document is right for both print and online.

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