One of the file formats that's most prevalent on the web when it comes to downloads is the .pdf file type. At this stage in the church/technology time-space-continuum, most people are familiar with this type of document. It used to be the realm of designers and geeky white-papers, but these days most churches distribute their content in .pdf format at one time or another. The question is: Should they? As a web developer, I find that people at churches (and elsewhere) are much too quick to use the .pdf format on the web. Let's talk about when it's good to use them and when it's not...

Why the .pdf format is great

The .pdf file type is an excellent step forward in allowing documents to be easily read, saved, and e-mailed in a format that nearly everyone can read without purchasing expensive software. Most people have the free Adobe reader on their systems or some other equivalent that allows you to open and read .pdf documents easily. This universal aspect of .pdf makes it the best choice for document distribution (unlike using .doc or .xls format which requires the viewer to have purchased Microsoft Office or similar software in order to view it)

Another great aspect of .pdf is that, by default, the format is not editable. This means that when someone downloads something from your website, they can't edit it's contents. That's a good feature to have when you want control over what people are reading for purposes of consistency or even for legal reasons. It allows your document designer to setup a particular layout in the .pdf and make sure that, no matter where or how it's opened, it will look the same (including the use of font selections that the viewer may not have on their system)

When do I use .pdf on my church website?

.Pdf documents are an excellent choice for a few uses on a church or ministry website. When should you use a .pdf download?

• .pdf documents are intended, primarily, for distribution of printed materials. This means that any document intended to be printed out is a great candidate for .pdf. Things like mail-in event registration forms, 'donate by mail' forms, or other documents that will be used when the visitor walks away from their computer is the prime example of where this 'printable' format is intended to be used. .Pdf files also tend to be higher resolution than necessary for viewing on a computer screen. This is because they're intended to be printed, not just viewed on screen.
• The .pdf has "portable" in it's name...that's for a reason. A good time to use this format is if the item in question needs to be in a format that people can use 'offline'. For example, maybe it's something they need to download and take with them to a meeting or a conference (somewhere without the internet). This is a great time and place to use a .pdf!

When do I NOT use .pdf on my church website?

As mentioned above, .pdfs are intended for use away from a computer or away from the internet. Far too often, people use .pdf for documents that they fully expect will be viewed on a computer which is connected to the internet. They don't expect them to ever be printed out or taken on the road. Let's look at a couple places where the .pdf is over-used (or wrongly used too often) on a church website:

• It's easy to fool yourself into thinking that your church calendar should be a .pdf document download. But let's get real for a minute. 100% of churches that I've worked with offer their calendar in printed format on Sunday mornings or in a monthly mailing of some sort. So, ask yourself: Do you really expect people to go to your website in order to get a printable version of the calendar? Most often, they already HAVE a printed version.

  A web calendar shouldn't just be a digital version of the calendar you hand out on Sundays. It should be more like an 'event system' which allows things that a printed calendar can't offer. Things like event registration, 'invite a friend' features, and many other interactive items that you can't do in print. Most people will use your web calendar for a quick reference to see 'whats up' this week or to remind themselves of a particular event date or time. Sure, you could add your event calendar as a separate pdf download, but whatever you do, don't just put your calendar up as .pdf and leave it at that. It's close to being a worthless effort.

• The most frequent offender of the "use .pdf wisely" rule is in the realm of Newsletters. Many of the exact same rules apply to Newsletters as do the calendar. People aren't coming to your website to download documents...they're coming to get information quickly and in an interactive way. By only making your newsletter available as a .pdf, you're making your site harder to use and less interactive.

  We highly recommend taking the time and effort to put the contents of your newsletter online in actual html format. This means copying the text into your website and reformatting images for the web so that your newsletter can actually be read on your website without interrupting the browsing experience. It's more work, but it also will be used 1,000 times more often than a .pdf that has to be downloaded.

  Is your newsletter too big to put online in html format? How about at least putting up the top 10 articles or news items? Then, at least your site visitor can get the most important info right on the site.

Why it's bad for your visitors

You want the visitors to your website to have a good experience, right? That's what we, in the web development industry, call "usability": Making your site as 'usable' as possible for the visitor. The fact is, whenever you misuse .pdf documents you're creating 'poor usability' on your website.

Whenever a .pdf download is used it forces the site visitor to not only leave your website...but to leave the entire web browser. When they click your 'download' link they must open another program to view that document. FORCING someone to leave your website to view information is the epitome of a poor user experience. So, don't make using your website difficult or cumbersome: only use .pdf downloads if you fully expect the user to be leaving the browser anyway.

Why it keeps happening

This all brings us to the question of "If it creates a bad user experience, why do people constantly do it?" At the risk of offending some people, I'll tell you why I see it happening: Church secretaries/staff are either lazy or overworked or both.

Grabbing your weekly newsletter from Word, outputting it as a pdf, and throwing that up online is quick and easy. But it's not good. The church is trying to save time and energy by just re-purposing their print content for the web, but it won't be successful in doing so. People don't use the web as a place to download documents...they use it as a place to browse information and interact. Taking the easy road is shorting your church community on the benefits of the web.

Keep it to a minimum and everyone is happy!

So, always question whether .pdf is the right choice. Just ask three simple questions:

• Will people actually print this out? (don't fool yourself)
• Will people want this information to be 'portable'?
• Do we already offer this information in print format on a regular basis?

If you answer 'yes' to the first two and 'no' to the third, you may have a good candidate for a .pdf download. Otherwise, keep your website a place to easily find information and interact with it without ever leaving a web browser. Keep your .pdf downloads to a minimum and the world will be a happy shiny place!

Disclaimer: This article was worded poorly due to the fact that heavy metal music was playing while it was written. See...more proof that rock music is from the devil! :)