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Your Users Hate Viewing PDFs Online. Here’s Some Alternatives.

You've got a lot of information in PDF files you need to get on the web. You don't really want to use PDF for pretty obvious reasons, such as:

  • User accessibility issues
  • Users unwillingness to install a PDF reader
  • Slow internet connections and PDF loading times
  • Use of assistive technologies that do not support PDF.

So how do you get around hosting PDF files on your web pages but still get the information across in the same format? Here's a list of services and ideas that will get you headed in the right direction.

Free Online Services – No Need to Pay

Popular Pay Services
Some corporate or business user may be looking for more out of their online document sharing service and that's where the pay services come in. Each offers different options and features but in the end it's all about document creation and collaboration in a more secure online environment.

Here are some of the more popular pay services.

  • 4Shared.com with prices ranging from $5-10 a month.
  • WebEx WebOffice – Cisco is in the mix with Webex. Aimed at mostly at companies with the lowest rate being $59.95 a month for only 5 members.
  • ThinkFree – An online office suite as much as a document sharing platform. Free and pay services available.


Do-It-Yourself:

The most basic is to take the original document, since most PDFs are made from other formats like Word or Excel, and change it into an HTML file. Many versions of Office and other productivity suites allow for the export of files into HTML files.

One of the best applications around to do this is Able2Extract which can even keep the formatting in place with CSS and HTML. This means the information is available to everyone with a web browser including mobile phone users who might have only a WAP browser or not have a Flash or JavasScript enabled web browser.

The Wrap:
 An army of online document sharing services can be found by doing a Google search on "upload documents free" or "upload files free" with a little work and some searching you'll find exactly what you need.

No longer do you need to force your users and viewers to wait long to see your documents. No more hosting PDF files directly on your site. With online document sharing and embedding technologies maturing rapidly you'll be able to show everyone those content rich documents with a simple embed code and a little work.

Of course you can always resort to simply converting the file to HTML and put it directly into your web pages as well, but who wants to do all that work when there are all these other options?