Jananas

I read a lot for school: textbooks, business books, course packages, websites, and electronic files (often .pdf’s). I rarely print off files to read, in part because a large portion of what we’re assigned to read isn’t terribly useful and I detest wasting the paper. Instead I read a lot on my computer, on my large but not huge laptop screen. Tonight I’m reading a document that is laid out in columns in a portrait format. Its frustrating because I have to scroll down to read the bottom part of the column, then scroll back up to read the top of the next column, repeat.

I understand that paper documents are formatted a specific way for print. Or maybe just because that’s the way its always been. I have to ask, why are electronic documents formatted the same way?  Is it that the majority of designers use larger screens and so don’t realize the salience of the ease of reading a document on different screen sizes? Is the assumption that the majority of readers will be printing off said documents and reading them on paper. If so, then having things formatted in portrait with long columns might make sense. However, if more people are moving towards reading documents on their computers wouldn’t it make sense to format the documents so that they are easier (which for me also translates into more enjoyable/less irritating) to read? Even if its as simple as breaking all vertical columns into two sections (i.e. so that each page contains as much information vertically, just that’s its broken down into two smaller sections – one for the top of the page and the other for the bottom).

Really, I’m sure that there’s a better way to solve this problem (integrate this!). I can’t recall coming across anything terribly great and more often than not spend time scrolling my life away. Anyone out there have any good ideas?