Although both formats are highly popular, you must look at entire picture prior to making your decision, as there are pros and cons associated with each format.

Portable Document Format (PDF)

Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) is a universal format that will preserve all of your original formatting. Not only will it maintain your specified layout, but it will also preserve your fonts, images and links -- regardless of what application was used to create it. This will enable your ebook to look exactly as you had intended.

PDF files are very compact in size and are actually smaller than their original source files. They can be easily published and distributed in a number of ways:

- In print - Email attachments - Internet download - Web sites - CD-ROM

Advantages:

- Anyone, anywhere can open your document regardless of what browser they're using or what operating system.

- PDF is preferred format of most publishing sites.

- PDF always prints correctly with any printing device.

In addition to above advantages, using Adobe Acrobat 5.0 software, documents can be viewed across multiple media. For example, tagged PDF preserves a document's structure so that it can be viewed on Palm OS® devices as well as on web. Tagged PDF files also contain information in regard to content and structure, which makes them accessible to visually impaired readers -- with assistance of screen readers.

Disadvantages:

- A bit limiting on creativity.

Introduction - You can create an image that compliments theme of your ebook, add your company logo and ebook title or whatever you'd like. You should begin typing your introduction on this page explaining what your ebook is all about.

Foreword - You can include information in regard to warranties, copyrights, trademarks or even an editorial.

Table of Contents - A Table of Contents is really optional. If your ebook contains only a few chapters, a Table of Contents really isn't necessary. However, if your ebook contains many chapters, it is highly recommended that you include a Table of Contents. This will enable your readers to quickly locate important information.

About - This is really an optional page. It really depends upon type of ebook you're creating. If you're writing your information in form of a how-to manual, then you should include an "About" page. This page should be used to tell your readers about your ebook, your company, your website, yourself or whatever you'd like. Make sure you provide your website address and your contact information.

Navigation

HTML ebooks are created just like a website. In order to navigate through pages, you'll need to include good navigational links on each page. In addition, each page you create should contain links to previous and next page within your ebook. For example, page two of your ebook should have navigational arrows or links to page one and page three. Page three should have navigational arrows or links to page two and page four and so on.

File Names

All of your files, including HTML pages and graphics, should be placed within a folder by themselves.

Your main or starting page of your ebook should be called, "index.htm" or "index.html", as many HTML compilers require this. You can name rest of your pages anything you'd like.

Creating Links

When linking to another page within your ebook, your HTML code should look like this:

Your Page