jim morehouse

I posted this on the rennlist mail list so you can disregard if you've seen it there already. BTW, is there anyone out there who doesn't use at least one of the other boards/lists (Phil's or the maillist or the 928GB list)? Just curious.

Group,
I've got an opportunity to convert the Technical Service
Bulletins, 1984-1989 to a searchable pdf on CD. I've got
the one's for 1989 in front of me and it looks like they're
additions/mods to the shop manual and specs/procedures.
I'd like to share this with the group if there is enough
interest. To keep from getting anyone's panties in a
twist, I could do it by loaning the CD w an appropriate
deposit that would cover my time and the conversion costs
if the CD wasn't returned. So:
-anyone interested in this?..deposit would probably be
around $10 to $15 depending on the level of interest.
Email me if you are.
-anyone know of or have Technical Service Bulletins from
other years that would allow me to 'complete' the set? From
what I understand, they covered all models but I'd only put
the 928 related one's in pdf

On another topic, I'd also like to convert any of the other
'manuals' that are out there. For example, I've got the
"Automatic Transmission A28, Description of Operation"
manual. It's a color, 88 page paper-bound book that gives
info on spec's,theory of operation of the various
components, and other data. I know there's similar ones
out there for at least one or more of the manual
transmissions and also for climate control. In fact, Jerry
on the rennlist BB had some from a Porshce mechanic friend
of his. Anybody have these that they'd be willing to loan
for conversion to a searchable pdf or know what else what
was published?

What I'd really like to do is eventually get ALL of the 928
technical literature into high quality pdf's.

For those of you who are wondering how the shop manual
conversion is going, I've got a sample of 30 pages and it
looks good...good picture quality (no reverse images like
on the microfiche) and it's searchable. I'm about ready to
send the whole thing out for conversion, including wiring
diagrams. A word of caution to those of you buying used
shop manuals..you need to be careful that what you're
getting is complete. The first set I bought, covering thru
84, turned out to be missing about 12 pages of wiring
diagrams. The second set (because I got the '91GT project
car), that was supposed to be 'complete' turned out to be
missing 214 pages, either pulled out by someone or missing
the updated version (I don't think the person who sold them
to me even knew..he'd bought them from another guy). I
bought a brand new set to use as a 'check' and used it to
update my original set, so when I'm done with the
conversion I'll have a 'complete' set to pass on.

The other thing I'd like to do in conjunction with the shop
manual project is to generate a searchable index such that
you could do a search on 'clutch', for example, and see a
list of all entries in the shop manual containing that
word. Then further refine it by adding multiple words, like
'adjusting' or 'replacing' and narrow the results with
those matches. I need some guidance on doing this. I know
I can do the index database and search in MS Access but am
not sure how to then link to the pdf. There may also be a
way to generate and link using adobe (which I have..not the
reader). If anyone who's more familar with this would be
willing to give some advice, I'd appreciate it if you'd
email me. It may turn out to be a very big job but it sure
would make the shop manuals a lot more user-friendly.

Thanks,
Jim
Jim Morehouse
jim928@ptd.net
Allentown, PA
'82 928...The Deerslayer

Art_Z

Jim ,why not make copies of that CD via a CD burner? If you don't have access to one, I can do them for you ...

Art

Big Dave

Any discounts for the crowd that already got the CD of the microfiche??? PDF files would be fantastic.

OC Porsche

There are lots of ways to go about doing that project. I guess that firstly to get them all to PDF and then name them logicaly in a folder. From there, there are a lot of options to choose:

1)Acquire a program that will index/retrieve them automatically e.g. Doculex Fetch-it is decent. <a href="http://www.pdfzone.com" target="_blank">PDFzone.com</a>

3) Acrobat internal indexer, I think that it is called Acrobat Catalog, and should come with the full version.

Terrific idea, I would be willing to help a little with the technical side of that.

jim morehouse

Big Dave: hmmm, might be able to do something on that...kind of a 'support the folks that are supporting the conversions'. I'll need to see how the final tallies work out because the shop manual conversion will be pretty expensive with the number of pages and the 'special' handling of the wiring diagrams. I think it'll still be very affordable because there ought to be a lot of interest.

Seth: I'll try to check out the two references you gave me. I can mess around some with the 30 page 'sample' I did. I'm a total rookie on Acrobat (and on Access for that matter) so I'm flailing around a little on the best way to do this. If you wouldn't mind spending a few minutes after I know enough to ask some (hopefully) intelligent questions, please email me your phone number. I promise not to take too much of your time. Thanks,

Jim

PatrickP

Jim:

Any copyright concerns with any of this?

OC Porsche

Good point on the copyright, that could be a touchy subject. Doesn't everyone already have this stuff on hardcopy?

Jay Wellwood

Jim-

You are providing a most excellent service to us...my hat's off to you sir!

In as far as the copyright stuff - I would think that as long as the CDs are not marketed - and the owner has a set of factory SM's - who's to say she/he didn't perform the conversion?

Provided that the CD's aren't marketed - my thoughts are that Porsche has biger things to do with its' time.

Just my $9.28 worth-

jim morehouse

Jay,
so you think the full page ad in the first edition of the 928 Forum is right out then?