The Internet is great, as long as what you need is not too big and your connection is not too slow. If you need to quickly browse through lots of pictures, or if the individual documents you must access through a standard modem exceed 1MB in size, then you will probably be happier using a CD than using the Web. In some cases, information must be easily retrievable from a laptop or from a desktop PC that is not connected to the Internet.
Compact discs are ideal in such situations.
For example, multimedia instruction and documents containing many pictures are normally packaged on CD-ROM because a single CD has over 400 times the storage capacity of a floppy disk. However, by using the Conference Exchange format we can fit up to ten minutes of multimedia instruction or a manual with dozens of pictures on a single diskette, if necessary. This can be particularly helpful if the target audience includes people using older PCs or people who may not have access to the Internet or to a CD-ROM drive. When speed is of the essence, the Web is often your best bet. Replication of CD-ROM can take weeks, and all files must be complete before replication can begin.