OT: Any opinions on creating online help?

[Georg Eck]

Hi Gay,

 

Maike wrote you some days ago: What is an Online Help? 
(Maike is a very excellent Author and expert in New Media).



In the past we had a comparison of RoboHelp and WebWorks, but I mean that is not deciding today.

I mean there are three aspects important today:
1. An Online Help is a format, that an user can in an application to push  a  HELP Button or F1 (context-sensitive) and open the context-sensitive Help.
Is that important, then I need a format like EclipseHelp, HTMLHelp, WebWorksHelp, WebHelp, … 
… a Help format not a HTML.

Why? It’s easy to set a TopicAlias marker in the source (Word, DITA or FrameMAker) and generate the Online Help – ready.
The development of the application should know, what they have to do to call a help topic. 
(We can talk it to the developer …).

 

2. If I need a “future format” perhaps on a mobile device (and I add to think about more as one format – see Package Publishing):
From now AIR from Adobe and Reverb from WebWorks are future formats. Both are a very interesting, 
with Social Media integration, blogging/commenting, searching in communities, favorites, with translators, Google optimizable, updatable,  … 
…and for mobile device. Both are also context-sensitive usable – OK, that is a new Online Help format – a future format.

 

3. If I have or I need a CMS, then I would be an expert when I would have following use case: Package Publishing.
WebWorks Automap could generate all formats behind a CMS and you are the designer of a stationery.
If anything is to change, you can tune it with less money and time. We say (look on www.finalyser.com) automate your workflow  …

 

BTW: This week I visited a customer of SQUIDDS. This customer generate (update) every day more as 10 of 100 manuals in different languages.
This user! manage all WebWorks Automap with conditional, variables and there is a process to update the FrameBook, … 

… automate your workflow.

 

Tomorrow:
We don’t know, what we need in 1 year or later, we don’t know what our customers need. 
A good point is:  Start with a Standard Tool and with a Standard format,
then you will have the maximum of chance, that in one or more years this tool will have saved time and money
and you will get an upgrade without (or with less) work for a new format (Package Publishing).

 

-          Georg

 

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