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Subject:RE: Help wanted for a newbie Technical Writer From:"Lydia Wong" <lydiaw -at- fpoint -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 7 Dec 2000 10:39:04 -0500
Abhay asked for information about starting work at his new company as a
newbie tech writer. Jane Carnall and Jane Bergen offered some good advice
about how Abhay might get some ideas and training from various sources.
Abhay's note emphasized the online help portion of his work, so I'll respond
to that aspect of his post.
Abhay, if you are creating WinHelp, I agree with Jane Bergen in recommending
"Designing Windows 95 Help" by Cheryl Lockett Zuback and Mary Deaton. Just
because it is a bit older doesn't make it less useful. The same goes for
RoboHelp. Indeed, you don't have the latest version, but we're still using
version 5 around here and manage to create WinHelp files just fine. Learn
what you have, and worry about upgrading later would be my advice. There are
so many bells and whistles in RoboHelp that just getting comfortable with
RoboHelp 7 will serve you in good stead in the long run.
If you are creating HTML Help, there aren't too many books out yet,
unfortunately. A good one for beginners is Steve Wexler's very nice
introduction to HTML Help titled "Official Microsoft HTML Help Authoring
Kit." It's a bit older, but updates to HTML Help have been somewhat glacial,
so this is fine to start with.
My final advice about your help system is to keep it simple. You can look at
other help systems for ideas, but remember to worry more about the content
and organization of your content than about adding all the neat buttons,
graphics, every possible link, etc. Spend more time on content and indexing,
and less on making things as pretty as you might like them to be. Pretty can
come later.
Best wishes, Abhay! I hope you enjoy technical writing.
Lydia : )
__________________
Lydia Wong
Technical Writer
FarPoint Technologies, Inc.
www.fpoint.com
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