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My company just released a set of extensions to Dreamweaver. We looked
at modifying the DW help system to integrate ours and decided against
it. There are quite a few things happening behind the scenes (e.g.,
how the search and context sensitivity are managed) that would be
extremely difficult and time consuming for someone outside of their
internal authoring process to alter and customize. The DW/UltraDev
extensibility API allows for easily connecting an HTML file to a UI
component. I suggest you create your own help system, with your own
look and feel. You can check out Deva Tools, our product, for what our
help looks like, as well as for a TOC, index, and search generator for
your help system: http://www.devahelp.com
____________________________________________________
Ben Weisner 952-933-4471 or 800-646-9989
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2001 2:38 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Extending Dreamweaver's Help
Hello Whirlers -
My company is extending Dreamweaver using Ultra Dev. We will be
creating
custom objects and templates which I want to provide documentation
for.
Dreamweaver has an extensive help system and it seems like it would be
relatively easy to add my help to their system -- they use HTML and
javascript to create their help files, contents, index, and search.
The
harder part seems to be the integration of my help files with theirs,
removing help files they provide that don't apply to our use of the
product,
and making sure that all the indices, contents, and search are viable
after
modifications are made. Has anyone on this list modified the existing
Dreamweaver help system before? Have you any suggestions for ways to
make it
an easier process or things to avoid? It seems like a very manual
process,
if you know of any tools that can be used, that would be great too.
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
Sponsored by Information Mapping, Inc., a professional services firm
specializing in Knowledge Management and e-content solutions. See http://www.infomap.com or 800-463-6627 for more about our solutions.
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