Re: Follow-up on help authoring

[Jean Weber <jean -at- wrevenge -dot- com -dot- au>]

Joyce,
There's not a lot of difference between WinHelp, Microsoft's HTML Help, and 
HTML-based help, from the user's point of view. The three types generally 
display a bit differently, and there is some minor difference in the 
details of what they can do, but how you create them is conceptually much 
the same. For example, you can create help in any major help authoring tool 
and output all three types from the same source.

Microsoft's HTML Help creates a compiled file, which is displayed in a 
viewer that requires components of Internet Explorer to be installed on the 
user's computer. HTML Help's tri-pane window format contains a topic frame, 
a navigation frame, and a collapsible and expandable contents and index. 
Readers can bookmark topics as Favorites. The compiled file (.CHM) is in a 
compressed form.

WinHelp is Microsoft's older help format, in two variations: WinHelp 3 for 
Windows 3.x and WinHelp 4 for Windows 95 and later. Readers can bookmark 
and annotate topics in the compiled help file. The basic WinHelp window has 
only one pane, but writers can produce pop-up and secondary windows. For a 
non-standard format, such as tri-pane, you must supply an extra .DLL with 
the help. The major help authoring tools simplify the process of creating 
non-standard formats.

HTML-based help runs in a Web browser. If you don't include 
browser-dependent features, this type of help should display on Windows, 
Macintosh, and UNIX systems. Major help authoring tools assist with the 
creation of collapsible/expandable table of contents, multi-level keyword 
index, full-text search, and advanced help features such as related topics 
buttons, secondary windows, and pop-ups.

You might find my book "Editing Online Help" useful. (See sig.) It's 
shareware, so you can download it and see if it meets your needs before you 
pay for it. The newsletters and other articles archived on my editors' site 
include a lot of the same information.

Regards, Jean
Jean Hollis Weber
mailto:jean -at- wrevenge -dot- com -dot- au
The Technical Editors' Eyrie  http://www.wrevenge.com.au/
Avalook at Australia Travel site http://www.avalook.com.au/
-----------------
Still available: Editing Online Help, a tool-independent introduction to
planning, developing, and editing online help systems. For a table of
contents, go to: http://www.wrevenge.com.au/bookshop/olhbk.htm


Joyce Fetterman wrote:
>>Can anyone recommend a good resource (printed or online) that explains 
the basics of WinHelp and HTML help, without focusing on a 
specific  authoring tool? I can find lots of sites that supposedly 
introduce these helps, but they all seem to be specific to a certain tool. 
I'm very new to this, and I'd like to get a CLEAR understanding of the 
basics! I'd also like some suggestions for appropriate style and formatting 
-- what works best and what doesn't.<<


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