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Subject:RE: Help files for Java applications From:"David Knopf" <david -at- knopf -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 10 Oct 2002 07:00:30 -0700
Mathew wrote:
| I am creating help files for a product developed in Java. I create the
| content using Dreamweaver (HTML files). The developers use a tool
| called Helen to integrate these files with the software. The look and
| feel of the help files is pretty bad. Moreover, the tool, Helen, does
| not seem to support CSS files. 1. Am I missing out something here?
Yes. Helen an authoring tool specifically designed for JavaHelp
authoring. Typically, it is used by the Help author and not by the
developer. You author topic files (HTML files) using the HTML editor of
your choice, in your case Dreamweaver, and then use Helen to create
JavaHelp elements such as the TOC and index.
It is not that Helen fails to support style sheets. It is JavaHelp
itself that offers limited support for HTML4 and CSS1. If you create
clean HTML and limit yourself to the HTML and CSS syntax that are
supported by the JavaHelp, you can get clean results.
The appearance of the JavaHelp viewer itself is completely under the
control of your developer. The demo viewer supplied by Sun is bare
bones, and that may be what your developer is using. Many of our clients
have written their own JavaHelp viewers. Some of them look pretty sharp.
You should probably take at the HTML and CSS code used for the JavaHelp
User Guide helpset included with the JavaHelp software distribution.
These will give you a pretty good idea of what kind of tagging works.
Also, you may want to subscribe to the JavaHelp-Interest mailing list.
Details about joining that list are available on our web site.
| 2. Are there better tools that we can use for creating help files for
| Java applications?
Dreamweaver and Helen are a good combination for JavaHelp authoring. So
are FrameMaker + WebWorks Publisher, or Word + WebWorks Publisher
WordHelp. If you're authoring JavaHelp, be sure to steer clear of
RoboHelp.
Regards,
David Knopf / Knopf Online / San Francisco, CA
david -at- knopf -dot- com / www.knopf.com
See the HAT Output Comparison at www.knopf.com/resources/hatcomp
Consulting & Training on FrameMaker, WebWorks Publisher & WordHelp
WebWorks Publisher Certified
Consulting & Training on RoboHelp * RoboGURU
Member, JavaHelp 2.0 Expert Group
Moderator, HATT, wordhelp & wwp-users
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