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Priscilla Yonemura wondered: <<I can't find any advice on using
Microsoft Word to create help for a simple web application. And, yes,
I'd love to use RoboHelp or RoboHTML, but the project owners insist I
use Word.>>
The project owners clearly don't know what they're talking about, since
RoboHelp is nothing more than a layer of macros and custom programming
that runs in close cooperation with Word. Moreover, it's easy to write
and review the content in Word, then pour it into another application
(e.g., RoboHTML) to generate help, though working that way forces you
to do lots of rework with each release. For that matter, you can create
WinHelp using Word plus RoboHelp, then open the help file in RoboHTML
and convert it into an HTML help format.
WebWorks Publisher (WWP) now works with Word, so that's another
excellent alternative, though I've heard you need a very powerful
computer to use it effectively with large projects. (Confirmation,
anyone?) You can even use Microsoft's free help compiler and
help-authoring workshop (downloadable from their Web site, and probably
available without downloading on the programming CDs purchased by your
software developers) as a kind of RoboHelp Lite. Haven't worked with
this particular tool, but many people like its clean, simplistic
interface.
So the first thing you need to figure out is just what it is that they
want you to create (which flavor of HTML... presumably WebHelp?), and
why they're hung up on using Word. Usually, the reason for recommending
Word is so that you can write and review the help files using Word's
revision tracking feature, which is tremendously efficient for this
purpose. But once you've achieved "final text", simply crank out the
help file from Word using Robo or WWP.
--Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
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