Documentation Design Suggestions Needed

[Deborah Hemstreet <dvora -at- tech-challenged -dot- com>]

Hi Everyone,

I am working on a project that is somewhat of a brain twister. There is 
legacy documentation and new documentation. All of it exists only in the 
form of Online Help and is distributed this way via the Internet to 
customers. The customers are rather high-level end-users setting up a 
very complex software that is utilized by their end-users.

This documentation is only for the administrator level. Let's call the 
product: Brain Twister, or BT for short.

The product is having a new module added that is going to replace it. 
Lets call it the Legacy Module (L-Mod) and New Module (N-Mod). While 
N-Mod will eventually replace L-Mod for all customers, this is going to 
be done in stages. All new customers will only ever get and see N-Mod.

The problem presented to me: The online Help is available for all admin 
levels of BT. What is the best way to distribute the online HELP given 
the following constraints:
   1. Very low budget - this needs to be quick and dirty, but as 
professional as possible
   2. Documentation must be available at ALL times for L-Mod and N-Mod 
until N-Mod is released to ALL customers (probably 1-2 years)

My Development Issues

   1. Tool: RoboHelp v8
   2. Deliverable: FlashHelp
   3. Currently everything exists in ONE project; same key words exist 
for both L-Mod and N-Mod.

My Proposal
   1. Have a full L-Mod help and an additional N-Mod Help accessed 
separately

My Problem:  N-Mod help links to L-Mod help where relevant since the SW 
is basically two integrated packages, and I only found out about the 
distribution problem well into the project.

My Questions:
Are there are other thoughts for how to do this? Is there an easy way to 
split up the Help and somehow link back to the OTHER Help, back and 
forth? How would YOU handle key words that bring up two different topics 
with two different ways of doing the SAME thing, depending on if the 
user has L-Mod or N-Mod installed?

Re usability- this is a huge issue (think, Red button for OK) - we 
cannot change the world and I cannot even try to. Just want to give my 
client something that works within their limitations that is as USEABLE 
and LOW COST as possible.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and suggestions...

Deborah
http://www.tech-challenged.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Are you looking for one documentation tool that does it all? Author, 
build, test, and publish your Help files with just one easy-to-use tool.
Try the latest Doc-To-Help 2009 v3 risk-free for 30-days at:
http://www.doctohelp.com/ 

Help & Manual 5: The all-in-one help authoring tool. Easy to use 
but still has all the power you need. Get results fast in an intuitive 
authoring environment that works like a familiar word processor.
http://www.helpandmanual.com/

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat