Tool Impressions

Subject: Tool Impressions
From: Alexander Von_obert <avobert -at- TWH -dot- MSN -dot- SUB -dot- ORG>
Date: Sat, 4 Nov 1995 13:55:01 +0100

Hello Monica,


* Antwort auf eine Nachricht von MONICA -dot- PETERSEN -at- ey -dot- com an All am 31.10.95

MM> From: MONICA -dot- PETERSEN -at- ey -dot- com

MM> I'd like to know about the Help authoring tools that folk here
MM> are using.

So far, I have used the shareware program Visual Help (VH.ZIP on CICA) and
Doc-to-Help.

MM> 1) Ease of use for users who are new to the product AND to the
MM> process of authoring Help files

Both are quite easy to start with.

Doc-to-Help is based on some Winword macros, that sometimes break down with
error messages like "division by zero errror" - very helpful when looking for
the location in your text where it happended.

MM> 2) Ease of use for experienced Help authors and people
MM> experienced with that tool

Visual Help is quite limited. But there is an update for this 1993 shareware
program (Visual Help pro) that I have not evaluated.

The most severe limit of Visual help from my point of view is its near
unability to do tables or even tabs. E.g., not all pushbuttons are equal size
and if you want to have a row of pushbuttons on the left and the legend to the
right, you can't get an acceptable layout.

Being based in Winword macros is a general problem: Converting a 200-topic
source code to Winhelp takes Doc-to-Help some 5 minutes on a 486DX4/100 with
16
MB of RAM.

MM> 3) Availability of technical support (how long to get an
MM> answer)

The Visual Help programmer operates a BBS. But his response to me was
non-existing about a year ago.

The Doc-to-Help distributor in Switzerland tried to help but could not at the
single problem I had yet: Doc-to-Help could not be installed on a system
running Novell-DOS 7. I changed back to PC-DOS 5.02 for otherreasons and since
then it runs fine.

MM> 6) Upgrade quality and policy -- usefulness and quality of
MM> upgrades; cost of
MM> upgrades; value of upgrades even if free

I got an upgrade offer for Visual Help pro but did not do it, because I had no
intention to start another project with Visual Help. There is an update for
Doc-to-Help for Windows 95 for a reduced price.


Greetings from Germany,
Alexander

--
|Fidonet: Alexander Von_obert 2:2490/1719
|Internet: avobert -at- twh -dot- msn -dot- sub -dot- org

| Standard disclaimer: The views of this user are strictly his own.
| From TechWriter's Home, Nuernberg Germany
| phone 49+911+591530, FIDOnet 2:2490/1719


Previous by Author: SyQuest or ZIP Drive?
Next by Author: Keyboard vs. mouse
Previous by Thread: Large and master documents in WinWord
Next by Thread: Using software...


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads