Re: <no subject>

[Kat Nagel <katnagel -at- EZNET -dot- NET>]

" Warning: The following is a newbie question and may
" contain content not appropriate for all readers. Proceed
" with caution. ;~)

EXCELLENT opening.  It should defuse the knee-jerk complainers.


" *       I need suggestions as to how I can get up to speed on the
" skills of writing online help and using RoboHELP. References to
" web sites are welcome (I have also done this on my own and it would
" be helpful to compare what I have found with what you suggest).

The web sites (and there are -lots- of them) are useful for review or
for emergency cut-and-paste surgery to solve a particular problem.
So far, I still find print references more helpful than web sites for
actually -learning- something.

Mary Deaton and Cheryl Locket Zubak have written an excellent series
of books on help system development.  I have two:
   A "Real World" Look at Windows Help Authoring Tools
   (self-published through their company, Work Write(tm))

   Designing Windowns 95 Help: a Guide to Creating Online Documents.
   QUE, 1996   ISBN 0-7897-0362-9

My copy of Designing..., since it was published in 1996, is still
extremely useful for a beginner.  Although it may be out of date when
it talks about software versions, the design principles and the
WinHelp 'anatomy' lessons are excellently written, as are the
step-by-step tutorials.  I'm using it in my self-education project
with RoboHELP (courtesy of the same STC freebie) and, while I may
want more detail later on the newest RoboH features, Deaton's book
certainly gets five stars on my Newbie Usefullness Scale.  Check your
local bookstore or Amazon.com; there may be another edition out by
now that covers the latest software.


" *       I would also like to get ideas about projects that I could
"make
" up" in order to plan the online help (since I assume that I can't
create
" context sensitive help on my own without a product and an engineer
for
" the proper coding- right?).

I'm starting with my resume.  This seems like a reasonable small
project to start with and, since I can't fit everything on two
printed pages any more (at least, not in a font size I can read with
trifocals <grin>), it should come in handy as a prop for interviews.


" *       I would like to know if there is anyone out there kind
enough
" (and crazy enough?) willing to critique such a project after I
create
" it.

I'd love to, but I don't know whether I'll have access to a Windows
machine.  I have my spare Mac running SoftWindows, but it's in use at
the moment for the software I'm documenting.  I'd be happy to do a
walk-through of a print prototype, though.  Or---if you can wait
until Christmas---I'll be finished with this project and can use my
SoftWindows machine for something else for a while.

Good luck!

K@
katnagel -at- eznet -dot- net
Kat Nagel,            MasterWork Consulting Services
Technical writing | Editing | Conversions | Webstuff

"The transformation of calories into words, of words into money,
 and of money into calories again are the three cycles in a
 freelance writer's metabolism."  /Mary Kittredge, _Poison Pen_


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