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Subject:Re: HTML Help-- Benefits? From:"McKenna, Colleen" <cmckenna -at- SPSS -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 4 Nov 1998 11:06:40 -0600
We have found that the cost for converting to HTML-based help is just to
high. Most of our products contain lengthy and complicated tutorials written
in WinHelp using their macros. Microsoft did not do anything with the macros
when they offered HTML help. It would require a lot of programming time on
our part to recreate them and tie them in to HTML Help.
Then there's the problem of converting our existing single-source documents
from Word to HTML. We haven't found any tool that will do it to our
satisfaction. We have a very smooth (in-house-developed) process for getting
these source documents into WinHelp and Frame now. We don't want to change,
although we haven't ruled out using Frame as a source format sometime in the
future.
Finally, we hate the idea of making our customers install IE 4.0. There are
a lot of customers out there who don't have it and don't plan to get it
soon. Heck, I don't have it installed on my computer!
I would just echo others with the adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
WinHelp, despite its quirks, isn't broken. For us, MS HTML Help offers no
advantages.
Colleen McKenna
Publications Department
SPSS, Inc.
