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Subject:Re: A "Thread" in RoboHelp Online Help From:Sella Rush <sellar -at- APPTECHSYS -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 17 Aug 1999 17:52:25 -0700
On-the-spot help is one use for Winhelp, but certainly not the only one.
I've seen some highly creative uses for winhelp (especially before straight
HTML and multimedia options became so prevalent)--informational products,
marketing brochures, demos, etc. The winhelp engine produces a very nice
product (for Win95 users), where you can control the outcome (unlike HTML)
and the user does not have to have special software or plug-ins.
It sounds to me like marketing wants to use winhelp for a demo, training, or
product overview/getting started type product.
With Winhelp, you control the navigation. If you don't want people jumping
around, don't provide more than one jump per topic. And while you can use
browse sequences, you might also consider creating larger, (graphical?)
navigation buttons that fit the look of the product.
Most online help systems take the user directly to the "Help Topics"
(contents/index/find), but they don't have to. You can make your help open
directly into any topic. You can also determine exactly what default
buttons and menu options appear in the help window. For this type of
project, you may decide not to show any buttons; or you could include the
browse buttons only, or you can create your own buttons (I think).
Depending on what marketing is trying to produce, there may be other, better
options these days. For example, you can do a lot with PDF documents these
days. You also might look into a product called DemoShield for demos, or
look into some CBT or training card software if training is the point.
But for a quick job, using development software you already have and are
familiar with, winhelp is definitely an option.
(I should qualify the above. While there is a lot of flexibility in
creating a winhelp product from scratch, I'm not sure how easy it is to be
flexible using RoboHelp.)
Sella Rush mailto:sellar -at- apptechsys -dot- com
Applied Technical Systems (ATS)
Bremerton, Washington
Developers of the CCM Database
