Help for web application

[Paul Hanson]

Well, the first thing you'll have to do is ditch chm files. You may end up with an uncompiled set of files. Most HATs offer that.

Scott DeLoach has several good presentations on his http://www.clickstart.net site. I attended some of his sessions at the 2004 Boston WinWriters session. This is one presentation that may start the ball rolling: http://www.clickstart.net/presentations/wwe3_embedded.ppt.

I think the key is to get in @ the ground floor. In my opinion, you want some sort of embedded pane. Page 6 of the above presentation shows it on the left - I prefer it on the right (like the way the Help window displays in Word 2003). You should be involved up front, advocating for a dedicated area for user assistance. Once you have that built into the design of the UI, then you can figure out tools and how to call what you write. The other element is that user assistance for a web-based app doesn't have to be a standard TOC/Index/Search separate system. It is possible to embed a majority of the user assistance into the app so that the user doesn't even have to go to the Help system. In fact, a user interface that requires no separate help system... well, that would be pretty cool.

Paul Hanson
Technical Writer
RoboHelp ACE - http://www.adobe.com/support/forums/team_macromedia/robohelp.html
Quintrex Data Systems http://www.quintrex.com
email: phanson at quintrex.com
Now blogging @ http://prhmusic.blogspot.com




-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+phanson=quintrex.com at lists.techwr-l.com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+phanson=quintrex.com at lists.techwr-l.com] On Behalf Of Frank Dissinger

<snip>
Which designs and techniques can I use? Help pane embedded in
application window? Button loading help file in separate window?
Popups?  Are there any best practices or sample web pages?
Which tools should I use? How do I link topics with a web page?

Until now I have produced context-sensitive CHM files with FrameMaker
(V. 6.0) and WebWorks Publisher (V. 7.0.6). I am also considering the
use of Flare.