Tools for Online Help?

[Geoff Hart]

Michael Ronquillo wondered: <<I'm looking for a tool for creating  
online help. I know there's RoboHelp, but I find it very overwhelming.>>

Nobody says you have to use all the features. <g> Simple and direct  
works best. RoboHelp for Word is actually quite easy to use (at  
least, in older versions; haven't tried the more recent versions).  
Run through the tutorial and ignore the features you won't actually  
use, and you should be up to speed in a few hours. (That's how long  
it took me way back when.)

<<I heard there is a tool out there where you can make it in Word.  
Anyone know of any easy programs, preferably free?>>

Depends what you mean by "online help". Old WinHelp could be created  
easily in Word using nothing more than a knowledge of the footnote  
codes used to define things like topic titles and keywords, followed  
by exporting the Word file to RTF and running the resulting file  
through the Microsoft Help Compiler (freely available from  
Microsoft). I've used this approach, and it works, but it's far less  
efficient than using a professional tool like Robo or Flare. WinHelp  
is also deprecated, so you probably should look for HTMLHelp options  
instead. Microsoft also offers a comparable compiler for HTMLHelp  
(http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=00535334- 
c8a6-452f-9aa0-d597d16580cc&DisplayLang=en), but I haven't used it  
and thus won't comment further.

You could also try researching your options in the uber help-tool  
comparison site: http://www.hatmatrix.com/


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ghart at videotron.ca / geoffhart at mac.com
www.geoff-hart.com
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