Microsoft "Longhorn" Help Highlights

Microsoft’s specification for 'Longhorn' Help represents a major revolution in user assistance development for the Windows platform. Instead of simply refining the technical infrastructure of Help (windowing, links, search, etc.), Microsoft has given a good deal of thought to the needs of both Help authors and end-users.

Ellison, Matthew. WritersUA (2003). Articles>Documentation>Operating Systems>Microsoft Windows

Review: A Review of RoboHelp Office 2002

This is the first in a series of articles that builds into a personal review of RoboHelp Office 2002. This first article introduces the new release and discusses Topic Templates, Headers and Footers, and the new MS Word Import capability.

Ellison, Matthew. WritersUA (2002). Articles>Reviews>Software>Adobe RoboHelp

Review: Review of Screen Capture Tools

Describes the important attributes of a capture tool and examines and compares the features of five popular products.

Ellison, Matthew. WritersUA (2005). Articles>Reviews>Software>Screen Captures

Secondary Windows in Online Help - What Do Users Really Make of Them?

Digitext, a UK-based consultancy specializing in online information, has recently conducted two different usability tests, each of which sheds new light on the way in which people respond to secondary windows in online Help. The overall conclusions from the two tests were: there is little reason to assign specific types of topic to different secondary windows; it can be helpful to use a secondary window for a link to a sub-procedure or layer of additional detail, as long as the current window remains visible on screen when the new window appears. This article explains how the tests led to these findings.

Ellison, Matthew. Usability Interface (2001). Articles>Documentation>Help

Tips and Techniques for Single-sourcing with RoboHelp X5

RoboHelp now offers a rich set of features for delivering multiple customized outputs out of a single project. This article by Matthew Ellison provides some guidelines and tips on using the key single-sourcing features.

Ellison, Matthew. WritersUA (2004). Articles>Documentation>Single Sourcing>Adobe RoboHelp

A Usability Test of Web-based User Assistance

Recently, WinWriters used the web-based registration process for its annual Online Help Conference as a case study to test several models of user assistance for the Web. We conducted a series of usability tests to: find out how what sort of questions and problems users have as they complete a web-based transaction; discover how users respond to various forms of user assistance available within a web-based task; define the registration process for future conferences. The tests provided some clear conclusions as to user preferences. We have described the tests and summarized the findings here.

Ellison, Matthew. WritersUA (2002). Articles>Usability>Web Design

Using CSS with Your HTML  

Ellison's detailed introduction to cascading style sheets (CSS), the technology that enables technical writers to apply formatting to HTML-based content, includes examples of how CSS is commonly used and offers tips on how to implement it.

Ellison, Matthew. Intercom (2002). Design>Web Design>CSS

Review: Review of Screen Capture Tools

This article describes the process of capturing screens and reviews some of the leading capture tools available. It is revised annually to take account of new releases, and was last updated in February 2009.

Ellison, Matthew. WritersUA (2009). Articles>Reviews>Software>Screen Captures